DioBeth newSpin

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The newSpin Newsletter, May 28, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

Enjoy the start of summer but take time to recall the sacrifices of those who have been killed in service to our nation. Monday, May 28 is Memorial Day. Observe a minute of silence to pay tribute to men and women who've died in military service.  Find Memorial Day prayers here. Visit USA.gov's Memorial Day page to learn about the origins of this federal holiday. Also see A List and a Prayer, posted by Bishop Paul.

TopSpin     

• Faces of Poverty: A War Veteran ... [Odyssey Networks] After serving in Iraq, a young father returns to Reading, Pennsylvania and battles unemployment as he and his wife fight to get a leg up in a tough economy. Very well done video here.

• John Courtney Murray helped to replace the RC onetime self-serving church-state theology ... [Bill] As RC bishops advance a "religious freedom" argument to oppose the "imposition" of health insurance policies that cover contraception, I think of the pre-Vatican II position of the RC Church that advocated state-sponsored religion in countries where Catholics were in the majority (by numbers or power) –– an "error has no rights" theology –– while advocating secular pluralism or religious liberty in countries where Catholics were in the minority. Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray made crucial contributions to the Second Vatican Council, specifically to its declaration on religious liberty, Dignitas Humanae, which opposed this doublespeak. Thank God for Murray. It was no less the conservative Cardinal Spellman of New York who called Murray to Rome to be his peritus (expert) at the Council. Prominent American conservatives rallied around approval of the document. The vote to approve was 2,308 to 70. One of the most theologically reactionary websites I've read, Super Flumina Babylonis, refers now to the "the collective folly of 2,308 bishops gathered in the Vatican in 1965." An article on that website concludes: "The Church’s episcopacy erred in submitting themselves to the masonic agenda at the Second Vatican Council. Until the Pope exposes the falsity of the reasonings of John Courtney Murray on which the bishops relied, the ghost of that theologian manqué will continue to haunt the Catholic Church, and the rest of civilisation." Murray would be proud.

• The Politics of Religion ... [NYTimes editorial] Thirteen Roman Catholic dioceses and some Catholic-related groups scattered lawsuits across a dozen federal courts last week claiming that President Obama was violating their religious freedom by including contraceptives in basic health care coverage for female employees. It was a dramatic stunt, full of indignation but built on air. More here.

• A Time for Prophets ... When any person first has the apprehension that God is real everything changes. Bishop Paul Marshall's sermon at the ordination of Mary Lou Divis and Charles Warwick. Read it here. Warwick of Swoyersville is a volunteer firefighter and employee of PennDot, in the winter; plowing highways, summer; road construction crew  Currently he is also deacon-in-charge at St Mark's Episcopal Church, New Milford. He has been called to serve there as priest-in-charge. Divis of Tunkhannock is a Behavioral Specialist at Children's Service Center in Wilkes-Barre and serves as deacon-in charge to St Peter's Episcopal Church, Tunkhannock, where she will now serve as priest in charge.

• Faith is golden – Beliefs are overrated ... [Bill Lewellis, The Morning Call] Faith is golden. Beliefs are overrated, as are works. When one reduces religion to either beliefs or good works, both are overrated. Reductionism (think "nothing but") usually destroys anything it attempts to explain, as in: religion is nothing but belief or religion is nothing but morality. Morality itself has for many been reduced to nothing but sexual morality. It is so much more, embracing personal, business and community relationships. And faith is so much more than belief, as in "I set my heart on" God rather than purely intellectual acts of belief. Beliefs and good works are overrated especially when we think of them as prerequisites to being befriended by God. More at The Morning Call and the newSpin blog.

• What priests want you to know ... [Dirty Sexy Ministry] 1. Your minister has a personal life.  2. Sundays are long days for us.  3. Clergy have to flip switches in ways that are not good.  4. We miss the parishioners we bury.  5. We are not particularly good at disappointment.  6. Life happens at the church every day of the week.  7. Many clergy only get one day off a week.  8. Church life is often feast or famine.  9. We don't remember what you tell us on Sunday. 10. We make mistakes. Read expansions here. [h/t Canon Andrew Gerns]

A list and a prayer

[Bishop Paul posted the following note on Bakery, the interactive list of the Diocese of Behlehem]

Boalsburg, in Centre County, PA, saw the first "decoration day" to honor war dead in 1864. Lyndon Johnson chose Waterloo NY's 1966 celebration as the original date and purposes of establishing a centennial date.

I know most towns do not pause for a parade or patriotic exercise any more, but perhaps before the first brewsky is popped, the list that follows might be given a glance. Perhaps a word of prayer might silently escape our lips.

Mostly conscripted, but also substituted, enlisted and officers, here is a picture of the lives we remember today:

American Revolution (1775–1783)
Total servicemembers    217,000
Battle deaths    4,435
Nonmortal woundings    6,188
War of 1812 (1812–1815)
Total servicemembers    286,730
Battle deaths    2,260
Nonmortal woundings    4,505
Indian Wars (approx. 1817–1898)
Total servicemembers    106,0001
Battle deaths    1,0001
Mexican War (1846–1848)     
Total servicemembers    78,718
Battle deaths    1,733
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    11,550
Nonmortal woundings    4,152
Civil War (1861–1865)     
Total servicemembers (Union)    2,213,363
Battle deaths (Union)    140,414
Other deaths in service (nontheater) (Union)    224,097
Nonmortal woundings (Union)    281,881
Total servicemembers (Conf.)    1,050,000
Battle deaths (Conf.)    74,524
Other deaths in service (nontheater) (Conf.)    59,2972
Nonmortal woundings (Conf.)    unknown
Spanish-American War (1898–1902)     
Total servicemembers    306,760
Battle deaths    385
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    2,061
Nonmortal woundings    1,662
World War I (1917–1918)3
Total servicemembers    4,734,991
Battle deaths    53,402
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    63,114
Nonmortal woundings    204,002
Living veterans    fewer than 251
World War II (1940–1945)3
Total servicemembers    16,112,566
Battle deaths    291,557
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    113,842
Nonmortal woundings    671,846
Living veterans    3,242,0001
Korean War (1950–1953)
Total servicemembers    5,720,000
Serving in-theater    1,789,000
Battle deaths    33,741
Other deaths in service (theater)    2,833
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    17,672
Nonmortal woundings    103,284
Living veterans    3,086,4001
Vietnam War (1964–1975)
Total servicemembers    8,744,000
Serving in-theater    3,403,000
Battle deaths    47,424
Other deaths in service (theater)    10,785
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    32,000
Nonmortal woundings    153,303
Living veterans    7,286,5001
Gulf War (1990–1991)
Total servicemembers    2,225,000
Serving in-theater    665,476
Battle deaths    147
Other deaths in service (theater)    382
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    1,565
Nonmortal woundings    467
Living veterans    1,852,0001
America's Wars Total (1775–1991)
Military service during war    41,891,368
Battle deaths    651,030
Other deaths in service (theater)    308,800
Other deaths in service (nontheater)    230,279
Nonmortal woundings    1,431,290
Living war veterans    17,456,0004
Living veterans    23,442,000
Global War on Terror 5
Total Servicemembers (Worldwide) (as of Dec 31, 2010)    1,429,367
Deployed to Iraq (Operation New Dawn) (as of Dec. 31, 2010)    85,600
Deployed to Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom)(as of Dec. 31, 2010)    103,700
Battle Deaths (as of May 12, 2011)    4,724
Other Deaths (In Theater) (as of May 12, 2011)    1,294
Non-mortal Woundings (as of May 12, 2011)    43,399
1. Veterans Administration estimate as of Nov. 2008.


Read more: America's Wars: U.S. Casualties and Veterans — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html#ixzz1wB8eUEnw

Faith is golden – Beliefs are overrated

By Bill Lewellis
The Morning Call, May 26, 2012

Faith is golden. Beliefs are overrated. As are works.

When one reduces religion to either beliefs or good works, both are overrated. Reductionism (think "nothing but") usually destroys anything it attempts to explain, as in religion is nothing but belief or religion is nothing but morality.

Morality itself has for many been reduced to nothing but sexual morality. It is so much more, embracing personal, business and community relationships. And faith is so much more than belief, as in “I set my heart on” God rather than purely intellectual acts of belief.
 
Belief and good works are overrated especially when we think of them as prerequisites to being befriended by God.
 
Some 50 years ago, I sat in a university classroom in Rome when a professor introduced his course on the theology of revelation –– what we know about God because God told us –– with this image.

In a large lecture hall, accommodating several hundred students from perhaps 50 countries, he paced, slowly, along a raised platform.

He pressed one white dot with chalk on an enormous blackboard. After a dramatic pause, he said, in French-accented Latin, “The white is what we know about God. The black is what we don’t. What we know is little. But the little God has given us to know is precious.”

Among that precious little are two biblical themes: Be not afraid and you are loved.

A few years ago, as Monica and I walked through a subway corridor in New York City’s Port Authority, we passed a woman hawking literature near a table laden with posters proclaiming that judgment was at hand. Bold strokes. “Be afraid.”

I was embarrassed that anyone might think she and I were colleagues. As we passed her, to allay my anger within, I smiled and slowly shook my head.

She screamed. Threats of God’s wrath. God would get me. She followed us, proclaiming her caricature of God to everyone within earshot along hundreds of feet of subway corridor. Thirty seconds seemed like five minutes.

The irony is that versions of “Be not afraid” and “You are loved” appear throughout the Bible, the same Bible the tormented woman had deconstructed because she thought people had to be frightened into repentance before an angry and vengeful God.

Our scriptures, Jewish and Christian, tell the story of God’s love in many ways… from the Exodus story of deliverance from slavery to freedom to the Paschal Mystery of God in Jesus Christ demonstrating his love on a cross to God raising Jesus. In between are many stories of God’s love and our freedom to respond.

Those stories abound, I think, because the single, most difficult Christian belief is not belief in God as Trinity, nor that God became one of us in Jesus Christ, nor that God raised Jesus from the dead, nor that God continues to live in us through the Holy Spirit, nor that we too will be raised. It’s none of those. It is that God forgives and loves us even before we repent.

God’s Good News, as I understand it, is threefold. First: we’re all sinners. We stand in a long biblical line of negative role models.

Second: we’re all forgiven and loved by God. “You can’t conceive, nor can I,” wrote Graham Greene, “the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”

Third: we’re all forgiven and loved by God not because we’ve been repentant. We’re repentant and transformed because we’ve been forgiven and loved.

God’s relentless love will last. I promise you. I set my heart on God's incredible love. I do not rely on beliefs or works.

[Canon Bill Lewellis, blewellis@diobeth.org, a retired Episcopal priest, served on the Bishop’s staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem for 24 years and on the Bishop’s staff of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown for 13 years before that.]

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The newSpin Newsletter, May 21, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

 Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past. [Often attributed to Lily Tomlin. Not certain.]

TopSpin     
• A Time for Prophets ... When any person first has the apprehension that God is real everything changes. Bishop Paul Marshall's sermon at the ordination of Mary Lou Divis and Charles Warwick. Read it here. Warwick of Swoyersville is a volunteer firefighter and employee of PennDot, in the winter; plowing highways, summer; road construction crew  Currently he is also deacon-in-charge at St Mark's Episcopal Church, New Milford. He has been called to serve there as priest-in-charge. Divis of Tunkhannock is a Behavioral Specialist at Children's Service Center in Wilkes-Barre and serves as deacon-in charge to St Peter's Episcopal Church, Tunkhannock, where she will now serve as priest in charge.

• RC Diocese of Allentown seeks involuntary laicization for three Diocese of Bethlehem priest ... [Episcopal Café, Andrew Gerns] The Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown wants to declare that three Episcopal priests, who were received from the Catholic Church, are lay people. The Diocese of Allentown seeks to laicize the Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis, the Rev. Canon Michael Piovane, and the Rev. Donald Schaible. They were notified by letter in March that the Catholic diocese intends to use newer, simplified procedures that were designed in 2009 to remove sex offenders and child abusers from the clergy roles without an ecclesiastical trial. More on Episcopal Café and the newSpin blog.

• GLEE: Gays, Lesbians and Everyone Else ... [KXAN-NBC] On most Sundays, more than 800 people fill the pews at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin. St. David’s has welcomed gays and lesbians as part of its church family for many years. More here.

A Time for Prophets

Sermon, Bishop Paul V. Marshall
At the Ordination of
Mary Lou Divis and Charles Warwick
St. Stephen’s Wilkes-Barre – May 18, 2012

        When any person first has the apprehension that God is real everything changes.

What is different about this night is that two people have worked very hard and very faithfully to get here through unusual circumstances. Lou in particular has cheerfully walked a complicated road that I can only admire.

What is also different is that for the third time at St. Stephen’s I take my lead from the music, and want to say a few words about Isaiah’s vision in our first lesson, because you will hear it powerfully portrayed in the offertory anthem.

742, the year King Uzziah died, was not a good year. The good times were over. Uzziah’s reign was for years nearly as prosperous as Solomon’s. It had been a good time to be a Judean. And even when the king fell prey to the sin of pride and was smitten with leprosy, the material prosperity continued for a while under his son the co-regent. But it wasn’t the same anymore. The Assyrians were gearing up and rattling the newest military technology –– iron swords that cut through other weapons like butter –– and there were many in Judah who were frightened or wanted appeasement. The northern kingdom was already an Assyrian vassal state. Suddenly it wasn’t such a good time to be a Judean. Suddenly (increasingly shaky) material prosperity didn’t feel like enough, and come to think of it, the stronger Assyria got, the weaker the stock market was looking in Jerusalem. The pro-Assyrian party was growing in Judah, which meant that that worship of Yahweh was seen as irrelevant or useless by increasing numbers of people. Economic downturn and the seeming irrelevance of religion … is any of this starting to sound familiar? That’s where we start our story.

Isaiah may well have been a priest, but whether or not this is so, his experience of call was in the temple and has a good deal to say about what we do tonight, as we seek vision in an age of recession and violence, an age when we have made ourselves a tributary province of a number of Asian countries, and there is plenty of evidence that we have neither moral compass nor characterological GPS in public or private life..

Isaiah’s call is not a vision with lots of words and instructions –– that would come later. Isaiah’s call was a fundamental experience of who he was as a person and in relation to Almighty God.

Here Mary Lou and Charlie will understand particularly well. Isaiah was not possessed with any strong ambition to be a prophet: it was messy and dangerous work if you weren’t an official state prophet, a hired religious yes-man. No, Isaiah was called to be unpopular by the experience of God’s holiness and God’s mercy. The call came because he was about the business of a faithful person: he was praying.

I wonder how many who have been ordained for a while remember this. Isaiah’s call starts with a vision of God, a kind of intersection of parallel universes: he is in the temple but he is also standing in the heavenly council. He says those simple but devastating words, “I saw the Lord.”

When any person first has the apprehension that God is real everything changes.

After the angels sing what we call the Sanctus and the incense begins to clear, Isaiah makes the right choice.

He doesn’t feel special, privileged or entitled, nor does he feel entrepreneurial about this theophany as St Peter would. He certainly doesn’t Google Whipple’s website for a prophetic mantle. No, he is completely flattened by what he sees and hears. Awe and humility are the only authentic response to a vision of God. Any priest who believes he or she has domesticated God will lead many souls to perdition. Humility is one of the basic tools of our trade.

No, Isaiah’s response to a vision of the Lord of Hosts is the realization that he is quite unworthy to be in that presence, and that goes double for his culture. He is inclined to slink away and go say some penitential psalms.

We must acknowledge the reality of our unworthiness to stand before God’s people and proclaim the word and break the break, but if we stop there we will become useless, because there is more than masochism to ministry.

The “more” is the next moment in this story. Just as Isaiah is getting a good debilitating guilt going, a seraph, carefully covering its “feet” (whatever they were) with one set of wings, presses a glowing coal from the altar of incense against Isaiah’s lips. I would have preferred a cooling dab of holy water. But that’s the point. The sizzling, crackly, burning away of Isaiah’s sin is meant to be an unforgettable experience of God’s cleansing Grace. You stand here tonight because the cleansing Grace of God in Jesus Christ has touched you and changed your heart and lips, as searing as the experience may have been. Just so in Isaiah’s story: the man of unclean lips is both forgiven and cleansed.

Years of therapy are telescoped in this story for a reason. That is, Isaiah has been granted a vision of the divine not for his own spiritual fulfillment — it is not clear to me that our contemporary sense of personal spiritual fulfillment is a biblical concept — Isaiah has been granted a vision and experience of cleansing so that he can hear God asking the heavenly council, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

And this new person, this temple sight-seer become Tzadik, says …“Send me.” I think you know the rest. He went on to speak of wolves and lions, virgins conceiving; he said comfort my people; reminded then that though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow. Isaiah was not a pussycat, though. “What do you mean to beat the vineyard and grind the faces of the poor?” To all the ages he said, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.” The man, all three of him, could hardly speak without uttering a quotation.

Fast forward to 2012. To say that we are a people whose moral life is out of order is understatement. It is now a matter of law in this country that the legislative process may be owned by the highest bidders and there cannot be much doubt that democracy is in decay. Far worse, Christianity’s good name has been hijacked: an astonishing 91% of young people in a recent poll gave as their first association to the world Christianity, “anti-gay.” Christianity and religious freedom are having their names hijacked to oppress women in ways we thought were over decades ago. Who will in clear words and compassionate acts dare to say that the first word about Christianity is not “anti” anything, that its first word is not a word of corruption or oppression but the word that God loved the world and gave a Son; that the Son did not come into the world to condemn the world?” Who will say that word? I believe that God hopes it is you who will speak.

But you know, if you are faithful you will have the same problem Isaiah did — read his book: Calling for mutual accountability will always be sneered at as inciting class warfare. But the prophets called for it anyway. Preferring plowshares to swords will always be sneered at as weakness, but that is what Isaiah did. Suggesting that the poor themselves have responsibilities and teaching them to meet them may well be seen as patronizing or sometimes racist, but that’s what Ezra did. Resisting First-Amendment bullying by the much larger denominations is going to mean embracing some ecumenical embarrassment, and we will have to remember Paul confronting Peter. Urging a nation to repair its moral character rather than to look for quick fixes is the particular burden of your generation of clergy, just as it was repeatedly for the prophets of both covenants.

Now let me make that harder. The clergy who have been “occupying” various buildings have not brought much aid to the poor or repentance on the part of those they oppose. Banking laws are a little too complex to reform in an ashram — again the importance of restoring impartial government. The battle with sin is defined differently these days. By the year that the King of Rock and Roll died, the revolution of the 60s and 70s was over. We have to be smarter, wilier, sweeter than the merely confrontational. You might think of Desmond Tutu or Dorothy Day as effective models here. Our tools of incarnation, presence, integrity, and adamant dedication to justice all come straight out of the Bible. We just have to be wise as serpents as we attempt to follow Isaiah in transforming our culture.

The courage to do this comes from the presence and power of the Lord Jesus himself. It comes from your life of daily prayer and frequent feasting at the Eucharist. It comes from the examples of thousands of years of faithful predecessors in prayer and prophecy. Jesus’ faithfulness was vindicated, as yours shall be, and he has promised to be with his church for ever, including you and me.

Think this over during the Creed. If you still hear the voice calling, if you still can remember the seraphim flying, if you still want to say “send me,” I’ll meet you by that chair over there in a few minutes. I hope you will come.

 

RC Diocese of Allentown seeks Involuntary laicization of three Diocese of Bethlehem priests

RC Diocese of Allentown seeks Involuntary laicization of three Diocese of Bethlehem priests

[From Bishop Paul Marshall]

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

The documents below explain themselves. Briefly, they relate to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown's desire to change the status of three of our clergy to the status of lay people.

I want to note here that the ordination of these three men was recognized by this church some years ago and their orders were received here. They are priests under the jurisdiction and protection of the Episcopal Church. Please be assured that nothing that might occur in the Roman church effects their identity, status, or work among us. I value each of them highly, as I am sure you know.

Faithfully,
+Paul Marshall
Bishop of Bethlehem

****************
[From Donald Schaible, Michael Piovane and Bill Lewellis]
Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Donald Schaible, Michael Piovane and Bill Lewellis, all priests in good standing in the Episcopal Church, received from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown during late March letters similar to the attached regarding involuntary laicization.

Laicization, in the RC church, is literally the reduction of a cleric to the lay state. A priest who is laicized is technically still a priest, but may no longer act as one or put himself forward as one. Most frequently, over the past 50 years or so, priests who left the RC church applied to Rome to be laicized so they could get married and remain in good standing within the RC church. In order to receive this dispensation, however, the applicant had to make a reasonable case that, for one reason or another, he should not have been ordained to begin with.

Over the past 50 years, again, the dispensation was given relatively freely by one pope, but not by another.

Neither Donald nor Michael nor Bill applied for laicization, for our own reasons.

On occasion, the local bishop could take the initiative to have someone laicized because that person was causing "public scandal" of one kind or another. Often enough, what was named public scandal by the RC hierarchy was not so considered by the public. But even for the bishop, the process was not so straightforward, until 2009; and Rome gave the priest an opportunity to oppose involuntary laicization because the "involuntary" turned laicization into a penalty, i.e., defrocking.

In 2009, a Vatican decree made it possible for – in fact, seemed to encourage – local RC bishops to apply for involuntary laicization for former RC priests without having to jump through hoops. Reading between the lines of the piously worded decree, one recognizes that this gave local bishops a way to efficiently laicize priests accused of sexual abuse. That seems to have been its primary purpose. Beyond the letters we received from the Diocese of Allentown, we have been hard pressed to discover instances where such applications for involuntary laicization have been applied by other RC dioceses to priests who have not been accused of sexual abuse.

Some of you, we think, know strands of of this strangely serious and strangely timed initiative of the Diocese of Allentown. We want you to know the whole story. With that in mind, we have attached also our individual replies to the Diocese of Allentown.

So, you should find four pdf files attached: 1. From the Diocese of Allentown; 2. From Michael Piovane; 3. From Don Schaible; 4. From Bill Lewellis

Thank you,

The Rev. Donald Schaible
The Rev. Canon Michael Piovane
The Rev. Canon Vincent E. (Bill) Lewellis

Download 1203.Letter from DofA.pdf

Download From Bill Lewellis.pdf

Download From Michael Piovane.pdf

Download From Donald Schaible.pdf

newSpin 120514

The newSpin Newsletter, May 14, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

I received a good report from Fox Chase Cancer Center, and have been given another six-month reprieve. Thanks for your prayers.

TopSpin    
• Maryland church leaders offer forgiveness ... and funeral services for homeless shooter of priest and assistant. Episcopal Café and Baltimore Sun.  • Earlier: Canon Andrew Gerns did yeoman journalism work for Episcopal Café when this story was breaking, keeping us updated on the volatile events that began with the May 3 shooting. Find his account here. A May 5 Baltimore Sun story says the shooter was angry about being told to limit his visits to the church's food pantry.

• Dr. Paul Farmer at Yale Divinity ... [Bill] Those of us who read Tracy Kidder's 2003 book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, know something about Dr. Paul Farmer. The book came highly recommended to me by one of my sons and by a CREDO faculty member. Worth a read. The recent article about Dr. Paul Farmer's recent presentation at Yale Divinity School begins: It is an interesting commentary on the state of the church when the most well-attended event in Yale Divinity School's recent history is a lecture not by a minister or theologian, but by a physician. On April 26, Dr. Paul Farmer, chairman of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, addressed the Divinity School community on "The Corporal Works of Mercy and the 21st-century Struggle Against Poverty." More here. I've often used the Haitian peasants' proverb I read first in Mountains Beyond Mountains: "God gives but God doesn't share." It's a response to why God permits such misery. Farmer explains that “God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he’s not the one who’s supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.” That's worth a few paragraphs in a stewardship sermon.

• President Obama says same-sex marriage should be legal ... [NYTimes] Long a proponent of civil unions, Mr. Obama said his views had changed in part because of prodding by friends who are gay and by conversations with his wife and daughters. “I had hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought that civil unions would be sufficient,” Mr. Obama said. “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people, the word marriage was something that invokes very powerful traditions and religious beliefs.” Mr. Obama also invoked his Christian faith in explaining his decision. “The thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the golden rule — you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated,” he said. “And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids, and that’s what motivates me as president.” More here.  • NYTimes editorial. On the other hand, from the Charlotte Observer, evangelist Franklin Graham accused the president of having “shaken his fist” at God. “It grieves me that our president would now affirm same-sex marriage, though I believe it grieves God even more,” Graham said in a prepared statement. Finally, Andrew Sullivan has an excellent round up of reaction focusing on the religious aspects of President Obama's historic endorsement of marriage equality and a Newsweek cover story the First Gay President.

• The new normal ... [Gallup Politics] U.S. acceptance of gay/lesbian relations is the new normal. The slight majority of American adults, 54%, consider gay or lesbian relations morally acceptable. Public acceptance of gay/lesbian relations as morally acceptable grew slowly but steadily from 38% in 2002 to 56% in 2011 and is now holding at the majority level.

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The newSpin Newsletter, May 7, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

Attribute errors, typos or anything bizarre in this week's newSpin newsletter to my head having been occasionally elsewhere. I'm off to Fox Chase on Monday for my six-month "active surveillance" routine – lab work and CT-Scan – hoping to receive another reprieve.

TopSpin    
• Fatal shooting at Maryland Episcopal church ... Canon Andrew Gerns has done yeoman journalism work for Episcopal Café over the past few days in order to keep us updated on the volatile events that began with the Thursday shooting of a priest and an administrative assistant. Administrative assistant Brenda Brewington was shot dead, and Mary-Marguerite Kohn, a priest at St. Peter's Ellicott City MD, has been critically wounded and is on life support to assist her family's intentions to donate her organs. Find Andrew's updated account here. A Saturday Baltimore Sun story says the shooter was angry about being told to limit his visits to the church's food pantry.

• Requests now being accepted for New Hope Grants ... [Daniel Gunn] The New Hope Grants Committee is ready to receive and consider requests for disbursements from the New Hope Campaign. The total amount we are able to grant for the 2012-13 calendar year is $70,000. This is the last year of major grants. We are inviting Letters of Intent from parishes and Episcopal-related organizations within the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem. The Deadline for Letters of Intent is 2 July 2012. More here.

• Free online education at Harvard and MIT ... [NYTimes, David Brooks, summary from The Atlantic Wire] Online education has been around for years, but the recent announcement that Harvard and MIT would commit millions to free online education confirms for Brooks that the trend is becoming a "tsunami." "Many of us view the coming change with trepidation. Will online learning diminish the face-to-face community that is the heart of the college experience? ... The doubts are justified, but there are more reasons to feel optimistic," he writes. Online learning will give millions access to the best educational resources. And paradoxically, the concerns that it will diminish interaction and other important elements to learning may force universities who have been ignoring those things even in the real classroom to rethink how to provide them. "My guess is it will be easier to be a terrible university on the wide-open Web, but it will also be possible for the most committed schools and students to be better than ever," he writes. More here.

Churches remain relevant despite decline in membership

Bill Lewellis
The Morning Call
Your View column, May 4, 2012

Declining numbers in churches of whatever flavor have become a truism, probably since the halcyon I-Like-Ike 50s but especially over the past few decades. Wednesday's Page One story detailed the past decade's local decline.

Declining numbers often mean church closings. Witness the closing of Roman Catholic churches over the past few years. They received remarkable publicity because they were done wholesale and drew controversy. There have been many others, somewhat under the radar.

Is there positive spin we might give to this phenomenon of changing churches?

Decades ago, a wire service religion editor used to say that the Episcopal Church has an influence far beyond its numbers. (Did I say he was an Episcopalian?) The Episcopal Church has a lot of experience at being a small yet effective church. There are probably more Muslims in the U. S. than there are Episcopalians.

Some of our churches with an average Sunday attendance of 50 serve the poor, the homeless, the marginalized in ways far beyond what such numbers might suggest. Some of our large churches serve the poor better than the cities in which they are located. Not only Episcopal congregations. You may be a member of a congregation like that in another denomination. It's all about the members and the leadership.

Five fewer or five more people in a congregation of 50 make a significant difference for the mission of the congregation. For that reason, among others, every person is a treasure.

Hear me. If you are not now a member of a church, talk to your local priest or minister. Tell him or her why you are not. Hear what he or she has to say. Perhaps you can't get your head around or have an incredibly bizarre notion of what you'd have to believe. People have acted themselves into believing the basics by taking part in the mission of the church. "Come and see," Jesus said. Faith is not about doctrinal purity. It is so much more, including paying attention to the hope that is within you, attending intensely to what is within and beyond.

If you can't find someone to talk with or if you are not treated as a treasure, resort to me. I'd love to hear from you.

[Canon Bill Lewellis, a retired Episcopal priest, served on the bishop's staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem for 24 years and on the bishop's staff of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown for 13 years before that. His email is blewellis@diobeth.org]

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The newSpin Newsletter, April 30, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

You know you grew up in the 50s if your parents thought it was perfectly alright for the neighbors to yell at you if you did something wrong and your parents were not there.

TopSpin  
• Polls show changing attitudes on gay marriage ... [Episcopal Café, Andrew Gerns] The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has created a series of graphics shows how public opinion toward same-sex marriage has changed in Pew Research Center polls since 2001. The graphs show how much opinion varies by generation, religious group, gender, race and political party since 2001. n general attitudes same sex marriage: In 2001, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a 57% to 35% margin. Today, the public is about evenly split, with 47% in favor and 43% opposed. Graphics here.

• On the Leadership Conference of Women Religious overhaul ... [NCR, John Allen, April 27] By far, the biggest Vatican story at the moment in the American media market is an announced overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the main umbrella group for superiors of the roughly 400 women's orders in the States. The move has been presented by the Vatican as a "reform" but styled as a "crackdown" in most press coverage. More from NYTimes, Maureen Dowd and Nicholas Kristof. And LCWR Annual Assembly to go forward.

• The new user-friendly, useful and attractive DioBeth website ... A complete do-over. Explore a bit. You'll find it eminently user-friendly, useful and attractive. www.diobeth.org . As a retired communication minister, I'm so proud of Kat's work and the work of everyone who had a hand in putting this together. It will become, I'm confident, an effective tool for evangelism. I will not hesitate to refer it to anyone who expresses to me an interest in becoming an Episcopalian and a parishioner in the Diocese of Bethlehem.

• Diocesan Life, May/June ... Stories on St. Alban's, Sinking Springs, Family Promise at All Saints, birthday bags for the Nazareth Food Bank, our New Hope campaign update from Charlie Barebo, Vocare, Bishop's Day for Kids, the Whitehall Food Pantry, What is a deputy? (for General Convention) and more. Here.

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The newSpin Newsletter, April 23, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

TopSpin
• Returning to the Sermon on the Mount ... [NYTimes, The Stone] Read alone, the Sermon on the Mount will either confuse us or merely reinforce the moral prejudices we bring to it.  To profit from its wisdom we need to understand it through traditions of thought and practice within or informed by Christianity.  This does not require membership in any particular church, but it does require immersion in the culture and history of the Christian world.   In this sense, to forget the church is to forget Jesus.

• The new user-friendly, useful and attractive DioBeth website ... A complete do-over. Explore a bit. You'll find it eminently user-friendly, useful and attractive. www.diobeth.org . As a retired communication minister, I'm so proud of Kat's work and the work of everyone who had a hand in putting this together. It will become, I'm confident, an effective tool for evangelism. I will not hesitate to refer it to anyone who expresses to me an interest in becoming an Episcopalian and a parishioner in the Diocese of Bethlehem.

• Diocesan Life, May/June ... Stories on St. Alban's, Sinking Springs, Family Promise at All Saints, birthday bags for the Nazareth Food Bank, our New Hope campaign update from Charlie Barebo, Vocare, Bishop's Day for Kids, the Whitehall Food Pantry, What is a deputy? (for General Convention) and more. Here.

• Young 'Millennials' losing faith in record numbers ... [RNS, Lauren Markoe] A growing tide of young Americans is drifting away from the religions of their childhood -- and most of them are ending up in no religion at all. One in four young adults choose “unaffiliated” when asked about their religion ... Most within this unaffiliated group -- 55 percent -- identified with a religious group when they were younger. These younger unaffiliated adults are very nonreligious. More here.

DioBethSpin
• A recent note from Bishop Anthony in Kajo Keji to Bishop Paul ... [April 19] "Thanks for your e-mail and greetings from Kajo-Keji. The situation between South Sudan and Sudan is is of grave concern to us all. It is difficult to tell whether open war has been declared or not. The statement from President Beshir has added more concerns where he said that he will work to liberate South Sudanese from Sudan People's LIberation Movement. The government of South Sudan is saying that there side of the story is being ignored as they have restrained themselves for the last nine months.  Pray for peace and for willingness of both countries to return to the negotiating table. It is hard to get accurate news. One of my daily sources of news in Sudan Tribune as well as John Ashworth's e-mails." More from The Christian Science Monitor.

• Our new website ... See above, under TopSpin.

• Christophany registration is open ... More here. Also ... What is Christophany?

• High School Mission Trip ... Here.

• Diocesan Events for 2012 ... Here.

• Diocesan Life, May/June ... Here.

• DioBeth Website ... newSpin Blog ... Re:Create blog for youth and young adults ... Twitter.DioBeth ... Twitter.Kat Lehman ... Facebook.DioBeth ... Flickr, search under dio_beth

• Public news and info lists ... At the Diobeth website , enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.

ParishSpin
• Allentown: Funds from Grace Montessori 15th Annual Benefit Auction provide scholarships ... Grace Montessori School is a key part of the mission of Grace Church. We serve 106 students, ages 3-10. About one-third of the students receive scholarship assistance from money we raise. This annual benefit accounts for a sizable part of that scholarship aid. This year's goal is $25,000. There is a silent auction and a live auction, in a lovely atmosphere, with live music, food, and drinks. The event takes place this year on Friday evening, April 27, 6:00 p.m. at the Fegleys' Allentown Brew Works(812 West Hamilton). Tickets ($25) will be available in advance and at the door. Please consider attending, as neighborhood families often need financial support for their children to come to our school. Executive Director Mrs. Elizabeth House and The Rev. Beth Reed will each make remarks at the event. GMS website.

Allentown: Grace in the news ... [Grace priest-in-charge Beth Reed] Wednesday's Morning Call, April 18, had an article about Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to local groups that have been cut. The CDBG program disburses federal funds to cities, which then disburses them to local organizations. Grace Montessori applies for and usually receives one of these grants, and we have again this year ($10,000), though it is substantially less than last year's amount ($15,000). The grant we receive goes directly to fund scholarships. There was a happy picture of children at our school in the paper, with four more pictures on the paper's website. The article contained a quote from the Grace Montessori School's Executive Director, Mrs. Elizabeth House.

• Bethlehem: Cathedral ... [Mariclair Partee] There are still a few seats left for the May Icon Workshop with Fr. Peter Pearson at the Cathedral. This year we will be writing a modified icon of the Nativity in celebration of the Cathedral’s Sesquicentennial. I hope that you are able to attend! The cost is $225, which includes all materials and instruction, and for those coming from far away there are rooms at two local retreat centers available, or I can help with finding other accommodations. Please contact me directly at mpartee@nativitycathedral.org to register.

• Clarks Summit: Epiphany in the News ... [Abington Journal] The formation of the church began on the Festival of the Epiphany, January 6, 1912, at a small gathering of residents of the Abingtons held in the 1876 Centennial Schoolhouse in Glenburn. The meeting was cut short because the potbelly stove provided insufficient heat to encourage extended discussion. Enough interest was expressed though, and the schoolhouse was subsequently purchased and renovated; it serves to this day as the worship area of the Church of the Epiphany. More here.

• Dallas ... Resumes are being accepted for the position of organist and choirmaster.  Must be proficient at organ and choral direction. Adult and youth involvement.  Send resume to Pastor, Prince of Peace Church, 420 Main Street, Dallas, PA  18612.  An application for employment and full job description are available following submission of resumes.

• Note to parishes ... [Republican-Herald] Please send news summaries and links to Bill.

• Weekly eNewsletters from parishes
Allentown, Grace Church, April 19.
Bethlehem, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, April 20.
Dallas, Prince of Peace Church, April 20.
Easton, Trinity Church, April 20.
Trexlertown, St. Anne's Church here, click on "Weekly Calendar."
Wilkes-Barre, St. Stephen's, April 23.
There may be others. If so, please send me a link.

• Monthly Newsletters from parishes ... Most parishes publish a monthly newsletter that is mailed to parishioners. Many, if not most, of those are available at the parish websites.

• Calendar of Events ...  Here.  

General Convention 2012 in July 
• What is a deputy ... Diocese of Bethlehem deputation chair Anne Kitch recommends Cathy Bailey's new post on the GC Deputies Blog. "As we approach the 77th General Convention in July," Canon Kitch writes, "there will be more and more news about events and issues in the Episcopal Church. The deputies will be posting updates on the blog as our way of keeping you in the loop. As always, please feel free to contact any of the deputies with questions about General Convention. Deputies are available to meet with parish or regional groups. Our contact information is on the blog."

• The Blue Book ... information and resolutions for GC2012 is available for downloading. Here.

Episcopal/Anglican 
• Let go of the peanuts ... [Episcopal Café, Jim Naughton] You will have to read the Rev. Gay Jennings' entire sermon at the closing Eucharist of Executive Council to understand the headline on this item. More here.

• Diocese of Pittsburgh ... elects Dorsey McConnell as bishop. More at Episcopal News Service.

• Diocese of Virginia... elects Susan Goff as bishop suffragan. More at Episcopal News Service.

• The Archbishop of Wales ... [The Independent,UK] has publicly called on Anglicans to support gay civil marriages arguing that the church’s record on equality has made homosexual men and women often feel “unwanted, unloved and sinful.” Dr Barry Morgan made his comments during an impassioned plea for Anglicans to be more tolerant towards homosexuals during a meeting of the church’s governing body in Llandudno. He is one of just a handful of senior Anglican clergymen to publicly come out in favour of extending civil marriage rights. Most bishops who have spoken publicly since the government began consultations on gay marriage have voiced vehement opposition to the plans. More here.

• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Download inserts here.

• Episcopal Church new website ... complete transformation and redesign, launched December 28, efficient and user friendly. Read about it here. ... Episcopal News Service ... ENS blog ... Episcopal Church on Facebook ... Episcopal Church on YouTube ... Anglican Communion website ... Anglican Communion News Service. ... Anglican Communion News Service on Facebook.

TaleSpin   
• Finding sanity in the experience of wonder... [Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch] The concluding paragraph, p. 1016: Original sin is one of the more plausible concepts within the Western Christian package, corresponding all to accurately to everyday human experience. One great encouragement to sin is an absence of wonder. Even those who see the Christian story as just that – a series of stories – may find sanity in the experience of wonder: the ability to listen and contemplate. It would be very surprising if this religion, so youthful, yet so varied in its historical experience, had now revealed all its secrets.

• Move over, Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin, in the burgeoning Christian sports icon department ... [BillyGraham.org] Bubbs Watson is an outspoken Christian golfer and he uses his Twitter account — along with his platform as one of the PGA Tour's magnetic personalities — to share about his faith in Christ. More here. [h/t RNS Daily]

TailSpin
• The number one mancrush ... According to Mancrush.com, Jesus Christ is number one, followed by Hemingway, Thoreau… and Bill Murray.  I did not make this up. [h/t The Jesuit Post]

• The Rosa Parks of Manhattan streetcars in 1854 ... [Ephemeral New York] Elizabeth Jennings was run– ning late. It was July 16, 1854, and Jennings, a 24-year-old teacher, was headed to the First Colored American Congregational Church on Sixth Street and the Bowery. At Chatham and Pearl Streets, she boarded a streetcar. Like schools, hotels, and many jobs, streetcars operated on a color line and often refused black New Yorkers. On this summer morning, the driver insisted Jennings get off and wait for a colored streetcar. She said no.

• Most people don’t care about politics ... UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck tells the WaPo’s Ezra Klein. More at Poynter.

• Ripped Reverend Amy Richter ... [Episcopal Café] What about when a priest wears a bikini? What if she complicates the picture by having sizable biceps or well-defined lats? Can “buff” and “holy” go together? “Ripped” and “reverend”? If the “reverend” is a woman? Here.

• The Jesuits are $14 richer after selling a rare gospel ... [NYTimes] A seventh-century gospel discovered in a saint’s coffin more than 900 years ago, and the oldest European book to survive fully intact, has been acquired by the British Library for $14 million, the library said. The book, a manuscript copy of the Gospel of John called the St. Cuthbert Gospel, was placed in Cuthbert’s coffin, probably in 698, and rediscovered there in 1104. “It is undoubtedly one of the world’s most important books,” said Scot McKendrick of the British Library. The book was sold by the Society of Jesus.

• B16, a pope of ironies ... [NCR, John Allen, April 20] For Benedict XVI, this has been a week of milestones. The pontiff turned 85 on Monday, making him the oldest pope in the last 110 years and one of just six to reign past 85 in the last half-millennium. On Thursday, Benedict also marked the seventh anniversary of his election to the papacy in April 2005. ... The most intriguing feature of this papacy isn't how Benedict has confirmed expectations, but rather how he's confounded them. The following are eight such defining ironies, meaning sharp contrasts between the stereotypes and mythology that surrounded Benedict at the beginning versus the lived reality of his reign. Here.

• The best kept secret of the Catholic Church ... [National Catholic Reporter] The Catholic church has a very big secret. It is so powerful, challenging and relevant that if every bishop, priest, deacon, religious and layperson was committed to communicating and implementing this secret, it would turn society upside-down and literally transform the world. However, revealing its contents and tirelessly urging the full application of its message would surely cause great controversy. The church would come under fierce attack from both conservatives and liberals for being naïve and acting outside acceptable ecclesial boundaries. Therefore, most Catholics have opted to tread lightly, sadly guaranteeing that Catholic social teaching will remain our best-kept secret ... What is it about Catholic social teaching that is so threatening to the status quo? More here.

• Virginia priest who headed child protection office is accused of abuse ... [WaPo] The Rev. Terrty Specht, 59, the Catholic priest who headed the Northern Virginia Diocese of Arlington's office responsible for protecting children from sexual abuse was placed on administrative leave Wednesday while he is investigated for alleged sexual misconduct with a teenage boy. More here.

• The 13 most useless majors, from philosophy to journalism ... [The Daily Beast/U.S.News] Here.

Resources 
• Holy Women, Holy Men ... Download Holy Women, Holy Men as a .pdf file.
• Congregational Resource Guide ... Here.
 • Daily Office ... Lectionary Page ... Lectionary ... Oremus Bible Browser ... Revised Common Lectionary 

Opinion/Commentary/Reflection
• Why Ross Douthat thinks we're a nation of heretics ... [Religion News Service] Here. Also, NPR interview. Read transcript or listen here.

• The hidden costs of a gallon of gas are rising ... [NCR Editorial]  This month marks the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and leaked 4.9 million barrels of crude oil, causing extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and to the area’s fisheries and tourism industry. The spill’s local impact still unfolds. Now the nation is in the midst of an election-year energy debate -- with mostly a sole focus on rising prices at the pump -- that is, in light of the Gulf disaster, woefully shortsighted. More here.

Moravian
• Moravian Church in North America website.  Moravian Church Northern Province website.  Moravian Theological Seminary website.

Evangelical Lutheran 
• NEPA Synod website ... Here.  ELCA website ... Here.  ELCA News Service ... Here.  ELCA's blogs may be found here. See especially "Web and Multimedia Development."

United Methodist 
• UMC website Here. News Service Here. Communication Resources Start here. Communication newsletter (tips and tools) Here. Eastern PA Conference website  Here. Facebook Here. Bishop Peggy Johnson's blog Here.

Roman Catholic
• Vatican reprimands group of U.S. nuns and plans changes ... [NYTimes and RNS] The Vatican has appointed an American bishop to rein in the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States, saying that an investigation found that the group had “serious doctrinal problems.” The Vatican’s assessment said members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious that represents most of the U.S.'s 55,000 nuns had challenged church teaching on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood, and promoted “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” The sisters were also reprimanded for making public statements that “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.” During the debate over the health care overhaul in 2010, American bishops came out in opposition to the health plan, but dozens of sisters, many of whom belong to the Leadership Conference, signed a statement supporting it — support that provided crucial cover for the Obama administration in the battle over health care. ... Another group was also cited for focusing its work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping “silent” on abortion and same-sex marriage. More at NYTimes. and RNS.

Also, this from a WaPo column by Melinda Henneberger: The Vatican is cracking down on American nuns who, as one of my fellow Catholics noted over a cup of unconsecrated wine last night, “Only do what Jesus told us to do,’’ in their hospitals, schools and orphanages, “so no wonder they’re in trouble.’’ Also, with his opening tweets, the immensely popular Jesuit priest Rev. James Martin, SJ started his drive to remember how much Catholics (and non-Catholics) value the contributions of U.S. Catholic Nuns. "Catholic sisters teach me what it means to persevere in ministry without the benefit of institutional power. #WhatSistersMeanToMe," he tweeted, following up with a second tweet asking, "How have Catholic sisters helped in your life?" [Bill] Way back in the late 60s or early 70s, while still a Roman Catholic priest, I led a retreat day for a group of nuns during which I said their troubles began – and will continue – because they have been taking Vatican II seriously. Also, at Episcopal Café from Andrew Gerns.

• The landmark Philadelphia abuse trial ...  Daily reports. A NYTimes editorial suggests why this trial is especially important: "The issue of hierarchal responsibility is finally front and center." Complete Phila Inquirer coverage.

• The real Catholic social teaching and the Ryan budget ... [Religion Dispatches] Here.

• National Catholic Reporter editorial on the budget ... The RC bishops sent letters to congressional leaders in March, weeks before Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled his budget proposal. Ryan, despite his rhetoric that Catholic social teaching informs his budget decisions, clearly ignored the bishops’ advice. The budget Ryan proposed and the House passed is a radical document, punitive toward the middle class and the poor. An analysis of the Ryan budget released April 13 by 60 prominent theologians, priests, nuns and national Catholic social justice leaders says the “budget that turns its back on the hungry, the elderly and the sick while giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest few can’t be justified in Christian terms.” The bishops’ April 17 letter called the Ryan budget a moral failure. More here.

• Diocese of Allentown ... Here.  Diocese of Scranton ... Here.  United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ... Here.  Catholic News Service ... Here.  Vatican website ... Here.  Vatican Information Service blog ... Here.  Vatican News/Info Portal ... Here.

Health
• He who sits the most dies the soonest ... [The Atlantic] A study of more than 200,000 Australians adds to the growing body of evidence that people who sit the most die the soonest. It also found that you can't exercise this effect away, though exercise does help reduce it greatly. The study's simple message is that spending more time standing and less time sitting prolongs life. More here.

• The healing power of gardening ... Here.

• MedlinePlus ... Here.

• WebMD ... Here.

• Quality Care Finder ... [Medicare/Medicaid] Here.

Media/Films/DVD/TV/Books/Music/Tech
• AP's approval of 'hopefully' symbolizes larger debate over language ... [WaPo, Monica  Hesse] The barbarians have done it, finally infiltrated a remaining bastion of order in a linguistic wasteland. They had already taken the Oxford English Dictionary; they had stormed the gates of Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition. They had pummeled American Heritage into submission, though she fought valiantly — she continues to fight! — by including a cautionary italics phrase, “usage problem,” next to the heretical definition. Then, on Tuesday morning, the venerated AP Stylebook publicly affirmed (via tweet, no less) what it had already told the American Copy Editors Society: It, too, had succumbed. “We now support the modern usage of hopefully,” the tweet said. “It is hoped, we hope.” More here.

• Baseball as a road to God ... [NYTimes] New York University president John Sexton teaches this course for credit. “The real idea of the course,” he put it in an interview, “is to develop heightened sensitivity and a noticing capacity. So baseball’s not ‘the’ road to God. For most of us, it isn’t ‘a’ road to God. But it’s a way to notice, to cause us to live more slowly and to watch more keenly and thereby to discover the specialness of our life and our being, and, for some of us, something more than our being.” ...  The springtime class had its genesis in the challenge of a skeptic. In the 1998-99 school year, an N.Y.U. law student presented himself to Dr. Sexton to say, “I understand you’re a real baseball fan, and I don’t get it.” Dr. Sexton, invoking the words of his own long-ago mentor at Brooklyn Prep, replied: “Then you are among the great unwashed. But there is hope for your soul.” By means of evangelism, Dr. Sexton oversaw an independent-study project for the law student, assigning him 10 books about baseball and theology. Word of mouth around campus led more students to ask for a similar tutorial. Dr. Sexton instead devised an entire class, and made it available to undergraduates. The core of his original reading list — “The Sacred and the Profane,” by the religion historian Mircea Eliade — remains central to the class all these years later. More here.

• Thinking theologically about using social media ... [Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, Verity Jones] Although we don’t have all the answers yet -- or even all the questions -- one thing is clear: the widespread use of technology and social media in American culture today is rapidly changing the landscape in which Christian life occurs. Our task at the New Media Project is not to justify or be an apologist for technology or for social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter. Rather, we seek to understand this dramatic shift in communication patterns and tools theologically. If, as Anselm said, theology is “faith seeking understanding,” then our challenge -- our hope -- is to understand what is at stake for the body of Christ during this time. More here.

 • The Hunger Games ... Hunger for meaning, or the transcendence games; Losing the moral center; The Hunger Games and moral formation;  Review by Frederic and MaryAnn Brussat.

Calendar of Events ... Here.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Faith in Public Life ... here.
• Episcopal/Anglican
 (1) The Episcopal Church
 (2) Episcopal News Service
 (3) Episcopal Café
 (4) AngicansOnline.
 (5) AnglicansOnline News Centre.

*************

You are reading the newSpin newsletter. The newSpin blog, which includes the newsletter and other items, is available here. When the newsletter is completed on Mondays and occasionally on Thursdays as well, it is published immediately to the blog and on Bakery and on a ChurchPost list of some 1,000 addresses. Many recipients forward it to many more. Bakery and the blog are interactive. The ChurchPost list is not. The newsletter comes, of course, with some spin from the editor. The views expressed, implied or inferred in items or links contained in the newsletter or the blog do not represent the official view of the Diocese of Bethlehem unless expressed by or forwarded from the Bishop or the Archdeacon as an official communication. If you're wondering why you haven't seen something related to your parish or agency here, it's probably because no one has sent relevant info. Regarding items about your parish or agency as well as feedback on any other items ... send email to Bill.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication Minister/Editor (1986-2010), Canon Theologian (1998)
Blog , Email (c)610-393-1833
Be attentive. Be intelligent. Be reasonable. Be responsible.
Be in Love. And, if necessary, change. [Bernard Lonergan]

 

 

 

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The newSpin Newsletter, April 16, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

TopSpin
• The new user-friendly, useful and attractive DioBeth website ... A complete do-over. Explore a bit. You'll find it eminently user-friendly, useful and attractive. www.diobeth.org . As a retired communication minister, I'm so proud of Kat's work and the work of everyone who had a hand in putting this together. It will become, I'm confident, an effective tool for evangelism. I will not hesitate to refer it to anyone who expresses to me an interest in becoming an Episcopalian and a parishioner in the Diocese of Bethlehem.

• The shocking truth about Christian Orthodoxy ... Andrew Gerns points us to "a fascinating lecture by Fr. John Behr, Dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary in New York. Behr believes that the early church communities that were the most diverse--catholic--were what came to be known as orthodox." Here or here. 

• Bad Religion: How we became a nation of heretics ... [Ross Douthat, Interviewed on NPR] The United States ranks as the most religious country in the developed world. And New York Times columnist Ross Douthat says that despite our politics, debates and doubts, this country is as God-besotted today as ever. But in his new book, Douthat argues that religion has fallen into heresy. Douthat recently spoke with NPR's Linda Wertheimer about why he thinks American Christianity has become distorted ... So if the country remains religious, but the institutional churches are weaker than they used to be, what steps into the breach? ... An alternative Jesus, best embodied by that sketched out by Dan Brown and The DaVinci Code ... a much more congenial figure for a lot of Americans than the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ... The prosperity gospel of Joel Osteen says that's what God wants you to be rich, not precisely the message of the New Testament ... The heresy of Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love, of Oprah Winfrey, of Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle that God is there to make you feel happy about yourself, blessing impulses you already have, putting a kind of Christian stamp on narcissism, where the things we already want to do, we tell ourselves, are things that God wants us to do, too. Read transcript or listen here. [h/t Ann Fontaine at Episcopal Café]

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The newSpin Newsletter, April 9, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

TopSpin
• The new user-friendly, useful and attractive DioBeth website ... It's live! A complete do-over. Explore a bit. You'll find it eminently user-friendly, useful and attractive. The new website comes up with the same URL as the old one, www.diobeth.org.

• Bishop Paul's Easter sermon ... What I am going to say now is not for everybody in this room, and I hope you will bear with me for a minute if it doesn’t include you. I want to speak to those in the room who are suffering today and do not reasonably expect a cure. I want to say a word to those who go through life with a sense that there is something wrong with them, a feeling that they are fundamentally flawed, people who labor with the awareness that tasks and relationships that are very easy for others are not at all easy for them. They know there are no quick fixes for some things. I also dare to speak a word to those in the room who may believe in their most secret heart that life is not worth living. More here.

• Now the green blade riseth ... Here.

• I've been to the mountaintop, 44 years ago ... On April 3, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “mountaintop” speech in Memphis: “We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't really matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live…a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” The next day, April 4, 1968, he was assassinated.

• Newsweek: Christianity in Crisis ... [Andrew Sullivan, Newsweek Cover Story] Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Ignore them, writes Andrew Sullivan, and embrace Him. Responses to Sullivan here.

• Time: Rethinking Heaven ... [Time Magazine] Cover story by Jon Meacham and Top 10 On-Screen Depictions of Heaven.

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 The newSpin Newsletter, April 2, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

TopSpin

• The Paschal Triduum ... [An excerpt from Celebrating the Eucharist by Patrick Malloy] One three-day-long event celebrating one saving dynamic, that even in the midst of death there is life. Here.  

• The landmark Philadelphia abuse trial ...  Daily reports. A NYTimes editorial suggests why this trial is especially important: "A long overdue step of accountability in the sex abuse of children by wayward Catholic priests — the first-ever trial of a diocesan supervisor for allegedly covering up the scandal — has opened in Philadelphia. The issue of hierarchal responsibility is finally front and center."how

• Christianity in Crisis ... [Andrew Sullivan, Newsweek Cover Story] Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Ignore them, writes Andrew Sullivan, and embrace Him. Plus: Join Andrew Sullivan's live Q&A Tuesday, April 3rd at 2pm ET on Christianity in America.

• Diocesan Life, March/April ... Here.

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The newSpin Newsletter, March 26, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

TopSpin
• Chrism Mass on Thursday: March 29 at Cathedral, 11:00 a.m. ...  See below, under DioBethSpin.

• Church of England rejects Anglican Covenant ... [Episcopal Café] Three of six dioceses voting on Saturday have rejected the proposed covenant, two have voted in favor, one has yet to report its vote. The covenant has been rejected by the Church of England. More here and here.

• Something very significant in the history of the Church of England happened on Saturday ... [The Guardian UK, Diarmaid MacCulloch] An absolute majority of dioceses in the Church of England, debating diocese by diocese, voted down a pernicious scheme called the Anglican Covenant. This was an effort to increase the power of centralising bureaucracy throughout the worldwide Anglican communion. However much the promoters denied it, the principal aim was to discipline Anglican churches in the United States and Canada, which had the gall to think for themselves and, after much prayer and discussion, to treat gay people just like anybody else ... So now Anglicanism needs to move forward and forget this sorry diversion, into which many perfectly well-meaning people poured a huge amount of energy over a decade when they might have been doing something useful. More here.

• Sinking Spring: St. Alban's to get long-awaited home ... [Reading Eagle]  For longer than Moses wandered in the wilderness, members of St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Spring Township, have worshipped in a circa 1963 building that was intended to be the congregation's temporary home. On Sunday, March 18, a groundbreaking was finally held for a new building to be completed in time for Easter 2013 ... The Rev. Karl Kern, rector of St. Alban's, said worship in the old church, with a capacity of 145, often felt crowded and he is hopeful the additional space will make worshippers feel more comfortable. So, members have been raising funds toward construction of a $2.4 million stone and stucco church that will be about 70 percent larger than the current building. The new sanctuary will hold 244 worshippers. More here.

• Diocesan Life, March/April ... Here.

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The newSpin Newsletter, March 19, 2012
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday 

TopSpin
• ABC Rowan Williams stepping down at year's end ... [Episcopal Café]  Here and Here and Here and Here. His decision comes after 10 years as ABC and after accepting the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where, the college said he “has the capacity and vision to guide the College in a time of unprecedented change in higher education.” He will be returning to what he always said was his primary calling as a liberal theologian, leaving behind the tangled church politics that require the archbishop of Canterbury to have, as he said Friday, “the hide of a rhinoceros and the constitution of an ox.” More at ENS, AP, RNS, and the NYTimes.

• Agonies of an Archbishop ... [Ross Douthat, NYTimes Op-Ed] Rowan Williams has borne some of the same burdens as Pope Benedict XVI. The outgoing archbishop of Canterbury and the former Joseph Ratzinger differ theologically and in the scope of their ecclesiastical authority. But both men are European academics trying to speak to Western audiences while leading an increasingly global and post-European church. Both have confronted the same issues (Islam, secularism, sexuality) and both have stumbled into public controversies when their soft-spoken styles collided with intractable challenges. These challenges won’t go away, but within a few decades it won’t be elderly Bavarians or Welsh academics who are confronting them. This is probably the last era in which the public face of the world’s major Christian bodies will look the way it did in 1780, or even 1950. The next pope could well be Latin American or African; if not in the next election, then it’s only a matter of time. And one of the favorites to succeed Rowan Williams as archbishop of Canterbury is John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu, the Ugandan-born archbishop of York, whose biography makes a bridge between the old Christendom and the new. A hundred years ago, the idea that one of Western Europe’s most ancient religious offices could be occupied by a black man born in Africa would have seemed like something out of science fiction. By the end of this century, in a globalized Anglicanism and Catholicism alike, it will probably seem like the most normal and necessary thing in the world. More here.

• As Rowan Williams retires, speculation turns to successor ... [RNS] Here.

• Sheltering the homeless ... Below, under ParishSpin.

• Diocesan Training Day: Saturday, March 24 at St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre ... The annual Diocesan Training Day is now open for online registration. Twelve workshops from a variety of ministries. Registration and more info here. Vestry members and Finance Commission members are especially encouraged to attend the Wardens/Vestry 101 Workshop led by Bishop Paul and Archdeacon Stringfellow: An introduction for new wardens and vestry members, or a refresher for experienced vestry members to the roles, responsibilities, and realities of parish leadership. We will look at canons, models, strategies, and resources to assist the elected leaders of parishes. 

• Chrism Mass: March 29 ... [Bishop Paul] See below, under DioBethSpin

• Draft rite for Same-Sex Blessings and supporting documents released ... [Episcopal Café, Andrew Gerns] The Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has released excerpts from its “I Will Bless You, and You Will Be a Blessing: Resources for Blessing Same-Gender Relationships,” report, including the text of its proposed rite of blessing. Excerpts from the commission’s report to General Convention are now available for study online. More here.

• Diocesan Life, March/April ... Here.

Important day in West Pittston

Today Fr. John Major and Janine Ungvarsky hosted a combined clergy meeting to review the progress in ministry to flood victims along the Susquehanna, particularly in the West Pittston area. Clergy from Tunkhannock to Honesdale and points north and south of that Rt 6 line were present.

There were several joy-producing moments even in the recollection of devastation. In the first place, Trinity and its friends have been persevering long-term servants of their neighbors, and have found that to be transformative of their life. Secondly, the good people at Episcopal Relief and Development have been nothing but helpful in their conversations. Finally, there was a review of the amount of gifts that have flowed in from you to help in this community rebuilding effort, which will take 3 to 5 years to complete.

As you know, we have a team working to help each place in the diocese be prepared for unexpected large-scale tragedy.

One of the things I have learned is that there is a national registry of volunteers that we can all access to put our skills and interests on tap for future needs. More about this will come to you.

I left the event heartened by the clergy turnout, the persistence of Trinity's priest and people, and the knowledge that ERD knows that we are here and are trying. I want to publicly thank all of them.

Blessings,
+Paul

Step into Spring fashion show

A Resource for Christian/Muslim Dialogue

[From Addison Bross, Co-Chair, Diocesan Peace Commission]

If your parish is contemplating holding an event in line with the resolution to promote Christian-Muslim understanding (passed last fall at Diocesan Convention), you may want to know of the upcoming event.

Dr. Kenneth Cragg, author of Christians and Muslims: From History to Healing and one of the founders of Muslims and Christians United: A Lehigh Valley Initiative has expressed interest in giving presentations and leading study-groups on this interfaith topic for Episcopalians in our Diocese.

The series of meetings he led with a combined Muslim and Christian group some months ago led to the formation of Muslims and Christians United. This was a continuing study-group in which participants looked deeply into each other's faiths. Dr. Cragg is convinced that this format works best for promoting a genuine level of exchange and interaction, where the problems that have divided the two religions can come forward and be addressed frankly, and where these two distinct "peoples of the book" can also discover the ties that bind them in a single Abrahamic tradition.

My impression is that this approach gets beyond platitudes and makes possible a kind of sharing at a deeper level. I have asked Dr. Cragg about helping parishes in our Diocese with such a project. He suggested persons interested in this issue might find profit in attending a meeting in Harrisburg on 31 March, where he will explain to a gathering there just what such a series would involve.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 pm, Saturday, 31 March, at Susquehanna Hall of Elizabethtown College off Route 283 between Harrisburg and Lancaster. The originating group is The World Affairs Counsel of Harrisburg. Additional sponsors are the Muslims and Christians United of Lehigh Valley, Elizabethtown College, and interfaith groups of Harrisburg and Lancaster.

Joy or Control? Let the Joy Happen.

Sermon at Clergy Day
March 15, 2012
Paul V. Marshall
Ps. 95:8

I find myself thinking about four words from the Psalm. “Harden not your hearts.” Not as threat, but as invitation—it is the Invitatory Psalm.

As a teacher of preaching, I have heard a lifetime’s-worth of sermons about why a particular preacher does not like Lent, so I think at last it is my turn. I don’t like Lent for precisely the same reason that I don’t like cleaning the garage or basement. (I say nothing of desks.) Stuff builds up: that is its nature. Even if one is a daily tidiness person, and I respect such people, there needs to be a thorough cleaning now and then if our living spaces are to function well and give pleasure to the eye and heart. Cleaning up after
ourselves is not usually our favorite thing nonetheless.

It is tedious, unexciting…and necessary, or else one drowns in clutter or harbors a fire hazard. Worse still, stuff can pile up to the extent that you forget what the space is actually for, and have to start parking in the driveway instead of the garage.