DioBeth newSpin: May 2015

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May 2015

May 28, 2015

newSpin 150528

newSpin, the newsletter
May 28, 2015
Bill Lewellis

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TopSpin

• Flood damage at St. Stephen's Wilkes-Barre … [Joe Parish, interim rector, May 28] Please pray for us at St. Stephen's as our Parish House suffered some flood damage from a freak wind and thunder storm that blew branches and leaves into the roof drain resulting in the collection of a large amount of water on the roof and broke through into the Children's Chapel and church offices. The fire department decided the electricity to the House had to be cut off. As we are to host the Diocesan Stewardship/Evangelism conference in the Auditorium Saturday, we may need to seek an alternative location for that. Also a power cable from the House to one organ mechanism is not functioning, so we may have no organ until it is restored. • Update, May 28 … [Debra Kellerman] The only section affected is the office section. No copying/Internet available. The Nave lights are fine along with the parish hall (aka Auditorium). All questions should be directed to David Foust, our Senior Warden at the church and status updates will also come from him. Thank you for your prayers and concerns as we work through this paragraph in our story. • Update, Dan Charney … The Stewardship/Evangelism conference is STILL ON. I have spoken to folks involved at St. Stephen's, and have been assured that we are still on for Saturday. The areas we will be using are all ok. The damage done affects other areas of the building, so thanks be to God, we can go ahead as planned. If you know of people registered, and can spread the word, we would greatly appreciate it.
• The May 30 Stewardship Conference … [Archdeacon Cluett] will take place as scheduled at St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre despite the water damage. On May 30 from 8:15 am until 3 pm, the Diocesan Stewardship and Evangelism Committee will host a day-long conference at St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre. The Rev. Dr. C.K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will lead the day. His topic will be "The Barnabas Principle: A Practical Approach to Congregational Development." More info here.

• Look for a Diocese of Bethlehem newsletter every Thursday … [Bill] One or another newsletter is published every Thursday in the following order: (1) The Leadership News, (2) The newSpin newsletter, (3) The Diocesan e-Newsletter, (4) The newSpin newsletter.
The Leadership News and the Diocesan e-Newsletter are official publications of the Diocese of Bethlehem. They include news, info, features and events relating to our diocese and parishes. Find the most recent Diocesan e-Newsletter, May 21, here. Find the most recent Leadership News, May 7, here.
The newSpin newsletter is not an official publication – and will usually not duplicate news, info and features relating to our diocese and parishes found in the official newsletters. It is a relatively lengthy eclectic sampling of items related to religion – at times not, at times not so clearly – that the editor thinks readers might find to be of interest. It has been a kind of hobby of a onetime communication minister, the work of a volunteer who in retirement enjoys and dedicates time to do the research required. I always post the newSpin newsletter on the newSpin blog. If you wish to receive it by email, please send a note to Jo Trepagnier, jo@diobeth.org.

• Look online … for the Diocese of Bethlehem Facebook Page, Facebook Group (Bethlehem Episcopalians) and Twitter feed.

• Bethlehem Episcopalians … is a new Facebook group for conversations about mission, spirituality, Christian formation, and more. It was launched a few weeks ago and will replace the Bakery email list which has been taken down. "Bethlehem Episcopalians is an open group," wrote Archdeacon Rick Cluett, "which means that anyone can join and items that you post can be shared by group members on their own Facebook pages. This offers each of us the opportunity to reach a larger audience with news and conversations about what God is doing in our diocese." Join the Facebook group, which, as of Wednesday, May 27, includes more than 150 members.

• Bakery list will shut down … [Archdeacon Rick Cluett] Dear Friends, At 5 o’clock (EDT) this afternoon (May 28) the Bakery list will shut down. The Bakery list has had a long history of ministry to the members and friends of the Diocese of Bethlehem as a vehicle for information sharing, communication and conversation. Membership has crossed parish, diocesan, state, and national boundaries over the years and decades. Bill Lewellis has been the primary keeper and manager of the list since shortly after its beginning. He is also the unofficial list historian. I am very grateful for this ministry to the diocese and the larger church in which he has served so well. We know that “new occasions teach new duties” and the time has come to move to a new communication model. Please do make the switch to “Bethlehem Episcopalians" on Facebook. Sharing and conversing is already well underway there. You can find and join “Bethlehem Episcopalians” by clicking no this address or pasting it in your browser: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bethlehemepiscopalians/. I hope to “see,” read and converse with all of you over there as we go forward together with the companionship of the Holy Spirit.
• The early days … [Barbara Caum, Trinity Athens] Ah, yes, the days of waiting for the dial up to shake hands with the Ecunet server, the blue screen with plain white text, and the community that arose from those simple beginnings. Amusingly, I was cleaning out an old cupboard recently and found 3.5 inch disks for Ecunet software for Quest, the Episcopal arm of that interdenominational community, which I was the wrangler for back in the day. BethlehemofPA (early version of Bakery) was a wonderful thing. That was well over 20 years ago, when I was doing presentations around the national church about the wonders of the Internet, that amazing new thing. It's hard to believe. Onward and upward, but not without a bit of sadness.
• On a Saturday morning in 1994 … [Bill] I posted a story on Ecunet in response to a request from a writer in NH, prompted by a quote posted a few days earlier by a writer from NM. Later that Saturday, a writer from NY thanked me for posting the story. He said a friend from Bellingham WA sent it to him. "It's exactly what I needed to wrap up my sermon tomorrow," he wrote. Isn't it a wonder that something may happen for someone in a church in Aurora NY because someone in Bellingham WA felt that a story someone in Bethlehem PA told in response to a request from someone in Keene NH prompted by a quote posted by someone in Albuquerque NM was worth copying for a wider cyberspace public? That's the way it was. It hooked me into spending time online.

• Pope's focus on poor revives scorned theology … [NYTimes] Six months after becoming the first Latin American pontiff, Pope Francis invited an octogenarian priest from Peru for a private chat at his Vatican residence. Not listed on the pope’s schedule, the September 2013 meeting with the priest, Gustavo Gutiérrez, soon became public — and was just as quickly interpreted as a defining shift in the Roman Catholic Church. Father Gutiérrez is a founder of liberation theology, the Latin American movement embracing the poor and calling for social change, which conservatives once scorned as overtly Marxist and the Vatican treated with hostility. Now, Father Gutiérrez is a respected Vatican visitor, and his writings have been praised in the official Vatican newspaper. Francis has brought other Latin American priests back into favor and often uses language about the poor that has echoes of liberation theology. Read on.
• Liberation Theology on the NYTimes front page … [Episcopal Café] A little late to the party, the New York Times has written a lengthy article about the resurgence of liberation theology, a movement within the Roman Catholic Church that fell out of favor during the Cold War because of theoretical links to Soviet Russia. It was a movement embraced by many Catholics, including the famous writer, Graham Greene. Read on.

• Irish Catholicism supports same-sex marriage … [RNS] The stunning vote of the Irish to legalize same-sex marriage will be taken as one more indication (along with the legalization of divorce and homosexual behavior and abortion if the mother’s life is at risk, plus the decline in Mass attendance and priestly vocations) of the collapse of the Catholic Church in a country where it once bestrode the sod like a colossus. Such would appear to be the wages of a rolling sexual abuse scandal, particularly acute because of the church’s control of public education, and the ugly history of its abusive homes for wayward boys and girls. But for all that, Ireland remains a country where over 70 percent of the population identifies as Catholic, where a higher proportion of Catholics go to Mass than in the U.S., where the divorce rate is low. And yet, every Irish political party supported the referendum and the citizenry voted in favor by a 62-38 margin. What gives? Read on. Also, Irish voters were not swayed by their church. Read it at Crux. And, Irish vote reflects diminished moral authority of Catholic Church. Read it at Religion Dispatches.

The stunning vote of the Irish to legalize same-sex marriage will be taken as one more indication (along with the legalization of divorce and homosexual behavior and abortion if the mother’s life is at risk, plus the decline in Mass attendance and priestly vocations) of the collapse of the Catholic Church in a country where it once bestrode the sod like a colossus. Such would appear to be the wages of a rolling sexual abuse scandal, particularly acute because of the church’s control of public education, and the ugly history of its abusive homes for wayward boys and girls.

But for all that, Ireland remains a country where over 70 percent of the population identifies as Catholic, where a higher proportion of Catholics go to Mass than in the U.S., where the divorce rate is low. And yet, every Irish political party supported the referendum and the citizenry voted in favor by a 62-38 margin. What gives?

- See more at: http://marksilk.religionnews.com/2015/05/23/irish-catholicism-supports-same-sex-marriage/#sthash.c6vMYDqD.dpuf

Episcopal/Anglican
• Saying the unsayable: The New Statesman's new issue on blasphemy … [The New Statesman] "If you are forbidden to voice the hard questions, this might suggest that faith survives only by never being challenged," the former archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, writes in an essay defending blasphemy. "Job and some of the Psalms remind us that sometimes the seriousness of faith is most effectively explored precisely in the risky business of testing the limits. And without such testing, such forcefully expressed doubt, you may never know the real strength or weakness of what you claim to believe. The secularist needs to understand some of the internal critique that faith is always struggling with; and the believer needs to recognise that blasphemy isn’t necessarily a matter for panic, let alone violence. It may even be a gateway into a larger and more durable commitment." Read on.

• Episcopal Bishop Leopold Frade will leave behind a legacy of social activism … [Miami Herald] Remember the Mariel Boatlift in 1980? Here.

•• Bishops United Against Gun Violence plans prayerful procession at General Convention … 61 bishops are planning an outdoor procession on Sunday morning, June 28, during General Convention. News release here. Member of the group here.

•• Four chosen as nominees for presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church … [ENS] The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop May 1 announced the names of the bishops it will nominate this summer to succeed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The four names will be formally submitted to the General Convention during a joint session on June 26, the day prior to the day set for the election by the House of Bishops of the 27th presiding bishop. The nominees are: The Rt. Rev. Thomas Breidenthal, 64, Diocese of Southern Ohio; The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, 62, Diocese of North Carolina; The Rt. Rev. Ian Douglas, 56, Diocese of Connecticut; The Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith, 61, Diocese of Southwest Florida. Read on. The JNCPB will shortly release additional information from each of the nominees. Each nominee has responded to questions about his vision for the church, which will be posted to the General Convention website soon. Additionally, each nominee made himself available for a video interview. These will also be made available soon.

•• Learn about General Convention … [ECF Vital Practices] Resources that may help. Here.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article20561976.html#storylink=cpy

• Resources … way below.

SpiritSpin
•• Jubilate – Pentecost 2015 (B) … Jubilate is a gift of the Diocese of Bethlehem to the Episcopal and Anglican world through the kindness and talent of Canon Cliff Carr who has been doing this for more than 30 years. Thank you, Cliff. Download Jubilate Pentecost B 2015

• 'Dying is my next career' … [RNS] Author Phyllis Tickle faces death just as she enjoyed life. “Am I grateful for this?” says renowned spirituality author, facing Stage IV lung cancer. “Not exactly. But I’m not unhappy about it. And that’s very difficult for people to understand.” Read on.

• The Friend … [Esquire, Michael Teague] "No one ever told me the truth about dying," says Teague. "Not once. When it happened to my beloved, I lost my footing in more than one way." His wife was just thirty-four. They had two little girls. The cancer was everywhere, and the parts of dying that nobody talks about were about to start. His best friend came to help out for a couple weeks. And he never left. Read on.

• The Last Day of her Life … [NYTimes Magazine, Robin Marantz Henig] When Sandy Bem, a Cornell psychology professor, found out she had Alzheimer's at the age of 65, she knew immediately that before the disease claimed her mind, she would take her own life. "I want to live only for as long as I continue to be myself," she told her doctor. But how would she know when the right moment arrived to make her final exit? This is the agonizing question Bem wrestled with over the next five years, a period chronicled intimately in Robin Marantz Henig's cover story. "She wanted to squeeze in as much intellectual and emotional joy as she could before she died, but she wanted to make sure she didn't wait too long," Henig writes. "She needed to be engaged enough in her life to be able to end it." Read on.

• 'The Road to Character' and a path to grace … [WaPo, Michael Gerson] With his new book, “The Road to Character,” David Brooks — New York Times columnist, PBS “NewsHour” commentator and serial mensch — emerges as a countercultural leader. His goal is the recovery of “a vast moral vocabulary and set of moral tools, developed over centuries and handed down from generation to generation.” His method is to profile “heroes of renunciation” — a diverse group consisting of men and women, minorities and whites, gay people and straight, aristocratic and blue-collar, generally shaped by tragedy and driven to make unsparing demands on themselves. Read on.

• Tongues of fire and sacred mysteries  … [The Economist] The word Pentecost is from the Greek for the “50th [day]” since Easter. There is more to Pentecost than just its etymology, though. The holiday highlights the very different attitudes of the major world religions towards language. Read on.

• Spirit Resources  ... way below.

Columns, Sermons, Reflections and other Spin

•• Your sermon? … If you have a sermon you might like uploaded to the newSpin blog and linked to from the newSpin newsletter, point bill.lewellis@gmail.com to it online.

• At the Burial Office for Dolores Caskey … [Scott Allen] Below, under Rest in Peace.

Where Religion, Culture and Politics Might Intersect
• No politics in church? Not so fast … [Religion & Politics] What does it mean for the church to be political? How should the church make decisions about when to engage or avoid politics? And what visions of politics are communicated by the actual practices of congregations? Read on.

Evangelism/Stewardship/Worship/Church Growth
•• Stewardship Reflections … [Diocesan Stewardship Commission] Current through mid-summer. Here.

• 5 ways churches inflicted pain on themselves  … [RNS, Tom Ehrich] Christianity isn't in trouble at all. Churches are in trouble. Denominations are in trouble. Religious institutions like seminaries are in trouble. Professional church leaders are in trouble. But whether or not our churches stay open for business, God will keep on loving all that God has made, writes Tom Ehrich. Read on.

• Resources for church communications in the digital age … [Faith and Leaderahp]  Christian leaders today have to grapple with one of the most profoundly disruptive trends in the world: the digital revolution. Faith & Leadership offers resources to help with communications -- online, in traditional media, in marketing, and within organizations. Read on.

• Lilly Family School of Philanthropy … Dedicated to improving philanthropy by training and empowering students and practitioners to create positive and lasting change in the world. Here.

• Resources  ... way below

In the Media
• Grace Kingston vandalized … [Episcopal Café] Graffiti on the church walls, the Gospel Book destroyed, statues and pew candles smashed and the tabernacle and the reserve sacraments desecrated. Grace Episcopal in Kingston, Pennsylvania, built in 1930, was vandalized on May 18. Read on.

• New Maryland bishop interviewed on NPR … [Episcopal Café] The appointment of the Rt Rev Chilton Knudsen as Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Maryland, following the deposition of Heather Cook, has drawn widespread attention and affirmation.Knudsen, a recovering alcoholic who has made recovery support and education part of her own ministry, spoke to NPR’s Renee Montagne from an addiction education day for clergy in Pennsylvania. Read on.

• Telling the good news, in the media ... [Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson] If the media isn’t telling the stories you want told it is possible (we say very gently) that those stories aren’t interesting or significant enough to warrant coverage. Or, it is possible that you are not presenting them to the media in a way that catches their attention. Or perhaps you have not presented stories to the media at all. It isn’t easy to get your congregation, diocese, conference, or other sort of Christian organization into the newspaper or in online media outlets unless something has gone significantly wrong. It is even harder to get it on television or the radio. But it is possible if you absorb these 10 simple tips. Read on.

Rest in Peace
• Sermon at Burial Office, Dolores Caskey … [Scott Allen] No matter where you knew Dolores I can say that all that she did emanated from a deep faith in a God who is manifested in self-giving love. This faith did not express itself in saccharine piety, but in incarnational acts of justice, truth, mercy and love. Her faith had a very real social expression for the poor, the marginalized, the unfairly treated and the helpless. She took everything in stride and even in defeat did not back down from her principles. She was a non-anxious presence when emotions were high and more smoke than light was being generated in any debate or discussion---she was part of our Church’s controversies. For her, everything did have its time and season, but truth, justice and mercy did not. Articulate, she didn’t shy away from eating your lunch when an important principle was at stake. Read on.

• Brother Andrew Colquhoun, 77 … A funeral service for Brother Andrew will be held at Holy Cross Monastery, West Park NY on Sunday, May 31st, at 3 PM. All are invited. If you are able to attend, please let our Guesthouse Office know at 845-384-6660 or guesthouse@hcmnet.org. Read on here and here and here.

• Anne Meara, 85 … [Forward] Born into a Roman Catholic family, she converted to Reform Judaism in 1961, as she told People Magazine in 1977, because she “wanted my children to know who they were.” Read on. Obituary here.

• John F. Nash Jr, 86 … [WaPo, Emily Langer, and Reuters] Nobel laureate's life story inspired the Oscar-winning 2001 film A Beautiful Mind. He and his wife Alicia, 82, died Saturday (May 23) in a taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. The West Virginia-born mathematician's breakthrough work on game theory came before he was 30, when debilitating schizophrenia began taking hold. His wife helped him through the "lost" decdes until he began to "intellectually reject" his delusions, ultimately solving the most vexing puzzle of all. Read on here and here. AP obituary here.

• John M. Templeton Jr., 75 … [RNA, Cathy Lynn Grossman] philanthropist devoted to science and religion, a pediatric surgeon who left medicine behind to carry on his fathers passion for pursuing “new spiritual information” through the sciences as president and chairman of the Templeton Foundation. Read on. Obituary here.

TaleSpin

• Faith and fiscal responsibility cause many conservatives to change their view of the death penalty … [ABA Journal] Along with spending issues, faith is taking a more prominent place in the anti-death penalty movement. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty recently recruited conservative religious groups to lobby for an end to capital punishment. Read on. • Nebraska, and the conservative case for opposing the death penalty … [WaPo, Amber Phillips, May 27] Nebraska is now the first Republican state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty. Lawmakers there voted to abolish it last week, and on Wednesday they successfully overrode the Republican governor's veto to do so. So how did this happen? While the legislature is technically nonpartisan, it is for all intents and purposes under GOP control. And Republicans in Nebraska are successfully arguing that getting rid of the death penalty is a fundamentally conservative position. Read on.

• Americans continue to shift left on key moral issues … [Gallup] Moral Majority, redefined. Americans are more likely now than in the early 2000s to find a variety of behaviors morally acceptable, including gay and lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between an unmarried man and woman. Read on.

BackSpin – Do you remember?

Employment Opportunities
• Episcopal Positions (NYC/DC) ... Here.

Ecumenism, Interfaith, Pluralism – or Not
• Resources … way below.

VariaSpin
• Social Security publications … [Ozy] Subscribe online.

Resources

DioBeth
• Look for a Diocese of Bethlehem newsletter every Thursday … One or another newsletter is published every Thursday in the following order: (1) The Leadership News, (2) The newSpin newsletter, (3) The Diocesan e-Newsletter, (4) The newSpin newsletter.
The Leadership News and the Diocesan e-Newsletter are official publications of the Diocese of Bethlehem. They include news, info, features and events relating to our diocese and parishes. Find the most recent Diocesan e-Newsletter, May 21, here. Find the most recent Leadership News, May 7, here.
The newSpin newsletter is not an official publication – and will usually not duplicate news, info and features relating to our diocese and parishes found in the official newsletters. It is a relatively lengthy eclectic sampling of items related to religion – at times not, at times not so clearly – that the editor thinks readers might find to be of interest. It has been a kind of hobby of a onetime communication minister, the work of a volunteer who in retirement enjoys and dedicates time to do the research required. I always post the newSpin newsletter on the newSpin blog. If you wish to receive it by email, please send a note to Jo Trepagnier, jo@diobeth.org.

• Look online … for the Diocese of Bethlehem Facebook Page, Facebook Group (Bethlehem Episcopalians) and Twitter feed.

• Bethlehem Episcopalians … is a new Facebook group for conversations about mission, spirituality, Christian formation, and more. It was launched a few weeks ago and will replace the Bakery email list which has been taken down. "Bethlehem Episcopalians is an open group," wrote Archdeacon Rick Cluett, "which means that anyone can join and items that you post can be shared by group members on their own Facebook pages. This offers each of us the opportunity to reach a larger audience with news and conversations about what God is doing in our diocese." Join the Facebook group, which, as of Wednesday, May 27, includes more than 150 members.

• DioBeth website
• Stumbling into the Sacred ... [Reflections on seeing God in the everyday by Canon Anne E. Kitch]
• newSpin blog ... including the newSpin weekly by Bill Lewellis.
• Facebook Page …
• Facebook Group … Bethlehem Episcopalians
• Twitter …
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• LinkedIn

Center for Congregations ... The "Using Resources" series of publications by the Center for Congregations is designed to help congregations make the most effective use of capital funds, consultants, architects, contractors, books, congregation management software, and more.
• Congregational Consulting ... More information on how to contact the consultants can be found here and at http://www.congregationalconsulting.org/ .
• Church locators ... Here.
• ECF Vital Practices ... Here.
• The Chalice, a publication created by Joan DeAcetis for older adults and caretakers. Download issues here.
• Weekly Bulletin Inserts from the Episcopal Church ... Here.
• Calendar of events in our parishes ... Here.

Episcopal/Anglican
• TREC [TaskForce for Reimagining the Episcopal Church] … website.
• TREC … Video Q&A with TREC panel at Oct. 2, 2014 TREC Churchwide Meeting at the Washington National Cathedral
• The Episcopal Church website, news service, news service blog,
• Episcopal Café
• AngicansOnline website and news centre.
• The Living Church
• The Anglican Communion website and news service.
• The Daily Scan: Contact publicaffairs@episcopalchurch.org to add subscribers for news releases, notices, statements, or Daily Scan.
• Free weekly bulletin inserts provide information about the history, music, liturgy, mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church. Find the inserts here.
• Updated Episcopal Church canons and constitution ... Here.
• Forward Movement ... Here.
• Episcopal Web Radio ... Here.
• Episcopal Church Event Calendar ... Here

Ecumenical/Interfaith Relations
• Ecumenical Relations … Diobeth.org
• DioBeth Resources … Ecumenism/Interfaith

SpiritSpin
• The Book of Common Prayer ... every edition from 1549 to 1979. Here.
• Prayers and Thanksgivings from the BCP ... Here.
• The (Online) Book of Common Prayer ... Here.
• The Daily Office ... can be read online in Rite I, Rite II or the New Zealand Prayer Book versions. At Mission St. Clare.
• The Daily Office ... from the Diocese of Indianapolis. Here.
• Daily Prayer ... a resource of Forward Movement. Here.
• Holy Women, Holy Men ... Download Holy Women, Holy Men as a .pdf file.
• Speaking to the Soul ... An Episcopal Café blog. Sermons, reflections, multimedia meditations and excerpts from books on spirituality. Here.
• The Imitation of Christ ... Available free online.

Evangelism/Stewardship/Church Growth
• Telling the good news, in the media ... [Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson] If the media isn’t telling the stories you want told it is possible (we say very gently) that those stories aren’t interesting or significant enough to warrant coverage. Or, it is possible that you are not presenting them to the media in a way that catches their attention. Or perhaps you have not presented stories to the media at all. It isn’t easy to get your congregation, diocese, conference, or other sort of Christian organization into the newspaper or in online media outlets unless something has gone significantly wrong. It is even harder to get it on television or the radio. But it is possible if you absorb these 10 simple tips. Read on.

• Evangelism ... at Diobeth.org, Projects and Activities, Resources.
• Stewardship ... at Diobeth.org, Reflections, Financial Campaigns, Small group studies, Stewardship education, Resources.
• EpiscopalShare ... Here.

Bible&Worship
• The Lectionary ... A collection of Lectionary resources for the Episcopal Church, updated Sunday night. Here.
• Lectionary Page ... A liturgical calendar for upcoming weeks, with links to readings from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), as adapted for use in Episcopal worship. Here.
• Revised Common Lectionary ... Here.
• The Liturgical Calendar ... BCP, Lesser Feasts and Fasts, HWHM ... Here.
• Oremus Bible Browser ... Here.
• Celebrating the Eucharist, by Patrick Malloy. Google Book
• Enriching our Worship, 1 to 5 ... Free download here.
• The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant: Liturgical Resources for Blessing Same-Sex Relationships [Extracted from Liturgical Resources 1: I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing] Here.
• Collection of worship resources at Diobeth.org ... Including Diocesan Cycles of Prayer for weekly worship, Holy Women Holy Men, and The Text This Week. Here.

Health and Wellness
• Resources for caregivers ... Here.
• Medline Plus ... Here.
• WebMD ... Here.
• Alzheimers.gov ... For people helping people with Alzheimers. Here.
• Three Free Apps for getting qualified medical advice... [Techlicious] Urgent Care, HealthTap and First Aid. Info and links.
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Center for Disease Control - Healthy Living
•Church Health Reader
• Eastern Pennsylvania Faith Community Nurses
• Episcopal Mental Illness Network
• Go4Life from the National Institute on Aging at NIH
• National Episcopal Health Ministries
• NEHM Wellness Resource Page
•Let's Move

News/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project: Daily Religion Headlines ... here.
• Religious Freedom Blog ... a weekly look back at the top stories and developments on religious liberty around the world. Here.
• National Catholic Reporter ... here.
• BBC News Online ... here.
• BBC Religion & Ethics ... here.
• Faith in Public Life ... Here.
• Religion&Ethics News Weekly (PBS) ... Here.
• Religion Research Hub ... ARDA, Association of Religion Data Archives, an especially useful site.
• Back issues of the newSpin newsletter ... here.

Media/Film/TV/Books/Podcasts/Music/Tech
• Spirituality & Film ... Here.
• Spirituality on DVD ... Here.
• Books for Spiritual Journeys ... Here.
• Audios for Spiritual Journeys ... Here.
• Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg ... Here.
• Free Audiobooks from LibriVox ... Here.
• Free Audiobooks and eBooks ... Here and Here.
• Google Books ... Millions of books you can preview or read free. Here.
• The Online Books Page ... from UPenn. Here.
• More free eBooks and Audiobooks ... [Techlicious] Here.
• Telling the good news, in the media ... [Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson] If the media isn’t telling the stories you want told about your congregation, it is possible (we say very gently) that those stories aren’t interesting or significant enough to warrant coverage. Or, it is possible that you are not presenting them to the media in a way that catches their attention. Or perhaps you have not presented stories to the media at all. It isn’t easy to get your congregation, diocese, conference, or other sort of Christian organization into the newspaper or in online media outlets unless something has gone significantly wrong. It is even harder to get it on television or the radio. But it is possible if you absorb these 10 simple tips. Read on.
• Communicate … Your Ministry, including Bill's Communication Biases and Communication-Evangelism. Here.

Varia
• Insights into Religion ... Here.
• The Alban Institute ... Here.

Religious Freedom Recap, our weekly look back at the top stories and developments on religious liberty around the world. - See more at: http://brianpellot.religionnews.com/2013/09/16/burkini-compromise-pope-hearts-atheists-dozen-muslim-march-religious-freedom-recap-sept-9-sept-16/#sthash.nA6J6Y1Y.dpuf

******************
The newSpin newsletter is uploaded to the newSpin blog and posted on Bakery and on other diocesan lists of some 2,000 addresses. Many recipients forward it to others. It comes, of course, with some spin from the editor. 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, the Standing Committee or the Archdeacon as an official communication. Comments are welcome on Bakery (if you are subscribed to that interactive list) and at the newSpin blog. At the newSpin blog, click in the right hand column on the title of the current newsletter. Then, make your comment below.

Bill Lewellis, Diocese of Bethlehem, retired
Communication Minister/Editor (1986-2010), 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]

Posted at 01:08 PM in newSpin | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 27, 2015

Memorial Service for Dolores Caskey/Sermon

Sermon by T. Scott Allen
Trinity Bethlehem – May 23, 2105

In the name of God who says “I am the Resurrection and the Life” AMEN

It is not very often that one gets to be the preacher at the Burial Office of a woman as remarkable, complicated, intelligent and amazing as Dolores White Caskey. In fact, I have dreaded having to write the epitaph for a person who had the impact on me and her world that Dolores had because whatever I say I will most likely forget a detail, a good work, an amazing speech, a kind act, an important contribution of a life lived very well.

And while my background is as a journalist, my occupation of the last 30 plus years has been as an Episcopal priest, so while my reporter instinct wants to report “the facts” and not miss one, my heart says that we all stand here this afternoon as witnesses of what a life lived with grace, gusto and yes, at times, guts, looks like.

I don’t know when I first met Dolores. I expect it was sometime in the early Spring of 1989. I had just joined the Bishop’s Staff as Social Missioner and she served on the Jubilee Committee which was the name of the Diocesan Social Justice Committee at the time. Dolores and I took an instant like to one another for which to this day I am thankful. Dolores didn’t suffer fools gladly and I would never want to be on the “outs” with her. We disagreed on some occasions, but we both knew the other’s heart and couldn’t stay cross with one another very long. We knew we were acting out of the same love of the same Lord who redeemed us.

No matter where you knew Dolores I can say that all that she did emanated from a deep faith in a God who is manifested in self-giving love. This faith did not express itself in saccharine piety, but in incarnational acts of justice, truth, mercy and love. Her faith had a very real social expression for the poor, the marginalized, the unfairly treated and the helpless.

The lessons we just heard are most fitting for a saint such as Dolores. “To everything a season and a purpose under heaven”.

She took everything in stride and even in defeat did not back down from her principles. She was a non-anxious presence when emotions were high and more smoke than light was being generated in any debate or discussion---she was part of our Church’s controversies. For her, everything did have its time and season, but truth, justice and mercy did not. Articulate, she didn’t shy away from eating your lunch when an important principle was at stake.

Dolores met her beloved husband, Jim, in the Air Force and they were both veterans and later will rightfully be laid to rest together in Arlington National Cemetery. As Jim told the story, Dolores worked in the office of a high ranking officer and she had come to his office on some official business where she asserted her rank with Jim’s secretary. Thinking Dolores had left the office, Jim made some smart comment about Dolores which she heard as she left the room and turned back on her heels and reminded Jim of who she was and whom she worked for! As Jim told it, his secretary was a shy, timid woman who one would have thought was a slight woman. Dolores would laugh at this story when Jim told it and said “Jim, your secretary was not this defenceless little person! She could have gone bear hunting with a switch!” This was just one of what I call “Dolores-isms”.

When speaking of a local politician a few years ago she said, “You ask him the time and he tells you how to build a watch!”Dolores was greatly committed to Northeast Ministry located in the Marvine-Pembroke village and she spoke one of my favorite stories about a time when drug dealing and use was an especially chronic problem on the streets of this housing project. Someone got the idea of a parade through the streets of Marvine-Pembroke to provide a counter-point to the drug dealers and support recovery and health for the residents. In order to send an anti-drug message to residents and the drug addicted of that area. Her co-board member was Victoria (Lala) Leach who was a member of the Nativity Cathedral. Lala had a yellow Cadillac convertible and Dolores and Lala rode in the parade in that car. Dolores laughed as she said, “I can’t imagine what the people thought of us in this parade. Probably something like—“O look! Those two old ladies got off the stuff and now they have a Cadillac!”

Always well put together (I rarely remember her wearing pants in public—always a dress, jewelry and make-up—even when at the Soup Kitchen!), Dolores always had the Oasis of her weekly Friday hair appointment. The day she died I happened to arrive at Dolores’s room at Moravian Village Health Center 5 minutes after her passing. As I gazed upon her lifeless body, the chaplain whispered, “Isn’t it great that the nurses aide ran in and put lipstick on her?” And sure enough, her lips were bright pink! It was great, and I can imagine Dolores somehow beholding the scene and finding great humor in it, but also a great corporal act of mercy in that act!

Dolores was a good Democrat as well. And it was because of Dolores’s advocacy with me that I switched my primary vote from Hillary Clinton to Barak Obama. We both loved John Stewart and would call each other the morning after a show and laugh about his report, but only momentarily as the issues he addressed were ones that had substance and legs.

I missed Dolores this past Tuesday when I was faced with my ballot in the primary. I counted on Dolores to give me good names to vote for in local elections and would always take (what I called) “Dolores’s List” (not to be confused with Emily’s List) into the polls on more than one occasion. As the first and scandalously only (to this day, by the way) woman President of Bethlehem City Council (ladies, you have some work to do!). Dolores once was quoted as telling the press, “Well, Bethlehem may be the Christmas City, but city council is NOT Santa Claus!”

Dolores was parsimonious. She didn’t believe that throwing lots of money at a problem necessarily solved it. She believed in balanced budgets, living within your means, and when you spend money, it had to count to relieve misery in people’s lives. This did not mean she was not generous. She supported people, causes and candidates with cash. Real money. And was generous in her support of causes she believed in and thought made a difference.

I once was Dolores and Jim’s chauffer to a rally for presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry at Allentown Fair Grounds and they would not let Jim in with his ever present little pocket knife, which I recall dutifully taking back to my car and re-joining them after we were disarmed.

I have to tell you, I will miss that “Greatest Generation” commitment to integrity in all aspects of life. I mourn the passing of that generation as I believe they were one of extreme integrity, fairness, not afraid of uphill battles and self-giving of themselves for people, movements and projects that enhanced fairness and community. They were biased toward the underdog. We Baby Boomers are poor imitators of their example.

Dolores had the tenacity of a journalist when seeking information and had an eye and a memory for important and often missed detail. She served as an advisor to diocesan publications and served many years as the Consumer Reporter at the Globe-Times in Bethlehem. One apocryphal story about that job––when she first arrived at the Globe-Times she pretended that she couldn’t type in order to be assigned a secretary to do it!

Things I recall Dolores loved:

• Chocolate and sweets of any kind, I always took them a cut of my Christmas baking in her latter years.

• Animals—dogs, cats, squirrels, even a mouse that took up residence in a storage closet off of their patio in their Moravian Village apartment and refused to let the management know of this rodent’s presence. She delighted in watching him and put nuts and seeds out for him. She also fed birds. I made sure my miniature schnauzer, Martini, visited Dolores and Jim often—her last visit with Dolores was near Christmas Eve of last year.

• She loved the beach and seashore and after Jim died got her aide to drive her there. That may have been her last visit.

• She loved breakfast at Jenny’s Luncheonette before it was razed to make way for a new access to the Hill-To-Hill bridge—and tipped her waitresses handsomely.

• She loved the poor, the underdog, the rejected for no fault of their own and anyone being given a raw deal by government, church or social structures.

• She loved the 1928 Prayer Book AND the 1979 revision and both were near her whenever I visited. She liked the confession in Morning Prayer, and the Prayer for Humble Access. She prayed.

She had her dislikes as well:

• She disliked hypocrisy, privilege which blinded to human need. Using the phrase “greedy geezers” to describe some of her peer’s attitude toward discounts, Social Security, Medicare and other benefits.

• She disliked using more medical care than she thought was warranted for people “living on an expired warranty” as she and Jim would say.

(I am sure you can share others with me later in the parish hall as there are hundreds of ways she impacted and inspired all of us)

So what is the take away for us that she leaves behind? What is it that is for us in this room this afternoon?

I believe one of the take aways is that Christian faith can take us to places we never thought we’d be. It can put us in partnership with people very different from us. We are convicted by the witness of her life that our actions should reflect our commitments. Her work for anti-racism is exemplary, she served on the first HIV-AIDS Task Force of the Diocese in the early 90’s and served on a board to develop a personal care home for persons living with HIV-AIDS. Before a plethora of Spanish Speaking interpreters, she would be the middle person to translate for the courts when a Spanish speaking defendant appeared before a Northampton County judge.

There are no outcasts, save the well-funded and privileged who have hard hearts toward the perceived outcast. But even they can repent and be welcomed back.

She saw the blessedness in all of the things we try mightily to insulate ourselves from—mourning, being peacemakers, poverty of life and spirit, mercy, hungering for justice and an even playing field; and putting ourselves on the line for it (even when it means rejection and vilification).

She taught me how to age. To never disengage from life and justice seeking, no matter what your age or physical capability. Always get the news and talk about it!

I hope we can all take comfort and challenge in the life Dolores exemplified. And Michael, David, Robert, Mimi, you and your offspring can look to her as an example for your own lives and be inspired by how she inspired many of us!

Scott Holland a 19^th Century Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University wrote the following which I think a fitting last word today, and one I know Dolores would probably affirm:

Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched and unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is dath but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind just because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. All is well.

Dolores, my good friend, you have finished the race, you have competed very well. And I am certain that you will receive the crown of glory reserved just for you!

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

[The Rev. T. Scott Allen is rector of St. Andrew's Allentown.]

Posted at 02:35 PM in Dolores Caskey, Funeral, Scott Allen, Sermon Prep, Sermons | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2015

newSpin 150514

newSpin, the newsletter
May 14, 2015
Bill Lewellis

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TopSpin

• Look for a Diocese of Bethlehem newsletter every Thursday … [Bill] One or another newsletter is published every Thursday in the following order: (1) The Leadership News, (2) The newSpin newsletter, (3) The Diocesan e-Newsletter, (4) The newSpin newsletter.
The Leadership News and the Diocesan e-Newsletter are official publications of the Diocese of Bethlehem. They include news, info, features and events relating to our diocese and parishes. Find the most recent Diocesan e-Newsletter, April 23, here. Find the most recent Leadership News, May 7, here.
The newSpin newsletter is not an official publication – and will usually not duplicate news, info and features relating to our diocese and parishes found in the official newsletters. It is a relatively lengthy eclectic sampling of items related to religion – at times not, at times not so clearly – that the editor things readers might find to be of interest. It has been a kind of hobby of a onetime communication minister, the work of a volunteer who in retirement enjoys and dedicates time to do the research required. I always post the newSpin newsletter on the newSpin blog. If you wish to receive it by email, please send a note to Jo Trepagnier, jo@diobeth.org.

• Four chosen as nominees for presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church … [ENS] The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop May 1 announced the names of the bishops it will nominate this summer to succeed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The four names will be formally submitted to the General Convention during a joint session on June 26, the day prior to the day set for the election by the House of Bishops of the 27th presiding bishop. The nominees are: The Rt. Rev. Thomas Breidenthal, 64, Diocese of Southern Ohio; The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, 62, Diocese of North Carolina; The Rt. Rev. Ian Douglas, 56, Diocese of Connecticut; The Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith, 61, Diocese of Southwest Florida. Read on. The JNCPB will shortly release additional information from each of the nominees. Each nominee has responded to questions about his vision for the church, which will be posted to the General Convention website soon. Additionally, each nominee made himself available for a video interview. These will also be made available soon.

• Christians lose ground, ‘nones’ soar in new portrait of US religion … [RNS, Cathy Lynn Grossman] The United States is a significantly less Christian country than it was seven years ago. That’s the top finding — one that will ricochet through American faith, culture and politics — in the Pew Research Center’s newest report, “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” released Tuesday (May 12). This trend “is big, it’s broad and it’s everywhere,” said Alan Cooperman, Pew’s director of religion research. Christianity still dominates American religious identity (70 percent), but the survey shows dramatic shifts as more people move out the doors of denominations, shedding spiritual connections along the way. Atheists and agnostics have nearly doubled their share of the religious marketplace, and overall indifference to religion of any sort is rising as well. Among the larger Christian bodies, only the historically black Protestant churches have held a steady grip through the years of change …
Where are they going? To religious nowhere. The nones — Americans who are unaffiliated with brand-name religion — are the new major force in American faith. And they are more secular in outlook — and “more comfortable admitting it” than ever before, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Their growth spans the generations, as well as racial and ethnic groups, said Green, a senior fellow in religion and American politics for the Pew Research Center. Nones, at 22.8 percent of the U.S. (up from 16 just eight years ago) run second only to evangelicals (25.4 percent) and ahead of Catholics (20.8 percent) in religious market share. Read on.
Read analysis also at The Upshot, NYTimes.

• Liberation theology's founder, Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez, basks in a belated relationship under Pope Francis … [David Gibson, RNS, May 7] It used to be that just saying the words “liberation theology” around Catholics was enough to start a schism-level fight, or at least raise a red flag in Rome. The theological movement that focused on the poor emerged out of the church’s social justice ferment in the 1960s, but it was always viewed by conservatives as an irredeemably Marxist version of the gospel. Worse, they said it was a tool of Soviet communists who were using the Roman Catholic Church to foment revolution in Latin America and beyond, and at the very height of the Cold War. Read on.

• A pastor’s faith in Baltimore … [WaPo, Michael Gerson, Op-Ed, April 30] The Rev. Dr. Frank Reid III, one of the most respected religious figures in Baltimore, locates the Baltimore violence in a broader context. Read on.

• Want millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.’ … [Rachel Held Evans, WaPo, Op-Ed, April 30] Young people dont simply want a better show. And trying to be cool might be making things worse. Read on.

• The Faustian bargain between church and state  … [The Atlantic] To receive tax-exempt status from the IRS, religious organizations must abstain from electioneering. Is that constitutional? Read on.

• Don't expect pictures of this 'first' … [Commonweal, Letter from Rome, Robert Mickens] "For the first time ever a woman bishop has been welcomed inside the Apostolic Palace for an official meeting with pope. But don’t expect to find any photos in the Vatican’s official newspaper. L’Osservatore Romano buried within its pages a brief, picture-less article of Pope Francis’ high-level meeting on Monday with Lutheran Archbishop Antje Jackelén of Uppsala, the first woman to head the Church of Sweden. It seems the Centro Televisivo Vaticano (CTV) and the Vatican’s You Tube channel also tried to prevent any widespread distribution of visual images of the gathering—especially of the pope and Archbishop Jackelén greeting one another." Read on.

Episcopal/Anglican
• Bishops United Against Gun Viocence plans prayerful procession at General Convention … 61 bishops are planning an outdoor procession on Sunday morning, June 28, during General Convention. News release here. Member of the group here.

• Patrick Malloy leaving General Seminary ... [Episcopal Café] The Reverend Dr. Patrick Malloy, Professor Liturgy at General Theological Seminary, has announced he will be leaving New York to take the position of interim dean at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, Colorado. Malloy was one of the eight professors dismissed (later reinstated) last fall following a work stoppage protesting the new dean and president, the Reverend Kurt H. Dunkle. Malloy has also been serving as Theologian-in-Residence at St. John on the Mountain in Bernardsville, N.J.
   [Those who are relatively new to the Diocese of Bethlehem may not know the local angle. Malloy served as priest-in-charge, then rector of Grace Allentown from 2001 to 2011. For the last two years there, he was also a professor at General Seminary.]
   Malloy came to General in 2009 as the Professor of Liturgy. Malloy has taught at St. John’s University, Collegeville; the University of Santa Clara, California; and Duquesne University, where he was the director of the ecumenical graduate program in pastoral ministry. During his doctoral work, he was on the staff of the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy. He also worked for five years with an affiliate of the New York Times in national leadership development.
   Dr. Malloy is a member of the General Board of Examining Chaplains, and sits on the Board of the Anglican Theological Review. From 2010-2012, he was chair of the task force charged with gathering liturgical resources for the blessing of same-sex unions for presentation at the 2012 General Convention. Fr. Malloy began as a Roman Catholic and was ordained a deacon in that Church. In 1991, he joined the Episcopal Church and in 2001 was ordained to the presbyterate by Bishop Paul Marshall of Bethlehem, a ThD graduate of General. Read on.

• Grace Cathedral San Francisco picks new dean … [SFGate] The Rev.Malcolm Clemens Young, a UC Berkeley- and Harvard-trained theologian and an authority on the life of author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, has been appointed the next dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Rector at Christ Church in Los Altos for the past 14 years, he will become dean Aug. 1. The selection of Young as the ninth dean of the famed church atop Nob Hill ends a six-month search for a leader to replace Dean Jane Shaw. She is leaving to become dean for religious life at Stanford University. Young, 48, holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Berkeley and a master’s of divinity and doctorate of theology from Harvard University. Read on.

Dual actions end Heather Cook’s ordained ministry, employment  … [ENS] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced May 1 that she and Episcopal Diocese of Maryland Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook have reached an agreement that removes her from the ordained ministry of The Episcopal Church; moreover, that announcement came on the same day that Cook resigned her diocesan post. Read on.

• Learn about General Convention … [ECF Vital Practices] Resources that may help. Here.

• Episcopal Bishop Leopold Frade will leave behind a legacy of social activism … [Miami Herald] Remember the Mariel Boatlift in 1980? Here.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article20561976.html#storylink=cpy

• Resources … way below.

SpiritSpin
• Jubilate – Pentecost 2015 (B) … Jubilate is a gift of the Diocese of Bethlehem to the Episcopal and Anglican world through the kindness and talent of Canon Cliff Carr who has been doing this for more than 30 years. Thank you, Cliff. Download Jubilate Pentecost B 2015

• Turning Toward Home, from the Cathedral pilgrimage to Wales … [Rick Cluett, May 11] As we round the last bend on this Pilgrim Road and turn our sights toward Bethlehem and home, I am literally overcome with gratitude for this pilgrim journey. Growing in me over these last years has been an increasing awareness of God's presence in the dailyness of life and and in the daily lives of God's people. My readings in the spirituality of our early Celtic ancestors had been leading me along this path. But this, this pilgrimage of heart, body, mind and soul in the company of other faithful souls has allowed me to literally stand in the place of ancient Cistercian missionaries who brought our faith to these lands and to stand in the places of the people themselves who throughout all these centuries have known and felt and celebrated God's presence in their waking, working, praying, and resting and kept the faith alive. On this journey, we pilgrims have known God's presence leading us deeper and deeper into our place as children of God and God's place and presence in our daily lives. And to have that affirmed by all these souls over all these centuries has been a pure gift of God, as well as a gift of those we love, live and work with who said to us, Go. Yes, go, and then blessed us on our way. To them, to God, to my fellow pilgrim companions and to the dean who led us, Thank you.

• The centripetal force of life … [kottke.org, Jason Kottke] I don't quite know what I'm doing to myself these days. Last night was an episode of The Americans in which a marriage was ending, another family was trying to keep itself intact, and a young boy struggles to move on after his entire family dies. This morning, I watched an episode of Mad Men in which a mother tries to reconcile her differences with her daughter in the face of impending separation. And then, the absolute cake topper, a story by Matthew Teague that absolutely wrecked me. It's about his cancer-stricken wife and the friend who comes and rescues an entire family, which is perhaps the truest and most direct thing I've ever read about cancer and death and love and friendship. Read on.

• JFK on Poetry, Power, and the Artist’s Role in Society … [Brain Pickings] His eulogy for Robert Frost is one of the greatest speeches of all time. "If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth… In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society — in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost’s hired man, the fate of having 'nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope.' Read or listen here.

• Pope Francis says no to boring homilies … [NCR, Thomas Reese SJ] Here.

• Life must be lived forward  … [Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855] but can only be understood backwards. [A bit about Kierkegaard here.]

•• Speaking to the Soul … [Episcopal Café] Here.

•• Education for Ministry … [Cathy Bailey] Every baptized person is called to ministry. The Education for Ministry (EfM) program, offered as an education at-a-distance course by the School of Theology of the University of the South at Sewanee, provides Episcopalians and others with the education to carry out that ministry. Lay persons face the difficult and often subtle task of interpreting the richness of the church's faith in a complex and confusing world. As the Church continues to emphasize the importance of lay ministry, many laypersons have come to feel that they need a theological education that supports their faith and also teaches them to express that faith in day-to-day events. EfM is one way for them to gain that knowledge. EfM offers a four-year course, covering the basic subjects of a theological education: Old Testament, New Testament, Church History, and Theological Choices (a study of theological trends and movements in the Church). Participants register for one year at a time. Students meet locally in seminar groups of six to twelve participants and a trained mentor, who meet weekly for two to three hours during a nine-month academic year. Participants are given weekly assignments to study with the help of resource guides. In the seminars, members have an opportunity to share their insights and discoveries as well as to discuss questions which the study materials raise for them through discussion and guided reflection. By examining their own beliefs and their relationship to our culture and the tradition of our Christian faith, participants can learn what it means to be effective ministers in the world. The seminar is supported by a life of prayer and regular worship. EfM groups are encouraged to develop a pattern of worship appropriate to their situations. Liturgical materials are furnished with the course materials. The current one-year fee per student is $350, which pays for EfM materials and an honorarium for the mentor. EfM grants 18 Continuing Education Units (CEU) for each year of study. There are no examinations or papers. EfM does not grant college credits. For more about EfM visit its website at efm.sewanee.edu. Contact Cathy Bailey, Diocesan EfM Coordinator at cbnnp@rcn.com for more information.

• Spirit Resources  ... way below.

Columns, Sermons, Reflections and other Spin

•• Your sermon? … If you have a sermon you might like uploaded to the newSpin blog and linked to from the newSpin newsletter, point bill.lewellis@gmail.com to it online.

• Riots, vines, branches and abiding … [Andrew Reinholz] Sermon preached at St. Margaret's Emmaus, May 3, 2015. Here.

• How Racism doomed Baltimore … [NYTimes editorial board, May 9] The Baltimore riots threw a spotlight on the poverty and isolation of the African-American community where the unrest began last month. The problems were underscored on Friday when the Justice Department, in response to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s request, started an investigation of the Police Department, which has an egregious history of brutality and misconduct. Other cities are plagued by the same difficulties, but they have proved especially intractable in Baltimore. A new study from Harvard offers evidence that Baltimore is perhaps the worst large city in the country when measured by a child’s chances of escaping poverty. … Americans might think of Maryland as a Northern state, but it was distinctly Southern in its attitudes toward race. … The tensions associated with segregation and concentrated poverty place many cities at risk of unrest. But the acute nature of segregation in Baltimore — and the tools that were developed to enforce it over such a long period of time — have left an indelible mark and given that city a singular place in the country’s racial history. Read on.

• Despite DNA, the rapist got away … [Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes, May 9] Her family rushed her to the hospital, where she endured hours of humiliating scrutiny as nurses collected a rape kit: DNA, hairs, fibers, anything that could be found on her body. The police took a statement from Natasha and picked up the rape kit from the hospital. Then they did nothing. For years. Read on.

Where Religion, Culture and Politics Might Intersect
• Have faith groups been too absent in the fight on poverty? … [WaPo, Michelle Boorstein] It’s a core tenet of most religions to help the needy, right? Faith groups in recent decades, however, have been caught up in the same polarization as the rest of the country on issues of class, race and politics, making it difficult for them to lead on reducing poverty. Read on.

• In frank language, Obama addresses poverty's roots … [WaPo, Juliet Eilperin and Michelle Boorstein] President Obama said Tuesday the racial segregation that once marked American society has been replaced by “class segregation,” a division that members of both parties need to address urgently.Speakinga panel at Georgetown University, Obama said Americans are “at a moment... where it may be possible not only to refocus attention on the issue of poverty, but also maybe to bridge some of the gaps that have existed and the ideological divides that have prevented us from making progress.”
“The stereotype is that you’ve got folks on the left who just want to pour more money into social programs, and don’t care anything about culture or parenting or family structures,” Obama said, speaking onstage with Harvard University political scientist Robert Putnam, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks and the discussion’s moderator, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. “And then you’ve got cold-hearted, free market, capitalist types who are reading Ayn Rand and think everybody are moochers. And I think the truth is more complicated.”

• Vatican decision to recognize Palestine upsets Israeli government, Jewish advocacy groups … [RNS] Here. Also, NYTimes Editorial Board.

Evangelism/Stewardship/Worship/Church Growth
• Stewardship Reflections … [Diocesan Stewardship Commission] Current through mid-summer. Here.

• Resources  ... way below

In the Media
• I've Been Haunted by Screens … [Bill Lewellis, The Morning Call, May 2] I've been haunted –fascinated – by screens: movie screens, television screens, computer screens. For a long time, as the following example suggests. "Long ago, rain fell on mud and became rock … half a billion years ago … but even before that … beneath the rocks … are the words of God. Listen." Those who have seen the beautiful 1992 film directed by Robert Redford, A River Runs Through It, based on Norman Maclean's book, may remember this opening scene where Maclean's father, a Presbyterian minister and seasoned fly fisherman, bends down to the height of his two young sons with a river stone between his fingers. In the closing scene, a narrator speaks over striking images of nature: "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs." Read on here or here.

Rest in Peace
•• Memorial Service for Dolores Caskey … [Laura Howell] will be held on Saturday, May 23 at 2:00 p.m. in Trinity Church, Bethlehem. Calling hour at 1:00.

• Brother Andrew Colquhoun, 77 … We are sad to announce that Br. James Andrew Colquhoun died on May 6 in Kingston, New York. Br. Robert Sevensky, superior of the Order of the Holy Cross, writes, "Andrew was 77 years old. He entered the Order of the Holy Cross in 1989 and made his life profession in 1994. A priest of the Church, Andrew was ordained in 1984 after serving as a minister for many years in the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition and as a hospital chaplain and CPE supervisor. He was canonically resident in the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem. As a member of the Order, Andrew served in many capacities, including as Prior of Holy Cross Monastery, West Park. Perhaps the crown of his vocation was the twelve years he spent in South Africa. Andrew went there in 1998 as one of the three founding brothers of the Order's monastery and school in Grahamstown and served faithfully and tirelessly." May Br. Andrew rest in peace and rise in glory. More here.

• Robert E. Jones … [The Morning Call] Onetime senior warden at the Church of the Mediator, Allentown. Obituary.

• B.B. King, 89 … [NYTimes] B. B. King, whose world-weary voice and wailing guitar lifted him from the cotton fields of Mississippi to a global stage and the apex of American blues, died on Thursday, May 14, at his home in Las Vegas. He married country blues to big-city rhythms and created a sound instantly recognizable to millions: a stinging guitar with a shimmering vibrato, notes that coiled and leapt like an animal, and a voice that groaned and bent with the weight of lust, longing and lost love. Read on. Associated Press obituary here.

TaleSpin

• Homosexuality: 'A pernicious sickness' … [LGBTQNATION] “Even in purely nonreligious terms, homosexuality represents a misuse of the sexual faculty and, in the words of one Catholic educator, of 'human construction.' It is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life. As such it deserves fairness, compassion, understanding and, when possible, treatment. But it deserves no encouragement, no glamorization, no rationalization, no fake status as minority martyrdom, no sophistry about simple differences in taste—and, above all, no pretense that it is anything but a pernicious sickness.” Read on. The quote is the conclusion of a two-page essay in Time Magazine, circa 1966, titled The Homosexual in America. How far we have come.

•• The state of storytelling in the internet age  … [ReadThisThing] Great stories are reaching more people than ever, and the web is giving the world a better platform to tell stories than ever. But news divisions are still shrinking, great publications are still failing, and journalists are telling our youth to avoid the profession. Read on.

• How a pioneer of branding invented Christian fundamentalism … [Religion Dispatches] Christian fundamentalism was invented in an advertising campaign, according to a new book by historian Timothy Gloege. The all-American brand of “old-time religion” was developed by an early captain of consumer capitalism—who wanted to sell pure Christianity like he sold breakfast. In his fascinating narrative of the origins of modern evangelicalism, Gloege traces its close relationship to modern marketing back to the founder of Quaker Oats, Henry Parsons Crowell. Read on.

• Pope's family story fuel his passion for immigrants and the poor … [Crux] Since his election, Francis has made solidarity with the poor and the defense of immigrants his towering priorities. While any pope would embrace those positions, since they loom large in Catholic social teaching, Francis seems to feel a special biographical tug. He rarely misses an opportunity to press the case. Read on.

BackSpin – Do you remember?
•• Jubilee Diocese [Diocesan Life, January 1995] The National Jubilee Committee awarded the Diocese of Bethlehem the unique designation of "Jubilee Diocese." Bethlehem became the first diocese to receive this unique designation to recognize efforts on the part of the diocesan community to encourage and support local congregations in their ministry to serve poor and marginalized people. A grant of $25,000 accompanied the designation. "We are forming a partnership with this diocese," said Ntsiki Kabane-Langford, Jubilee Officer of the Episcopal Church. "We are hopeful that this partnership will provide a dynamic model for the whole church."

• "So many people [Diocesan Life, January 1995] want to wrap everything up before they die," wrote Marius Bressoud in the first of five monthly columns on Spirituality and Aging.

Employment Opportunities
• Episcopal Positions (NYC/DC) ... Here.

Ecumenism, Interfaith, Pluralism – or Not
• Resources … way below.

Evangelical Lutheran Church
NEPA Synod website ... Here.
ELCA website ... Here.
ELCA News Service ... Here.
ELCA's blogs may be found here. See especially "Web and Multimedia Development."
Spirit Spinning ... for those who hunger and thirst for a deeper connection with God ... Here.

Moravian Church
Moravian Church in North America website.
Moravian Church Northern Province website.
Moravian Theological Seminary website.

United Methodist Church
• United Methodist Church raises millions in small donations to fight malaria … [HuffPost]The United Methodist Church gave $9.6 million on Wednesday to the Global Fund, a health-focused nonprofit based in Geneva, to help the group fight malaria. It was the single largest contribution to the fund by a faith organization, and was made possible largely through grassroots efforts by congregants.Local fundraising efforts, ranging from lemonade stands to car washes to 5K runs, provided the bulk of the sum, Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton told The Huffington Post, with the average contribution amounting to just $ 87.31. Read on.

• Church can happen anywhere … [United Methodist Communications] On May 11, Rethink Church will launch a new campaign called “Church Can Happen Anywhere.” We will run :30 and :15 advertising spots, so look for this message about church happening anywhere; it starts May 11 in select television areas and nationally in digital spaces. Read on.

News Service Here.
Communication Resources ... Start here.
Eastern PA Conference website Here.
Facebook Here.
Bishop Peggy Johnson's blog Here.

Presbyterian Church USA
Website ... Here.
News & Announcements ... Here.

Roman Catholic
Diocese of Allentown ... Here.
Diocese of Scranton ... Here.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ... Here.
Catholic News Service ... Here.

The Vatican
• Junipero Serra to be canonized, despite controversy … [AP] The Vatican's saint-making office has officially given its thumbs up for the Rev. Junipero Serra to be declared a saint — four months after Pope Francis announced he would canonize the controversial 18th-century missionary during his upcoming visit to the United States. Serra is hailed by the Catholic Church as a great evangelizer who established 21 missions across California. Many Native Americans, though, accuse him of forced conversions, enslaving converts and helping wipe out indigenous populations as part of the European colonization machine in the Americas. Read on. Also, Questionable Choice, by John Quinn at The Tablet. He quotes the San Francisco Chronicle: "The missions were little more than concentration camps where California's Indians were beaten, whipped, maimed, burned, tortured and virtually exterminated by the friars.” The paper's claims might prove difficult to reconcile with Pope Francis’ comments about Serra’s “holiness” and “saintly example”.

Vatican website ... Here.
Vatican Information Service blog ... Here.
Vatican News/Info Portal ... Here.
The Joy of the Gospel [Evangelii Gaudium] ... Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, with detailed table of contents. Here.

Health and Wellness
• Resources … below

BookSpin
• Resources … below.

Podcasts
•• If you are interested in listening to podcasts … [Bill] The following podcasts may be found with the Stitcher app. I enjoy all of them. Not in any particular order. 1. TED Radio Hour; 2. Slate's Political Gabfest; 3. The Moth Podcast; 4.This American Life; 5. Radiolab from WNYC; 6. Hourly News Summary from NPR; 7. APM: A Prairie Home Companion; 8. Fresh Air; 9. Science Friday; 10. PBS News Hour; 11. The Pulse, WHYY; 12. OnBeing with Krista Tippett; 13. 60 Minutes, CBS; 14. The Ethicists; 15. Popping Collars. More to come. If you have a favorite podcast, please tell Bill, who will tell the world.

Media/Films/TV/Music/Tech
• Netflix orders Green Eggs and Ham… [Kottke] Netflix is making a 13-episode animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. The show will premiere in 2018.

• No ghost in the machine: Anti-humanism of 'Ex Machina' makes it the post-Christian film of the year … [RNS, Jay Michaelson] Alex Garland’s artificial-intelligence thriller “Ex Machina” has already been called, by just about everyone, the “sleeper hit of the summer.” And it’s easy to see why: The film is taut, stylish, sexy and decked out with seriously creepy and understated computer-generated images. It’s also perhaps the best metaphysical musing on transhumanism that Hollywood has ever produced, and a radically anti-religious film. In a good way. Read on.

• The most common reasons your computer is slowing down … [Techlicious] and the simple measures you can take to get its groove back. Here.

• Resources … below.

VariaSpin
• Money is going out of style in Denmark … [Ozy] Copenhagen is banking on plastic. It has proposed that some retailers, gas stations and restaurants no longer be forced to accept cash, relying instead on credit card or mobile payments. Currency is already less popular with Danes than more modern methods, and the measure — despite fears that the elderly or digitally deprived will suffer — isn’t expected to meet serious opposition in parliament. It’s likely to be approved and take effect next January, before possibly being extended to other businesses. Quartz

Resources

DioBeth
• General enewsletter, near end of month, March …
• Special enewsletter, mid month, March …
• DioBeth website
• Stumbling into the Sacred ... [Reflections on seeing God in the everyday by Canon Anne E. Kitch]
• newSpin blog ... including the newSpin weekly by Bill Lewellis.
• Facebook …
• Twitter …
• Google+
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• LinkedIn

Varia
• Insights into Religion ... Here.
• The Alban Institute ... Here.

Posted at 12:38 PM in newSpin | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stewardship Reflections

Friends,

Current through mid-summer list below. Note: Goes through Proper 11 on July 19)-ignore date on campaign listing. Thanks.
Blessings,       Jan Charney for the DSC
Diocese of Bethlehem Stewardship Commission

The Day of Pentecost   Psalm104 says in part "All of them look to you to give them their food in due season. You give it to them...you open your hand and they are filled with good things."   How's that for a faithful steward's reason to always and everywhere give thanks? God gives us everything we have - how can we thank Him adequately except by returning a faithful share of all those gifts to Him and to others in His name?

Trinity Sunday   For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. If we believe in Him, He will know that by the lives we live, and the thanks we give for that (as the 1928 BCP says) inestimable gift - and that's what stewardship is all about!

The Season of Pentecost
(Note: Check for correct dates for each Proper, since, depending on the dates of Easter, Pentecost, and Trinity, they may fall differently from year to year....i.e., the first Sunday after Trinity may be any of Propers 3*, 4, 5, or 6 - depending on how early Easter falls. * If there is a Proper 3 scheduled, the Proper for the 8th Sunday after Epiphany is used.

Proper 5 "O God, from whom all good proceeds...". If, therefore, all the good in our lives comes from God, how can we best be grateful and thankful for our many blessings? Perhaps the Holy Habits of prayer, scripture study, active participation in our parish community, care for others, and generous giving can help us reflect that "good-ness" to others.

Proper 6   The mustard seed - smallest of the seeds on earth. Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all the shrubs, and serves others as a haven. Were our lives as stewards sown as small as the mustard seed, and have they grown and blossomed as we hear God's voice? Do we thank Him for His gifts, and do we seek to serve Him in others?

Proper 7   When Jesus awakes and calms the sea, he says to the Disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? Good questions for the reluctant steward. Why are we so afraid to return to God a generous portion - but just a portion - of what he has so lovingly given us - everything!

Proper 8   The woman who in desperation believed if only she could touch Jesus she would be healed was right. Jesus saw her faith and freed her from her years of (in those days) shameful illness. Those of us who can no longer touch Jesus in the flesh have no less claim to His promise to heal us (perhaps in a different way than we expected) - but we need to believe, believe, believe, and trust in His promises!

Proper 9   Mark's Gospel says Jesus ordered the disciples to take nothing for their journey - no bread, no bag, no money, no extra clothes, etc. What a venture of trust in God and other people He was asking them to begin! Our commitment to the faithful stewardship of all we have been given should seem a small task in comparison.

Proper 10   Ephesians says in part..."In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace he lavished on us..." Can we even begin to comprehend the riches of his grace freely given to us, and if we do, will we commit to a life of service and thankfulness for those many gifts?

Proper 11   Jesus recognizes that the disciples may be in danger of what we today call "burnout". He urges them to "come aside... and rest awhile." What kind of resting stewardship do we practice in our own hectic or otherwise complicated lives? How much quiet time do we give to God in prayer, study, and meditation to help us "recharge our spiritual batteries" and continue in faithful, loving service to the God who has given us all?

Proper 12   The miracle of the loaves and fishes parable is a reminder for all of us attempting to be good stewards, that if we have faith, God will provide far more than we need - and help us to fulfill the needs of others in His name as well.

Here's a Grace for Meals you might like to use as a reminder in the coming week. "Christ in the wilderness five thousand fed, with two small fishes and five loaves of bread. May the God above who made that division, descend upon us and our provision. Amen."

Posted at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jubilate, by Cliff Carr

Jubilate – Pentecost 2015 (B) … Jubilate is a gift of the Diocese of Bethlehem to the Episcopal and Anglican world through the kindness and talent of Canon Cliff Carr who has been doing this for more than 30 years. Thank you, Cliff.

Download Jubilate Pentecost B 2015

Posted at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 09, 2015

Upon the death of Brother Andrew Colquhoun, OHC

Brother Andrew Colquhoun died on May 6, at Kingston Hospital, Kingston NY. He was 77 years old.

[Brother Robert Sevensky, Superior, Order of the Holy Cross] Andrew entered the Order of the Holy Cross in 1989 and made his life profession in 1994. A priest of the Church, Andrew was ordained in 1984 after serving as a minister for many years in the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition and as a hospital chaplain and CPE supervisor.

As a member of the Order, Andrew served in many capacities, including as Prior of Holy Cross Monastery, West Park. Perhaps the crown of his vocation was the twelve years he spent in South Africa. Andrew went there in 1998 as one of the three founding brothers of the Order's monastery and school in Grahamstown and served faithfully and tirelessly.

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[Canon Anne Kitch] Andrew was canonically resident in the Diocese of Bethlehem and was once a CPE supervisor in the Lehigh Valley. Br. Andrew was a mentor to me when I was in the Diocese of New York and I visited the monastery regularly. I last saw him at General Convention in 2012, where he offered his gentle presence and wisdom as a chaplain. He was also known for his grace as a celtic harper.

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[Canon Andrew Gerns] We remember Brother Andrew fondly at Trinity, Easton, where at one time he was a member and an associate priest. He was a chaplain and CPE Supervisor at Easton Hospital as well as a spiritual guide to many. The Communion Set that he gave Easton Hospital is now in use in the Chapel at Trinity after that facility ended formal pastoral care services. Many from our parish continued to make their way to Hyde Park for his wise and gentle humor and spiritual counsel.

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[Father John Major] Several of our diocesan clergy were with Brother Andrew on retreat not long ago. I will remember those moments of prayer and gathering and prize his charity and wisdom always.

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[Jan Charney] Another break in the memory quilt... He was The Rev. Jim Colquhoon when we first met him in Easton, so it took a while to get used to the "Andrew" change. He did so much to build the Pastoral Care department at Easton Hospital, and was loved and admired by many. It was he who encouraged me to take CPE as a layperson - and it was a life-enriching experience indeed. (He was the one who told me that I didn't always need a Prayer Book to pray - my own words would do just fine, thank you.) He, and the Rev. Allan Kramer-Moyer developed a solid core of volunteer Chaplains - mostly lay folks-who covered evenings from 5 PM to 8 AM daily, a ministry that continued until the Dept. was closed. I have memories of 20 years of those nights, and some wonderful and touching stories. We attended both of his vow-takings at Holy Cross, and though not in touch so much recently, thought of him especially when his name came up in our Prayers of the People as someone who was praying for those of us at Trinity. He had a wicked sense of humor, and was not known to suffer fools gladly, but was also wise and compassionate in a multitude of ways. And now, we can pray for him in a new way in his new life. May he rest in peace and rise in the glory he so deserves.

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[Archdeacon Rick Cluett] This is very sad news for all of us who have known, been touched by, or loved Brother Andrew. More than 30 years ago this wonderful Scot came to the Lehigh Valley as priest, pastor, and chaplain. While here he discovered his call to a monastic vocation, and the rest as they say, is history - a beautiful history of service offered and love given to countless numbers of people. Straight talker, witty, profound, loving, wise, and courageous. I am blessed and grateful to have been with him from time to time on his journey that has now brought him safely home. Thanks be to God for the life and ministry of Brother Andrew Colquhoun, OHC.

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[Father T. Scott Allen] I am sad to hear of Jim's (Andrew's) passing. Another light has gone out in the Church militant. I recall meeting with him when I first came back to the diocese in 2000 and his pastoral counsel he gave me as a formerly married Dad, a priest and a gay man. I shall always cherish his memory as one who spoke the Word of truth and Gospel in gentle and confident ways. May he truly rest in peace and rise in glory!

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[Linda Gallagher] A very long time ago, very early in the AIDS epidemic, Father Andrew, who was known as Father Jim Colqhoun at that time, visited with a gay man who was a patient at Sacred Heart Hospital. Do to fear and lack of information the young man's food trays were left on the floor outside his room. No one wanted to enter the room. Father Andrew visited, fed him, bathed him and wept as he died. At the funeral service, I believe there were four of us present, he spoke with his gentle Scottish lilt as he proclaimed the Gospel. He read from Isaiah--they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles,they shall run and not be weary . . . . I believe he was a Holy Man, he saw the world with the eyes of God. Rest in peace, dear friend.

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Posted at 05:02 PM in Brother Andrew Colquhoun, Death, Order of the Holy Cross | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 06, 2015

Riots, vines, branches and abiding

Sermon by Andrew Reinholz
Vicar, St. Margaret's Emmaus
May 3, 2015

Chicago 1919
Harlem 1935
Philadelphia 1964
Washington D.C. 1968
Los Angeles 1992
Ferguson 2014
Baltimore 2015

The sad truth is, riots are a part of American history. The sad fact is, riots are probably going to be a part of America’s future.

As we watched and read about the events that unfolded in Baltimore this week, a lot of things were said.

Many condemned the police for their treatment of minorities. Many condemned the rioters for their use of violence.

Debates raged about failed economic policies, and unjust civil structures. About the negative consequence of violent protest over nonviolent demonstration.

People from across the political spectrum weighed in. People of all races, and economic status, commented.

Some applauded, while others condemned. Some demanded progressive change in our society, others called for a return to conservative values.

Police from neighboring cities and states came to the aid of the city of Baltimore. Maryland sent in the national guard. Religious leaders and community organizers gathered and marched.

Night after night, this country watched with a collectively held breath, waiting to see if one of our cities, would erupt into more violence, and more flames.

The discussions surrounding the Baltimore riots are hard ones to have. But, they are important. We need to, as a society, talk about what has happened, and what caused these events. We need to openly talk about them, so that we cannot just move on from this, but work to see that it does not happen again.

A danger in these discussions, is to break down, and condense things into statistics and figures. Names and faces become meaningless. People no longer are people, but they become numbers. They lose their shape and being.

Numbers upon numbers, that competing sides crunch and compile.

Numbers upon numbers, that competing sides quote to build and construct their own preferred narrative.

To do this keeps us from going deeper into the problems and issues. To do this keeps us separated from the real dilemma. It keeps us separated from one another.

Our readings for today help to point us to the deeper issues at work here. Points us to a deeper truth we need to see.

Jesus is the one true vine. And we are the branches of that vine. A branch separated from that vine, does not and can not bear fruit. A branch separated from the vine withers and dies.

Last week we heard this same message, with different imagery. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. There is one shepherd for one flock. Without that shepherd, the sheep are snatched up, and scattered.

Vine and branches, flock and shepherd.

Jesus is our source. Jesus is our foundation. It is by Jesus that we are created. It is by Jesus that we are sustained. It is by Jesus that we are redeemed.

If we do not abide in him, and he in us, we are nothing. We are dried up branches. We are scattered and lost sheep. If we do not abide in Jesus and he in us, we lack the very essence of our being. We have no foundation.

Without Jesus, we lack that thing which lifts us up and redeems us. Without him, we fall into sin and death. Darkness and despair. We lack the light of Christ, which illuminates, and lifts up all of humanity.

We need to stop seeing others as statistics and demographics or figures from failed urban and civic policies. When we reduce them down we take away their humanity. When we have taken away their humanity, we have severed our connection with them.

We begin to sever the branches from the vine. We scatter the sheep from the flock. Sheep separated from the flock cannot survive. Branches separated from the vine cannot thrive. They cannot grow. They wither up and die.

By abiding in Jesus we abide in his divine and eternal love. And that love teaches us that we are all children of God.

That love placed Jesus on the cross for us all. That love raised Jesus from the dead. That love lifted him into eternal life. That is the love we are called to abide in. A love that changes us to our very core. A love that completes our very being. A love that illuminates humanity, and lifts it up.

Jesus calls us to go deeper in our relationships with each other. If we do not do that, we dehumanize one another.

We categorize and stereotype.

They become criminals and thugs.

They become abuser and oppressors.

They stop being people. They stop being human beings with a heart and a soul and a mind.

They become that which we fear. That which we hate.

They become the reason for our problems, instead of the reason for solving them.

They stop being children of God in our eyes. And we cannot see, that just as Christ suffered and died for us, so too did Christ suffer and die for them. Just as Jesus calls us to live in his risen life, so to does he call them. Just as Jesus calls us to abide in his love, so too does he call them to abide.

God calls us as Christians, to love our enemy as ourselves. To abide in his love. To grow and be nourished from his vine.

Is this easy? No, no it is not.

It takes courage.

It takes strength.

It takes faith.

But we have to be willing to put aside our fears. To put aside out hate. To put aside out dehumanizing ways that separate us, and divide us.

It is clear, it is so painfully clear, that we do not yet fully abide in the love of Jesus Christ. It is clear, so painfully clear, that the kingdom of God which we are called to build, still has much work to be done.

Too many from our flock have been snatched away. We have been scattered and flung so far apart. Too many branches have been cut from the vine. We are slowly drying up and being consumed by flames of our own making.

We will continue to face this problem until people on both sides are able to see, that its not just fellow Americans standing across from them, not just fellow human beings standing across from them, but fellow Children of God standing across from them.

We must abide in the love of Jesus Christ. For without it we are nothing.

With it, humanity is illuminated, and humanity is lifted up.

AMEN

Posted at 01:09 PM in Adam Bond, Andrew Reinholz, Sermons, St. Margaret's Emmaus | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 02, 2015

I've been haunted by screens

By Bill Lewellis
The Morning Call, May 2, 2015

I've been haunted –fascinated – by screens: movie screens, television screens, computer screens. For a long time, as the following example suggests.

"Long ago, rain fell on mud and became rock … half a billion years ago … but even before that … beneath the rocks … are the words of God. Listen."

Those who have seen the beautiful 1992 film directed by Robert Redford, A River Runs Through It, based on Norman Maclean's book, may remember this opening scene where Maclean's father, a Presbyterian minister and seasoned fly fisherman, bends down to the height of his two young sons with a river stone between his fingers.

In the closing scene, a narrator speaks over striking images of nature: "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs."

Then the last line, one I've used in a sermon on baptism: "I am haunted by waters."

The first time I saw A River Runs Through It, it seemed to me to be the creative “screening” of the beginning of the Gospel according to John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things came into being through him… life… light that shines in the darkness, without being overcome … And the word became flesh, and lived among us.”

Another line from the film “screens” all those scriptures that suggest on the one hand that we cannot earn or merit salvation (God’s love), that it is free – that’s why we call it grace – but, on the other hand, not easy. It’s Norman Maclean's reflection on his father's love of fly fishing, and the expertise he had gained.

"My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things – trout as well as eternal salvation – come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."

I am haunted by screens.

The incredible thing about screens is they can take us to emotional heights and depths we never imagined. Their power, for example, is that any one of us might walk into a darkened theater and move out into the light a different person. In a way, good movies have that power in common with a moving liturgy.

During the Civil War, Walt Whitman often visited the sick and wounded as a volunteer nurse. He would read passages from the scriptures to dying soldiers, one of whom inquired whether he was a religious man. He replied: "Probably not, my dear, in the way you mean." Then he kissed the dying man.

Similarly, the best religious films, TV shows and novels I've seen and read are not religious in the way that phrase is commonly understood.

Have you ever identified a spiritually astute scene you came across in a movie or TV show … or a novel? One that invited reflection both from those of us who may think of ourselves as religious or spiritual, and those of us who may not. I suspect it was probably not from a film with a specifically religious theme, one that would not appeal to mass audiences because it seemed like an illustrated sermon, or, in the case of a book, simply a lengthy sermon.

If you have one in mind, I'd appreciate a note about it. Send an email note to blewellis@me.com. You may find it in a future column.
I am haunted by screens.

[Canon Bill Lewellis, blewellis@me.com, an Episcopal priest, retired since 2010, served on the bishop’s staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem for 24 years and on the bishop’s staff of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown for 13 years before that.]

Posted at 01:26 PM in A River Runs Through It, Canon Bill Lewellis, Column, Movies, Newspapers | Permalink | Comments (0)

DioBeth newSpin

News, information and commentary related to religion... at times not so clearly.