newSpin 111006

The newSpin newsletter, October 6, 2011
By Bill Lewellis
Published Monday, occasionally also on Thursday

  "Very few people know that they are loved by God without any conditions or limits." ––Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus, 1989

TopSpin
• Diocesan Convention, Oct. 7-8 at the Cathedral ... Registration at the door is available. More info here. Resolutions Here. Download updated preprint here. Bishop Paul has designated the Diocesan Convention offering to go toward flood relief around the Diocese of Bethlehem.
• Flooding in northeastern PA ... [Episcopal NewsService] In what is becoming a consistent pattern across the nation during times of disaster, Episcopalians in the Diocese of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, are stepping forth to help their neighbors even as flood waters devastate some of their own homes and churches. A long series of storms and hurricanes, beginning with Hurricane Irene in early September, and continuing during the first weekend in October, has saturated communities along the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, causing the worst flooding ever recorded in those areas. Communities and parishes across the diocese were recovering from the effects of Irene-- electricity, telephone and cable service were restored, and basements were pumped out  -- when Tropical Storm Lee arrived, pouring more than nine inches of rain on top of the already soaked area. Lesser storms have continued to dump more water on the area. The levee system protected larger cities, such as Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, although some 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes. ... Smaller towns, such as West Pittston, Duryea, Athens, Exeter Township and Plains, suffered significant damage. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), more than 2,000 homes and 100 businesses throughout the county were destroyed, including food stores on which many residents depend. More here,
• As they work toward restoring their homes ... [Father John Major, rector, Trinity West Pittston and Prince of Peace Dallas] As we reach the one-month mark after the Susquehanna River poured into more than 2,000 homes and nearly 110 businesses in Luzerne County—including about 900 in West Pittston and nearly 600 in the nearby towns of Duryea, Jenkins Township and Harding combined—affected residents are in various stages of getting their homes and lives back in order.  As they work toward restoring their homes, most of those affected are stretching their usual incomes to cover a wide range of additional costs such as gas for generators and travel to and from their flooded homes, as well as cleaning supplies, construction materials and convenience foods that can be prepared without utilities. The greatest need right now, then, is to offset some of these unexpected expenses with cash donations or particularly gift cards for places like Lowe’s, Home Depot, Wal-Mart,Target, or auto gas companies, bringing a little peace of mind to those affected. Thank you and God bless you for your expressions of concern.

DioBethSpin
• Bishop Paul appeals for flood relief for northern tier parishes ... Here. Lead story in October Diocesan Life is the flood. Flooding update, with pics, here. Bishop Paul has designated the Diocesan Convention offering to go toward flood relief. Christ Church, Towanda sustained six to eight feet of flooding in their parish basement and Trinity, West Pittston was spared by one block from being overwhelmed with water. Sayre and Athens were also hard hit from the flooding. Many churches are already helping and as we gather information on the best way to proceed with donations, we will let you know what is needed and where to take it. Right now, funds are the best method of helping so that gift cards can be purchased for food and household goods. You can send funds payable to The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, memo line: Flood Relief, 333 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA 18015. People in 18 PA counties eligible to apply for federal aid: Adams, Bradford, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Union, Wyoming and York.  
• Diocesan Life, October ... available here. Lead story is the flood. See flooding update, with pics, here.
• Flooding in northeastern PA ... [Episcopal NewsService] See above, under TopSpin. Here.
• Lutheran pastor James R. Laubach, Sr., 84, died on October 2. He was the father of Canon Mark Laubach, organist and choirmaster at St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre. More below, under Evangelical Lutheran.
• Congregational Development Grants ...  Here.
• Renewal Assembly III: Finding Your Voice ... will take place in eight locations on Nov. 12. The format will be the same as the previous two with a video, prayer, discussion and lunch and will be over by 1:00 p.m. Registration (and more information) is now open online. Download the brochure here.
• Episcopal News Weekly bulletin inserts ... Download inserts here.
• DioBeth Website ... newSpin Blog ... Re:Create blog – for youth and young adults ... Twitter.DioBeth ... Twitter.Kat Lehman ... Facebook.DioBeth ... Flickr, search under dio_beth
• Public news and info lists ... At the Diobeth website , enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box on the right hand side. You are welcome to subscribe to any or all of these. "Bakery" is our diocesan interactive list.

TaleSpin
 • Archbishop Tutu, still the conscience of South Africa, will be 80 on Friday, Oct. 7 ... [Catholic News Service] "Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu might seek to turn off the spotlight that has shone on him for the past three decades, but as he approaches his 80th birthday, he has not been able to withdraw from public life completely." Here.
• Why I quit primary care: One doctor's story ... [Miller-McCune] In the new book “Out of Practice,” a primary care physician tells why he quit his practice and why the care of 78 million aging baby boomers can’t be left to specialists. Here.

TailSpin
• Conflicted Web ... [Congregational Resource Guide] "If you are working on changing your website," Kat Lehman suggests, "you might want to read the first article in this series." In congregations, as in families, sometimes it's the little things that most aggregavate folks. Consider control of your website. People charged with updating and maintaining the site can become very protective. There are good reasons (someone who doesn't understand the program your site is built on can bring it down unwittingly), and not so good reasons (possessiveness, desire to control passwords). Fortunately, there are many excellent resources when you find yourself negotiating these troubles.Check them out, along with our three-part interview with Faith and Web's own Anna Belle Leiserson. It's good to have a peaceable web.
• When Harry should avoid meeting Sally ... [NYTimes online, Stanley Fish] So whoever are the characters filling out your precious roster of perfect villains and nogoodniks, take care not to meet them. And if one of your antiheroes happens to turn up in a coffee shop you’re sitting in, get up and leave immediately. More here.
• Crystal Cathedral creditors committee sues church insiders ... [LATimes] The creditors committee in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy case has filed suit against church insiders, alleging that family members borrowed money from an endowment fund and continued to receive generous salaries and perks even as the church struggled financially. Here.

Pray  
• The Daily Office ... with the Mission St. Clare. Now available for iPhone and iPad.
• With The Book of Common Prayer ... Here.
• For our young men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for their families ... Check the newSpin blog for an update. Better still, at the "Get Connected" box on the right side of our diocesan website, fill in your name and email address, and click on "My Groups." In the next window, check "Pray for." Then, you will receive the weekly update by email.

Act
• Sign on to letter to Senator Toomey urging protection of vulnerable persons ... [PA Council of Churches] Here. [h/t Diana Marshall, Diocese of Bethlehem liaison to the PA Council of Churches Ministry of Public Witness]
• News and Action Summary, Sept. 30 ... [PA Council of Churches] Choose the issues that are most important to you and take action. Here. [h/t Diana Marshall, Diocese of Bethlehem liaison to the PA Council of Churches Ministry of Public Witness]

Opinion/Reflection
• What if Americs truly were a Christian nation? ... [Tom Ehrich] Here.
• The theology of Steve Jobs: the byte out of the Apple ... [Susan Brooks Thistlelthwaite] Here. From Steve Jobs' address to the Stanford University graduating class of 2005: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Resources
• In-Formation in Bethlehem ... Canon Anne Kitch's October newsletter of lifelong Christian formation resources for the Diocese of Bethlehem. Here.
• Food and Drink ... [NYTimes, Sunday Magazine] This Food and Drink Issue of the magazine - the fourth annual - is full of questions. Should I be afraid of low-calorie sugar substitutes? Is there a fish I can eat guilt-free? What's the single best way to make coffee? Why does it matter that families eat together? Find these answers and more at nytimes.com/magazine.
• The Steward's Well ... [The Office of Stewardship, The Episcopal Church] In this issue, contributing writers explore the practice of giving as a path to investing in and participating in God’s reign. Emily Mellot explores The Offertory—the act of bring gifts to the table—as placing ourselves on the altar.  Money represents the labor and substance of our lives, it is an embodied sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  In addition, six contributing writers of the Feasting on Gratitude series, explores stewardship, giving, gratitude and generosity in connection with the lectionary reading from the Gospel of Mathew each Sunday beginning October 2 through November 6th, All Saints Sunday. And, The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS) will explore giving and gratitude with a robust offering of resources via a newly launched website at www.tens.org. More here.
• It's that time again ... [Episcopal News Service, Dan Webster] Get ready for the fund-raising season at your local congregation. Oh, you may hear it called a "stewardship" campaign. In reality most churches are trying to raise money to cover next year's budget. Very few congregations, in my experience, practice true stewardship. Many practice fundraising but call it stewardship, wrote the Rev. Dan Matthews, former rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street, who also identified four ways of giving: charity, philanthropy, fundraising and stewardship. What makes stewardship different, wrote Matthews in "Trinity News," is that it's "giving with no strings attached.  It is related to creation and my place in it." Read it all.
• Online digital theological library launched ... [Episcopal Café] The World Council of Churches announced last week the launch of the first online digital library covering theology and ecumenism. The goal is to help close the information gap between North and South. More here.
• How do Anglicans read the Bible? ... [Episcopal Café] One of the take-aways from controversies within the Anglican Communion is the recognition that there is no agreed upon Anglican method of "reading" Holy Scripture. That lack has frequently stymied attempts to get disagreeing bodies within the Communion to speak with each other about what the Bible is saying to the Church today. Here.
• Kirkridge Retreat Center ... Circle of Trust retreats. Here.

Episcopal/Anglican
• Seamen's Church Institute laumches chaplains' blog to extend reach of its spiritual care ... [Episcopal News Service] In the early 19th century, the Seamen's Church Institute lodged its mission to seafarers in a floating chapel in the waters of the Port of New York. While today's SCI chaplains continue to climb gangways and ride tender vessels to reach mariners aboard ships, seafarers no longer need to be in port to receive spiritual care. Started this month, a blog called CHAPLAINSBLOG brings chaplains' messages wherever there is an Internet connection, SCI reported in an Oct. 5 press release. More here.
• Anglican Communuon weekly review ... September 24-30. Here.
• Episcopal Church website ... Episcopal Church on Twitter ...  Episcopal News Service ... ENS on Twitter ... NewsLine ... News & Notices ... Infoline ... Episcopal Church on Facebook ... Episcopal Church on YouTube ... Anglican Communion website ... Anglican Communion News Service. ... Anglican Communion News Service on Facebook.

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

Evangelical Lutheran 
• Lutheran pastor James R. Laubach, Sr., 84, died on October 2. He was the father of Canon Mark Laubach, organist and choirmaster at St. Stephen's Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre. Obituary here. The following note is from Mark: On behalf of my brothers Jim Jr. and Bob, I want to share with you the sad news that our beloved father, Pastor James Laubach, born on March 13, 1927 to Howard Elias Jr. and Annie Kurtz Laubach in Catasauqua, passed from this life to Eternal Life at 12:35 a.m., Sunday, October 2, 2011. Following a private burial on Friday, we will celebrate Dad’s life with a memorial liturgy of thanksgiving on Saturday, October 8th at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 417 Howertown Road, Catasauqua.  This is the church where Dad was baptized on April 6, 1927, confirmed on April 6, 1941, and married our mother, Doris Elaine Rudert, on June 3, 1950. If any of you who are singers would like to participate in the choir for the liturgy, please let me know by email or phone (my cell phone number is 570-704-7055).  There are more details of the music yet to be determined, but I can tell you now that we will sing at least one anthem, Johannes Brahms’ How lovely is thy dwelling-place from his German Requiem.  We will begin rehearsing at 2 p.m. in the church. I’ll be playing the organ, and I’m so grateful that my good friend and Marywood University music department faculty colleague, Dr. Rick Hoffenberg, has kindly agreed to conduct the choir. So many of you have already sent emails, text messages, notes, and voicemail messages with your prayers, concern, and support.  We appreciate your love and friendship more than you can imagine.
• NEPA Synod E-News ... Sept. 30. Here.  NEPA Synod website ... Here.  ELCA website ... Here.  ELCA News Service ... Here.  ELCA's blogs may be found here. See especially "Web and Multimedia Development."

United Methodist  
• UMC website Here. News Service Here. Communication Resources Start here. Communication newsletter (tips and tools) Here. Eastern PA Conference website  Here. Facebook Here. Bishop Peggy Johnson's blog Here.

Roman Catholic
• Don't cherry-pick from church teachings to justify your political preferences ... [RNA via WaPo] With the 2012 campaign gearing up before an angry and divided electorate, U.S. Catholic bishops on Tuesday (Oct. 4) reminded Catholic voters that they can’t cherry-pick from church teachings to justify their own political preferences, and cautioned both sides not to edit the bishops’ statements into “voter guides” to back one party or another. The bishops’ warning came in a special introduction to “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” a 30-page document on the responsibilities of Catholic voters that has been issued before every presidential election cycle since 1976. As recently as 2008, the bishops’ document has been pilloried by activists who say it tilts too far to the right or the left. The bishops themselves say the document has been “misused to present an incomplete or distorted view of the demands of faith in politics.” This time, the bishops say flatly that the document “does not offer a voters guide, scorecard of issues, or direction on how to vote.” More here.
• Diocese of Allentown ... Here.  Diocese of Scranton ... Here.  United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ... Here.  Catholic News Service ... Here.  Vatican website ... Here.  Vatican Information Service blog ... Here.  Vatican News/Info Portal ... Here.

WordSpin
• The Daily Office from MissionStClare. Now available for iPhone and iPad.
• The Lectionary Page ...  Here. This is a new URL. Update your bookmarks or favorites.
• The Lectionary ... Here.
• Oremus Bible Browser ... Here.
• Revised Common Lectionary ... Vanderbilt.

DaySpin
• Diocese of Bethlehem Events Calendar ... Updated monthly, September 30. Here. Find weekly updates on the DioBeth Facebook page. Also here.
• Episcopal Church Calendar ... Here.

Be well
• Smokeless tobscco FactSheet ... Here. [h/t Diana Marshall]

Be there
• Oct. 7-8 ... Diocesan Convention, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.
• Oct. 18 ... Souper Day for New Bethany at Candlelight Inn, Bethlehem, Noon.
• Oct. 22 ... J2A Training , 8:30 - 3:00, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.
• Oct. 22 ... Daughters of the King Assembly, St.Luke's, Scranton 9:30 to 3:00
• Nov. 1 ... Deacon Ordination, St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre 7:00 p.m.
• Nov. 6 ... Joint Episcopal and Methodist Service, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem 4:00 p.m.
• Nov. 11-13 ... Happening Retreat by Youth for Youth, grades 9-12, at Kirby House.
• Nov. 12 ... Renewal Assembly III, at eight locations, 9 to 1:30.
• Jan. 6 ... Ordination, St. Stephen's, Wilkes-Barre 7:00 p.m.
• Jan. 21 ... Bishop's Day with Youth, grades 6-12.
• March 24 ... Diocesan Training Day, St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre 9:00 to 3:00.
• March 29 ... Chrism Mass, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem 11:00 a.m.
• April 20-22 ... Christophany Retreat, grades 6-12, at Pocono Plateau Retreat, Cresco.
• May 16 ... Episcopal Church Women Annual Meeting, Kirby House 9:00 to 2:30.
• May 20 ... St. Matthew's Society Gathering, Lehigh Country Club, Allentown 3:00 p.m.
• June 1-3 ... Vocare Retreat for Young Adults, Kirkridge.
• June 30 ... Bishop's Day with Kids
• July 5-12 ... 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Indianapolis.
• July 28 ... Bishop's Day with Kids
• Summer ... Senior High Mission Trip. Dates and destination TBA.

Follow
• The Diocese of Bethlehem on Twitter and Facebook ... http://twitter.com/#!/Diobeth ... https://www.facebook.com/DioceseOfBethlehem
• Kat Lehman on Twitter ... http://twitter.com/#!/KatLehman
• Episcopal News Service on Twitter ...  http://twitter.com/#!/episcopal_news

Additional sources of news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• Faith in Public Life ... here.
 • Episcopal/Anglican
(1) The Lead, Episcopal Cafe
(2) Daily Episcopalian, Episcopal Cafe
(3) AngicansOnline.
(4) AnglicansOnline News Centre.

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You are reading the newSpin newsletter. The newSpin blog, which includes the newsletter and other items, is available here. When the newsletter is completed on Mondays and occasionally, more often than not, on Thursdays as well, it is published immediately to the blog and on Bakery and on a ChurchPost list of some 1,000 addresses. Many recipients forward it to many more. Bakery and the blog are interactive. The ChurchPost list is not. The newsletter 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 or the Archdeacon as an official communication. If you're wondering why you haven't seen something related to your parish or agency here, it's probably because no one has sent relevant info. Regarding items about your parish or agency as well as feedback on any other items ... send email to Bill.

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]