DioBeth newSpin

newSpin 110131

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 31, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• The Very Rev. H. Lawrence Whittemore, Jr. RIP ... [From Bishop Paul] Sisters and Brothers, I was sorry to learn of the passing of Dean Whittemore yesterday in Vermont. Although he retired in 1983, he was a constant and encouraging correspondent who never lost sight of our mission and supported our New Hope work. He and Elizabeth were married in 1951. His funeral will be on February 4th. If any other details emerge, I will share them. He had been dean of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity and four-time deputy to General Convention. May his soul ring out in joy to Christ.
• R2O: Renewal Assembly, February 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Story here about the Assembly and the making of a video for the Assembly.  Register here by Feb. 9. Some 120 people have signed up as of this morning. The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site.
• Stumbling into the Sacred ... Canon Anne E. Kitch's new book on meditations for Lent. More here.
• Diocesan Training Day ... April 2, Wilkes-Barre. Much more here.
• My Father's House,  a refurbished apartment attached to the former rectory of St. Luke's Lebanon, was recently dedicated for community service. The apartment will be used for transitional housing for people in need in Lebanon County. The pilot project received grant money from the New Hope Campaign in which funds were solicited for the Diocese of Kajo-Keji in Sudan and the needy in Pennsylvania. More at Episcopal News Service.
• Diocesan Life ... Download the February edition here.
• Episcopalians and Moravians will celebrate full communion relationship on Thursday, February 10, at 6:00 p.m. at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preside, joined by the heads of the Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America. More here. ... [From Bishop Paul] Some in the diocese have received official (albeit electronic) invitations. I have been assured that attendance is not limited to those invited, and that the District office of the Moravian Church has in fact urged its general membership to attend. I would very much encourage those who are interested to attend--and to come a bit early as parking in Bethlehem can be a challenge. I hope to see many of you there.
 • Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here. Updated on Jan. 18 for next month, here.
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for  Feb. 6, Epiphany5: Celebration of full communion with Moravians, the Presiding Bishop's letter to President Obama about the Middle East peace process. Feb. 13, Epiphany6: feast days of Absalom Jones, Cyril and Methodius, Joseph Parry, and Janani Luwum. Here.
• Evening in the Black Forest Dinner ... St. George's Hellertown, March 4. More here.
• DioBeth Website ... Here.
• DioBeth newSpin Blog ... Here.

Spinning  
• Moravian, Evangelical Lutheran, United Methodist ... Beginnng with this issue of the newSpin newsletter, I will try to include relevant news/info about our faith partners as well as the RC Church and the dioceses of Allentown and Scranton. See below. I welcome tips on online info that I might not otherwise pick up. Thanks.
• The perils of literary profiling ... [NYTimes, Sunday Book Review] H/T for this to Bishop Paul who says his "inner librarian rejoices in this essay." Read it here.
• Authority or Leadership? ... [Alban Institute, Dan Hotchkiss] In olden times, we like to think, society accorded great authority to clergy. Whether or not this rosy generalization stands up to scrutiny (it does not), we mainstream clergy certainly have lost some of the cachet our counterparts enjoyed from 1945 to 1965 or so. ... I believe our loss of authority presents clergy with a great opportunity. Authority, appealing as it is, can also be confining. In the days of easy postwar growth, U.S. congregations fell into rigid patterns and became more similar to one another. Like an inbred, highly cultivated strain of livestock, they became vulnerable to common threats. The social changes of the 1960s brought death to many congregations, especially--I would say--those that depended too much on authority. More here.
• Tussling over Jesus ... NYTimes columnist Nicholas Kristof says the Phoenix church controversy is a bellwether of a profound disagreement that is playing out at many Catholic hospitals around the country. More here. Also here.
• First Wednesday Music from St. John's on Lafayette Square in Washington DC ... This Wednesday at 12:10 pm (ET). The 35-minute concert is called “Musical Flowers,” featuring  selections from Frescobaldi’s Fiori Musicali and Langlais’ Hommage a Frescobaldi. The live webcast will be available on the home page of the Episcopal Church’s website, www.episcopalchurch.org and on the Episcopal Church Facebook page. The concert will also be available on-demand following the live performance.
• ERD Lenten Meditations Booklet and ERD Sunday ... More info here.
• Holy Enrollers ... [TIME Magazine, Jan. 31, 2011] In July, 64-year-old Patrice Fike sold her home in Coral Gables, Fla., and her Mercedes, stored most of her furniture and moved into a one-room studio where many of her meals are provided. If she sounds like a retiree relocating to an assisted-living facility, guess again. Fike is living in dormitory housing for the Episcopal Church's General Theological Seminary in New York City, where she will spend three years and $100,000 of her savings and retirement income to prepare for her new career as a priest. She's not alone. [This one-page article, page 58, may no be available online beyond this.]
• Peace and Justice events ... Saturday, February 5 - "Hope and Despair: Haiti after the Earthquake" with Johanna Berrigan is rescheduled from January 26. at Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting, north of Rt. 22 on Rt. 512, Bethlehlem. Tuesday, February 15, 7 PM - Zak Ebrahim, Peace Advocate and Lecturer, will speak at the Lehigh Valley Unitarian Universalists Church, 424 Center St., Bethelem. Thursday, February 17, 7 PM - Monthly Lehigh Valley Peace Coalition Meeting. Saturday, March 5, 5 PM - LEPOCO Annual Dinner at Cathedral Church of the Nativity (321 Wyandotte Street) in Bethlehem. (info on flyer). Download Peace and Justice Events Flyer. More info: Tom Ulrich, tomulrich @ mybluelight.com
• Episcopal Peace Fellowship Newsletter ... January 28. Here.
• Dealing with Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets ... [NYTimes Magazine] Cover story.

Sudan/Kajo-Keji
• More than 99 percent of voters in southern Sudan opted to secede from the country's north in a vote held earlier this month. The weeklong vote, held in early January and widely praised for being peaceful and for meeting international standards, was a condition of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a north-south civil war that lasted two decades and killed 2 million people. Voter turnout in the 10 states in the south was also 99 percent. Only some 16,000 voters in the south chose to remain united with northern Sudan, while 3.7 million chose to separate. In northern Sudan, 58 percent of voters chose secession. Some 60 percent of eligible voters participated. More here. And this from TIME Magazine.
• A collection of news/info about Sudan and the Diocese of Kajo-Keji ... Here.

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion
• Episopalians condemn murder of Ugandan gay rights activist ... [Episcopal News Service] The brutal murder of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato has left much of the world in shock and caused outrage among Episcopalians who have repeatedly called for the church and society to step up the campaign to combat homophobia throughout the world. More here.
• On the murder of David Kato ... Statements by the ABC and the PB.
• David Kato funeral marred by commotion ... An anti-gay Anglican priest protester created a commotion at the funeral Friday for a prominent activist slain in Uganda, yelling out homophobic phrases that led to a scuffle with mourners attending the burial. More here.
• In Dublin sermon, presiding bishop challenges all to 'show up' to heal the world ... [Episcopal News Service, Dublin, Ireland] "We're challenged in this very body to 'show up,' to present ourselves ready, willing, and able to help heal this broken world," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Jan. 30 during her sermon at the 9 a.m. Sung Eucharist service at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. More here.
• PB lectures at Paulist Fathers college in DC ... [A catholic future: shared mission beyond unitary communions] We are the respective heirs of different strands of western Christianity.  I will not begin with the Reformation, but with a much earlier, indigenous Christianity in the British Isles.  Roman soldiers appear to have taken the Christian tradition with them when they were posted to the frontiers of the Roman Empire – at least by the second century.  That tradition remained when the Roman Empire receded, but the faith continued to grow and develop in its new context. Read it all here.  
• More than 4,000 Mississippi Episcopalians are expected to attend the 184th annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi meeting this weekend, possibly the largest gathering of Mississippi Episcopalians in recent history. The event theme is "The Spirit of Mission." More here.
• Trinity Institute ... Reading Scripture through Others Eyes. Updates and videoclips.
• Episcopal Church Website ... Here.
• Episcopal News Service ... Here.
• Anglican Communion News Service Weekly Review ... Jan. 22-28. Here.
• Grant will help fund Appalachia documentary ... [Episcopal News Service] The ministry and work of the Episcopal Church to people residing in the vast Appalachian area of the United States will be the focus of an in-depth video exploration, funded by a grant from Odyssey Networks. More here.

The Moravian Church in North America
• In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, love.
• Moravian Church in North America website ... Here.
• Moravian Church Northern Province website ... Here. 
• Celebration of Full Communion ... A February 10 festive service will celebrate full communion between The Episcopal Church and the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in North America. More here.
• Moravian Theological Seminary ... Here.
• Moravian College ... Here.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• ELCA website ... Here.
• ELCA News Service ... Here.
• Northeast PA Synod website ... 14 counties in eastern and northeastern PA ... Here.
• Synod E-News ... Here's the Jan. 28 edition. You can sign up to receive it by emil at the Synod web site.
• ELCA, Episcopal Church Mark 10th Anniversary of Full Communion ... Chiago, Jan. 7, 2011 -- Ten years ago this week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Episcopal Church launched a relationship of shared mission and ministry in a worship service and ceremony at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. More here.
• Distribution-warehouse ministry of Lutheran Congregational Services and partners has distributed more than $250,000 worth of laundry and personal care products over the past six months to people in need at food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in the Lehigh Valley. Read Letter to the Editor here.

The United Methodist Church
• United Methodist website ... Here. 
• United Methodist News Service ... Here.
• UMC Communication ... The United Methodist Church has long been a leader in providing useful resources for church communicators. Start here.
• Eastern PA Conference of the UMC website ... Here.
• Bishop Peggy Johnson's blog ... Here.

The Roman Catholic Church
• Courtyard of the Gentiles ... In March, the Vatican will launch a new permanent Vatican structure to be known as the "Courtyard of the Gentiles." Its aim will be to promote dialogue and encounter between believers and non-believers. More here.
• Vatican Information Service blog ... Here.
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops web site ... Here.
• Diocese of Allentown website ... Five counties in eastern PA ... Here.
• Diocese of Scranton website ... Eleven counties in northeastern PA ... Here.
• Inductions on money, religious freedom, and polarization ... [John Allen, NCR] I'm going to try my hand at some induction this week, teasing out broad implications from three specific storylines percolating around the Catholic world. Here are the conclusions to which I'll build: The Catholic church may be entering a season of major reform regarding money management, religious freedom is destined to be the towering diplomatic and political priority of the Vatican, and, against all odds, there's hope for overcoming polarization in American Catholic life. More here.
• On Tullia Zevi's Death ...  Boston Globe columnist James Carroll recounts the death of Italian journalist Tullia Zevi, whose passing prompted the Vatican to issue "an almost unheard-of expression of condolence, praising her for 'sincere and fruitful dialogue' between Christians and Jews." Carroll writes that this undertaking required the Catholic church, and indeed the greater Italian community, to take stock of its own anti-Semitic history, a legacy that stretches beyond Italy's fervent support of the 1938 race laws and extends into previous centuries. Zevi's work, Carroll says, was necessary to stop a cycle of hatred, because memory can act as a safeguard against future genocides. "Clouds of denial threaten again to obscure the truth to which such witnesses testified, with heinous crimes restricted, in a phrase Pope Benedict XVI used at Auschwitz, to 'a ring of criminals.' As if the German nation were innocent. Or the broader culture. Or the church. Or, for that matter, Pope Pius XII. Anti-Semitism is the poison fruit of Western civilization, which is what became so undeniably apparent when it flowered in the Eternal City." More here. [H/T The Atlantic Wire]

Bible
• How the King James Bible changed the way we speak ... [BBC] No other book, or indeed any piece of culture, seems to have influenced the English language as much as the King James Bible. Its turns of phrase have permeated the everyday language of English speakers, whether or not they've ever opened a copy.  Here.

Health
• Parish Nurse/Health Ministries Course ... in Lancaster. Download flyer here. Scholarship funds are available for persons from Diocese of Bethlehem parishes. Contact Diana Marshall. Download Parish_Nurse_Brochure-EMU_March2011.

Media/Film/DVD/Books/Tech
• Could your iPhone become your iCash? ... A chip that links an iPhone to your bank account could break mobile commerce wide open in the U.S. More here.
• Sundance thrives on more than just money ... [NYTimes] The number of religious-theme American selections this year suggests that a minor cultural shift might be under way as filmmakers take one of the most important and, certainly in our mainstream cinema, under-addressed truths in people’s lives: their struggle with God and issues of belief. More here.
• Top Ten Historically Misleading Films ... according to TIME Magazine. Here.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The DioBeth newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth web site
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church web site
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
(12) Anglican Communion Web Site.
(13) Anglican Communion News Service.

• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

St. George's "Evening in the Black Forest" Dinner

Diocesan Training Day on April 2nd

Registration opens today and closes March 23rd. Cost is $17.50 and includes lunch.

A day set aside for learning about opportunities and resources for ministry in congregations, and celebrating ministries we share. There will be 13 different workshops spanning all aspects of ministry to select from this year. Please plan to join us for a wonderful day of learning.

Workshops include:
All Day Workshops (one workshop in both sessions)

#1 Ministry of the Lay Eucharistic Visitor (all day workshop) - The Rev. Edward Erb -- Two-part course leads to licensing. Morning session - Biblical, theological, and historical background. Afternoon session - resources and practical considerations (ex. HIPAA rules, safety, and health concerns)

#2 Understanding and Working with ChurchPost (all day workshop) - Mr. John Goodell, Owner of ChurchPost -- A hands-on guide to using ChurchPost, our electronic newsletter platform, to communicate effectively and immediately with your members and visitors.

Session I - 9:45am to 11:15am

#3 Wardens/Vestry 101 - The Rt. Rev. Paul Marshall and The Ven. Howard Stringfellow - Introduction for new wardens and vestry members or a refresher for experienced vestry members to the roles, responsibilities, and realities of parish leadership.

#4 Bringing Financial Sanity to the Family - Mr. Dan Charney - The program, Financial Sanity, designed by Nathan Dungan, founder and president of Share Save Spend, consists of four one-hour sessions.  This training helps you to become familiar with the program, and will cover session one of the program to give participants a feel for what it is all about.

#5 Transitional Formation in Parishes - Ms. Kim Rowles - In periods of individual transition it is especially important to support and lead members in our communities to an intentional life with Christ, this session will help outline a plan for individual parishes dealing with middle to high school transition, high school to college transition, and couples to family transition.

#6 - Come Let Us Worship - A Workshop for the Laity and Clergy - The Rev. Laura Howell & The Rev. John Francis - This session will explore some of the tools the Book of Common Prayer gives us for daily worship.  It will provide some practical suggestions for parish prayer that may be led by the laity as well as the clergy.

#7 - Evangelism as Prayer and Faith Sharing - The Rev. Jane Bender, The Rev. Doug Moyer,  and Mrs. Carol Keane - The Unbinding the Gospel series doesn't give answers as to how, when and where.  Come learn how many ways this lively resource can be tailored for your use.


Session II -- 1:15pm to 2:45pm

#8 Enabling Ministries: Forward Life Planning - Mr. Charlie Barebo - Develop your parish's capabilities to deliver ministries by strengthening its approach to Forward Life Planning.

#9 Treasurers’ Workshop - Mr. Bruce Reiner -- This workshop will focus on cash receipts, cash disbursements, internal controls, and audits.

#10 - The Confirmation Conundrum - The Rev. Canon Anne Kitch - Explores the rite of Confirmation and the many questions it raises.  Includes an overview of the history of Confirmation in the Episcopal Church and the theology of Confirmation as it is express in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

#11 - Health Ministries - Mrs. Diana Marshall - Health ministry plays a unique and critical role in facilitating the health of clergy, staff and congregations.  Health ministry looks different from congregation to congregation, reflecting the unique needs, interests, and resources of the faith community.

#12 - Incorporating New members into the Episcopal Church - The Rev. Canon Andrew Gerns- The course will introduce a simple, easy-to-understand, process of incorporating new members into a congregation. It will also describe various kinds of visitors and newcomers and show how to integrate the worship and theology of the Episcopal Church into our evangelism.

#13 - Training for Regional Discernment Teams - Members of the Commission on Ministry - This training session is designed to help both clergy and laity understand the purpose and structure of regional discernment as practiced in the Diocese of Bethlehem.

You can click here to register. Download the Diocesan Training Day brochure on our web site here.

newSpin 110127

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 27, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• R2O: Renewal Assembly, February 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Story here about the Assembly and the making of a video for the Assembly.  Register here by Feb. 9. Some 120 people have signed up as of this morning. The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site.
• My Father's House, a refurbished apartment attached to the former rectory of St. Luke's Lebanon, was recently dedicated for community service. The apartment will be used for transitional housing for people in need in Lebanon County. The pilot project received grant money from the New Hope Campaign in which funds were solicited for the Diocese of Kajo-Keji in Sudan and the needy in Pennsylvania. More at Episcopal News Service.
• Grace Honesdale begins program to shelter homeless ... WNEP video here.
• Diocesan Life ... Download the February edition here.
• Episcopalians and Moravians will celebrate full communion relationship on Thursday, February 10, at 6:00 p.m. at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preside, joined by the heads of the Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America. More here.
• Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here. Updated on Jan. 18 for next month, here.
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for  Jan. 30, Epiphany4: Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Feb. 6, Epiphany5: Celebration of full communion with Moravians, the Presiding Bishop's letter to President Obama about the Middle East peace process. Feb. 13, Epiphany6: feast days of Absalom Jones, Cyril and Methodius, Joseph Parry, and Janani Luwum. Here.
• Pray for our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here.

Spinning
• Reflections on Mind, Body and Spirit ... Jane Williams posts weekly on her blog about spirituality and counseling issues. Read it here. Having read her three most recent posts, I'm confident I will find it useful. 
• Nothing we do changes the past, but everything we do changes the future." –Anonymous [H/T Kirkridge Retreat Center]
• Those non-profit Packers ... In a season where N.F.L. owners have steadily threatened to lock out the players next year unless they secure more profits in the next collective bargaining agreement, it’s poetic justice to see the Green Bay Packers, the team without an owner, make the Super Bowl. Actually, it’s not quite accurate to say the Packers are without an owner. They have a hundred and twelve thousand of them. The Packers are owned by the fans, making them the only publicly owned, not-for-profit, major professional team in the United States. Read the New Yorker article here. [H/T Steve Lewellis]
• Faiths Ad Campaigns ... Here.
• The Discernment Process ... Here. [H/T R. Jane Williams]
• Mission to Elbonia ... If you don't care for clever puns, perhaps you should not click here for the Jan. 17 Dilbert.
• Oprah meets Dr. Phil meets Bishop Sheen ... Fr. Alberto Cutié, aka "Father Oprah," is starting a weekday syndicated daytime talk show. It will show up in the New York City and Los Angeles markets on local Fox-owned stations, and maybe in other markets. More here.
• Top 10 Classical Music Composers ... [NYTimes] Anthony Tommansini completes his two week project to select the top 10 classical music composers in history. And the winner, the all-time great, is... Bach! Do you agree with this list of The Greatest? Read the Arts Beat blog posts and readers comments and view the videos exploring what makes a classical composer great.
• Gregory Malia in the news again ... A woman who worked for the former Episcopal priest with a history of legal troubles," according to a story in the Times-Leader, Wilkes-Barre, "has filed a federal lawsuit, alleging she was fired after she complained he had been sexually harassing and abusing her for years. More from the Times-Leader here. Malia was suspended from exercising his ministry as a priest, even using ecclesiastical titles or holding himself out as a priest in December 2008 (First Inhibition) and again in August 2009 (Second Inhibition). After due process, he was deposed (defrocked) on Feb. 15, 2010, and, therefore, is no longer a priest.

Sudan/Kajo-Keji
• A collection of news/info about Sudan and the Diocese of Kajo-Keji ... Here.

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion
• PB lectures at Paulist Fathers college in DC ... [A catholic future:  shared mission beyond unitary communions] We are the respective heirs of different strands of western Christianity.  I will not begin with the Reformation, but with a much earlier, indigenous Christianity in the British Isles.  Roman soldiers appear to have taken the Christian tradition with them when they were posted to the frontiers of the Roman Empire – at least by the second century.  That tradition remained when the Roman Empire receded, but the faith continued to grow and develop in its new context. Read it all here.
• Episcopal Church launches video ministry project ... [Episcopal News Service] The first video is available here. A new video will be released each month through May. The purpose of the video project is to present identifying characteristics of healthy churches, with a focus on ministry and outreach, according to the release. More here.
• ERD Lenten Meditations Booklet and ERD Sunday ... More info here.

The Roman Catholic Church
• Remembering Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia ... Retired Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruíz Garcia, known as the champion of the poor and indigenous in southern Mexico, died Jan. 24 of complications from diabetes. He was 86. Bishop Ruiz was a tiny man from a "backwater" state in Mexico. In the eyes of the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the world, he was from nowhere -- and the poor people he represented were barely a blip on the global screen. But the people of Chiapas transformed Ruiz into the man God was calling him to be -- a fearless prophet, an aggressive shepherd, a man of peace. More here and here.
• B16 is more or less ok with Facebook ... Here and here.

Theology
• Don't dumb down the incomprehensible God ... We have done our people a breathtaking disservice by trying to make theology (God-Talk) easier to understand. Dumbing-down our God-Talk has only made us dumber about God. More here. [H/T Andrew Gerns]

Health
• Reducing anxiety cuts heart attacks, deaths and other cardiovascular events, research suggests. [H/T Diana Marshall]

Opinion/Commentary
• Paths to God: the Path of Disbelief ... [James Martin, S.J.] The Path of Disbelief. The cardinal benefit of this group is that they take none of the bland reassurances of religion for granted. Sometimes they have thought more deeply about God and religion than some believers have. Likewise, sometimes the most selfless people in our world are atheists or agnostics. Some of the hardest working aid workers I met in my time working with refugees in East Africa during my Jesuit training were nonbelievers. The "secular saint" is real. They also have a knack for detecting hypocrisy, cant or lazy answers: a religious baloney detector. More here.

Media/Film/DVD/Books/Tech
• Zucherberg's Facebook page hacked? ... Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's fan page was hacked Tuesday -- a high-profile breach on a site that constantly faces scrutiny about its handling of its members private data. More here.
• The Rite ... Religion News Service editor Kevin Eckstrom saw an advance screening for The Rite,  the new exorcist film starring Anthony Hopkins. He gave it a B. "Hopkins, as always, was spell-binding, but the ending was a whole lot of let-down." He also points us to the San Jose Mercury News that profiles the real-life priest behind the film.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth website
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church website
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

Pray For...

Pray for our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for their families:

Jason G. Amores, 29
Dominique Cruz, 26
Joshua T. Lancaster, 22
Amy R. Sinkler, 23

Pray also for the fallen heroes also of our coalition partners, and for the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan who have died, unnamed and unknown to us, and for those who mourn ... and for an end to this endless war.

Culled from various web pages, including:
U.S. Department of Defense news releases
In Remembrance, at legacy.com
Honor the Fallen, from Military Times

Video will keynote Renewal Assembly February 19

“Can you share how you experience God’s presence in your life, particularly in the moments of prayer?” asks Bishop Paul in the keynote video prepared for the Renewal Assembly, February 19.

The video has been prepared specially for “The Call to Prayer and Discernment” which will take place in six sites across the diocese from 9 AM – 1 PM on Saturday, February 19. Registration is now available on www.diobeth.org.  “A copy of the video will be made available on DVD to every congregation in the Diocese,” reports Charles Cesaretti, chair of the Diocesan Renewal Committee, which is sponsoring the event.

Bishop Paul interacts with Mother Laura Howell and Father John Francis about personal and corporate prayer in the keynote video for the February 19 Renewal Assembly.

 

 

Jeffrey Kemmerer of Grace Allentown, an engineer by profession and a gifted videographer and video editor by avocation, created the video.  “Kemmerer has contributed his services to producing and editing the video featuring Bishop Paul, Father John Francis of Christ Church Reading and Mother Laura Howell of Trinity Bethlehem,” reported Bill Lewellis in the newSpin newsletter. “Editing video is a bit like the movie Groundhog Day," Kemmerer shared as he prepared the finished product. "You start with a normal day, full of stops, starts, stutters and other imperfections, and you live the day over and over again, improving it with each iteration." Jeff deserves the gratitude of our diocesan community.

The Assembly will begin with the video and will be followed by small group reflection and discussion -- similar to the process at Diocesan Convention.  After the video and group discussion, a Bible Study will be introduced by members of the Diocesan Commission on Lifelong Faith Formation. “We will introduce the meditation on Holy Scripture called Lectio Divina. This approach to the Scripture is not only a reading but it is praying with the text,” opines Mother Hillary Dowling Raining, of Trinity Bethlehem and the Commission. 

The six sites for the Assembly will be:  Christ Church, Towanda; Trinity Church, Carbondale; Trinity Church, West Pittston; Trinity Church, Pottsville; St. Anne’s, Trexlertown; and, the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided.

Registration closes on Feb. 9. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site. Registration is found on www.diobeth.org, clicking on “Register for Diocesan events” on the right column of the homepage.

Oprah meets Dr. Phil meets Bishop Sheen

From Share the Bread, the evangelism blog of DioBeth:

The Hollywood Reporter says that Fr. Alberto Cutie, aka "Father Oprah," is starting a weekday syndicated daytime talk show. It will show up in the New York City and Los Angeles markets on local Fox-owned stations, and maybe in other markets.

Father Alberto Cutie, a bestselling author of self-help books and radio talk show host as well as a former Roman Catholic priest, will join the ranks of gabbers and host a daily syndie strip devoted to life matters.

"It'll be everything from sex to salvation," Father Alberto told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday in Miami during the NATPE TV trade show.

Hopefully it'll invite "greater dialog" with the audience, he added. Sorta Oprah meets Dr. Phil meets Bishop Sheen, the only other religious personnage who ever fronted a national TV show. (And that was in the 1950s!)

The show is being licensed by Debmar-Mercury and the first station group to step up for a launch test is Fox.

The show will preview on a number of as yet unspecified Fox stations this summer. The Fox test markets will include N.Y. and L.A., the country's top two markets. Other non-Fox outlets may be invited to join the test as well.

Jack Abernethy, CEO of the Fox TV station group, said there has been a crying need for an inspirational show for stations for many years. "Something not dogmatic or rigid but uplifting and helpful to viewers. Such things are big business in other media like book publishing and the radio but not on television," he pointed out.

Father Cutie is not new to this kind of of work. He developed a huge following on Telemundo and in syndication in Latin America when, as a Roman Catholic, and became known as "Father Oprah."

The fact that an Episcopal priest has snagged a syndicated television project like this for a mass market audience (in two languages, no less!) is a very big deal. If it passes the test markets--mainly to see how well Cutie is received among non-Hispanic viewers who did not know him when he was on Telemundo--this will be a huge entry for the Episcopal Church in an audience that we do not often reach out to, in a forum that is new to us.

--posted by Andrew Gerns

newSpin 110124

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 25, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• Grace Honesdale begins program to shelter homeless ... WNEP video here.
• Diocesan Life ... Download the February edition here.
• Episcopalians and Moravians will celebrate full communion relationship on Thursday, February 10, at 6:00 p.m. at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preside, joined by the heads of the Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America. More here.
• Organ Concert at Trinity Easton ... January 28. More here.
 • Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here. Updated on Jan. 18 for next month, here.
• Peace Training ... The diocesan Peace Commission is offering substantial scholarships for the peace training to be held at Kirkridge in March. More here.
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for  Jan. 30, Epiphany4: Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Here.
• Pray for our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for their families ... Here.

Spinning
• A video for the Feb. 19 Renewal Assembly ... Jeffrey Kemmerer of Grace Allentown, an engineer by profession and a gifted videographer and video editor by avocation, has contributed his services to producing and editing a video featuring Bishop Paul, Father John Francis and Mother Laura Howell that will introduce discussions at the Feb. 19 Renewal Assembly (see R2O below). "Editing video is a bit like the movie Groundhog Day," he said today as he prepared the finished product. "You start with a normal day, full of stops, starts, stutters and other imperfections, and you live the day over and over again, improving it with each iteration." Jeff deserves the gratitude of our diocesan community.
• A "Jesus Hates Obama" ad submitted to air during the Super Bowl has been rejected by the Fox television network.
• Approximately 350 families are served each month by Grace Community Foundation, Grace Allentown's Food Bank +
• Video excerpts from Trinity Institute ... Reading scripture through other eyes. Here. 
• Jane Teter's dog, Abby, had to be put down on Saturday.
• Against all odds, a beautiful life ... [NYTimes] Some things we know for sure — a little boy dealt a seemingly impossible hand, the two gay men who decided to give him a home and a life, the unlikely spell cast by the only horse in Montclair. More here.
• Spiritual but not religious? ... Read here.
• Foreclosing on churches ... [WSJournal] The past few years have seen a rapid acceleration in the number of churches losing their sanctuaries because they can't pay the mortgage. More here.
• Comments made in 1955 ... If they think I’ll pay 30 cents for a hair cut, forget it ... No one can afford to be sick anymore. At $15.00 a day in the hospital, it’s too rich for my blood ... It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet ... I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now. [H/T Jane Teter who forwarded these, but she didn't say them. Who started that rumor? :-)]

Sudan/Kajo Keji
• Christians in northern Sudan flock south ... [Andrew Gerns, Episcopal Cafe] Reuters reports that many Christians who live in northern Sudan are flocking south in anticipation of independence there, but are also driven by fears that the north could become an Islamic state governed by Shariah law. More here.  

R20 – Risk to Opportunities for Congregations
• Renewal Assembly, Feb. 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Registration is now available for the Renewal Assembly, “The Call to Prayer and Discernment.” The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site. More here.    

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion     
• She's good at this ... says Jim Naughton (Episcopal Café) of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. She sat for an interview with the Houston Chronicle during a recent visit to Texas. As usual, she acquits herself – and represents our church – well.
• Primates set to meet in Dublin, with a few absentees ... [Episcopal News Service, Matthew Davies] As the primates of the Anglican Communion prepare to meet Jan. 25-30 near Dublin, Ireland, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has said she is "deeply grateful that we may begin to focus on issues that are highly significant in local contexts as well as across the breadth of the Anglican Communion." Seven primates have indicated they will not be attending the meeting because of Jefferts Schori's presence and recent developments concerning human sexuality issues in the Episcopal Church. Jefferts Schori is one of 38 primates in the Anglican Communion. "In all we do, we seek to recognize the face of God wherever we turn, realizing that the body of God's creation will only be healed when all members of the body of Christ are working together," Jefferts Schori said. Other primates may not attend the meeting due to reasons of health, diary commitments or major issues in their provinces, such as flooding in Australia and the referendum on independence in Sudan, Kearon said. Archbishop Fred Hiltz of the Anglican Church of Canada has said that reports that some primates with more conservative theological views are planning to boycott the meeting "does nothing to model for the church what it means to try and live with difference. To simply say 'I refuse to come' is anything but exemplary of the office and ministry to which we are called." The Primates Meeting is not a decision-making body. "It is a body which issues guidance and indicates direction; It has a lot of moral authority based on the fact that it is composed of primates but it isn't a body that votes on resolutions; it doesn't have that kind of procedural or constitutional nature. More here.
• Theocracy not so bad to Roberta Green Ahmanson ... [Andrew Gerns, Episcopal Café] Julie Ingersoll of Religion Dispatches looks at a recent interview in Christianity Today of Roberta Green Ahmanson, wife of Howard. Ingersoll says that most reporters do not understand the depth and importance of the theology behind Ahmanson's support of religious right causes, including his support of the undermining of the Episcopal Church over the last decade, and so miss the impact on our culture and politics. More here.
• Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth wins summary judgement ... Here and here. Still, Bishop Jack Iker said he and other area Episcopalians who left the national church will appeal the judge's decision ordering his group to give up all property of the 24-county Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. Here.
• Anglican Communion News Service ... Weekly roundup. 
• Spring Courses at General Seminary ... Here.

The Roman Catholic Church
• Ecumenical manners can't blunt pro-life message, pope says ... [NPR, John Allen ] At the conclusion of an annual week of prayer devoted to overcoming divisions in Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI has warned that hard political choices over “the family, marriage and sexuality” cannot be played down for the sake of preserving good relations among the various Christian denominations. Such issues form the heart of the contemporary culture wars, and Benedict called for a united front among Christians on these debates, “which cannot be minimized or avoided simply to avoid endangering the agreement we’ve already achieved.” More here.
• B16 on social networks ... Social networks are the principal focus of Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the 45th World Day of Social Communications published this morning, though of course none are mentioned explicitly by name. He says that social networking is a wonderful for both evangelization and for building relationships, but cautions against replacing virtual friendships for real, face-to-face relationships. More here. [H/T Andrew Gerns]

Theology
• Don't dumb down the incomprehensible God ... We have done our people a breathtaking disservice by trying to make theology (God-Talk) easier to understand. Dumbing-down our God-Talk has only made us dumber about God. More here. [H/T Andrew Gerns]
• Spirituality is the new science ... [Deepak Chopra, San Francisco Chronicle] When a Nobel laureate announced last week that water had appeared to "teleport" DNA, it underscored the changes taking places in the very foundations of the scientific world, Chopra declares in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The solid, material world vanished a hundred years ago," he writes, "and almost all the quantum pioneers, such as Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schroedinger, either became outright mystics or remained baffled by the radical discovery that the universe emerged from a void." Chopra asserts that consciousness is now a viable topic of study, as the connection between science and spirituality is increasingly explored. "Everything in existence is experienced through our consciousness, including subatomic particles and distant galaxies. The universe exists in our consciousness. There is no proof of an objective universe, which is taken on faith, as pure assumption," he writes. "Is the universe conscious? ... Does the mind exist outside the brain? Once preposterous, these questions seem to hold the key to the future, in both physics and biology." Read more here. [H/T The Atlantic Wire]

Health
• Why parents fear the needle ... [NYTimes, Michael Willrich] Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, roughly one in five Americans believes that vaccines cause autism — a disturbing fact that will probably hold true even after the publication this month, in a British medical journal, of a report thoroughly debunking the 1998 paper that began the vaccine-autism scare. That’s because the public’s underlying fear of vaccines goes much deeper than a single paper. Until officials realize that, and learn how to counter such deep-seated concerns, the paranoia — and the public-health risk it poses — will remain. More here.
• For safe sledding ... follow these tips. [H/T Diana Marshall]

Opinion/Commentary
 • What do we mean by 'Judeo-Christian'? ... [Religion Dispatches] This irksome and quintessentially American term has considerable political value, if no intellectual or spiritual weight. Here.
• True Grit, then and now ... [Frank Rich, NYTimes] 1969 and 2011. Also, the two Americas of True Grit and The Social Network. Read it here.
• On a busy street corner with Thomas Merton ... [Episcopal News Service, Lori Ericksn] In the middle of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, there stands a most unusual bronze plaque. Usually such markers commemorate a battle, political figure, or some natural or historical feature, but the one on the street corner in Louisville marks a mystical experience -- one that happened to the monk Thomas Merton on March 18, 1958. More here.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth website
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church website
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

 

Peace Training

The Peace Commission of the Diocese of Bethlehem is offering a few substantial scholarships for the peace training to be held at Kirkridge in March. Download the pdf file below.

Download Peace Training.pdf

Diocesan Life February 2011

Hello everyone! Here is the latest edition of Diocesan Life. We are now wrapping around a new, independent paper called the Episcopal Journal. Of course, our online version doesn't include that news, but you should receive it in your mailboxes this week. As always, if you have stories, photos, news, please pass them along to Kat Lehman. The file is in .pdf formate and is 2.3 MB in size.

Download 1102_DiocesanLifeFINAL_SMALL

newSpin 110120

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 20, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• Episcopalians and Moravians will celebrate full communion relationship on Thursday, February 10, at 6:00 p.m. at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preside, joined by the heads of the Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America. More here.
• Organ Conert at Trinity Easton ... January 28. More here.
• Northampton County Emergency Alerting System ... [Trinity Easton newsletter] Northampton County has established a new Emergency Alerting System operated by the county's Emergency Management Services. This system will allow residents to receive severe weather alerts, transportation delays, Amber Alerts and other public safety information on their email, text messages to cell phones, smart phones and pages. Get more information and tsign up here.
 • Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here. Updated on Jan. 18 for next month, here.
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for Jan. 23, Epiphany3: Q&A about the Episcopal Church. For Jan. 30, Epiphany4: Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Here.
• Pray for our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for their families ... Here.

Spinning
• AARP volunteers will provide free tax form assistance to low- and middle-income taxpayers, Feb. 1 to April 16. (Filing deadline this year is midnight April 18.) More info here where you will also find sites in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. For a site near you, call 888-AARPNOW.
• The Khan Academy, created by former hidge-fund trader Sal Khan and praised by Bill Gates as an "unbelievable" resource he uses with his kids, is a non-for-profit with a mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. It includes more than 1,800 YouTube tutorials on math, science, finance, history, test prep, lectures and interviews and more. It's a great tutorial for students. Perhaps also a tool for seventy-somethings to build better brains. Caveat: If you click on it, you may become addicted to learning. Here's a PBS NewsHour video on it.
• Remembering King ... As we pause to honor Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy of pushing our nation to live up to its highest ideals, it's easy to sanitize his radical call for economic justice and ignore his prophetic words about war. More here.
• Don't miss Colman McCarthy's column on Seargent Shriver, below, under Opinion/Commentary and my own spin at "NCR to the left and to the right," under the Roman Catholic Church.
• Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is expected to be released from a hospital tomorrow, just less than two weeks after she suffered a gunshot wound to her head. She will be moved from the University Medical Center to Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation hospital, which specializes in helping people recover from brain injuries. More here.
• Only Christians are his brothers and sisters says new Alabama Governor immediately after his inauguration speech. Here and here. Two days later, he gave an "if anyone was offended" apology.
• Have you been verbed?
• The last Christian man ... "When I come here I feel pain. I don't think it will ever be back again like it was, when we had a beautiful garden." Romel Hawal, the last Christian man in Habbaniya Cece, Iraq, on the empty church, Mary Queen of Peace, that he continues to look after.
• Comments made in 1955 ... Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 7 cents just to mail a letter. ... If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store ... When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage. [To be continued. H/T Jane Teter who forwarded these. Rumor has it that these are actually Jane's quotes. Who said that? That's just not true.]

Sudan/Kajo Keji
• Overwhelming vote for Southern Sudan secession ... Southern Sudanese election officials posted early results on Sunday indicating that perhaps more than 95 percent of voters in this regional capital of Juba voted to secede from Sudan. More at the NYTimes. And this, from Bishop Anthony Poggo: "The provisional Referendum results for Kajo-Keji County were announced today.  The summary showed that 198 people voted for Unity while 45,892 voters voted for Secession. This represented 98.7 % of all the votes that were casted. There were 102 invalid votes and 85 unmarked votes. Out of 46,454 registered voters, 46,277 voters participated in the plebiscite. This represented 99.6% voter turn-out."

R20 – Risk to Opportunities for Congregations
• Renewal Assembly, Feb. 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Registration is now available for the Renewal Assembly, “The Call to Prayer and Discernment.” The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site. More here. 

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion     
• Anglican Communion weekly news service ... Here.
• Haiti one year later: Is recovery possible? ... [Anglican Journal] Read it here.
• Episcopal Public Policy Network urges opposition to health-care reform repeal ... [ENS] Here.

The Roman Catholic Church
• Vatican warned Irish Bishops not to report abuse ... [NPR] A newly revealed 1997 letter from the Vatican warns Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police because that would violate the church's canon laws. The letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided Tuesday to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican's rejection at that time of an Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests. More here. Find an analysis by John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter here. And a NYTimes editorial here.
• NCR to the left and to the right? [Bill Lewellis] An interesting situation seems to be developing. The National Catholic Reporter began as a newspaper in 1964 and is now a print and web news source. It self-describes as "one of the few, if not the only truly independent, journalistic outlet for Catholics and others who struggle with the complex moral and societal issues of the day." The National Catholic Register, founded in 1927, self-describes as "America's most complete Catholic news source" and as reporting the news and analyzing trends that are important for Catholics, from a distinctly Catholic perspective. For much of its history, the Register has been right of center, "in service to the church." Over the past few decades, however, it seems to have moved off right center, farther right. On the other hand, the Reporter, during its first decade or so, was way left. During the past few decades, it seems to me to have moved to left of center. It seems proudly to be both Catholic and independent. In a recent development, the Register has been acquired by Mother Angelica's EWTN network, the Rupert Murdoch of RC media, which, of course, will move it toward the right edge.
• Catholic hospitals and Catholic hierarchy ... Who makes the call in th OR? Read here.

Opinion/Commentary
• Sargent Shriver: A life of grace ... [Colman McCarthy, Washington Post] It took only a walk with Sargent Shriver to learn how deeply loved and loving he was. Former Peace Corps volunteers, from the early days of the program that he began in 1961, or ones just back from stints in Third World outposts, would stop Sarge to thank him, embrace him and tell him stories about their life-changing service. Countless others approached him on airport concourses, city sidewalks and elsewhere: people whose lives were changed because of the anti-poverty programs that Shriver started in the Johnson administration - Legal Services, Head Start, Job Corps, Community Action,VISTA, Upward Bound. Or the parents of children in Special Olympics, the program begun by Shriver and his wife, Eunice, that revolutionized the way we treat those with mental disabilities. Occasionally, it was someone from Massachusetts who voted for the McGovern-Shriver ticket in the 1972 presidential campaign - Massachusetts and the District being the only places they won while the rest of America, narcotized, backed the soon-to-be disgraced Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. In the three years - 1966-69 - that I worked as Sarge's speechwriter, traveling companion and suitcase carrier, I saw hundreds of these random moments. Hale and always effulgent, Sarge gave full attention to each greeter. It was a style of honest generosity that came naturally, a pole removed from the grip-and-grin fakeries of American politics. More here. And U2's Bono writes in the NYTimes about what he learned from Sargent Shriver.

Health
 • The Purpose-Driven Walk ... [Newsweek] Maybe that parking space a half mile fom the mall's entrance is a blessing in disguise. A study published this year in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience provided evidence that aerobic fitness can keep aging brains healthy, "Even modest amounts of walking, 40 minutes three times a week, can engender substantial improvements in memory, decision making and other cognitive processes," said the study's lead author, University of Illinois psychology professor Art Kramer.
• Unintentional injuries to children in the home ... Every year, more than 3,000,000 unintentional injuries to children 14 and under happen in the home and require care in an emergency room. That is equal to 8,219 injuries per day. Sadly, each day approximately six children die from injuries resulting from fires, burns, drownings, poisonings, choking, suffocation, strangulation and falls in the home. More here and here. [H/T Diana Marshall]

Media/Film/DVD/Books/Tech
• On Faith ... A conversation on religion and politics. Here.
• Tech news round up ... Kat Lehman writes a bi-weekly (sometimes weekly) tech news round up. Sign up on our "Get Connected" box at www.diobeth.org  for the diobethtech list.
• Wikipedia is 10 ... Here. [H/T Kat Lehman]

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth website
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church website
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

 

Episcopal-Moravian Full Communion celebration, Feb. 10

[From Maria Tjeltveit]

One of the privileges and joys of my ministry has been serving on the Moravian-Episcopal Dialogue for our national Church, which drafted the full communion proposal for our two Churches. So I am delighted to invite you to join in the celebration service inaugurating our full communion relationship on Thursday, February 10, at 6:00 p.m. at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem. Our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori will be the celebrant, joined by the heads of the Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America.

It’s not often that a historical event happens right here in our back yard. And even though it’s a service for the whole of both our denominations, having a midweek service in February may reduce the number of people who come from a great distance. So that means that we who are local are encouraged to come and bring our friends. It will be great to celebrate this service right in the heart of the Moravian Church and in our diocese.

What is full communion? It is a way for denominations to come together without merging; acknowledging the fullness of the church in each other, working together for mission and ministry, and exchanging clergy. We have been in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for 10 years, and the Lutherans and Moravians are also in full communion, so this kind of completes a triangle of full communion relationships. Especially in our area, where there are plenty of Lutherans and Moravians, it will be good to see how we can live into full communion in substantial way.

I hope you will join me on February 10 for this celebration.

Maria Tjeltveit, Canon for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations

Pray For...

Pray for our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for their families:

Omar Aceves, 30
Jose A. Delgado Arroyo, 41
Michael P. Bartley, 23
Michael J. Beckerman, 25
Zainah C. Creamer, 28
Michael S. Evarts, 41
Joseph R. Giese, 24
Ethan C. Hardin, 25
Maung P. Htaik, 20
Jared L. King, 20
Martin J. Lamar, 43
Ira B. Laningham, IV, 22
Evan J. Mooldyk, 47
Benjamin G. Moore, 23
Robert J. Near, 21
Eric M. Nettleton, 26
Tevan L. Nguyen, 21
Robert W. Pharris, 48
Christian J. Romig, 24
Jose M. Cintron Rosado, 38
Zachary S. Salmon, 21
Jacob A. Tate, 21
Jose A. Torre, 21
Joseph C. Whitehead, 22

Pray also for the fallen heroes also of our coalition partners, and for the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan who have died, unnamed and unknown to us, and for those who mourn ... and for an end to this endless war.

Culled from various web pages, including:
U.S. Department of Defense news releases
In Remembrance, at legacy.com
Honor the Fallen, from Military Times

Organ Concert at Trinity, Easton, January 28

Trinity Episcopal Church in Easton, PA will be hosting an Organ Concert featuring the works of Mendelssohn, Bach, Mozart, Bruhns and Franck. 

 

Performing will be Mr. Dale T. Grandfield, Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church, 234 Spring Garden Street, Easton, PA (between 2^nd and 3^rd Street).  The Concert will be January 28, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Refreshments to follow. Free Admission. Donations to support the music ministry at Trinity Church are welcome. For more information contact Trinity at 610-253-0792, email parish@trinityeaston.org, twitter @TrinityEastonPA or see www.trinityeaston.org.

 

Updated Calendar for the remainder of the month

There have been a couple of meeting changes as noted below:

Here is a revised monthly calendar:

Jan. 20: Diocesan Council Meeting, Grace, Kingston 6:30 P.M.

Jan. 21-22: Bishop’s Night with Youth, St. John the Divine, New York City. Registration open online at www.diobeth.org Questions? Contact Kim Rowles, 610-751-3931

Jan. 22: Daughters of the King Board Meeting, St. Peter’s, Hazleton 9:00 A.M.

Jan. 25: Archdeacon Visit, St. Gabriel’s, Douglassville 6:00 P.M.

Jan. 26: Chili Cook-Off to benefit Lehigh Valley Animal Food Bank, Holiday Inn Conference Center, 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Cost $10.00.

Jan. 28: Incorporated Trustees, Nativity, Bethlehem 10:00 A.M.

Jan. 29: Bishop’s School, St. Peter’s, Hazleton 10:00 A.M.

Jan. 30: Bishop Jack, St. Mary’s, Wind Gap

Jan. 30: Bishop Paul, North Parish (Holy Apostles), St. Clair

Feb. 1: Diocesan Life deadline for March edition

Feb. 1: Clergy Bible Study 6, Holy Cross, Wilkes-Barre 2:00 P.M.

Feb. 1: Archdeacon Visit, St. Andrew’s, Allentown 6:00 P.M.

Feb. 3: Clergy Bible Study 1, Nativity, Bethlehem 2:00 P.M.

Feb. 4: Hug and Episcopalian Day

Feb. 5: Bishop’s School, St. Peter’s, Hazleton 10:00 A.M.

Feb. 6: Bishop Paul, Prince of Peace, Dallas

Feb. 7: Standing Committee Meeting, Diocesan House, Bethlehem 2:00 P.M.

Feb. 7: Evangelism Committee Meeting, Trinity, Easton 6:30 P.M.

Feb. 8: Clergy Bible Study 7, St. Mark’s, Moscow 2:00 P.M.

Feb. 10: Moravian Church, Northern Province-Episcopal Full Communion Celebration, Central Moravian Church 6:00 P.M.

Feb. 12: Commission on Ministry Meeting via Conference Call 10:00 A.M.

Feb. 13: Bishop Jack, St. Andrew’s, Allentown

Feb. 13: Bishop Paul, St. Gabriel’s, Douglassville

Feb. 15: Clergy Bible Study 8, Christ Towanda 4:00 P.M.

Feb. 15: Archdeacon Visit, St. Mark’s, Moscow 6:00 P.M.

Feb. 17: Clergy Bible Study 2 & 4, St. Stephen’s, Whitehall 2:00 P.M.

newSpin 110117

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 17, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Spinning
• Martin Luther King gave his last Sunday sermon at Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968. Read it and ask yourself how a man who says the kinds of things Dr. King said would fare in today's cabled world? More here.
• "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" [Martin Luther King, Jr.]
• To one who says, "All the church wants is your money," Debi Metcalf of St. Brigid's Nazareth replies, “Oh no dear, they want much more than that.”
• Archdeacon Stringfellow reminds baseball fans of all stripes of an important event to come in less than a month.
• Don't miss Religion News Service's informative and, at times, witty daily roundup.
• Bishop Paul invites us to share comments on the book that influenced us most during 2010. See below, under Media.
• ‎[Come let us reason together" -Isaiah 1:18] Joe Jackloski of  Grace Kingston says, "It seems to me we are living in a world where fear, mistrust, xenophobia and self loathing rule; one in which derision and vilification have replaced civil discourse. Fear is an awful master, violence is its tragic stepchild."
• Comments made in 1955 ... I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $10.00 ... Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t be long before $1,000 will only buy a used one ... If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit; 20 cents a pack is ridiculous. [To be continued. H/T Jane Teter. Did she say or forward them?]

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• Polly Moore Dawsey ... "I am saddened to report that Polly (Mrs. Marshall)  Dawsey passed from this life on January 13 at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre," Bishop Paul wrote on Bakery, our diocesan interactive internet list. "Polly was of constant support and encouragement to her parish, her clergy, and to me (and my predecessors). Polly was a dedicated member of Christ Church Towanda, and together with her husband supported community and diocesan ministries." Read her obituary here.
• Episcopal Appalachian Ministries Small Grants Initiative is seeking applicants for its Spring awards. The grants are intended to be used as seed money for organizations to seize opportunities of a one-time nature.  On-going operating costs will not be given priority. Successful applications will usually involve helping Appalachians address regional issues such as poverty, health care, unemployment, education, cultural affirmation, or the environment through direct service.  Grants are usually $500 to $3000. The application deadline for the Spring awards is February 28th. Applications are available online or by contacting The Rev. Dcn. Gordon Brewer, Executive Coordinator for EAM, at episcopalappministries@gmail.com.
• Telling Stories ... [A sermon for the second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A by Andrew Gerns.] Something happens when we tell a story. The people who study this kind of thing tell us that when we start a story off like this, something happens in our brains. With the right equipment they can see it happen right before their very eyes. They say that when our brains are scanned in a certain way, and we start to tell a story, the researchers looking at their screens see whole parts of our brains light up with color that had just a minute before been dormant. It is as if a different part of the brain from what we use every day is activated. We are not just talking about facts; we are painting images in our minds. Read Andrew's sermon here.
• Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here.
 • Ninth annual Women of Nativity retreat is open to women of the diocese. March 11-13. Still time to register. More here. 

Sudan/Kajo Keji
• Overwhelming vote for Southern Sudan secession ... Southern Sudanese election officials posted early results on Sunday indicating that perhaps more than 95 percent of voters in this regional capital of Juba voted to secede from Sudan. More at the NYTimes. And this, fromBishop Anthony Poggo: The provisional Referendum results for Kajo-Keji County were announced today.  The summary showed that 198 people voted for Unity while 45,892 voters voted for Secession. This represented 98.7 % of all the votes that were casted. There were 102 invalid votes and 85 unmarked votes. Out of 46,454 registered voters, 46,277 voters participated in the plebiscite. This represented 99.6% voter turn-out.

R20 – Risk to Opportunity for Congregations
• Renewal Assembly, Feb. 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Registration is now available for the Renewal Assembly, “The Call to Prayer and Discernment.” The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site. More here.

Bible/Worship/Prayer/Music
• I have seen the future of preaching ... [Peter Wallace] and it is a beautiful thing.
• Biblical storytelling ... Christian storyteller Tracy Radosevic says learning to tell Bible stories is a spiritual discipline that allows space for the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of traditional narratives. Read here. 
• The Bible and 1776 ... Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, Executive Vice President and Executive Editor at the Random House Publishing Group and a member of the vestry at Trinity Wall Street, offers his insights into how the Founding Fathers perceived scripture. View the short interview here.

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion   
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for Jan. 23, Epiphany3: Q&A about the Episcopal Church. Here. 
• Anglican Communion weekly news service ... Here.
• Trinity Institute ... Still time to register for the Trinity Institute's Annual Theological Conference, that is being webcast live from Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Old Zionsville on January 19-21. More here. As Trinity Institute prepares for the 2011 Theological Conference on contextual bible study, Interview with Jon Meacham.

The Roman Catholic Church
• No Exorcist Files ... [John Allen, National Catholic Reporter] Despite titillating news stories over the weekend, the Vatican has denied that it is collaborating with the U.S.-based Discovery Channel on a series to be called the “Exorcist Files.” More here.

Opinion/Commentary
• How easily is your moral judgment manipulated? ... [Alex Howard, retired Episcopal priest] Who’s in charge of making your moral decisions? If you think it’s you, think carefully about that. There may be a magnet in your life. More here.

Health
• National Episcopal Health Ministries newsletter ... Sign up here (scroll to the bottom) to receive the NEHM newsletter.
• Smoking leads to genetic damage in minutes ... Even scientists are shocked by the results of a study in the Chemical Research in Toxicology journal that shows the first few puffs of a cigarette can lead to immediate genetic mutations of a smoker's DNA. Researchers say that such rapid results are essentially the same as "injecting the substance directly into the bloodstream." More here.
• Automated External Defibrillators ... Are there any parishes in the Diocese of Bethlehem with AEDs in place?  If so, please reply to Diana Marshall at d.marsh@rcn.com.

Media/Film/DVD/Books/Tech
• What book most influenced you in 2010? ... The following is Bishop Paul's recent post on Bakery, titled "Getting your cerebrum involved," with which he invited others on Bakery to name a book that most influenced them in 2010:
   "Mine was a title ill-named by marketers who perhaps misunderstood the profundity of what the book says.  It is called, alas, Bozo Sapiens, by Kaplan and Kaplan. I gave as many copies for Christmas as I could afford, and recommend it.  It is written by a mother-son team who examine  how primatology helps explain persistent patterns of thought and behavior among humans (one example: why we hold on to bad stocks--our brains want to).
  "The chapter that touches on the Challenger disaster is worth a read and justifies buying the book. It discusses competing systems of logic and summarizes almost every meeting I have attended. Business logic, science logic, management logic, etc., all have different presuppositions, and when the all-too-predictable buffoon stands up in a vestry meeting and talks about the "real" world, we now have the tools, through this books, to ask him/her about the particular world to which reference is being made. The audiotapes reveal that Challenger crashed precisely because the "management" style of real-world logic was specifically invoked to override real-world "engineering" logic, and this was done by naming the "hats" people were wearing. Each group quite honestly held a different conception of "probability." The lesson is not that managers are bad and engineers are good, but is very much about the duty to assess a situation and determine which kind(s) of logic are called for. Is there a logic to mission that is different from the logic of finance, the so-called "scientific method" of falsifiability, boundary-maintenance, etc., or, how do they intersect? Is there a logic to the Cross that allegedly practical folk might miss?
  "Anyway, it is a short read, available on Kindle and, for that matter, on Audible, and well worth the investment.
"The most humbling chapter is that about motivated perceptions--how we find what we want to find, even if we don't recognize it, especially if what our parents believed at the time time of our early childhood shapes our expectations.
  "What book changed your way of thinking in 2010? Blessings, +Paul"
If you want to get in on the conversation, join "Bakery" at the Get Connected box on the right side of our diocesan Web site, www.diobeth.org 
• Time, the Enemy in our 1440/7 news cycle — 1,440 minutes every day, seven days a week, each one of those minutes demanding news for delivery to a networked world. [Arthur Brisnbane, Public Editor, NYTimes] During a few minutes on Jan. 8, The Times had the story wrong. In that brief window of time, NYTimes.com was reporting that Representative Gabrielle Giffords was dead of gunshot wounds. The error and some other aspects of the coverage of the Tucson shootings illustrate how difficult it is in the current environment to be both timely and authoritative. The intense focus on political conflict — not just by The Times — detracted from what has emerged as the salient story line, that of a mentally ill individual with lawful access to a gun. Whether covering the basic facts of a breaking story or identifying more complex themes, the takeaway is that time is often the enemy. Sometimes the best weapon against it is to ignore it, and use a moment to consider the alternatives. More here.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth website
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church website
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

 

There is Hope, by Archdeacon Stringfellow

Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow
14 January 2011
[Revised slightly, Jan. 18]

The temperature is 29.  Snow lies on the ground, and ice grips the streets.  I am wearing a wool shirt over a wool tee-shirt.  But there is hope.

A friend gave me a few weeks ago a photograph signed "Juan Marichal HOF 83."  The "27," black outlined in orange with white piping, is emblazoned on the back of the grey jersey uncontaminated by a name, and his left foot, at a perfect right angle from his leg, reaches high in the sky, higher than his head with his eyes fixed on his prey.  A bit of daylight slivers between the stirrup and the sanitary stocking just above the inner portion of his right ankle.  The grass around the mound is verdant, and the infield is smooth.  The sun shines.  The photograph catches the split of a second before a devastating pitch hurtles toward home plate as skill touches art in the game where the defense holds the ball and gives the offense just a split of a second to seize the opportunity to be and to score.

Pitchers and catchers report one month from today.

newSpin 110113

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 13, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Eulogy
• "We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame -- but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others." Read the Washington Post story of  President Obama's eulogy in Tucson here, and a full text of his prepared remarks here. View the eulogy here. 

Spinning 
• Have you been verbed?  •These were not pennies from heaven.  •Religion News Service's daily roundup.
• Don't miss Bishop Paul's invitation to share the book that influenced you most during 2010. See below, under Media.

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• Video used during Vocare weekend ... [From Hillary Raining] On behalf of the Vocare#1 Weekend, I would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” for all of the prayers and support that we received. It was a Spirit filled time that made a difference in the lives of all who were involved.  Here is one of the videos we used. I believe it has potential for other venues."
• Episcopal Appalachian Ministries Small Grants Initiative is seeking applicants for its Spring awards. The grants are intended to be used as seed money for organizations to seize opportunities of a one-time nature.  On-going operating costs will not be given priority. Successful applications will usually involve helping Appalachians address regional issues such as poverty, health care, unemployment, education, cultural affirmation, or the environment through direct service.  Grants are usually $500 to $3000. The application deadline for the Spring awards is February 28th. Applications are available online or by contacting The Rev. Dcn. Gordon Brewer, Executive Coordinator for EAM, at episcopalappministries@gmail.com.
• What prophecy guides you? ... Read the sermon Archdeacon Stringfellow preached at Diocesan House on the Feast of the Epiphany.
 • The In-Formation in Bethlehem newsletter by Canon Anne Kitch is here.
• Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here.
• The Reception of the Priestly Orders of The Rev. Joseph Rafferty will take place at Trinity West Pittston, 220 Montgomery Avenue, on Sunday, Jan. 16, at 4:00 p.m. All are welcome. Here.
 • Bishop's Day/Night pilgrimage with youth ... With Bishop Paul, January 21-22, St. John the Divine NYC. 50 seats already filled. More here. Questions?  Contact Kim Rowles, Youth Missioner, at 610-751-3931 or at krowles@diobeth.org 
 • The Episcopal Youth Event (EYE) will take place this year in Minneapolis, June 20-28. More info here and here.
 • Temporary shelter for the homeless in Bethlehem churches ... A few years ago, Bethlehem area churches took on a mission, to provide temporary shelter for the homeless during the winter months. This year will be no exception. This system began again on December 15 and will continue until March 31. More here, including background on the origin of this ministry.
• More Bethlehem ... See below, under Sudan/Kajo Keji: Bethlehem People, God has chosen you to come to Kajo Keji and Randall Fegley on Radio Times. 
  

Sudan/Kajo Keji
• The Archbishop of Sudan casts his vote ... Sunday 9th January marked the first of seven days in the historic self‐determination referendum for the people of Southern Sudan. The Most Rev. Dr.Daniel Deng Bul Yak, Episcopal Archbishop of the Sudan, together with Archbishop Paulino Lukudu of the Roman Catholic Church advanced to Hai Jalaba Junior School polling station to cast their referendum ballots at four o’clock that afternoon. Unsurprisingly, there was heavy media attention ready to capture the two archbishops exercising their democratic right at the polling station. Download the pdf file forwarded by Bishop Anthony for the complete story and pics. Download 01. ABD and ABP vote in Referendum
• A letter from Bishop Anthony on the Referendum ... "The people of Southern Sudan are excited on this coming plebiscite. I am hopeful that the prayers as well as the advocacy that has been undertaken will bear fruit. Do continue to pray that the referendum will be held as scheduled and that it be free and fair and that the results will be respected by all the partners." More here.
• Bethlehem People, God has chosen you to come to Kajo Keji ... A story with photos by Charlie Barebo of the November mission trip he and Archdeacon Stringfellow made to Kajo Keji. Read it here.
• Randall Fegley interview on Radio Times available as podcast ... The producer of Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, a program on the Philadelphia NPR affiliate WHYY, contacted Randal Fegley to participate in a program about the upcoming Referendum in Sudan and what it means to the United States. It aired on Tuesday, Jan. 4. The podcast is available at the WHYY Web site. Randall teaches at Penn State Berks and is the coordinator for their Global Studies degree. He is also the president-elect of the Sudan Studies Association and has just published a book, 'Beyond Khartoum', a history of sub-national government in Sudan. He was a founding member of the current Diocesan World Mission Committee and was deeply involved in the formation of the companion relationship of the Diocese of Bethlehem with Kajo Keji. 
• Eye on Sudan ... The series from Odyssey Networks focuses on the upcoming referendum featuring Voices of Sudan, interviews with members of The Lost Boys of Sudan and Sudanese clergy living in the United States, Eliza Griswold, author of The Tenth Parallel and more.  
• An animated video detailing the situation in Sudan and the critical nature of the referendum is available here, from the Episcopal Church Office of Communication.
• More news/background/prayers regarding Sudan/Kajo Keji at the newSpin blog.

R20 – Risk to Opportunity for Congregations
• Renewal Assembly, Feb. 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Registration is now available for the Renewal Assembly, “The Call to Prayer and Discernment.” The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site. More here.

Bible/Worship/Prayer/Music
• Biblical storytelling ... Christian storyteller Tracy Radosevic says learning to tell Bible stories is a spiritual discipline that allows space for the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of traditional narratives. Read here. 
• Prayers of the People ... for Epiphany2. Here.
• Suggested Prayer of the People to mark 10th anniversary of Episcopal-Lutheran full-communion agreement ... At ENS.

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for Jan. 16, Epiphany2: Special Prayers of the People celebrating 10-year anniversary of full communion with Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and A Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. For Jan. 23, Epiphany3: Q&A about the Episcopal Church. Here. 
• First anniversary of Haitian earthquake ... [Episcopal News Service] At the one year anniversary of the Haitian earthquake on January 12, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asks for prayers and expresses solidarity with the people of Haiti, Bishop Jean Zache Duracin and the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti as they rebuild. The Diocese of Haiti is the largest in The Episcopal Church.  The January 2010 earthquake leveled the churches and diocesan facilities, including Holy Trinity Cathedral in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori:  We continue to work with and pray for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.  The Episcopal Church is urgently engaged in supporting the rebuilding of the cathedral complex, in addition to mission partnerships all over the nation.  We hope for significant and measurable progress in the coming months in improving the lives of Haitians, helping to restore livelihoods, and stabilizing the institutions of communities and the nation. More here and here. Read also Bishop Pierre Whalon's column at Huffington Post: "Episcopalians know about Haiti because it has the numerically largest diocese of the Episcopal Church. It operates the most schools of any Episcopal diocese anywhere, including trade schools, a music school and a university. It has its country's only philharmonic orchestra and four-year nursing school. It is one of a few dioceses that owns and operates a major modern hospital and is certainly the only one with an art museum! It is fair to say that on the whole, we did not appreciate what we had until we lost it." Also, Is Recovery Possible, here.
• Trinity Institute ... Still time to register for the Trinity Institute's Annual Theological Conference, that is being webcast live from Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Old Zionsville on January 19-21. More here. 

The Roman Catholic Church
• No Exorcist Files ... [John Allen, National Catholic Reporter] Despite titillating news stories over the weekend, the Vatican has denied that it is collaborating with the U.S.-based Discovery Channel on a series to be called the “Exorcist Files.” More here.
• Milwaukee bankruptcy filing masks truth ... [National Catholic Reporter] Here.

Beyond the Bounds
• Smallest victim has big impact ... [Washington Post] The death of the smallest victim in this weekend's violent rampage is having a big impact on Tucson's children. Christina Taylor Green was a 9-year-old, recently elected to the student council. She became the focal point of President Obama's speech Wednesday. Her death is being marked by teddy bears and hand-written notes, as parents try to explain to children why someone would kill Christina for no reason. "You were always a sister to me...and always will be," her best friend Serenity wrote in a card. "People at this point in time are still very numb," said one professional who works with local children. More here.
• Humanity and relationships in sports ... [The Morning Call] Morning Call sportswriter Keith Groller reports on two stories that "revealed a lot about humanity and relationships, and you realize that what makes the sports stage so compelling is not so much who wins or loses, but the people who play the game." One was on Michael Vick, why the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback owes 50 creditors $20 million in a bankruptcy settlement. The other is an update on the life of major league baseball umpire Jim Joyce who, during the 2010 season, blew a call with two outs in the ninth inning that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher a perfect game. More here. See also NYTimes story on Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, "Defensive anchor walks spiritual path."

Health
• National Episcopal Health Ministries newsletter ... Sign up here (scroll to the bottom) to receive the NEHM newsletter.
• Parish Nurse Education program ... [From Diana Marshall] At Sacred Heart Hospital: Basic Sessions I/II (formerly Fundamentals of Parish/Faith Community Nursing), March 28 and April 4. Basic Session III, April 16. Basic Session IV, April 30. Basic Session V, May 14. Basic Session VI, Online/Independent Study after May’s class. Scholarships are available for members of parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem. Diana will post more info as it becomes available.
• Automated External Defibrillators ... Are there any parishes in the Diocese of Bethlehem with AEDs in place?  If so, please reply to Diana Marshall at d.marsh@rcn.com.

Media/Film/DVD/Books/Tech
• What book most influenced you in 2010? ... The following is Bishop Paul's recent post on Bakery, titled "Getting your cerebrum involved," with which he invited others on Bakery to name a book that most influenced them in 2010:
   "Mine was a title ill-named by marketers who perhaps misunderstood the profundity of what the book says.  It is called, alas, Bozo Sapiens, by Kaplan and Kaplan. I gave as many copies for Christmas as I could afford, and recommend it.  It is written by a mother-son team who examine  how primatology helps explain persistent patterns of thought and behavior among humans (one example: why we hold on to bad stocks--our brains want to).
  "The chapter that touches on the Challenger disaster is worth a read and justifies buying the book. It discusses competing systems of logic and summarizes almost every meeting I have attended. Business logic, science logic, management logic, etc., all have different presuppositions, and when the all-too-predictable buffoon stands up in a vestry meeting and talks about the "real" world, we now have the tools, through this books, to ask him/her about the particular world to which reference is being made. The audiotapes reveal that Challenger crashed precisely because the "management" style of real-world logic was specifically invoked to override real-world "engineering" logic, and this was done by naming the "hats" people were wearing. Each group quite honestly held a different conception of "probability." The lesson is not that managers are bad and engineers are good, but is very much about the duty to assess a situation and determine which kind(s) of logic are called for. Is there a logic to mission that is different from the logic of finance, the so-called "scientific method" of falsifiability, boundary-maintenance, etc., or, how do they intersect? Is there a logic to the Cross that allegedly practical folk might miss?
  "Anyway, it is a short read, available on Kindle and, for that matter, on Audible, and well worth the investment.
"The most humbling chapter is that about motivated perceptions--how we find what we want to find, even if we don't recognize it, especially if what our parents believed at the time time of our early childhood shapes our expectations.
  "What book changed your way of thinking in 2010? Blessings, +Paul"
If you want to get in on the conversation, join "Bakery" at the Get Connected box on the right side of our diocesan Web site, www.diobeth.org
• King's Speech ... NYTimes here.
• On the Loneliness of Technology ... Newsweek contributor Jessica  Bennett spotlights MIT professor Sherry Turkle's new book, Alone Together, and boils it down to this question: "Is technology offering us the lives we want to live?" The answer, inevitably, is yes and no. "The technology that was supposed to simplify our lives has become the ultimate time-suck: the average teen spends more than seven hours a day using technological devices, plus an additional hour just text-messaging friends." And, oddly enough, all this connectedness has the effect of making us just a little bit more lonely. "Online, you can ignore others' feelings. In a text message, you can avoid eye contact. A number of studies have found that this generation of teens is less empathetic than ever," Bennett writes. "That doesn't spell disaster, says Turkle--but it does mean we might want to start thinking about the way we want to live."  More here.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth website
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church website
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

 

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

 

newSpin 110106

The newSpin newsletter, Jan. 6, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Mondays and Thursdays

Epiphany
• [Greek: epi-  "on, to" + phainein  "to show"] A showing forth. A showing forth of Jesus to the Gentiles. A moment of revelation. Transparency. A sudden intuition or insight into reality, often initiated by a commonplace experience. Have you had a spiritual epiphany? Have you been seeking? Wise women and men still follow the star.
• Read the sermon Archdeacon Stringfellow preached today at Diocesan House.
• The Cathedral Church of the Nativity invites all to 5 p.m. Children and Family Worship Service.

Spinning
• Some have said that the Wise Men are so famous because they are the only men in history known to have stopped to ask directions.
• I've been following a new, informative and entertaining resource of news about religion, Religion News Service Daily Roundup. It's near the bottom. I hope to continue to reference the daily links. And, of course, you can subscribe to the daily newsletter from RNS.
• Don't miss (1) "Poverty puts Chester into a food desert." Under Beyond the Bounds. I was so taken with this story that I have included it for the third time. Can you imagine a city of 30,000 without a single supermarket and with only two stores that sell potatoes and fresh food? As Grace Allentown administrator Bob House says, "it's a gut-wrenching story that needs to be told." (2) The great ministry churches in Bethlehem are doing for the homeless. Just below, under Diocese of Bethlehem. (3) Charlie Barebo's story and photos of the November mission trip he and Archdeacon Stringfellow made to Kajo Keji. It's the first item under under Sudan/Kajo Keji. (4) The podcast of Randall Fegley's interview on Radio Times, also under Sudan/Kajo Keji.
• The referendum on whether Southern Sudan will become independent is scheduled for Sunday. See many items below, under Sudan/Kajo Keji.
• A line of dialogue from the movie, The International: "This is the difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense."

Diocese of Bethlehem     
• The In-Formation in Bethlehem newsletter by Canon Anne Kitch is here.
• Calendar of Events ... Download the current calendar, updated Jan. 4, here.
• The Reception of the Priestly Orders of The Rev. Joseph Rafferty will take place at Trinity West Pittston, 220 Montgomery Avenue, on Sunday, Jan. 16, at 4:00 p.m. All are welcome.
 • Bishop's Day/Night pilgrimage with youth ... With Bishop Paul, January 21-22, St. John the Divine NYC. 50 seats already filled. More here. Questions?  Contact Kim Rowles, Youth Missioner, at 610-751-3931 or at krowles@diobeth.org
• The Episcopal Youth Event (EYE) will take place this year in Minneapolis, June 20-28. More info here and here.
• Temporary shelter for the homeless in Bethlehem churches ... A few years ago, Bethlehem area churches took on a mission, to provide temporary shelter for the homeless during the winter months. This year will be no exception. This system began again on December 15 and will continue until March 31. More here, including background on the origin of this ministry.
• More Bethlehem ... See below, under Sudan/Kajo Keji: Bethlehem People, God has chosen you to come to Kajo Keji and Randall Fegley on Radio Times.

Sudan/Kajo Keji
• Bethlehem People, God has chosen you to come to Kajo Keji ... A story with photos by Charlie Barebo of the November mission trip he and Archdeacon Stringfellow made to Kajo Keji. Read it here.
• Randall Fegley interview on Radio Times available as podcast ... The producer of Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, a program on the Philadelphia NPR affiliate WHYY, contacted Randal Fegley to participate in a program about the upcoming Referendum in Sudan and what it means to the United States. It aired on Tuesday, Jan. 4. The podcast is available at the WHYY Web site. Randall teaches at Penn State Berks and is the coordinator for their Global Studies degree. He is also the president-elect of the Sudan Studies Association and has just published a book, 'Beyond Khartoum', a history of sub-national government in Sudan. He was a founding member of the current Diocesan World Mission Committee and was deeply involved in the formation of the companion relationship of the Diocese of Bethlehem with Kajo Keji.
• A Season of Prayer for Sudan ... At the Episcopal Church Web site. A new video will be posted tomorrow (Friday).
• Eye on Sudan ... The series from Odyssey Networks focuses on the upcoming referendum featuring Voices of Sudan, interviews with members of The Lost Boys of Sudan and Sudanese clergy living in the United States, Eliza Griswold, author of The Tenth Parallel and more.
• Peace hovers in Sudan, but most soldiers stay armed ... [NYTimes, Josh Kron] With little more than a week to go before a vote on independence for southern Sudan, virtually none of the soldiers have put down their weapons and fully rejoined civilian life. More here.
• Can Sudan split without falling apart? ... [Time Magazine] Read it here.
• Peacerful vote on Sudan appears more likely ... [NYTimes, Jan. 2, Jeffrey Gettleman] Read it here.
• George Clooney 'antigenocide Paparazzi': Watching Sudan ... [Time Magazine] Read it here.
• 12 Days of Christmas for Kajo Keji ... [World Mission Committee] The first batch of gifts to Kajo Keji from the Diocese of Bethlehem for Christmas 2010 is being transferred. More here.
• An animated video detailing the situation in Sudan and the critical nature of the upcoming referendum is available here, from the Episcopal Church Office of Communication.
• More news/background/prayers regarding Sudan/Kajo Keji at the newSpin blog.

R20 – Risk to Opportunities for Congregations
• Renewal Assembly, Feb. 19, 9:00 to 1:00 ... Registration is now available for the Renewal Assembly, “The Call to Prayer and Discernment.” The Assembly will be held in six locations: Christ Church Towanda, Trinity Carbondale,Trinity West Pittston, Trinity Pottsville, St. Anne’s Trexlertown and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Bethlehem. Lunch will be provided. Registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate site. More here.

Worship/Prayer/Music
• Pray for our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for their families. Names here.

The Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion
• Utah teens raise $1 million, inspire others to aid local homeless ... Read it at Episcopal News Service.
• Suggested Prayer of the People to mark 10th anniversary of Episcopal-Lutheran full-communion agreement ... At ENS.
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Bulletin inserts for the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 9) may be downloaded here.
• Judge says bank overcharged Diocese of PA charity trust ... Read it here.

The Roman Catholic Church
• Archdiocese of Milwaukee files for bankruptcy protection ... [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] Facing more than a dozen lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, Archdiocese of Milwaukee files for Chapter 11. Victims groups  say the filing is intended to avoid opening church records to public scrutiny. More here, here (Nat'l Cath Reporter), here (NYTimes) and here (Politics Daily).
• Father Cutié writes book, and raises eyebrows ... Padre Alberto Cutié releases a book and reflects on the Roman Catholic church, falling in love, and his own journey of faith. More here.
• Saying bishops 'scared,' panelists urge laity to take lead ... [National Catholic Reporter, Jerry Filteau] Panelists at a recent Woodstock forum in Philadelphia urged lay Catholics to grab the reins and set the course for the church's future. "We are becoming a do-it-yourself church" for the laity, said Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, one of three senior fellows of the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington who spoke at "The Future of the Church: A Woodstock Forum on Sources of Hope," held at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia Dec. 5. More here.

Leadership
• Vestry Papers ... Read or download Vestry Papers, Jan. 2011, here. While you're there, browse through the variety of rich resources at the Vital Practices Web site hosted by the Episcpal Church Foundation.
• Finding the optimal level of conflict ... [Alban Institute] Every congregation experiences conflict, even though each one does so in unique ways. The sources of conflict may vary from the micro to the macro--from intrapersonal pathologies to personality differences to globalization forces--but over time they are inescapable. Various studies have shown that organizational leaders and managers spend up to 25 percent of their time managing conflict. Experienced pastors know that during times of crisis, conflict management duties can become all-consuming. More here.

Beyond the Bounds
• Poverty puts Chester into a food desert ... [Philadelphia Inquirer, Alfred Lubrano] Eyeing a potato at Frederick Douglass Christian School in Chester one day in the fall, a first grader called it a "tomato." Another said he wasn't sure he'd ever seen one before. "How do you spell 'nasty?' " asked Ja'Niyah Van, 6, tasting a baked sweet potato for the first time. No one can blame the pupils for not recognizing or appreciating fresh food. There isn't a single supermarket in Chester. A person could travel end to end in the city of 30,000 people and find just two stores that sell potatoes or any other fresh foods. Read more. [H/T Bob House, Grace Allentown administrator, who says it's "a gut-wrenching story that needs to be told. I just wonder how many more Chesters we are creating in this country.]
• Ugandan Court enjoins Tabloid from outing Gays ... In Jacquelin v. Rolling Stone Ltd., (Uganda H.C., Dec. 30, 2010), a Ugandan trial court awarded monetary damages to three plaintiffs who were among those exposed by the tabloid Rolling Stone as gay. The paper (no connection to the US publication of the same name) called for gays they named to be hanged  because "they are after our kids." The court held that the tabloid had violated the plaintiffs' constitutionally protected right to privacy and their right to human dignity and protection from inhuman treatment. The court also issued an injunction restraining the tabloid from further publishing the names or identifying the homes of homosexuals. Human Rights First and AOL News report on the decision and the reactions of those on both sides of the controversy.  Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame says he will defy the court order and publish more names this week end. He also says he plans to appeal the decision.
• The kindest cut ... [The Atlantic] To fight AIDS, Swaziland turns to mass circumcision. More here.

Health
• Resolved: Eat less, lose weight ... [NYTimes] If you, like millions of others seeking to lose weight, made a resolution to eat less in the coming year, a focused walk around the block may help you meet your goals. More here.
• Health Ministry in the Local Congregation is available free from National Episcopal Health Ministries. You may remember this booklet with the red cover that has been a valued resource for many over the years. It has been revised and updated and is available as an e-book. To download this free e-book, click here. or find it at the Resources section of the NEHM Web site. [H/T Diana Marshall]

Commentary/Opinion
• EPL 2.0 ... [Kathleen Parker, Washington Post] KP's un-jaded, un-cynical, appropriately abbreviated (you're welcome) list of resolutions for all times, but especially now. Eat, Pray, Love. Sort of. Call it EPL 2.0: Eat less, pray in private, love because . . . what's the alternative? To love is to give. Here is giving: Listening. Sparing time. Not interrupting. Holding that thought. Leaving the last drop. Staying home. Turning it off, whatever it is. Making eye contact. Picking it up. Taking the room's temperature. Paying attention. Waiting. More here.
• The stories clergy tell ... [Rabbi Dennis Ross, Religion Dispatches] Clergy tell stories. It’s a tradition as old as the Bible. And it’s a common practice when someone dies. I just finished leading a burial service for a man I didn’t know and a family I’d likely never see again. The son of the deceased, a grandfather himself, scanned the nearby graves and pointed to an inscription for a 23-year-old woman who died in 1931. “My aunt passed before I was born. She had an illegal abortion,” he said as if our unfamiliarity gave him permission to unearth a family secret. “What a shame,” was all I could muster, having heard the start of a story I did not expect to hear. “It should never happen,” was the curt response. He quickly thanked me for the service, got into the rental with family and drove back to the airport. And I was left with questions. More here.

Media
• 'King's Speech' and the 'radical loneliness' of the stutterer ... Read it here.
• A no cynicism zone on Oprah's network ... [Alessandra Stanley, NYTimes] Oprah Winfrey said that she wanted to create a cable network without a trace of “mean-spirited” programming, and she has wrung every drop of it from the Oprah Winfrey Network. The unveiling of her 24-hour cable network, OWN, which began at noon on New Year's Day, was most striking for what it lacked: nowhere in that opening gush of feel-good highlight reels, self-improvement plans, spiritual quests, aha! moments, celebrity master classes, and people finding their truths and living their own best lives was there a snicker of malice or a hint of raillery. ... OWN aims to be a 24-hour non-news network that inspires, entertains and educates viewers – with the back of the hand tied behind its back. More here.

Religion News Service Daily Roundup
Tuesday, Jan. 4, Wednesday, Jan. 5, and Thursday, Jan. 6.

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Diocese of Bethlehem
(1) The newSpin blog
(2) The DioBeth website
(3) Twitter.DioBeth
(4) Twitter.Kat Lehman
(5) Public news and info lists: At the Diobeth website, enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) NewsLine
(2) News & Notices
(3) Infoline
(4) Episcopal News Service
(5) Episcopal Church website
(6) Twitter
(7) Facebook
(8) YouTube
(9) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(10) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(11) AngicansOnline.
• Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.

*************
Send info about newSpin 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. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, 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 on the left column of 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 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.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication MInister (1985-2010), 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]

What prophecy guides you?

Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow
Preached at Diocesan House on The Feast of the Epiphany
6 January 2011

On one of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I cracked a fortune cookie and read: “To truly find yourself you should play hide and seek alone.”  The Wise Men weren’t seeking themselves.

The Gospel proclaimed on The Epiphany places us right in the midst of St Matthew’s evangelism, a proclamation that employs repeated formulas.

Often we hear something very like: “this took place to fulfill the words of the prophet…”  The Wise Men themselves follow the star having learned about it in the Book of Numbers: “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17).

The Star of Bethlehem signifies God’s protection of God’s people and identifies that protection with Jesus.  By following a star, by following a prophecy, the Wise Men find Jesus.  What prophecy do you follow until it brings you to look upon his face?

My favorite is the one Jesus uses to disclose and to reveal himself.  Shut up in prison, John the Baptist sends some of his followers to Jesus to ask him: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  And Jesus tells them: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.  And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” (St Matthew 11:2-6).

Jesus refers to Isaiah 29, Isaiah 35, and Isaiah 61 in his answer, and those prophecies lead and draw John and his disciples to Jesus.  The really important thing is that it really doesn’t matter which prophecy or which truth you follow or seek.  They all lead to him.

You can be a bricklayer or an attorney, a machine-worker or a writer, trying to do it the best way or the cleanest way, the smartest way or the honestest way, and your steps will lead you to him, for he knows the bricks, understands the laws and the machines, and comprehends the words.  For they are his, and so are you.