newSpin 100712
July 12, 2010
Six months after quake ... Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- On January 12, the earth shook here. More than 220,000 people were killed. More than 300,000 people were injured. The city and large stretches of surrounding countryside were devastated. Six months later, not much appears to have changed. It still looks like a bomb just dropped on this city. More here. And here for ER-D response.
Northwestern PA Bishop Rowe seeks healing in Bishop Davis abuse case ... Shocking news out of Erie: the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania explains today in a press release that Donald Davis, the late bishop of that diocese, sexually abused girls in the 1970s and 1980s. Women who may have been abused by Bishop Davis can contact Bishop Rowe confidentially by calling 814-456-4203 or emailing [email protected]. More here.
Deadline for Diocesan Convention Resolutions is August 1 ... More here. Deadline for nominations also August 1 ... More here.
Province III calls Episcopal budget process 'Irresponsible, unpastoral, scandalous ... At the 2009 Gerneral Convention, the almost unnoticed story was the conflict surrounding the creation of the triennial budget. In April 2010, Province III of the Episcopal Church passed a resolution highly critical of the way the budget was put together. Executive Council responded recently. Find more here.
Women bishops measure progressing in Church of England ... [John B. Chilton, reporting at Episcopal Cafe] The Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure put forward by the Revision Committee is moving forward in the CoE General Synod. Thinking Anglicans has a post being updated as debate and voting proceeds: Clauses 1 through 10 have passed. Just one more clause to go. Following consideration of Clause 10, a significant amendment passed which dictates that any future amendment to this legislation will have to pass by two-thirds majority. That would seem to make it extremely unlikely that the delaying tactics that were being discussed by opponents of female bishops can succeed, as amendments like the one proposed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York would now need far more votes than can be garnered by simply electing a few more conservative members of synod next time around. Updated continuously here.
While you wait for further developments, have a look at this morning's coverage in the British press. Some of it seems a trifle overheated from this distance, but perhaps we're just jealous that we don't live in a country where you can't get the phrase "rent asunder" into the news\paper. Maggie Dawn has a bit of a blog round-up.
Nerva Cot Aguilera, Latin America's first woman bishop, dies at 71 ... More here.
ECW Summer Gathering and Tea ... August 18 at the Cathedral. "Hats optional" More here.
We're here to make friends ... Susan Harrison of Savannah, Ga., wasn't famous. But after her death several months ago, her family struggled to find a church big enough to hold everyone who wanted to attend her funeral. Writing about Harrison at Harvard Business Review's blog, her son-in-law, Peter Bregman, said she had a particular quality that drew people in. She was, quite simply, a really good friend. "The happy truth is that the people who say they're not here to make friends don't win. That's true for reality TV. It's true for business. And it's true for life." [H/T to Leadership Education at Duke Divinity]
Difficulty faced by RC College of Bishops ... [Excerpt from a talk by RC Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa] It has become more and more difficult over the past years for the College of Bishops as a whole, or in a particular territory, to exercise their theologically-based servant leadership to discern appropriate responses to their particular socio-economic, cultural, liturgical, spiritual and other pastoral realities and needs; much less to disagree with or seek alternatives to policies and decisions taken in Rome. And what appears to be more and more the policy of appointing "safe", unquestionably orthodox and even very conservative bishops to fill vacant dioceses over the past 30 years, only makes it less and less likely that the College of Bishops -- even in powerful conferences like the United States -- will question what comes out of Rome, and certainly not publicly. Instead, there will be every effort to try and find an accommodation with those in power, which means that the Roman position will prevail in the end. And, taking this further, when an individual bishop takes issue with something, especially in public, the impression or judgment will be that he is "breaking ranks" with the other bishops and will only cause confusion to the lay faithful -- so it is said -- because it will appear that the bishops are not united in their teaching and leadership role. The pressure, therefore, to conform.
What we should have, in my view, is a church where the leadership recognizes and empowers decision-making at the appropriate levels in the local church; where local leadership listens to and discerns with the people of God of that area what "the Spirit is saying to the church" and then articulates that as a consensus of the believing, praying, serving community. It needs faith in God and trust in the people of God to take what may seem to some or many as a risk. The church could be enriched as a result through a diversity which truly integrates socio-cultural values and insights into a living and developing faith, together with a discernment of how such diversity can promote unity in the church -- and not, therefore, require uniformity to be truly authentic. More here. Also here.
New ministry development videoconference ... [Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be the featured participant in a public videoconference on new, innovative ministry development July 15 at 3 p.m. Eastern, according to a press release from the Episcopal Church's public affairs office. Sponsored by the Episcopal Church's Office of Ministry Development, the event is part of a church planting videoconference series. Further information about the videoconference is available here.
Preventing
child accidental injury ... Over the past few months,
nine children have died while alone in a
vehicle. A child’s body heats up 3 to 5 times faster than an adult’s. It
takes only a few minutes before a child can become dangerously
overheated. More
here. [H/T to Diana Marshall]
An [RC] hierarchy deeply damaged from within ... [An excerpt from a National Catholic Reporter editorial] It would be a mistake to think that what is imploding is the church. The church is, in many ways, just fine. What is imploding, rather, is a culture of clericalism, especially the hierarchical layer of that culture, which has become so disconnected in many of its expressions from the core mandates of Christian scripture that it seems to barely function at all. ... What seems clear at this moment is that the hierarchy as it has evolved in the past half millennium is deeply damaged from within. And there is little evidence of the imagination, the creativity, the spirit, necessary to repair or rethink the structure. More here.
Sudan and the referendum ... The Rev. Canon Petero Sabune, the Episcopal Church's Africa partnership officer, talks about the need for prayer, study and action ahead of the January 2011 referendum in Sudan, when southerners will decide whether to secede from the north or remain a unified country. More here. [H/T to Andrew Gens, reporting at Episcopal Cafe]
St. Paul’s Montrose has announced their observance of the anniversary of its consecration on Sunday, July 18. The building was consecrated by Bishop Potter, Bishop of Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1857, during a four-day series of services and religious programs. The festive Eucharist to mark the occasion will be held at 9:00 A.M. Download the news release here for more information.
St. Matthew's Stevensville has been named a Century Building by the Bradford County Historical Society. A special service will be held on Saturday, July 17 (commemoration of William White, first Bishop of Pennsylvania who dedicated St. Matthew's in 1824) at 5:00 p.m. to mark the occasion and to receive the bronze marker. View photos and download the news release here.
Fifty years for 'Mockingbird' ... Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird -- a novel that spoke in fine moral tones about racism with utter clarity, and that has never been out of print. "It's about race, it's about prejudice, it's about childhood, it's about parenting, it's about love, it's about loneliness. More here.Happy Bloom's Day ... [NYTimes op-ed, an excerpt] Nearly 60 years ago, a number of Bell’s top executives, led by W. D. Gillen, then president of Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania, had begun to worry about the education of the managers rising through the company’s hierarchy. Many of these junior executives had technical backgrounds, gained at engineering schools or on the job, and quite a few had no college education at all. They were good at their jobs, but they would eventually rise to positions in which Gillen felt they would need broader views than their backgrounds had so far given them.
The sociologist E. Digby Baltzell explained the Bell leaders’ concerns in an article published in Harper’s magazine in 1955: “A well-trained man knows how to answer questions, they reasoned; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking.” Bell, then one of the largest industrial concerns in the country, needed more employees capable of guiding the company rather than simply following instructions or responding to obvious crises.
In 1952, Gillen took the problem to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a trustee. Together with representatives of the university, Bell set up a program called the Institute of Humanistic Studies for Executives. More than simply training its young executives to do a particular job, the institute would give them, in a 10-month immersion program on the Penn campus, what amounted to a complete liberal arts education. There were lectures and seminars led by scholars from Penn and other colleges in the area — 550 hours of course work in total, and more reading, Baltzell reported, than the average graduate student was asked to do in a similar time frame.
The institute was judged a success by Morris S. Viteles, one of the pioneers of industrial psychology, who evaluated its graduates. But Bell gradually withdrew its support after yet another positive assessment found that while executives came out of the program more confident and more intellectually engaged, they were also less interested in putting the company’s bottom line ahead of their commitments to their families and communities. By 1960, the Institute of Humanistic Studies for Executives was finished. More here.
Organists flock to Washington ... The American Guild of Organists held their biennial meeting in Washington, DC last week. If you wanted to hear the music, you had to go to where the organs are, and that means a lot of churches are had a lot of recitals. More here. [H/T to Andrew Gerns, reporting at Episcopal Cafe]
That kind of thing ... The Chicago Tribune recently ran a piece titled "Graduations at church cause unease." It described how many schools hold their graduation ceremonies in one particular megachurch in the metro area because, as one participant put it, it doesn't feel like a church. The absence of any visible sign of the church's Lord is apparently a point of honor for this congregation. According to the article, one of its staff said the lack of crosses and other Christian iconography "makes the space more welcoming for newcomers and more conducive for secular events. ... We don't want people to get hung up on that kind of thing." More here.
Rightwing Attacks New San Francisco RC Bishop [By Michael Sean Winters - America, Opinion] Bishop-elect McElroy's sin? He wrote an article in America magazine pointing out the unfortunate consequences of denying communion to politicians who are pro-choice. More here.
The Episcopal Church remembers its first presiding bishop, William White, on July 17. ENS Weekly bulletin inserts for Sunday, July 18 briefly tell how White was ordained in England as bishop of Pennsylvania and was a major player in the establishment of the Episcopal Church after the Revolutionary War, drafting its constitution, advocating for the voice of the laity, and serving as a moderate and reconciling voice in its councils. Find/download inserts here.
Conrad Weiser, July 13 ... Witness to peace and reconciliation. More here.
New Hope grants ... [From the Rev. Daniel Gunn] The Social Ministries Committee is now ready to receive and consider requests for disbursements from the New Hope Campaign. The total amount we are able to grant for the 2010-11 calendar year is $100,000. Therefore, we are inviting Letters of Intent from parishes and Episcopal related organizations within the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem. The Deadline for Letters of Intent is 30 July 2010. More here.
In-Formation in the
Diocese of Bethlehem ... Find the July/August edition of
Canon Anne Kitch's newsletter here.
The Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church, ... adopted and revised in General Convention, 1789 to 2009, may be found on the General Convention, at Publications, titled "2009 Constitution and Canons."
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Prayers and liturgical resources focusing on the Gulf oil spill disaster are available from The Episcopal Church.
Donate online to parish and diocese here.
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for diocesan events here.
Diocesan Life, the July/August issue ... Download it here.
Calendars ... •Download the current Calendar of Events for the whole diocese here. (If you would like and event listed, email Kat Lehman with event name, date, location, costs, time event starts and any contact info. She will gladly add any events your parish is hosting. •Find the monthly update Calendar of Diocesan Events here. It will be updated in a few days. Please note the difference between the two calendars.
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About the newSpin newsletter ... Composed at least weekly (usually twice a week) by Bill Lewellis, the newSpin newsletter appears as a post within the newSpin blog, but newsletter and blog are not identical. The newsletter currently goes to some 1,000 email addresses on a separate list. The newsletter comes, of course, with some spin from the editor, but the views expressed, implied or inferred in items or links contained in the newsletter or the blog do not represent the official view of the Diocese of Bethlehem unless expressed by or forwarded from the Bishop or the Archdeacon as an official communication. Comments may be addressed to Bill.
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