newSpin 130909
September 09, 2013
newSpin, the newsletter
September 9, 2013
Bill Lewellis
Published weekly, usually on Monday
TopSpin
• Diocesan Convention ... Friday/Saturday, Oct. 4-5, Cathedral Church of the Nativity. Here. Here.
• ECW In-Gathering at Convention ... The
ECW will collect shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, razors,
bodywash, soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, socks, cotton underwear, cough
drops, and over-the-counter medications. Here.
• Two celebrations ... [Canon Andrew Gerns] We as a Diocese are entering a season of change and we start this time out with two celebrations. We are saying “Godspeed” to both Bishop Paul Marshall and to Bishop Jack Croneberger. Bishop Paul will enter retirement on January 1, 2014 and Bishop Jack retired (again) as our Assistant Bishop on August 1, 2013. We are grateful to both men for their leadership and pastoral care to our diocese. We will be holding two events to honor and thank them for their ministries. Read on.
• Banning a pseudo-therapy ... [NYTimes Sunday Review editorial] A discredited therapy that purports to convert homosexuals to
heterosexuals was repudiated again late last month. This time, a
three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit unanimously upheld a California law preventing licensed therapists from counseling minors to change their sexual orientation from gay to straight. So-called “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy” began at a time
when professionals in medicine and psychology considered homosexuality
an illness that was amenable to treatment. That ended in 1973, when
homosexuality was removed from the psychiatry profession’s diagnostic
manual of mental disorders. Soon all major mental health associations
followed suit. A small number of therapists, however, continue to
practice and advocate conversion therapy today. Read on.
• Get the shot, not the flu ... It's time to get your flu shot. Got mine last week. Medicare covers the cost. Most health insurance plans cover the cost. Check with your insurance provider. Under the Affordable Care Act, many insurers are required to cover certain preventive services, like the flu vaccine, at no cost to you. If you do not have insurance or if it does not cover vaccines, help is available. Watch for free flu shot clinics scheduled in your area. In the Lehigh Valley drive-through free clinics have been scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at Dorney Park and Sunday, Nov. 10, at Coca-Cola Park (where the Iron Pigs play), both days from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There's a lot of info available at Flu.gov.
Wednesday,
September 11 ... is the 12th anniversary of the terrorists attacks that took the
lives of nearly 3,000 men, women, and children.
Visit USA.gov's 9/11 Commemorations and Memorials to learn
about: Memorials in New York, NY;
Washington, DC; and near Shanksville, PA; September 11 as a National Day of
Service and Remembrance;' Photos, recovered objects, and
eyewitness accounts from 9/11; Emergency preparedness efforts. Please
observe a moment of silence on September 11, starting at 8:46 a.m. EDT, to honor the victims who died as a result of the 2001 terrorist
attack.
• Breakaway parish mulls joining Episcopal Church ... [RNS] A breakaway Catholic church that stood up to three Catholic bishops in St. Louis,
weathered a decade-long legal fight and embraced doctrine far afield
from its Roman roots is now on the verge of becoming a parish in the
Episcopal Church. Read on.
• IRS to treat same-sex equally for tax purposes ... [WaPo] The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced on
Thursday that they would treat legal same-sex marriages the same as
heterosexual marriages for federal tax purposes. Read on.
SoulSpin
• Restless hearts ... [St. Augustine] You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
• Being constantly on the lookout ... [The Morning Call, Kathy Lauer-Williams]"Without being constantly on the lookout [said a woman from the Lehigh Valley who has posted a photo a day for a year on a blog], I wouldn't have noticed the
peregrine falcon who lives on the water tower next to the grocery
store, or the family of kestrels sitting on an electric wire. It's amazing the stuff that goes on all around us, every day, that we
have learned to filter out as unnecessary and never really see." She might never have noticed the tiny bug on her pond that looked like
"he was wearing goggles" and whose portrait is one of her favorites of
the year. Read on.
• The value of suffering ... [NYTimes Sunday Review Op-Ed] Hundreds of Syrians are apparently killed by chemical weapons, and the
attempt to protect others from that fate threatens to kill many more. A
child perishes with her mother in a tornado in Oklahoma, the month after
an 8-year-old is slain by a bomb in Boston. Runaway trains claim dozens
of lives in otherwise placid Canada and Spain. At least 46 people are
killed in a string of coordinated bombings aimed at an ice cream shop,
bus station and famous restaurant in Baghdad. Does the torrent of
suffering ever abate — and can one possibly find any point in suffering?
Wise men in every tradition tell us that suffering brings clarity,
illumination; for the Buddha, suffering is the first rule of life, and
insofar as some of it arises from our own wrongheadedness — our
cherishing of self — we have the cure for it within. Thus in certain
cases, suffering may be an effect, as well as a cause, of taking
ourselves too seriously. I once met a Zen-trained painter in Japan, in
his 90s, who told me that suffering is a privilege, it moves us toward
thinking about essential things and shakes us out of shortsighted
complacency; when he was a boy, he said, it was believed you should pay
for suffering, it proves such a hidden blessing.
Yet none of that begins to apply to a child gassed to death (or born
with AIDS or hit by a “limited strike”). Philosophy cannot cure a
toothache, and the person who starts going on about its long-term
benefits may induce a headache, too. Anyone who’s been close to a loved
one suffering from depression knows that the vicious cycle behind her
condition means that, by definition, she can’t hear the logic or
reassurances we extend to her; if she could, she wouldn’t be suffering
from depression. Read on.
• The Book of Common Prayer ... every edition from 1549 to 1979. Here.
• Prayers and Thanksgivings from the BCP ... Here.
• The Daily Office ... can be read online in Rite I, Rite II or the New Zealand Prayer Book versions. At Mission St. Clare.
• 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.
• Celebration for Bishop Paul ... Sunday, Dec. 15, at St. Stephen's Wilkes-Barre. More here.
• Celebration for Bishop Jack ... Friday, Oct. 4, at the Diocesan Convention banquet. More here.
• Diobeth Episcopal Relief and Development ... [John Major] A shield in the midst of life's storms. Week of Sept. 9.
• In-Formation in Bethlehem ... Canon Anne Kitch's monthly newsletter on lifelong Christian formation resources. September.
• Christmas at Sea ... [Canon Jane Teter] Now that September is here, it is time to pick up your knitting and/or crocheting. Why not knit up a hat, scarf, vest, or socks for Mariners on the high seas who cannot get home for the Holidays. Once again we will collect these items at our Convention on October 4 & 5. If you will be attending, bring the items with you or send them along with your delegates. Patterns may be found at www.seamenschurch.org. Go to "ways to give", then Christmas at Sea.
• Info re Diocesan Convention, Oct. 4-5
... Here. Here.
• DioLight ... Vol. 1, Issue 13: Regional Confirmation as well as Youth, Mission and Direction.
• Diocesan level events ... Here.
• Public news and info lists ... At the Diobeth website,
enter your name and email in the "Get Connected" box. You
are welcome to subscribe to
any or all of
these. "Bakery" is
our diocesan interactive
list.
ParishSpin
• Trinity Soup Kitchen ... at Trinity Episcopal
Church (44 E. Market St., Bethlehem) offers hospitality, a hot meal,
counseling, human service agency referrals and incidental material needs
every weekday to some 150 persons who may be unemployed,
mentally ill, disabled and poor. For 32 years. Often, it is the only
place where they get a smile and warm greeting, which is as important to
them as the food. Trinity can use your financial help. More here. The
next Trinity Soup Kitchen Benefit Concert is on Sunday, Sept. 15 at 4:00 p.m.
Roland Kushner and Roger Latzgo will offer their musical talents. Once again, a wonderfully generous
anonymous donor will match all ticket sales. Tickets are $20.00 and you
can get yours by calling 610-867-4741 X 308.
• Calendar of events in our parishes ... Here.
Evangelism/Stewardship
• Inviting people to church ... [Episcopal Café] Here.
Rest in peace
• Robert Farrar Capon, 88 ... [Christianity Today and Episcopal Café] Father Robert Farrar Capon, the Episcopal priest and author of many books, most notably The Supper of the Lamb, died September 5, 2013. Read at Christianity Today and Episcopal Café.
• Our young men and women who died recently in Afghanistan and for their families ... Here ... Pray also
for the fallen heroes also of our coalition partners, and for the
citizens of Afghanistan who have died, unnamed and unknown to us, and
for those who mourn ... and for the end to this endless war.
Episcopal/Anglican (beyond DioBeth)
• Church,
presiding bishop respond to UTO resignations
... Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
issued a statement Sept. 6 regarding the recent resignation of four United
Thank Offering board members in response to a draft revision of UTO’s bylaws. Read on.
• Around the Episcopal Church ... Here
• The recreation of John Donne's 1622 gunpowder sermon ... [Anglican Communion News Service] Anglicans around the world can now get a feel for what it was like to attend a sermon given on November 5 1622 by English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England John Donne. This has been made possible through the work of an international team of scholars, engineers, actors, and linguists who have sought to recreate "what we know, or can surmise, about the look and sound of this space, destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666, and about the course of activities as they unfolded on the occasion of a Paul’s Cross sermon, so that we may experience a major public event of early modern London as it unfolded in real time and in the context of its original surroundings." Read on, and explore.
Employment Opportunities
• Episcopal Positions (NYC/DC) ... Here.
TaleSpin
• Unprepared pastors ... [Episcopal Café] Were you or were the clergy you know prepared for pastoring a congregation by their education? Thom S. Rainer talks about eight areas where many are unprepared for the job they are called to do. Read on.
• Their odd bugger ... This
description of a Church of England vicar after a year at his parish was
an LOL for me during my listen to a novel on a recent drive: "A measure as
to how well he was settling into his new job was the degree to which his
parishioners were dropping their guard. They no longer stopped
conversations short of his approach. He might be an odd bugger, but he
was their odd bugger."
The Protestant work ethic is real ... [Pacific Standard] Why do we work so hard? For years Americans have been arguing over whether or not it has something to do with the country's religious history. Does a history of Protestant religiosity make us work harder? As Pacific Standard reports, we've finally got some answers.
The sounds that bind: why we evolved to love music ... [Pacific Standard] The question of why humans invented music has long puzzled scholars, Pacific Standard reports. Although some have guessed it grew out of a courtship ritual, recent research suggests that music developed as a way to cement social bonds within a community .
• Traveling without seeing ... [Frank Bruni, NYTimes Op-Ed] In theory the Internet, along with its kindred advances, should expand our horizons, speeding us to aesthetic and intellectual territories we haven’t charted before. Often it does. But at our instigation and with our assent, it also herds us into tribes of common thought and shared temperament, amplifying the timeless human tropism toward cliques. Cyberspace, like suburbia, has gated communities. Our Web bookmarks and our chosen social-media feeds help us retreat deeper into our partisan camps. (Cable-television news lends its own mighty hand.) “It’s the great irony of the Internet era: people have more access than ever to an array of viewpoints, but also the technological ability to screen out anything that doesn’t reinforce their views,” Jonathan Martin wrote in Politico last year, explaining how so many strategists and analysts on the right convinced themselves, in defiance of polls, that Mitt Romney was about to win the presidency. Read on.
• Wherever there is a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there ... [Episcopal Café] Video of Tom Joad's speech, recited by Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath and sung by Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine singing about the ghost of Tom Joad. Listen and view here. You might want to watch this twice, at least.
• Not all Christians ... [HuffPost] Christian blogger John Shore and Wayne Besen have launched NALT, the Not All Christians Are Like That Project. Based on the format of the Dan Savage “It Gets Better” campaign, the website is a platform for Christians who want to send a direct message of welcome and acceptance to the LGBT community. Read on and view.
HeadSpin
• When I'm 64 ... [NYTimes]
Diana Nyad finally conquered the 110-mile passage from Cuba to Florida
that had bedeviled her for 35 years. The 64-year-old endurance swimmer
emerged dazed and sunburned from the
surf on Smathers Beach in Key West, Fla., just before 2 p.m. on Monday
[Sept. 2]
after nearly 53 hours in the ocean, a two-day, two-night swim from her
starting point in Havana. She had survived the treacherous Florida
Straits, a notorious stretch of water brimming with sharks, jellyfish,
squalls and an unpredictable Gulf Stream. And she became the first
person to do so unaided by the protection of a shark cage. It was her
fifth attempt, coming after four years of grueling training,
precision planning and single-minded determination. Her face scorched
and puffy from so many hours in the salt water, she leaned on one of her
friends and said from the beach: “I have three messages. One is we
should never, ever give up. Two is you
never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a
solitary sport, but it takes a team.” Read on.
• How it became a religious war ... [RNS] Battle lines in the Syrian civil war are
being drawn along sectarian —that is, religious — lines, pitting Alawites, Shiites and Sunnis. Read on.
• Prayers for different Myers Briggs personality types ... Here.
• Fundamentalism enters the church of baseball ... [Episcopal Café] Will instant replay turn the "church of baseball" into a fundamentalist religion? Read on.
Evangelical Lutheran
• NEPA Synod website ... Here.
• ELCA website ... Here.
• ELCA News Service ... Here.
• ELCA's blogs may be found here. See especially "Web and Multimedia Development."
Moravian
• Moravian Church in North America website.
• Moravian Church Northern Province website.
• Moravian Theological Seminary website.
United Methodist
• Communication tips and tools ... Here.
• UMC website Here.
• News Service Here.
• Communication Resources ... Start here.
• Eastern PA Conference website Here. Facebook Here. Bishop Peggy Johnson's blog Here.
Roman Catholic
• Diocese of Allentown ... Here.
• Diocese of Scranton ... Here.
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ... Here.
• Catholic News Service ... Here.
The Vatican
• A game-changing decision? ... [Eugene Cullen Kennedy, NCR Column] Pope Francis told a gathering of apostolic nuncios in June that he
wants them to recommend men of pastoral experience to become bishops.
This may be the most potent source of game-changing energy he has yet
injected into the church's daily life in his six months as the Holy
Father. He told the nuncios with the same disarming directness with which he
paid his hotel bill after his election that he wanted these key figures
to seek out potential bishops who are "close to the people, fathers and
brothers" as well as "gentle, patient, and merciful, animated by inner
poverty, the freedom of the Lord, and also by outward simplicity and
austerity of life." In addition, potential bishops "should not have the
psychology of princes." Francis has, in effect, told central ecclesiastical casting not to
summon what Hollywood calls "dress extras"; that is, those who already
have the costume necessary for the roles they are to fill. In this case,
that's men who have already purchased the red-trimmed cassocks and
gleaming crosses they can don immediately when their longed-for call
from the nuncio in Washington finally comes. Read on.
• Vatican removes its envoy to Dominican Republic ... [NYTimes] The authorities in the Dominican Republic
said they would look into rumors of child sexual abuse involving the
papal envoy there after he was abruptly removed from his post by the
Vatican. Read on.
• Vatican website ... Here.
• Vatican Information Service blog ... Here.
• Vatican News/Info Portal ... Here.
HealthSpin
• Get the shot, not the flu ... See above, under "TopSpin."
• The new Health Insurance Marketplace ... [USA.gov]
Visit USA.gov's Health Insurance
page to learn about the new Health Insurance Marketplace and other
types of health coverage. Starting October 1, 2013, you can fill out an
application for health insurance through the Health Insurance
Marketplace. You'll be able to compare your options side-by-side and
enroll in a plan that fits your budget and meets your needs. Coverage
takes effect as early as January 1, 2014.
Richard Evans, a member
of St. Martin's Mountaintop and Diocesan Council, suggests that check out
this program aimed at religious communities to help uninsured folks
become aware that enrollment for health insurance coverage under the
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will start on October 1. Download a pdf file of the info.
• Beware of Obamacare scammers ... They're on the move. Here, Here, Here, Here.
• 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.
Media/Films/DVD/TV/Books/Music/Tech
• Paraíso ... [NYTimes Op-Doc] I first got the idea for this film (whose title, “Paraíso,” is the
Spanish word for “Paradise”) when I was living in Chicago working as a
film editor. One morning, as I sat at my desk in a high-rise downtown, a
man dropped down inches from my window, cleaned it, and disappeared to
the next floor. This momentary interaction seemed a perfect metaphor for
life in many multiethnic American cities where the work of immigrants
often goes unnoticed. I hoped to find out more about what motivated
these men to spend their working days dangling hundreds of feet in the
air. Read on and view.
• The Complete Works of Chopin, for Everybody, for Free ... [The Atlantic] A new Kickstarter project aims to liberate the composer's music from its copyright confines.
Resources
• In-Formation in Bethlehem ... September.
• Plethora of Congregational Resources ... 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.
• Church locators ... Here.
• Insights into Religion ... Here.
• Forward Movement ... Here.
• The Alban Institute ... Here.
• ECF Vital Practices ... Here.
• Faith in Public Life ... Here.
• Religion&Ethics News Weekly (PBS) ... 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.
• Episcopal Web Radio ... Here.
• Updated Episcopal Church canons and constitution ... Here.
Additional sources for news/info/commentary
• Religion News Service Daily Roundup ... here.
• National Catholic Reporter ... here.
• Back issues of the newSpin newsletter ... here.
• Episcopal/Anglican
(1) The Episcopal Church website, news service, news service blog,
(2) Episcopal Café
(3) AngicansOnline website and news centre.
(4) The Living Church
(5) The Anglican Communion website and news service.
• Daily Office ... Lectionary Page ... Lectionary ... Oremus Bible Browser ... Revised Common Lectionary
*************
Comments are welcome at the newSpin blog.
Click there on the title of the current newsletter. Comment below. As
soon as the
newsletter is completed, usually on
Monday, it is uploaded to the
blog and posted on Bakery and on a
ChurchPost list of some 1,200
addresses. Many recipients often
forward it to others. 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. If you think something about
your parish or agency merits
inclusion, 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]
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