Trinity Easton to dedicate building addition and renovations, Sept. 14 ... On Tuesday, September 14 at 5 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 234 Spring Garden Street, Easton, Pennsylvania, will open their church and their new addition to the community for an Open House and then Bishop Paul V. Marshall of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem will bless and dedicate the space starting at 7 p.m. At the ceremony, the parish will also formally announce the naming of the Trinity Primary School, which is being built in Sodogo, Sudan in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji, Episcopal Church of Southern Sudan, in part with funds raised by members of Trinity Church. Trinity, Easton, tithed the proceeds of the campaign toward the building of the school, according to the Rev. Canon Andrew T. Gerns, rector.
Spinning ... [Bill Lewellis, blewellis@diobeth.org] (1) For a different hitch, read the review in the National Catholic Reporter of a book by former atheist Peter Hitchens who has returned to his Anglican roots. In Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, the brother of Christopher Hitchens says that accepting God’s existence is a matter of faith and since no one can prove or disprove the existence of God, atheism is also a matter of faith. Despite his brother’s atheism, Peter Hitchens insists it’s “better by far to believe.” The book's more accurate subtitle in Britain is Why Faith Is the Foundation of Civilisation. (2) A letter to the editor by Addison Bross, member of Grace Allentown and professor, English department, Lehigh University, was published in The Morning Call, Thursday, August 26. It's a response to an August 18 column by Paul Carpenter in which Carpender contended that the Gay Pride Festival was a waste of effort because gays shouldn't take pride in their homosexuality; they can't claim credit for it; no skill or effort has produced it. "Actually it's not achievements alone that justify feeling proud," Bross writes. ... "Are gays and lesbians right, faced with their continued denigration by this society, to affirm bravely their inherent value — to celebrate their possession of a particular mode of human sexuality that God created? Yes."
Freedom ... Lev Grossman, Time, Aug. 23 (Cover story), profiles Jonathan Franzen, occasioned by the end of August release of Franzen's book, Freedom. "One of the ways of surrendering freedom is to actually have convictions," Franzen says. "And a way of further surrendering freedom is to spend quite a bit of time acting on those convictions." Grossman writes, There is something beyond freedom that people need: work, love, belief in something, commitment to something. Freedom is not enough It's necessary but not sufficient. It's what you do with freedom –– what you give it up for –– that matters. ... Further (Franzen again) "The place of stillness that you have to go to to write, but also to read seriously, is the point where you can actually make responsible decisions, where you can actually engage productively with an otherwise scary and unmanageable world." Read more. Also, Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the NYTimes Sunday Book Review reviews Freedom here. [Tanenhaus] Franzen makes us see, as the best writers always have, that the only pathway to freedom runs through the maze of the interior life. ... Like all great novels, Freedom does not just tell an engrossing story. It illuminates, through the steady radiance of its author’s profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew.
The Tenth Parallel ... A book by Eliza Griswold [daughter of Bishop and Mrs. Phoebe Griswold] about the collisions between Islam and Christianity in certain parts of the world made the cover of the NYTimes Book Review, reviewed by Linda Robinson. More here. Also, an interview on NPR's Fresh Air here.
Why I go to church ... [Ellen Painter Dollar at Episcopal Cafe's Daily Episcopalian] Recently, I’ve read a handful of articles about clergy burnout. In The New York Times, G. Jeffrey McDonald traced high burnout rates to congregations demanding that their pastors entertain and soothe them (with short, amusing sermons, for example), rather than counsel and challenge them. On Sojourners’ God’s Politics blog, Eugene Cho cites depressing statistics about the stress and low pay that come with being constantly “on call” and beholden to congregations that may feel they own you because they pay your salary. And in a humorous take, retired UCC minister Richard Floyd named Ten Highly Effective Strategies for Crushing Your Pastor's Morale, including telling your pastor to choose between a salary raise and the mission budget, and referring to your pastor’s attendance at conferences or retreats as “vacation.” Although I’m the daughter of an Episcopal clergyman, I primarily read these articles from the perspective of a layperson. Here are a few of my reactions. More here.
From Risk to Opportunities: Congregational Renewal in the Diocese of Bethlehem ... This paper, composed by by Congregational Development Committee of the Diocese of Bethlehem "to discern the standards, practices and resources that will foster faithfulness of ministry in every congregation," will be discussed during our Diocesan Convention in October. Find a three-part commentary by Ty Welles and Andrews Gerns, here, here and here. The commentary had been published in three issues of Diocesan Life.
Insights into Religion ... Through this gateway, religious leaders and the public can find congregational resources and insights into religious practices. [H/T to Leadership Education at Duke Divinity]
Six keys to being excellent at anything ... Find them here.
Worry isn't work ... Many of us have grown up thinking that if we are properly self-punishing then we are somehow being responsible. "What, I'm a nervous wreck — how could I possibly take on more?" On the other hand, if, God forbid, we are feeling carefree, we have this nagging sense that we're being downright irresponsible, certain that if we don't get right back to self-flagellation then the other shoe is going to drop. And hard. We don't correlate our sense of responsibility with what we are actually producing. We correlate it with how hard we are being on ourselves. Thus anything that's fun cannot possibly be work, and everything that's unpleasant is. ... We stopped burning witches at the stake 400 years ago. It's time we stopped doing it to ourselves. Read more.
Lead by example. Get tested for HIV and AIDS ... A public service announcement from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. View it here.
National Episcopal Health Ministries ... Sign up for the NEHM newsletter here.
Westerners vs the world: we are the weird ones ... The Ultimatum Game works like this: You are given $100 and asked to share it with someone else. You can offer that person any amount and if he accepts, you each keep your share. If he rejects your offer, you both get nothing. How much would you offer? If it's close to half, you're a typical North American. But, researchers have found, most of humanity would play the game differently. Indeed, based on that and other behavioral economics experiments conducted around the world, the researchers conclude that Westerners are the real psychological outliers among humanity. [H/T to Leadership Education at Duke Divinity]
Low-cost pet vaccination ... [From Margie Segaline, margiesegaline@yahoo.com] This Sunday, August 29th from 1 - 4 p.m. at the Walmart of Easton, outside, on the side of the spermarket. Dogs should be brought on a leash and cats should be brought in carriers. The clinic is a joint effort of the Animal Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley, The Center for Animal Health and Welfare and The American Cancer Society who will be accepting registrations for the 'Bark for Life" a walk being held on September 19. [Animal Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley, Northampton Community College, Fowler Family Southside Center, 511 E. Third Street, Room 73, Bethlehem, PA 18015, 484-851-8000]
There is no Sabbath from mercy ... [Andrew Gerns' sermon on this past Sunday's gospel] The Leader of the Synagogue does three things wrong: he triangulates; he focuses on the wrong person; and, oh yeah, he stirs up everyone else in the process. All in all, he brings out the worst in everyone except maybe Jesus and the woman who was healed…who was apparently too busy praising God to notice all the grumbling. Read it here.
ENS Weekly Bulletin Inserts ... [Episcopal News Service] Sunday, Aug. 29: The situation in the Gulf Coast area five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the area and as the aftermath of the massive BP oil spill continues to threaten recovery efforts. Sunday, eptember 5: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori calls on Episcopalians to join in the current debate on immigration. Download inserts here.
A Forgotten Fight for Suffrage ... [NYTimes Op-Ed] Looking back on the adoption of the 19th Amendment 90 years ago Thursday — the largest act of enfranchisement in our history — it can be hard to see what the fuss was about. We’re inclined to assume that the passage of women’s suffrage (even the term is old-fashioned) was inevitable, a change whose time had come. After all, voting is now business as usual for women. ... Yet entrenched opposition nationwide sidelined the suffrage movement for decades in the 19th century. By 1920, antagonism remained in the South, and was strong enough to come close to blocking ratification. ... In 1923 Delaware ratified belatedly to join the rest of the country, but the Southern states waited decades: Maryland in 1941, Virginia in 1952, Alabama in 1953. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina came along from 1969 to 1971, years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had passed. Mississippi brought up the rear, not condoning the right of women to vote until 1984. Today the country is again divided over how far the rights of citizenship extend. In the controversy over same-sex marriage, the prospect of constitutional protection calls up truculence from one part of the country, approval from another. How remarkable, then, that a parallel conflict — one that similarly exposes the fears and anxieties that the expansion of democracy unleashes — is now largely lost to memory.
Strippers versus Church: Cosmic Battle With Civic Consequences ... An evangelical congregation engages in "spiritual warfare" against a nearby strip club, but only brings dancers to their doorstep. More here.
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Send this to friends you think may be interested ... newSpin is an electronic newsletter that includes news, information and commentary related to the Diocese of Bethlehem, the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion and the world of religion ... with some spin, of course, from the editor. It is edited by retired communication minister Bill Lewellis and ordinarily published twice weekly, on Monday and Thursday. To have it emailed to you, you may subscribe at the "Get Connected" box on the right column of www.diobeth.org. Select newSpin under the groups. You may find samples of the newSpin newsletter at the newSpin blog, www.diobeth.typepad.com.
About the newSpin newsletter ... Composed at least weekly (usually twice a week) by Bill Lewellis, the newSpin newsletter appears as a post within the newSpin blog, but newsletter and blog are not identical. The newsletter currently goes to some 1,000 email addresses on a separate list. The newsletter comes, of course, with some spin from the editor, but 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. Comments may be addressed to Bill.
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