The newSpin newsletter, Sept. 27, 2010
Spinning ... [Bill Lewellis, blewellis@diobeth.org] (1) Don't miss a recent Dilbert on communication skills. (2) Women clergy in TEC make $10,000 less than their male counterparts. (3) Johann von Goethe called architecture "frozen music." Ernest Dimnet said, "Architecture is the art that acts most slowly, but most surely, on the soul." Dimnet, 1866-1954, was a French priest, writer, lecturer and author of the 1930s best seller, The Art of Thinking. (4) Scott Allen at the WDIY controls.
The Pennsylvania Avenue Interfaith Food Pantry ... [From Scott Allen] The Express-Times did an article on the one-year anniversary of the Pennsylvania Avenue Interfaith Food Pantry housed at St. Andrew's. We give thanks to God for the folks who made this happen and the generosity of the New Hope Campaign. More here.
Jay Paterno on his father's gift of tolerance ... In the 1940s few people possessed my grandfather’s open mind on racial and religious tolerance. His belief system became part of my own father’s values, as early as his time in college. One of the stories my father’s fraternity brothers told me has shown me the principles he had even then. One year during rush, a Jewish student wanted to join their fraternity. The secret vote allowed each brother to place either a white ball (a yes vote) or a black ball (a no vote) into a box. The presence of a single black ball would eliminate the potential candidate—which is what nearly happened to the Jewish student.In this particular case, all the brothers openly claimed this student would be a great fit. Another vote was taken and, again, a single black ball appeared in the box. My father and a few of his brothers had an idea. They’d vote again. If the black ball appeared again, my father would stand up, apologize and take the black ball out, saying he had cast the “no” vote all along. They knew the brother responsible would not come forward. Joe would take out the ball and the Jewish student would become a member. Sure enough, the plan worked. Years later, just days after 9/11, he was out to dinner with some family members, including my brother. That night four Muslim women wearing headscarves arrived at the restaurant. People stared and Joe knew the women felt uncomfortable. He went to their table, sat down and talked to them for a few minutes. He wanted the women and the people in the restaurant to accept and be accepting of one other. [H/T to son #1, Jim] Read more.What the Bible teaches about Christian-Muslim relations ... [Richard Hughes, professor of religion, Messiah College, writing at the Huffington Post] Hostility toward Muslims is so pronounced in this country that a headline on a recent cover of Time virtually screamed off the page, "Is America Islamophobic?" But if the 83 percent of the American people who claim to be Christian were to take the teachings of Jesus seriously, this headline, and the story it referenced, could never have been written. ... Jesus had much to say about strangers in our midst. ... In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, issued a pastoral letter to Muslims in that region on the very day that a pastor in Florida, Terry Jones, had threatened to burn copies of the Holy Quran. Regarding that burning, Baxter wrote, "Please know that we deplore such an act of disrespect. With many other area churches, the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania stands firmly in caring and support of you. ... We are all member communities in the family of God." As a black man, Bishop Baxter knows from experience what it means to be a "stranger," and so his words carry added weight. Read more.
A stranger-than-fiction fatal accident ... Monica and I received word last week that the husband of Monica's sister's close friend died in an ironic and stranger-than-fiction accident. Steven B. Johnson, 49, was riding the hand cycle he received last weekend from the IM ABLE Foundation at a fundraiser, a bicycle modified for people with leg paralysis, when he collided Thursday at 11:43 a.m. with a Boyertown ambulance. He was a longtime cycling road racer who was paralyzed as a result of a spinal cord injury in a 1993 downhill road bicycling accident. He was pronounced dead at the scene, less than a mile from his Reading area home. The Reading Eagle story. Please pray for Steven, his widow Katy, and their children, Zara, 8, and Tia, 5.
First woman and openly gay dean of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral ... According to a NYTimes story, the installation of Jane Alison Shaw as the eighth dean of Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill on Nov. 6 is a milestone — she will be the first woman to lead the cathedral, which was founded during the Gold Rush in 1849. Dr. Shaw will also be the cathedral’s first openly gay dean. ... Though Dr. [Jane] Shaw’s appointment is significant, it was not her sex or her sexual orientation that earned her the position. Those who have spent time with her described her as “brilliant.” She also appears to have a sense of humor, admitting that at Oxford she regularly debates Richard Dawkins, an anti-religion author, and yet, “We get along really well.” “She was chosen for her qualifications,” said the Rev. Mark E. Stanger, canon precentor at the cathedral. “She brings a deep faith; she’s very perceptive about the needs of the church.” More here. [H/T to Andrew Gerns, writing at Episcopal Cafe]
South Carolina's race against accountability ... The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina says the Bishop and leadership of the Diocese of South Carolina has not only allowed a parish to withdraw from the Episcopal Church taking their property with them, but that they are setting the stage to attempt to alienate the entire diocese from the Episcopal Church. The group wants the Executive Council and the Presiding Bishop to investigate. Read more at Andrew Gerns' comprehensive post at Episcopal Cafe. You may recall that the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Bethlehem took the lead in a successful attempt to deny South Carolina to seat Bishop-elect Lawrence. After a second attempt by South Carolina during which Lawrence stated he would not remove the diocese from the Episcopal Church, that diocese received the required number of votes from Standing Committees and Bishops.
On Faith at the Washington Post ... A conversation on religion and politics with Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn. Here.
Diocesan Life ... Download the October 2010 issue here.
Kwame Anthony Appiah on what future generations will "condemn" us for? ... [The Atlantic Wire] The Princeton philosophy professor takes to the pages of The Washington Post to ponder what practices will be looked upon with "incomprehension" by future generations who will be asking, "What were they thinking?" He gives his criteria for which institutions or ideas will eventually be discredited, settling on three "signs" from which this information can be gleaned. 1)"People have already heard the arguments against the practice," meaning that the debate is currently raging about the issue right now. 2)"Defenders of the custom tend not to offer moral counterarguments but instead invoke tradition, human nature or necessity." 3) "Supporters engage in what one might call strategic ignorance, avoiding truths that might force them to face the evils in which they're complicit." He concludes by hypothesizing that our society's prison system, industrial meat production, institutionalized elderly, and treatment of the environment fit this criteria for "future moral condemnation." More here.
Calendar of Events for the Diocese of Bethlehem here. Including Diocesan Convention and Pre-Convention meetings.
Creating a Culture of Peace (Training) ... Gather with others from the Diocese November 5 – 7, 2010, for this spiritually-based, interactive and experiential training for teens and adults that will prepare you to make a difference in your life, your family, and in the world. Event to take place at St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre. More here.
The habitual brain ... Habits are a blessing, and a curse. What is a habit? It is a skillfully routinized manner of action or thought. And while some philosophers have supposed that a habit-free existence would be preferable to our own, they are mistaken, philosopher Alva Noë writes at NPR's Cosmos and Culture blog. In fact, Noë says, such an existence might not even be possible. Without habits nothing recognizable as a human or even animal form of life would be possible. To have a mind like ours, you need habits like ours. Habits form the skeletal structure of life as we know it. More at NPR. [H/T to Leadership Education at Duke Divinity]
Register here for all diocesan events.
ENS Weekly Bulletin Inserts ... [Episcopal News Service] Sunday, Oct. 3: "On the autumnal equinox just a week ago, as the earth was tipping on its axis, congregations all across the Episcopal Church were hoping to tip themselves into the black by preparing for their annual stewardship campaigns," writes Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, in ENS Weekly bulletin inserts for October 3. Anderson suggests that Episcopalians "look at old practices in new ways" as they prepare their personal and church budgets in challenging economic times. Download inserts here.
US Roman Catholic bishops rebuke Creighton University theologians ... [John Allen, National Catholic Reporter] Two theologians at Creighton University, a Jesuit-run school in Omaha, Neb., have been sharply rebuked by the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for defending the moral legitimacy of homosexuality, contraception, premarital sex, and other hot-button issues in sexual ethics. Read more.
Troubles on the Tenth Parallel ... [By Frederick Quinn] No question facing the Anglican Communion today is more explosive that the present and future of Muslim Christian relations. Eliza Griswold’s new book, The Tenth Parallel, Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) is a must read for anyone seriously wishing to explore this subject. Along this latitude line seven hundred miles above the equator, sometimes described as part of a wider “an arc of instability,” live more than half the world’s Christian and Muslim populations. They interact both peaceably and in conflict in impoverished, unsettled conditions that were this skilled journalist’s beat for nearly seven years. The Fault Line’s s deteriorating ecological political, economic, and demographic tensions are often explained in the language of religious conflict, and the award-winning American writer set out to explore these issues first hand. Read more.Pray for ... [From Kat Lehman] The Diocese of Bethlehem started a prayer ministry a few years ago. Weekly, we have been posting the names of fallen service members in Iraq and Afghanistan –– those officially released publicly by the Department of Defense after notification to families -- to several of our email lists to be added to parish prayer lists. Since we have been getting more and more requests for the list from outside our diocese, I have set up an electronic newsletter for this under our ChurchPost account. I heard just yesterday from a woman in North Carolina. She says she sends our "Pray for" list to some 50 email addresses, including her parish. Her parish incorporates the list in their weekly Prayers of the People. If you or any of your parishes would like to subscribe, the name is "Pray For." You can subscribe on our web site. Enter your name and email address in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You will find quite a few public news and info lists. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of them. We will continue to upload the "Pray for" list weekly on our newSpin blog.
Religion doesn't matter much ... [By Mark Silk] A recent Pew survey on the influence of religion on Americans' policy views is notable for revealing how little influence there is. The only areas where religion appears to play a significant leading role in influencing opinion are same-sex marriage, abortion and the death penalty. Sixty percent of pro-lifers and 45 percent of those opposed to same-sex marriage cite religion as the most important reason for their position, while 32 percent of those opposed to the death penalty do the same. But only 12 percent of those who support additional government assistance to the poor cite religion as the most important reason. More at Spiritual Politics. [H/T to John B. Chilton at Episcopal Cafe]
From The Diocese of Bethlehem ... •The newSpin blog •The Diobeth website. Enter your name and email address in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You will find quite a few public news and info lists there. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of them. "Bakery" is the diocesan interactive list. •Twitter
From Episcopal Cafe ... •The Lead •Daily Episcopalian
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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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