St. Stephen's, Whitehall sent $5,710 today to ERD for Haiti Relief. This represents two Sundays of special offerings plus a grant from the parish Outreach Committee.[From Father Frank St.Amour, rector]
At Sunday's Concert in Honesdale to aid Episcopal Relief and Development for work in Haiti, some 75 people attended and $1,100+ was raised. Father Ed Erb tells us that people from all over northeast PA and NY state "gathered to hear some of the most amazing music." Read here for more from Father Erb.
Helping Haiti ... • The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is caring for close to 23,000 Haitians in at least 21 encampments around the earthquake-devastated country.• Updates from across the country on missionaries, church responses, persons in Haiti, etc., are available from the Episcopal Church Office of Communication. • Episcopal Relief & Development has disbursed emergency funding to the Diocese of Haiti to help meet critical needs such as food, water and shelter for those affected. Donations can be made to Episcopal Relief & Development online or by calling 800-334-7626 ext 5129. ERD has a four star rating on Charity Navigator and meets all 20 standards of the Better Business Bureau. Some 92% to 96% of each dollar given to ERD goes directly to the program be it for disaster relief or for development. • A Haitian proverb: “God gives but doesn’t share,” i.e., “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.” • Work of Haitian Episcopalians, including a video, recognized in Wall Street Journal story. • Facts about the quake and the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. • WinnieRomeril, daughter of Bob and Gwendolyn-Jane Romeril of Trinity Bethlehem, was recently interviewed in Haiti by MSNBC. More here. • Presiding Bishop preached at National Cathedral prayer service on January 17. • St. Luke's Lebanon hosted a healing service for the local Haitian community.Among Haiti's losses, according to a WSJournal story today, is a 12,000-piece art trove in a private home. Haiti is still struggling to count its dead from the Jan. 12 quake, and international agencies have descended to help the living rebuild. Only beginning to be surveyed is the loss of culture. Port-au-Prince's landmark Sacre Coeur church, with its elaborate stained-glass windows, is rubble. All that remains of the National Cathedral, with its imposing layer-cake architecture, are two walls facing each other like bookends. The quake also buckled the capital's Episcopal Holy Trinity Cathedral and ruined its large colorful murals by Haiti's top artists, including a depiction of Christ's Ascension over a scene of soccer-playing village lads and Philomé Obin's crucifixion scene with a mulatto Christ. See a hearrbreaking video clip showing the rubble of Eglise Sainte Trinite cathedral.
Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday will be the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Information and a Lenten devotion guide may be found on ERD's website. You may order the quantity needed at parishes here. These guides are free. You pay only the shipping cost.
Recital for Haiti in Wilkes-Barre, Jan. 31 ... Canon Mark Laubach, Organist and Choirmaster of St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, will present a recital on January 31 at 3:00 p.m. on the four-manual, 80+ rank Berghaus pipe organ to raise money for Episcopal Relief and Development to provide assistance for victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. If you cannot attend the recital, your prayers and contributions to any worthy charity in support of the suffering people of Haiti will be appreciated. Contributions may be sent to St. Stephen's (checks payable to St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, with "Haiti Earthquake Relief" in the memo section) or made directly to ER-D at their website, http://www.er-d.org/. ER-D is one of the highest rated charities in the USA, with very low overhead expenses. All contributions made to St. Stephen's or to ER-D are tax deductible. [Thanks to Debra Kellerman of St. Stephen's for sending this information.]
Nick Knisely, dean of Trinity Cathedral Phoenix since 2006 and rector of Trinity Bethlehem, 1998-2006, is one of four nominees for Bishop of Kentucky. More info here. and here.
Trinity Easton to begin monthly Evensong ... On Sunday, February 14, 2010 Trinity Episcopal Church, 234 Spring Garden Street, Easton, will celebrate the Last Sunday in Epiphany with our regular Sunday morning services as well as with a half-hour organ recital at 4:00 p.m. followed by choral evensong. This will be the first of regular monthly evensongs, which, beginning in March will fall on the third Sunday of each month. Please plan to join us each month for this wonderful expression of our Anglican heritage and our common spiritual journey. For more information call 610-253-0792 or visit www.trinityeaston.org.
Sheltering the homeless in Bethlehem ... Scott Allen, priest-in-charge at St. Andrew's Allentown and Marilyn Hartman from El Shaddai Christian Training Center were interviewed regarding the Lehigh Valley congregations response to homelessness through sheltering in our churches in cold months. The program, Taking the Initiative, will air on February 9 and 12 at 8:30 p.m on Channel 51 (Service Electric); Channel 60 (RCN) and Channel 19 (Blue Ridge). [Thanks to Scott Allen for this info.]
The Pennsylvania Avenue Interfaith Food Pantry (St. Andrew’s, Allentown) is holding a carnation flower sale for Valentine’s Day. Flowers will be available Saturday and Sunday. Pre-orders
will be taken until 2/7 @ $1.25 per flower. Flowers can be picked up on
2/13 or 2/14 from 12-2. A limited number of flowers will also be
available on those dates but for $1.50 a piece. You can pick among red, pink, and white. Please call Craig, 484-892-1589, for further details. [Craig Updegrove
St. Andrew’s Vestry, PAIFP Director]
Recital at Trinity Easton, Feb. 19 ... Utilizing the newly restored and almost complete organ at Trinity Church, Easton, Director of Music Dale Grandfield invites you to come to an organ recital to experience the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, and Modern eras at 7:30 on Friday evening, February 19, 7:30 p.m. The program includes J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in g minor, BWV 535, F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Organ Sonata in f minor, Op 65, No 1, and O. Messiaen’s L’Ascencion, among others. Donations will support the Trinity music program. A small reception will follow. Trinity Episcopal Church is located at 234 Spring Garden Street in Easton, between Second and Third Streets. Call 610-253-0792 or visit www.trinityeaston.org for more information.
World Mission Sunday is February 14 ... Posters in English and Spanish as well as resources, such as bulletin inserts, suggested readings, prayers and lectionary for observing World Mission Sunday, are available for downloading.
The February 2010 issue of Diocesan Life may be downloaded here.
Cycles of Prayer for 2010 may be downloaded here.
Bishop Robert Rowley, 68, died January 18 at his home in York, PA. Funeral services in York and burial Arlington Cemetery took place January 22. Prior to his 1989 consecration as Bishop of Northwestern PA, Bob served in the Diocese of Bethlehem for a few years as Canon to the Ordinary with Bishop Mark Dyer. He was a lawyer before ordination to priesthood, and served for more than 26 years as a judge advocate in the United States Navy and Navy Reserve, retiring with the rank of captain in 1992. He specialized in international law. He was one of the nominees for presiding bishop in 1997, when Frank Griswold was elected. Read more here. Bob and I led stewardship discussions with a few vestries in our diocese. Bob began each one by setting a cross in the middle of the table.
Commission on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations ... Members named by Bishop Paul.
Our new Lifelong Christian Formation Commission ... More here.
30 Good Minutes is a good resource for free adult forum video clips that can be used as discussion starters (if you have wireless in you church, a laptop and a projection screen) and for personal reflection. Folks who are more adept than I on these matters have told me this about how to download the video clips, thereby eliminating the need for wireless. If you have RealPlayer, which can be downloaded free (in the PC world, anyway), you can download it to your hard-drive. From there, if you need to, you can burn it (ie save it) to a CD-Rom also using RealPlayer.
The Center for Media Literacy is a treasure trove of resources on how to "read" media.
Rachel's Tears, Hannah's Hope can be ordered from Church Publishing as Liturgies and Prayer Related to Childbearing, Childbirth and Loss: Enriching Our Worship 5. [H/T to Anne Kitch]
Jubilate ... Hymnody for Ash Wednesday to Easter 7 (Feb. 17 to May 16), published by the Diocese of Bethlehem for our diocesan community and for free distribution to the world, may be downloaded below as an Acrobat or MSWord file. Jubilate is a service of our Liturgy and Music Commission, specifically Canon Cliff Carr who has been doing this for more than 30 years. Download Jubilate here.For daily news, information and commentary, visit Episcopal Life Online and the Diocese of Bethlehem's newSpin blog. Follow the newSpin blog also on Twitter.
Got a question? Need some info? InfoLine can help you find answers and make connections to churchwide ministries, events and activities.The Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation recently sent large postcards addressed to "Resident" in my area ... and, I suspect, in other areas ... about pickup of small household items and usable clothes. Caution: The American Institute of Philanthropy does not consider them to be an "open book" organization, and MOPH has not responded during the past year to the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance requests for information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to the Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability. Offices of the MOPH are located in Annandale VA. Regarding these matters, it may be best to consider local requests or outlets.
Plan Ahead ... Jan. 27-29:
Trinity Institute, Building an Ethical Economy, at Zion’s Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Old Zionsville, PA, $35. More info or to register,
call 610-966-3834 or or email zions@ptd.net. ••• Jan. 28: Diocesan
Council, Grace Kingston 6:30 p.m. ••• Jan 29/30: Bishop's Bakery, Coffee House and Open Mic Night for Youth ... Friday, Jan. 29 (6:00pm) - Saturday, Jan. 30 (9:00am) at Good Shepherd Scranton. Poster and info here. Online registration is now open. Get more info and register online. ••• Jan. 30: Lay Eucharistic Visitors Training, St. Brigid's Nazareth, 9:00 to noon. More info here. ••• Jan. 31: Recital in W-B ... Canon Mark
Laubach, Organist and Choirmaster of St. Stephen's
Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, will present a recital at 3:00 p.m. on the four-manual, 80+ rank Berghaus pipe
organ to raise money for Episcopal Relief and Development. More info here.
••• Feb. 6: Grace Kingston will celebrate the new ministry of the congregation with Father John Hartman as their rector, 4:00 p.m. ••• Feb. 17: Ash Wednesday ••• Feb. 19: Organ Recital at Trinity Easton, 7:30 p.m. More info here and in an item above ••• Feb. 27: Dive In: A Day Exploring Christian Baptism will be held at Good Shepherd Scranton. This day of Christian Formation will offer
resources for parents, Christian educators, clergy, and anyone seeking
a deeper life in Christ. More info here.
••• March 14: ERD Sunday Fourth Sunday of Lent ••• March 25: Chrism Mass at the Cathedral, Bethlehem, 11:00 a.m.
••• April 4: Easter ••• April 9-11: Province III Youth Delight Event, More info here. ••• April 16-18: Christophany, Watson Homestead, Painted Post, New York. Registration will open February 12 online at www.diobeth.org. More info here. ••• April 24: Diocesan Training for MInistry at St. Stephen's Wilkes-Barre. Details will be available here when online registration opens on February 20. ••• April 30-May 2: Creating a Culture of Peace at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.
••• July 10: Bishop's Day with Kids at Good Shepherd Scranton.
[If you have a brief announcement about an event you'd like listed in PlanAhead, send it to Bill. Please keep it brief.]
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