DioBeth newSpin

newSpin 111229

The newSpin newsletter, Dec. 29, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday

TopSpin
• GTS, +KJS on CBS ... [Episcopal Café and Episcopal Church]  In case you missed it, here is the video of the service broadcast around the U.S. on CBS on Christmas Eve from General Theological Seminary with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preaching and onetime rector of Grace Allentown Father Pat Malloy providing liturgical direction and serving as officiant. Find text of the sermon here.

• Episcopal Church's new website ... The communication department of the Episcopal Church has a right to sound its horn for the complete transformation and redesign of its website, launched yesterday, December 28. Efficient and user friendly, it's also fun. Read about it here. Try it here.

• Each service has its own flavor ... [Carol Horton, writing at Bakery] Each of the services of Christmas has its own flavor and emphasis, and I look forward to all of them.  At four on Christmas Eve it is the children and their families, the angels and shepherds and the setting up of the creche, with all it's awe and wonder.  At 10 pm, the awe and wonder are still there, but the emphasis is on the mystery and complexity of it all.  We welcome college students and other adults, along with teenagers who, in their own minds, have 'outgrown' the children's service.  And in the cold light of morning, as we read John's prologue, the story expands and connects to before creation and farther into the future than any of us normally contemplate.  It is a progression -- a dance -- I enjoy each year, and find that I continue to receive much more than I give.  No matter which day of the week, that I get to do this as a priest still fills me with awe and wonder.

• Clergy families figure out how to handle the Christmas crunch ... [Andrew Gerns, writing at Bakery] While I certainly come out of these days tired, I am grateful for the way Christmas unfolds in our Prayer Book and lectionary. As for Christmas on a Sunday, I found that both the attendance and the atmosphere very worshipful and joyous. My family figured out long ago how to handle the Christmas crunch...just as we do Thanksgiving. Dad doing liturgy is part and parcel of what makes our family holidays complete. Every iteration of when Christmas falls in a week is challenging...and I don't prefer a Sunday Christmas Eve either...but God always manages to show up.

• From the Queen ... [Bishop Paul, writing at Bakery] The clearest public Christmas message I've seen – and from a lay person. Bless her heart. Read it here.

Icon workshop with Peter Pearson, at Cathedral

[From Mariclair Partee]

The Cathedral will host an icon workshop led by the Rev. Peter Pearson, May 3-6, from the evening of Thursday through Sunday. Please see the attached flyer (in .pages and .doc formats) for details, and feel free to distribute it widely. The maximum number of students is 25. Register early. Our icon for this workshop will be a modified Virgin and Child commissioned in celebration of the 150th anniversary of our congregation. Folks who came last year can attest to Father Peter’s skill (and patience) as a teacher. No experience necessary; all material costs are included in the workshop fee. I hope to see you in May.

Peace,
Mariclair+

Download Pearson.IconWorkshop.pages

Download Pearson.IconWorkshop.doc

newSpin 111226

The newSpin newsletter, Dec. 26, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Just when we think we might have overdosed on Nativity scenes, the gospel reading in church this Sunday will feature this austere reminder: that which is, always has been. It IS. Jesus of Nazareth was born in a time and a place, but Jesus the Christ is not contained in a moment. The moments of Christ are all now. ––Barbara Crafton

TopSpin
• Working with what we don't know about Sudan ... [Bishop Paul] Some of you have noticed reports about the archbishop of the Sudanese church recognizing the Anglican Church in North America as the true Anglican presence in North America, and pledging his church to work only with "orthodox" dioceses within The Episcopal Church. The archbishop of Sudan has accordingly withdrawn his invitation to our Presiding Bishop to visit Sudan. The issue is the status of gay and lesbian people in our church. It is my hope that Bishop Anthony of Kajo-Keji and I can have personal communication before there is any public analysis from either of us on the substance of this matter, or of the theological and ecclesial dimensions of an individual national church taking decisions about how the Anglican Communion is present in another place, and I wrote to him on Saturday and have forwarded other correspondence to him, including this. More here.

• Church bombings in Nigeria ... [NYTimes] A series of Christmas Day church bombings, in which 25 people died, appeared to be a coordinated assault by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect with suspected training links to Al Qaeda. The sect, known as Boko Haram, until now mostly targeted the police, government and military in its insurgency effort, but the bombings on Sunday represented a new, religion-tinged front, a tactic that threatens to exploit the already frayed relations between Nigeria’s nearly evenly split populations of Christians and Muslims. The worst bombing was at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madala, a suburb of the capital, Abuja, where an explosion ripped through a crowd of worshipers as they left morning Mass. More here.

• Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering System needs volunteers ... Here.

• Renewal Assembly 4 ... will focus on empowering leaders in our parishes and is designed to help vestry members in particular and those interested in leadership and taking an active role in parish vitality. Saturday, February 11, at seven locations around the diocesee. More here. Register here.

• Grateful in West Pittston ...  [John Major, rector, Trinity West Pittston] In September as I walked and drove the streets of West Pittston, I was overwhelmed by the destruction and the enormity of the loss suffered when the Susquehanna River washed through homes and businesses just blocks away from Trinity.  Today I am overwhelmed again, this time by the magnitude and generosity of your response to our neighbors affected by the flood. More here. [Janine Ungvarsky, Trinity West Pittston] As part of our ongoing efforts to help our neighbors as they work to recover from the September flooding, Trinity West Pittston recently held a Christmas Cheer distribution of new and used toys, clothing, and other items, including the gift cards so many generous parishes keep sending us to share it our neighbors. A number of West Pittston residents stopped by to select items that we hope will make their Christmas a little brighter.  As has been the case each time we've reached out to our neighbors, we found ourselves touched by the stories they share with us. More here. 

• Grace Montessori School funding from City of Allentown may go down ... [Beth Reed, rector, Grace Allentown] Today's (Dec. 21) New York Times has an article about a federal program that directly benefits cities. The article focuses on Allentown. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program channels federal funds to cities; Allentown has used such funds to improve downtown buildings and services. The CDBG funding is being reduced again this year at the federal level, so Allentown will receive a smaller grant, and the city will have less money for such downtown projects. Our school, Grace Montessori, has applied for and received Community Development Block Grants for several years ($15,000 a year). We use the money to provide scholarships to Allentown children. This has been one way the church, through our school, contributes to the vitality of our downtown. If this source of funding goes down, so will our ability to fund scholarships.

• Occupy Wall Street v. Trinity Wall Street ... Bishop Packard, all decked out in the paddy wagon, video here. Interview with Bishop George and Brook Packard, video here. Also see Episcopal News Service.

Father Gerns’ illustrated, simplified and painless Bible Study*

*with apologies to Marshal Efron

This is not the Bible for dummies. But it is for people who feel dumb around the Bible.

Wednesdays, 6:15 to 7:30 p.m., in the Charney Room at Trinity Easton.

Call the Trinity office for more info and/or to sign up: 610-253-0792

Next session: January 4 – February 15: Jesus’ Prayer Book (and ours): The Psalms

Imagine a book in the Bible where God doesn't tell us what to do, but where we tell God how we feel! That's the Book of Psalms!

Have you ever wondered if there really is a God? Have you ever wondered if God really cares about you?

Have you ever wondered why God would allow evil to exist or let evil triumph over good? Have you ever had to make a choice but weren't sure which way to turn? How you ever been awed by the beauty of nature? Have you ever been so sad that you did not know how to go on or felt so happy that you wanted to praise God in every way you could?

The Psalms express every possible human emotion and honestly explore every human experience. The Psalms are the record of how people react to God every day.

When we pray the psalms, we are using the very same prayer book that Jesus used. We are praying the words he prayed, we are summing our feelings, our questions, our experiences, before God just as Jesus did.

We will look at some of the Psalms to get a flavor of the depth, power and poignancy of this book.

January 4, 2012 - Happy or Wicked: You Choose! (Psalm 1)
January 11, 2012 - The Majesty of God (Psalm 8)
January 18, 2012 - The Forgiveness of Sin (Psalm 32)
January 25, 2012 - A Lament for the City (Psalm 79)
February 1, 2012 - God's Dwelling Place (Psalm 84)
February 8, 2012 - Revenge! (Psalm 137)
February 15, 2012 - I Will Praise God (Psalm 146)
Please sign up in the back of the church or call the parish office to sign up.

Working with what we don't know about Sudan

Bishop Paul wrote the following to the people of the Diocese of Bethlehem on Bakery, the list-serve of the Diocese of Bethlehem.

Some of you have noticed reports about the archbishop of the Sudanese church recognizing the Anglican Church in North America as the true Anglican presence in North America, and pledging his church to work only with "orthodox" dioceses within The Episcopal Church. The archbishop of Sudan has accordingly withdrawn his invitation to our Presiding Bishop to visit Sudan. The issue is the status of gay and lesbian people in our church.

It is my hope that Bishop Anthony of Kajo-Keji and I can have personal communication before there is any public analysis from either of us on the substance of this matter, or of the theological and ecclesial dimensions of an individual national church taking decisions about how the Anglican Communion is present in another place, and I wrote to him on Saturday and have forwarded other correspondence to him, including this. It is my hope to get some sense of why the letter was written, why it was written now, and what nuances may be lost on westerners (and vice versa--I couldn't begin to compose a theological statement in a second living language). Until I hear from Bishop Anthony about any _actual_ change in the nature of our relationship, including our perceived status as orthodox (or orthodox enough), I am simply pausing, on both the personal and administrative levels, and have communicated that sense of pause to the New Hope administrators as well as to Bishop Anthony. To me, this is one of those times when it is necessary to do nothing.

Ideally, Bishop Anthony and I will write to you together, as we have done in the past when there was tension. In any event, I will share what I learn from him.


WHILE WE WAIT

1) Here is what I am remembering as I wait for more information: every day up to 1600 Sudanese children go to school because you and I have cared about them. That concrete fact will anchor us as we try to understand a particular moment in the always-changing contours of any living relationship.

2) Those of us who have a passion about sisters and brothers in Africa will need to continue believing that love always finds a way. The question of the giving and receiving love between those who may not understand or approve of each other is absolutely essential to the gospel of reconciliation, and this issue always comes before fine points biblical interpretation or ecclesiastical politics. Politics can be about love, however, in the long run.

3) Advent is about waiting, as Canon Anne Kitch has reminded us so movingly over the last four weeks in her daily columns. But to those who have grown weary through millenia of waiting for dignity--or physical security--because of who they are sexually, and who may be beyond-tired of being an issue for other people to debate yet again, I express my profound and lasting regret, a regret really too deep for mere words, along with my admiration for their bothering to be Christian at all and my belief that there will be another set of circumstances if we really choose that as God's people.

Blessings,
+Paul

posted by Andrew Gerns

Bishop's School, Spring Semester

BISHOP'S SCHOOL- SPRING 2012

The courses for the spring session of Bishop's School are:
    New Testament - taught by The Reverend Daniel Gunn - AM session
    Ethics and Moral Theology - taught by The Reverend John Heffner - PM session

The dates are:
    January 28
    February 4, 25
    March 3, 17, 31
    April 14, 21, 28
    May 5 (12 is a snow day)

The morning session will be from 9:30-11:30, lunch from 11:30-noon,
afternoon session from 12-2.

The classes will meet at St. Stephen's in Wilkes-Barre.

Because the focus of Bishop's School is to prepare vocational deacons, the curriculum is designed
to meet the canonical requirement for this ministry.  However, anyone is welcome to attend the classes. 
People in the ordination process may only miss one session and still receive credit for the course.  The
classes rotate so that someone may enter at the beginning of ay semester and continue through the
three year program. 

The fee is $75 for each class and is payable with registration.  Checks should be written to:  The Diocese
of Bethlehem, marked for Bishop's School.

To register, please email jteter@diobeth.org (or mail to Canon Teter at Diocesan House, 333 Wyandotte St.
Bethlehem, PA  18015) the following information:  your name, address, pone number(s), and email address. 
We need to be able to reach you in case of inclement weather or other last minute changes in the schedule.

The texts required for the classes are:

New Testament
    An Introduction to the New Testament by Raymond Brown.

Ethics and Moral Theology
    The Oxford Annotated Bible, any ed.  (New Interpreters' and Harper-Collins study Bibles are acceptable but not             preferred).
    The Book of Common Prayer

(Note:  All of these books are available from Amazon.com - both new and used).

If you have questions, please contact Canon Teter.

The Rev. Canon Jane B Teter
Diocese of Bethlehem
333 Wyandotte St.
Bethlehem, PA  18015
610-691-5655 ext 228
jteter@diobeth.org

newSpin 111219

 The newSpin newsletter, Dec. 19, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday

TopSpin
• One in two people are poor or low income ... [AP] Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families. "Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty. "The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years." More here.

• Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering System needs volunteers ... Here.

• Renewal Assembly IV ... will focus on empowering leaders in our parishes and is designed to help vestry members in particular and those interested in leadership and taking an active role in parish vitality. Saturday, February 11, at seven locations around the diocesee. More here. Registration is open online.

 

Renewal Assembly IV: Empowered Leaders, Renewed Congregations

Pray For...

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

Sgt. 1st Class Clark A. Corley Jr., 35, of Oxnard, Calif.
Lance Cpl. Christopher P. J. Levy, 21, of Ramseur, N.C.,
Spc. Ryan M. Lumley, 21, of Lakeland, Fla.
Spc. Thomas J. Mayberry, 21, of Springville, Calif.
Sgt. Christopher L. Muniz, 24, of New Cuyama, Calif.
Spc. Ronald H. Wildrick Jr., 30, of Blairstown, N.J.

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

Want to receive this in your email box? Subscribe to our "Pray For..." list via our "Get Connected" box on our web site: www.diobeth.org

Christopher Hitchens dead at 62 – Is he still an atheist?

By Bill Lewellis

Christopher Hitchens was diagnosed during the spring of 2010 with stage-four metastasized esophageal cancer. He may may have been our best known and most bitter atheist – author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Reviewing the book in the Washington Post, Boston College professor Stephen Prothero wrote that he had “never encountered a book whose author is so fundamentally unacquainted with its subject.” Hitchens went after easy targets. Most would be on my list of “bad religion.”

During the next few months, he wrote three brutally honest pieces for Vanity Fair on his experience of “the unfamiliar country” of people undergoing treatment for cancer. The same critic who panned Hitchens’ knowledge of religion wrote that Hitchens' reflections ranked up there with the best writing he knows on the topic of cancer. “In whatever kind of a ‘race’ life may be,” Hitchens wrote in VF, “I have very abruptly become a finalist. Like so many of life’s varieties of experience, the novelty of a diagnosis of malignant cancer has a tendency to wear off. The thing begins to pall, even to become banal. One can become quite used to the specter of the eternal Footman, like some lethal old bore lurking in the hallway at the end of the evening, hoping for the chance to have a word. I don’t so much object to his holding my coat in that marked manner, as if mutely reminding me that it’s time to be on my way. No, it’s the snickering that gets me down."

Then he lost his voice. "Like health itself, the loss of such a thing can’t be imagined until it occurs ... I wait impatiently for a high dose of protons to be fired into my body at two-thirds the speed of light. What do I hope for? If not a cure, then a remission. And what do I want back? In the most beautiful apposition of two of the simplest words in our language: the freedom of speech.

The oncology bargain, he wrote, is that "in return for at least the chance of a few more useful years, you agree to submit to chemotherapy and then, if you are lucky with that, to radiation or even surgery. So here’s the wager: you stick around for a bit, but in return we are going to need some things from you. These things may include your taste buds, your ability to concentrate, your ability to digest, and the hair on your head." 

During his battle with cancer, there were people who told him in hard, hard copy or online that God is punishing him, especially with the loss of his voice, for his "blasphemies" against God and religion. I could not understand such people. Because Hitchens was an atheist, they wanted him to agonize in his illness and then go to hell rather than discover our compassionate God in the undiscovered country of death and what lies beyond.

Read articles in the NYTimes and the Daily Beast.

Thanks,
Bill

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

Advent Lessons and Carols, St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre on December 14th

ChurchPost.com » Advent Lessons and Carols

 

St. Stephen’s Choir will present the annual Festival Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent on Wednesday, December 14 ^th at 6:00 p.m., led and accompanied by Canon Mark Laubach.  Offerings will support St. Stephen’s “Voice For Life” Fund and gifts of food and clothing will be received for those in need.  A reception will follow in the Auditorium.

newSpin 111212

The newSpin newsletter, Dec. 12, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes, the ones who see things differently.  They are not fond of rules.. no respect for status quo.  You can quote…disagree..glorify…or vilify them… You can’t ignore them.  Because they change things.  They push the human race forward. ––A line from a Mac ad, voiced by Richard Dreyfus. [h/t/ Bishop Paul, who added the italics]

TopSpin
• Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering System needs volunteers ... Here.

• Immanuel at the Swimming Hole ... [Bishop Paul] God got into the water with us in the birth of a fragile and vulnerable human baby, who lived our life and died our death and has gone to the fullness of new life ahead of us. There is no part of human experience, from its joys to its horrors, from which God wishes to remain aloof. Read it all on page two of the December/January Diocesan Life.

• The tragedy of Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury ... [Episcopal Café] Andrew Gerns, Trinity Easton rector, who does the Friday news on The Lead, comments at his blog on an article in the Weekly Standard,by Joseph Bottum, titled with the alarmist "The End of Canterbury: will the sun set on the Anglican Communion?"

• John Cardinal Foley, 76, died Sunday morning ... [Bill] I knew John Foley fairly well as a fellow seminarian in Philadelphia and later when I was information officer for the Diocese of Allentown while John was editor of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's weekly newspaper, the Catholic Standard and Times. I knew him well enough not to be surprised that, after serving for 23 years as president of the Vatican's communication office, he was described as "the nicest guy in the Vatican." You may have heard his voice. For a quarter of a century, he hosted NBC's broadcast of the pope's Christmas Mass. Read more below, under TaleSpin.

• RC Bishops: Congress has 'moral obligation' to unemployed ... [Commonweal] Once again, the RC bishops are prodding conservative Republicans in the House toward their “moral obligation” to the poor, telling them that economic justice is a right-to-life issue. More here.

• A Rope We Can't Give Away ... [Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow] A homily preached at Diocesan House, Thursday after Advent Sunday, here.

• The Tithe and Leadership ... [Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow] What plan do you have, or does your parish have, for beginning to tithe?  By its nature, because of its costliness, tithing cannot begin accidentally.  You begin intentionally if you begin. More here.

• Come meet John the Baptist at the Mall ... [Canon Maria Tjeltveit, rector, Mediator Allentown] I admit I was pretty shocked to see it on the sign for the Lehigh Valley Mall. Right underneath “Come Meet Santa at the Mall” it said “Come Meet John the Baptist at the Mall.” This was a first! Read Maria's sermon for Advent 2 here.

• Lay Ministry: Changing the culture, expanding the vision ... [Congregational Resource Guide via Charles Cesaretti] You've seen it in other congregations, and perhaps it's happened in yours. Visitors show up for worship, find the experience rewarding, and decide to join. But it's not long before they drift away. The usual solution? Turn new members into "lay ministers." That is, get them involved in carrying out the church's work. Ask them to serve on the grounds committee, or help out with the annual bazaar, or assist with communion. After all, those tasks need to be done. And if members are involved, they'll stay. Won't they? More here.

The Tithe and Leadership

by Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow
8 December 2011

What plan do you have, or does your parish have, for beginning to tithe?  By its nature, because of its costliness, tithing cannot begin accidentally.  You begin intentionally if you begin.

Dan Charney, the Stewardship Missioner of the Diocese, preaches passionately and eloquently about the tithe, or the practice of giving ten percent of one’s income or produce to the Lord.  Since I came to this Diocese in 1993, I have heard more here about tithing than I had heard altogether before or since from other people including clergy.  Tithing enjoys a long and widespread history.  Religions of people other than the Israelites refer to it and expect it.  Dan’s ministry stakes the claim that tithing is expected here also, and I admire him for it.  He witnesses no failure of nerve on this subject, and he is the better leader for taking a stand.

He is of age; we can ask him, of course, but his stewardship talks have emphasized three reasons to tithe that I list in the priority he gives them.

Kitch and Strickland Top Baseball Prognosticators

by Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow
9 December 2011

With Baseball’s Winter Meetings concluded yesterday, it seems an auspicious time to announce the winners of the 2011 Baseball Prognostication.

The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch and Mr. William Strickland tied as Best Prognosticator while die-hard Yankees’, Phillies’, and Red Sox’ fans, predicting more with their heart than with their head, trailed distantly. 

No one predicted the St Louis Cardinals to be World’s Champions though among DioBeth’s participants Scott Allen, Andrew Gerns, and Jonathan Mayo, may be said to have achieved Honorable Mentions for predicting the Cardinals’ advance to the playoffs.  Another Honorable Mention goes to another prognosticator outside our fold.

“Preacher” Kitch and “The Stick” Strickland rode their way to excellence by tapping the Texas Rangers to repeat as American League Champions.  They alone of all prognosticators predicted the repeat championship.  Three points are awarded for each correct playoff berth (wild cards and division leaders interchangeable); five points are awarded for each league champion; and ten points are awarded for the World’s Champion.

“Preacher” is the Canon for Formation in the Christian Faith in the Diocese of Bethlehem, and “The Stick” is Senior Warden of St Gabriel’s Church in Douglassville.

The 2012 Baseball Prognostication will be announced on February 22, and predictions will be due by Noon of Opening Day, April 4, the day the Cardinals begin defense of their title on the road, opening a new baseball park, against the Miami Marlins.  If you want to participate, just send me an email note to that effect.

New Hope News from Kajo Keji

You can download the latest New Hope News from the Diocese of Kajo Keji below. With this edition, please note that we have built all five primary schools and the secondary school. The college has been completed for some time and we will be working on some other initiatives plus providing furnishings and books for our school. Thank you for all your contributions to date!

Download the latest news from Kajo Keji here:
Download 111208 Kajo Keji News October - December 2011 Issue

Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering System needs volunteers

[From Craig Updegrove]

This winter's ecumenical emergency homeless shelter effort in Bethlehem will start tonight and will run until April 1.  About half of the churches who are shelter sites are outside of walking distance for the homeless to get to, so volunteers are needed to help transport the homeless guests to (in the evening) and from (in the morning) the shelter sites.  This need has created over 500 volunteer opportunities to drive over the 17 weeks the shelters are open.  The following website link has been built to help organize the driving volunteers and to explain the volunteer opportunity in more detail.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/emergency30

Any questions, please contact Brian Gordon at 610-463-5988 or gordonbt@me.com
 
We also have volunteer opportunities available at all of the churches. If you have a night or two that you would like to help, we have many opportunities available. Each night/morning we need volunteers to cook dinner, serve dinner, stay overnight, cook breakfast, and clean-up. I’ve attached a list of all the churches that are participating. The list has the contact numbers so that you can reach the churches directly.

Download the list in a .pdf here.
Download 111208 Client Emergency Shelter Contact _list 12-1-11
 
Thanks,
Craig J Updegrove

Holiday Baking at St. Andrew's Bethlehem

[From St. Andrew's]

Let Us Do Your Holiday Baking
 
Christmas cookies and other delicious baked goods will be on sale on Saturday, December 17 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday, December 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1900 Pennsylvania Avenue (1/4 mile south of Catasauqua Rd. on the border of Allentown and Bethlehem). Check one thing off your holiday to-do list. The talented bakers will have everything from nut toccis to chocolate babka.
 
All proceeds benefit the church’s ministry and mission. The Church is the home of the Pennsylvania Avenue Interfaith Food Pantry and is a host site of the Bethlehem emergency sheltering program. For more information visit www.standrewsbethlehem.org or phone 610 865-3603.

Pray For...

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

Staff Sgt. Vincent J. Bell, 28, of Detroit, Mich.
Sgt. Ryan D. Sharp, 28, of Idaho Falls, Idaho

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

Want to receive this in your email box? Subscribe to our "Pray For..." list via our "Get Connected" box on our web site: www.diobeth.org

Soup Sunday at Mediator, Allentown on December 11th

ChurchPost.com » Soup Sampler Sunday December 11

Soup Sampler this Sunday! Taco Beef                   Pasta E Fagioli Chicken                         Old Fashion Potato   Cooks & Bakers needed See the attachment for recipes PLEASE choose a recipe to make for the luncheon. We also need bakers to contribute cookies & brownies. Hungry people needed $5 per person, $12 per family You can be on your way to do some last minute Christmas shopping or on your way home to wrap those gifts you’ve already purchased without having to worry about providing a hearty noon meal for your family.  Plan now to enjoy a warm bowl of homemade soup (or two or three!) and wonderful fellowship. PB&J for kids and great desserts also. Any leftover soup will be offered for sale!

newSpin 111205

The newSpin newsletter, Dec. 5, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday

There is nothing we can lose in life that does not teach us something worth knowing. Sometimes we learn to pick our friends more carefully. Sometimes we learn not to be so committed to what the world calls 'success.' Sometimes we learn that we have been about the wrong things entirely in life. But there is no such thing as failure as long as we learn something from it. It’s what the French essayist Michel de Montaigne calls 'triumphant failures.' He writes, 'There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.' ––Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister writing about reverencing where we have ended up now.

[Bill] Hammers, saws and staple guns sound above me as I type, directly above me. Hearty roofers are replacing old shingles and some rotted wood with a new roof on our 22-year-old home built by a developer who did not resist shortcuts and shoddy material that made the original price seem a bargain to some 80 new homeowners. Preparing for the advent of winter. The sounds do not distract. For most of my life, I have been able to tune out my environment with little effort. That has been both an advantage and a liability. I have too often lived in my head, outstripping environmental sight and sound. "Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault," as a new RC missal translates part of the Confiteor. Today, however, and during most TV commercials, it is a happy fault.

TopSpin
• Trinity West Pittston Chrstmas Tree Distribution ... [Janine Ungvarsky, FLOODCare Coordinator] On Saturday evening, Trinity West Pittston's grounds turned into a Christmas tree lot as we invited our neighbors affected by the September flooding to choose a Christmas tree or wreath to brighten their holiday. About 60 families came by to choose from an assortment of trees and wreaths delivered fresh that day from a nearby tree lot.  With the sounds of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" filling the air and ample supplies of hot chocolate and cookies baked by parishioners from Trinity and the Episcopal Church Women's group from Prince of Peace in Dallas, we tried to make our guests feel welcome as they chose a tree. More here. Find earlier posts by Janine on moving day, here and furniture distribution here. Monetary donations are still the best method of helping those affected by the flood, so that gift cards can be purchased for food and household goods. You may send checks payable to The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, memo line: Flood Relief. 333 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA 18015. 

• Reading PA ... [Bill] I was startled to see on the front page of The Morning Call (Wednesday, Nov. 30) that the City of Reading has been rated "the poorest city of its size in the United States." Average household income: $35,000. Families below poverty level: 33%. Value of owner-occupied housing: $69,000. The feature by Kathleen Hennessey of the Tribune Washington Bureau, a special report on income disparity, may be found here. See also a late September NYTimes story here.

• Anonymous Secret Santa ... [Huffington Post] A businessman dressed in red and wearing a Kangol cap with "Elf" embroidered on the back surprised residents of Reading, Pa. this week when he visited thrift stores, laundromats and bus stations and handed out $100 bills to people he met along the way. Ron Devlin, who first reported on the Secret Santa in the Reading Eagle and accompanied the good Samaritan as he walked around the city, told NBC Philadelphia that "people were just blown away." Devlin told the TV station that the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, was inspired to visit Reading when he learned that it was the poorest city of its size in America. More here.

• Line grows for free meals at U.S. schools ... [NYTimes] "Millions of American schoolchildren are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents, many once solidly middle class, have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis." More here.

• A Rope We Can't Give Away ... [Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow] A homily preached at Diocesan House, Thursday after Advent Sunday, here.

• Come meet John the Baptist at the Mall ... [Canon Maria Tjeltveit, rector, Mediator Allentown] I admit I was pretty shocked to see it on the sign for the Lehigh Valley Mall. Right underneath “Come Meet Santa at the Mall” it said “Come Meet John the Baptist at the Mall.” This was a first! Read Maria's sermon for Advent 2 here.

• Patrick Malloy has been named associate dean at General Theological Seminary. More here.