newSpin 101025
October 25, 2010
The newSpin newsletter, Oct. 25, 2010
Spinning (1) More Episcopal churches have begun using the Community Calendar published online and daily in the Morning Call. It's easy to submit event. (2) How nice to discover that a parish in Arkansas recently began using Your Faith Your Life by Jenifer Gamber and Bill Lewellis for Confirmation classes. More here. (3) Australian blogger and systematic theology professor Benjamin Myers asks "What Would Jesus Steal?" He says a "reliable source" – often a clue that what follows may be an urban myth – tells him that that the most-stolen item at one of Australia's big Christian bookstore chains is WWJD bracelets.
Diocese of Bethlehem
Diocesan Life ... Download the November issue here.
Calendar of Events ... [Kat Lehman] Here is the latest calendar of events in and around the diocese. If you want your event posted, please email Kat Lehman who will gladly add your event to the list. This calendar is updated monthly. The format is in Word .doc if you want to cut and paste into your own calendars. Download 101001calendarofevents.doc
News/Info/Commentary from The Diocese of Bethlehem ... •The newSpin blog •The Diobeth website. Enter your name and email address in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You will find quite a few public news and info lists there. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of them. "Bakery" is the diocesan interactive list. •Twitter
Christmas at Sea ... [Canon Jane Teter] A great big thank you for all of the wonderful knitted and crocheted items that many of you made for the mariners on the high seas this Christmas. We are about to send ten cartons of items (about 173) to the Seamen's Institute in NY. A Lutheran Church in Nazareth also brought in many items to be sent along with ours. Thank you for the many hats, scarves, socks and vests that you made. Keep up the good work - it is a great time to knit or crochet as the days and nights get colder. Items may be dropped off at Diocesan House year round. There is a small amount of yarn available if someone needs yarn to get started. Patterns may be downloaded at www.seamenschurch.org
Acolyte Festival, Christ Church Reading to the National Cathedral ... Story by David Feick, with two pics, here.
Diocesan Convention ... Read Bishop Paul's address to the 2010 Diocesan Convention here. Read Bishop Paul's sermon at the 2010 Diocesan Convention eucharist here. Read Andrew Gerns' story on small groups highlighting the work of the Spirit at Convention here.
One Communiy/One Voice ... A national day of mourning and solidarity for the LGBT community. Come together on November 12 at 6:15 p.m. at St Mary's Church in Reading and walk down Windsor to Centre Ave and then down Centre Ave to Calvary UCC where All Souls Church is hosting a 7:00 p.m. service of remembrance. The walk is less than a mile. No banners. No music. No rainbows. No stereotypes. No shouting. As a show of unity, please wear all black clothing. Download poster here.
Eben Sales ... [From Dean Tony Pompa] With sorrow I must tell you the news that Eben Sales died early Saturday morning at Sacred Heart Hospital after a month-long struggle with chronic health issues. Eben was a faithful member of the Cathedral serving as an Usher, active in Men's Group, participating in many bible studies, and quietly being a companion to many. Please keep his wife Patricia, daughters Julie and Lauren, son John and their families in your prayers. A memorial service will be held in the Cathedral on Saturday, October 30 at 11 a.m. Your prayers and presence are welcome.
Find earlier issues of the newSpin newsletter here and recent ones in the left column here.
The Episcopal Church
Executive Council considers budget restraints ... [Episcopal News Service] The proposed budget calls for ceasing publication of the Episcopal News Monthly and Quarterly publications; closing the Episcopal Books and Resources retail bookstore at the Church Center in New York City and its online store; and ceasing the resource-shipping operation that serves EBAR as well as Episcopal Church Foundation, Episcopal Relief & Development and United Thank Offering. Read more.
Presiding bishop warns Executive Council of 'suicide by governance' ... [ENS] "We need some structural change across the Episcopal Church," she said. "Almost everywhere I go I hear dioceses wrestling with this; dioceses addressing what they often think of as their own governance handcuffs, the structures that are preventing them from moving more flexibly into a more open future." Later in her remarks, Jefferts Schori said "we need a system that is more nimble, that is more able to respond to change," calling for "a more responsive and adaptable and less rigid set of systems." More here.
Hard times, hard questions, hard answers ... [Washington Post, On Faith] The little Episcopal church on the Southwest Washington waterfront had seen the signs. Since its founders proudly founded St. Augustine's as a racially integrated church in 1961, membership had wilted from 180 to 28. Key members passed away or moved. Paint peeled off the ceiling. Mold grew in the basement. The church couldn't pay its bills. "It was literally dying," the Rev. Martha Clark said of her parish's state in 2007, when the regional bishop gave St. Augustine's three years to become self-sustaining or be shut down. More here and here. [H/T to Torey Lightcap at Episcopal Cafe]
Fire destroys Virginia Theological Seminary chapel ... Read the ENS story here.
ECF Vital Practices, a new free website from the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF), offers vestry members and other people of faith resources and tools to respond to the changing needs of the Church. Building upon the spiritually grounded, practical Vestry Papers articles that have inspired and informed vestry members since 1995, Vital Practices uses the Internet to both expand its offering and its audience. Vital Practices explores new ways of supporting congregations by building online communities of Episcopalians who share their stories, experiences, and best practices, who learn from one another, and who discover support to help sustain their leadership and their ministries. It includes articles by experts and peers, blogs for sharing ideas about faith and leadership, stories about real life lessons of change and leadership, tools for stewardship, communications, and opportunities for you to share your stories and examples. In recognition that fall is stewardship season for many congregations, the site launched with three features on stewardship, Visit www.ecfvp.org and sign up.
News/Info/Commentary from The Episcopal Church ... •NewsLine •News & Notices •Infoline •Episcopal News Service •Website •Twitter •Facebook •YouTube
News/Info/Commentary from other Episcopal sources ... •The Lead, Episcopal Cafe •Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
ENS Weekly bulletin inserts ... For October 31: [Episcopal News Service] New commemorations on the Episcopal Church calendar for the months of November and December from Holy Women, Holy Men are the topic of Oct. 31 bulletin inserts from Episcopal News Service. The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is conducting a year-long open forum on Holy Women, Holy Men, the first complete revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts in 40 years, and invites participation from all church members through its website or by email at [email protected]. Full text of the insert may be found here.
Beyond the Bounds
Bishops at meeting urge Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories ... [New York Times] At the end of a two-week-long meeting at the Vatican on the plight of Christians in the Middle East, the bishops urged Israel not to use the Bible "to wrongly justify injustices." More here.
The first person I came out to was God ... And the second person he came out to was a priest. Andrew Sullivan on being gay and Catholic. The video is 7:30 long, and there is a very moving passage about his father toward the end. View it here. [H/T to Jim Naughton]
Dispute Over Succession Clouds Crystal Cathedral ... [NYTimes, Laurie Goodstein] The empire the Rev. Robert H. Schuller built may be in jeopardy, tainted by a family feud and a $43 million debt. More here.
Greeley book: Catholics lack enthusiasm for Mass ... [Chicago Sun-Times and NYTimes] Chicago-area Catholics mostly approve of the pope, their cardinal and their parish priest, but they don't like being told how to conduct their sex lives and they find the Sunday mass deadly dull, best-selling author and former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Andrew Greeley writes in his latest and final book. The book is based, in part, on a 2007 telephone survey of some 524 Catholics living in the Chicago Archdiocese, which encompasses Cook and Lake counties and includes 2.5 million members. Greeley, 82, completed his analysis of the study just weeks before he fractured his skull while getting out of a taxi in November 2008. The accident left Greeley with traumatic brain injuries, his family says. More here and here.
Catholic blogs aim to purge dissenters ... [Huffington Post[ Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it's not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn't Catholic enough. Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church. More here.
Opinion/Commentary
Voters are in the dark on campaign spending ... [Washington Post, E.J. Dionne on the 2010 'Spending Avalanche'] Out-of-control campaign spending has long been a point of concern, observes The Washington Post columnist, but the 2010 midterms have taken those fears into the stratosphere. Of particular concern are attack ads funded by out-of-state special interest monies. Secret money is dangerous. Secret money corrupts. Secret money is antithetical to the transparency that democracy requires. Dionne notes that in the past, at least, "money was raised under rules that required disclosure." These new donations, raised under a different part of the tax code, require no such disclosure. It's a situation that should be disheartening to everyone who believes "elections are there to be won, not bought."
Health
Walking six to nine miles a week may help save memory ... Brain's gray matter doesn't seem to shrink with this amount of exercise. More here. [H/T to Diana Marshall]
HealthCare.gov is a web site where you can learn about the new healthcare law, find insurance options, learn about disease prevention and so much more. The “Understand the New Law” section includes a timeline of when new provisions become effective, how the law applies to specific classifications of people, etc. If you would like a “tour” of the site, join the webinar which will be offered again on Wednesday, October 27, 2010, 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET. You must register in advance. Register here. I find the site fairly user-friendly—maybe you’ll just enjoy checking it out on your own. The section that compares insurance plans is rather amazing. [Diana Marshall]
Media
Homer's Religious Odyssey, The Simpsons' Elusive Faith ... [Cathleen Falsani, Religion columnist aka "God girl"] "Few people know it," an article in the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, proclaimed this week, "and he does everything he can to hide it ... but it is true: Homer J. Simpson is a Catholic." Hold on a tick there, padre. Not to cast aspersions on the theological sleuthing of the Rev. Francesco Occhetta, the Jesuit priest who came to that conclusion after analyzing a 2005 episode of the Simpsons called "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest-Star," but last time I checked, Homer was a member (if begrudgingly so) of the First Church of Springfield, an outpost of what its pastor, the Rev. Lovejoy, claims is the "one true faith": The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism. L'Osservatore Romano has caused a bit of a religious kerfuffle by laying claim to the first family of American television. It also surprised many observers by invoking pop culture in the pages of a publication more accustomed to discussing the intricacies of Byzantine theology and papal encyclicals than the creedal leanings of cartoon characters. More here.
The doctor is back in session on HBO ... [NYTimes. Alessandra Stanley] Reality television teems with celebrity shrinks like Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew who provide make-believe therapy. “In Treatment” (HBO, Monday/Tuesday 9ET) is fictional, but it carries a stronger whiff of truth. In the third season of “In Treatment,” beginning Monday on HBO, the therapist Paul Weston’s relationships with his new patients are as finely etched as before.
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Send info about newSpin to friends you think may be interested ... newSpin is an electronic newsletter that includes news, information and commentary related to the Diocese of Bethlehem, the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion and the world of religion ... with some spin, of course, from the editor. It is edited by retired communication minister Bill Lewellis and ordinarily published twice weekly, on Monday and Thursday. The newSpin newsletter is currently received by some 1,200 people, many of whom forward it to many others. To have it emailed directly to you, subscribe at the "Get Connected" box on the right column of www.diobeth.org. Select newSpin under the groups. You may find samples of the newSpin newsletter on the left column of the newSpin blog, www.diobeth.typepad.com.
About the newSpin newsletter ... Composed at least weekly (usually twice a week) by Bill Lewellis, the newSpin newsletter appears as a post within the newSpin blog, but newsletter and blog are not identical. The newsletter comes, of course, with some spin from the editor, but the views expressed, implied or inferred in items or links contained in the newsletter or the blog do not represent the official view of the Diocese of Bethlehem unless expressed by or forwarded from the Bishop or the Archdeacon as an official communication. Comments may be addressed to Bill.
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