newSpin 140116
January 16, 2014
newSpin, the newsletter
January 16, 2014
Bill Lewellis
Published weekly, usually by Tuesday
http://diobeth.typepad.com/diobeth_newspin/2014/01/newspin-140114.html
TopSpin
• The Parents of Canon Anne Kitch ... suffered an automobile accident in Ohio on January 13. Her mother, Betsy, did not survive. Her father, John Kitch, Jr., injured and hospitalized, is expected to recover. Please hold Betsy and all of her family in your prayers. Rest eternal grant to her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Anne's email address: [email protected]. Her home address: 119 West Goepp Street, Bethlehem, 18018.
• Let us put our faith in? ... [TIME] Andy Crouch is executive editor of Christianity Today. TIME recently published a column by him on how heroic medical procedures can leave us in a limbo between life and accepting what's beyond. Worth reading. Excerpt: "What we ultimately fear about death, I think, is that we will die alone and that we will die without meaning. The real promise of faith is [not in medical technology, but] that our deaths need be neither lonely nor meaningless."
• The eighth diocesan Renewal Assembly ... will be held on Saturday, February 22, from 9:00 to 2:00 at six venues across the diocese. Registration is open. More info here.
• Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ... January 18-25. Read note from Canon Maria Tjeltveit.
• When a female Methodist pastor anoints a Roman Catholic cardinal ... It happened in Massachusetts, at an ecumenical service with Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and the Rev. Anne Robertson. He asked her to include him in the holy water anointing, and she thought, “Wow.” And did it. Per the Patriot-Ledger: “What moved me was not so much that I was anointing him,” she said. “It was him being willing to accept that from my hand – to ask me, as a woman in ministry, to do that.” [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• Scores Die in Ferry Accident as They Flee Violence in South Sudan ... [NYTimes, Nicholas Kulish] It happened during a panic that has unfolded with frightening regularity in recent weeks. Fighters were advancing. Crowds of civilians fled to the river to escape the violence, rushing into barges to cross the White Nile. Amid the frenzy, officials said Tuesday, more than 200 people were killed when the ferry carrying them to safety went down. After a month of fighting in South Sudan, nearly half a million people have fled their homes and thousands have been killed. Many have sought safety by crowding onto boats, with witnesses describing passengers’ being crushed or falling overboard and drowning in the rush to escape. But the recent accident, which officials said took place over the weekend, is the worst reported in the conflict. ... Rebel forces attacked Malakal, the capital of the oil-rich state of Upper Nile, again on Tuesday, officials said. The city has already traded hands twice in the conflict, with the rebels capturing it, then retreating in the face of a government assault in late December. According to Doctors Without Borders, on Sunday 94 gunshot victims arrived by boat at a hospital in another city, wounded in the fighting on the front line outside Malakal. Read on. [Shades of Eclipse? A 2009 novel by Richard North Patterson,about the human cost of the global lust for oil.]
• A Jan. 10 memo to the Obama Administration and members of U.S. Congress ... [ENS] sent by the Episcopal Church’s Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations outlines the current crisis in South Sudan and makes recommendations urging the government and the international community to partner with South Sudanese civic and faith leaders to stem the tide of violence and build peace. Read on.
• For Scranton residents ... [LATimes] bankruptcy is an inviting option. Many residents of financially troubled city of 76,000, struggling under the burden of hefty fee and tax hikes, want the city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Read on.
• Optimistic v Hopeful ... [Father Daniel Gunn] My recent research and writing has yielded some wonderful information not all of which I can use in my specific project, but is nevertheless worth sharing. I offer the following from William Sloane Coffin: "If I can be theological for a moment, I think there’s a great difference between being optimistic and being hopeful. I am not optimistic, but I am hopeful. By this I mean that hope, as opposed to cynicism and despair, is the sole precondition for new and better experiences. Realism demands pessimism. But hope demands that we take a dim view of the present because we hold a bright view of the future; and hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.” [William Sloane Coffin, August 1968 Playboy interview p140] Daniel's dissertation is tentatively titled Hef's God: A Long Leering Look at Religion in Playboy.
• One of the biggest threats to marriage ... is the growing pressure on couples to have a perfect wedding, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, warns. Young people face pressure from those driven by profit to have a showy and expensive day, often to the detriment of their relationship itself.
SoulSpin
• Religion's war on poverty in Appalachia ... [RNS, Mark Pinsky] The 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s launch of the War on Poverty, which falls today (Jan. 8), reminds us how intractable that effort can be, despite the hope and determined idealism when the legislation was signed. Appalachia was one of the targets for the newly established Office of Economic Opportunity, utilizing programs such as Head Start and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). The anniversary also recalls how religion has motivated, shaped and sustained this effort, in many ways prefiguring the campaign, in both its successes and failures. Read on.
• How to be a crazy Christian ... [Episcopal Café] The Rt Rev Michael Curry and ChurchNext are offering The Big Class: How to Be a Crazy Christian beginning January 27. Over 700 people around the world have signed up for this online course. Read on.
• The day I stood shimmering in shame
... [NCR] Brian Doyle committed a sin yesterday, when he roared at his son, frightening him so badly that he cowered and wept. Reflecting on the incident in the National Catholic Reporter, Doyle said he does not know how sins can be forgiven. "I grasp the concept…but I do not understand how foul can be made fair."
• SoulSpin Resources ... Below, near the bottom.
DioBethSpin
• From the Standing Committee: A pastoral letter to the people of the Diocese of Bethlehem ... On the Feast of the Holy Name, January 1, we, the Standing Committee, became the Ecclesiastical Authority of the diocese. While we had been functioning in that role since August 1, Bishop Paul remained our Bishop and what we did was delegated to us by him. Our role has now changed and the executive functions of the bishop under the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese have passed to the Standing Committee until a bishop is in place. There are of course some things reserved for only a bishop and we will secure such Episcopal ministry as needed. Read it all here.
• Kajo Keji, South Sudan Trip ... January 17-25, Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow and Charlie Barebo.
• Bishop's School, Spring Session ... begins January 18. More info.
• Emergency Shelter: Bethlehem churches' efforts to shelter homeless during winter months commendable ... What happens to the homeless when temperatures drop to freezing has been a concern of the community for some time. In the winter of 2009 and 2010, with six other churches, the Cathedral began providing overnight lodging and two meals (supper and breakfast) for the homeless. The Cathedral provides shelter on Thursday nights, St. Andrew's provides shelter on Friday nights. This editorial published by the Express-Times and referenced stories from 2010 may need updating. We hope to provide updates over the next few weeks. The Morning Call did a story in January 2013.
• New Bethany Ministries ... For twenty-five years, Nativity Cathedral in Bethlehem has supported this ecumenical ministry to the poor, the mentally ill, and the emotionally disturbed. Various types of housing opportunities are made available, breakfast and lunch are served five days a week, a food bank provides food on a regular basis, a service for managing the accounts of lower income persons is available, and other services are provided as needed. Volunteer support includes meal preparation, food donations, counseling services, clothing and shoes, school supplies, bus tickets, etc. Nativity recently purchased an old warehouse behind the church and has made it available for food storage. Find more info about New Bethany Ministries and its many programs here.
• The Soup Kitchen at Trinity Bethlehem ... operates Monday through Friday, serving a nutritious meal between 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm. The average number served is 150 per day. It is Trinity's oldest ministry, operating for 33 years. The Soup Kitchen primarily serves the homeless, the temporarily unemployed, MH/MR clients, and those who are economically disadvantaged. It is staffed by a group of volunteers, some from area churches, others from AARP, Moravian College, Moravian Theological Seminary, Cedar Crest College, VIA, Northampton County Probation Office, and from other area schools and religious institutions.Each day, hospitality workers and a social worker are available to help guests navigate the social services systems and access personal items such as shampoo, soap, razors, socks, etc., and over-the-counter meds. Financial support comes from grants received from several foundations, contributions and gifts from local individuals, local churches, and proceeds from Bethlehem’s CROP Walk. Food items are supplied through donations and purchases from the USDA, Second Harvest Food Bank, local restaurant supply companies, and area grocery stores. If you are interested in volunteering or contributing financially to this vital ministry, please contact the Rev. Elizabeth Miller, Soup Kitchen Coordinator (voice 610-867-4741 x302; email [email protected]). You can also visit on Facebook to find out more about what the Soup Kitchen is doing to meet the needs of the hungry.
• 2014 United Thank Offering Grants ... [Cathy Bailey, Diocesan UTO Coordinator] If your parish is considering applying for a UTO grant, please begin to gather the information needed. Find grant information here so that you can prepare your grant application. Deadline for submission to Diocesan House is January 31. Please send via email to Anne Kitch, [email protected]. For more info: Cathy Bailey, [email protected] or Anne Kitch. Read on.
• EYE: The 2014 Episcopal Youth Event ... will take place at Villanova University, July 9-13. Read on.
• Diobeth Episcopal Relief and Development ... [John Major] A shield...in the midst of life's storms. January 2.
• DioBeth news, info ... DioBeth website, newSpin blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, and LinkedIn,
• 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
• Winter Warmer Concert Series ... St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral will present its inaugural Winter Warmer Concert Series featuring three concerts by three very talented solo artists—harpist Meghan K. Davis on January 17, guitarist Tim Farrell on January 31, and singer/songwriter Janet Burgan on February 14. More here.
• Music Together program at Trinity West Pittston ... [John Major] Please visit www.musictogether.com for great information on a family and neighborhood community building opportunity called Music Together, for infants through children age five with their loved ones. Singing and movement together with infants through five year olds and their parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who love them create bonds that last a lifetime. Several openings for Winter Semester still available for those who respond soon! Contact: [email protected] Begins Jan. 14. Day and evening classes available. More info.
• Calendar of events in our parishes ... Here.
• Communication tips and tools ... [United Methodist Communiction] Here.
Rest in Peace
• Ariel Sharon, 85 ... former Israeli Prime Minister. Obituary.
• Robert Nugent, 76 ... [NYTimes] a Roman Catholic priest who spent more than 30 years counseling gay and lesbian Catholics and their families until the Vatican silenced him in 1999, died on Jan. 1 in Milwaukee. ... Before his censure — in a ruling written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI six years later — Father Nugent had walked a fine line between obedience to church doctrine and what he said was a calling to minister to a group at the margins of orthodox Catholic faith.New Ways Ministry, which he and Sister Jeannine Gramick started in 1977 in a storefront office in Mount Rainier, Md., sought to push back those margins. ... For his efforts, Father Nugent was censured by the church for being too accommodating toward a behaviorally “disordered” population, and scolded by his gay and lesbian flock for being too orthodox. Read on. [Robert and I were in college seminary together in Philadelphia.]
• Ian Barbour. 90 ... died Dec. 24. He embraced the notion of evolution and the Big Bang theory but was also a devoted churchgoer who in 1999 won the Templeton Prize for his progress in the field of religion. NYTimes story. Star-Tribune obituary.
• 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.
• Around the Episcopal Church ... Here
Employment Opportunities
• Director of Music, Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church, Allentown ... At 535 W. Emaus Ave. Call 610-797-4774. Part-time position up to 15 hrs/week includes rehearsals, services, and occasional meetings. Three-manual Rodgers digital organ. Adult, adult handbell, youth chime, praise, Sunday school, and women's choirs. Send resume to [email protected].
• Episcopal Church position on Office of Government Relations ... Here.
• Episcopal Positions (NYC/DC) ... Here.
TaleSpin
• Martin Luther King, Jr. ... [Holy Women Holy Men] Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta. As the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, he was steeped in the Black Church tradition. To this heritage he added a thorough academic preparation, earning the degrees of B.A., B.D., and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University.
In 1954, King became pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama. There, Black indignation at inhumane treatment on segregated buses culminated in December, 1955, in the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. King was catapulted into national prominence as the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. He became increasingly the articulate prophet, who could not only rally the Black masses, but could also move the consciences of Whites.
King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to spearhead non-violent mass demonstrations against racism. Many confrontations followed, most notably in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, and in Chicago. King’s campaigns were instrumental to the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968. King then turned his attention to economic empowerment of the poor and opposition to the Vietnam War, contending that racism, poverty and militarism were interrelated.
King lived in constant danger: his home was dynamited, he was almost fatally stabbed, and he was harassed by death threats. He was even jailed 30 times; but through it all he was sustained by his deep faith. In 1957, he received, late at night, a vicious telephone threat. Alone in his kitchen he wept and prayed. He relates that he heard the Lord speaking to him and saying, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice,” and promising never to leave him alone—“No, never alone.” King refers to his vision as his “Mountaintop Experience.”
After preaching at Washington Cathedral on March 31, 1968, King went to Memphis in support of sanitation workers in their struggle for better wages. There, he proclaimed that he had been “to the mountain-top” and had seen “the Promised Land,” and that he knew that one day he and his people would be “free at last.” On the following day, April 4, he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet.
• Albert Schweitzer ... [Writer's Almanac] was born January 14, 1875, in Kaysersberg, in the province of Alsace-Lorraine. He was a theologian, a musical prodigy, an author, and a philosopher, an expert on Bach, Goethe, and Kant. When he was 21, he made a plan: for the next nine years, he would devote himself to science, art, and religion. But once he turned 30, he would spend the rest of his life serving humanity. And so, on his 30th birthday, he decided to become a medical missionary to Africa. Read on.
• Boston Globe religion reporting and the Boston Red Sox ... By way of background, the new owner of the Globe is John Henry, who also owns the Boston Red Sox. If you're not a baseball fan, one of the team's best-known players is second baseman Dustin Pedroia, a former American League MVP who signed a $110 million contract extension back in July. John Allen, on the other hand, is a legendary Vatican reporter who has been for years with the National Catholic Reporter. Thus it was that when news of Allen's move to the Globe broke, Ross Douthat of The New York Times dispatched the following tweet: The smartest use of John Henry's money since he locked up Pedroia. Read on.
• The high cost of getting Christian history wrong ... [NCR, Bill Tammeus] A brief review of the 2013 book Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. An excerpt: When studying Christian history, we'd do well to use multiple reputable sources and to question everything so that when an O'Reilly reports that Paul "became a convert to Christianity," we'll know that's anachronistic poppycock, given that there was yet no separate Christian religion and that Paul always thought of himself as a Jew Read on.
• Paradigm shift ... [Episcopal Café] The pressing question of how we, in the church, confront the changing contexts of the 21st century continues to spark debate. Should we batten the hatches and wait out the storm, changing nothing? Should we take to the decks, and reorganize everything? Or will we need a different idea of what this ship is? In the most recent Vestry Papers Ken Howard suggests that a wholly different paradigm of church is needed. Read on.
What a Hoot! ... [Gerard Baker, WSJournal] Need to buy a gift for a newborn or toddler? Here's some information that might be useful: Nurseries and children's rooms are taking a break from princesses and cheesy animals in pursuit of wisdom. We report that the "it" critter for the baby-to-preschool group is now the owl. Retailers are seeing owl-themed products become huge hits this season, as parents enjoy a variety of benefits: the bird's reputation for being studious; its versatility of use with both boys and girls; and its staying power over other themes that kids tend to grow out of. "When in doubt, choose owl," says a mom who went owl out for her son's nursery.
• Chris Christie and our self-absorbed culture of irresponsibility ... [RNS, Tom Ehrich, Commentary] Here.HeadSpin
• Church shouldn't be this hard ... [Tom Ehrich, Commentary, RNS] Church should be a safe place — safe to be oneself, safe to make one’s confession, safe to love whoever one feels called to love, safe to imagine more, safe to fail. Instead, church often is a dangerous place, where people feel guarded, self-protective, hemmed in by tradition and expectation, required to obey rules. Church should be different from society. Instead, it plays by the same rules: get mine, be first, be right, punish the weak, exclude the different, reward the wealthy. Our society needs healthy faith communities. But neither society nor God has much need for religious institutions grounded in right-opinion, self-serving and systemic danger. Read on.
• Keeping the dogs at bay ... I think this is an old story, perhaps a year old, I hadn't heard it before. Somewhere in Germany lives Father Z, an unassigned, Tridentine RC priest, popular through his blog with ultra-conservative Catholics around the world. He is said to have had an electrified altar rail installed. Two women were reportedly injured. Anyone want to do the research?
• Teaching religion in public schools? ... Religion & Politics hosts an excellent forum on the topic: “How Should We Teach the Bible in Public Schools?” By Mark A. Chancey; “We Must Teach about Religion in High Schools” by Joseph Laycock; “To Teach or Not to Teach?” by Cynthia N. Dunbar;“The Dangers of Religious Instruction in Public Schools” by Annie Laurie Gaylor. [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• Catholicism and Cognitive Dissonance ... [NYTimes, Ross Douthat] I’ve written a bit about the question of what kind of reforms liberal Catholics should actually be hoping for from Pope Francis, besides the good feelings that the pope’s rhetorical focus on social justice has inspired. In a deliberate provocation, Damon Linker raises the possibility that the good feelings are really all that the church’s liberal dissenters really want, because many of them just don’t think church teaching (or, for that matter, any kind of religious doctrine) matters anymore. Read on.
Evangelical Lutheran
• NEPA Synod website ... Here.
• ELCA website ... Here. The new ELCA.org website will be launched on Monday morning, Nov. 18. The launch is the culmination of extensive planning and implementation, during which the ELCA gathered input from a wide range and number of colleagues, constituents and end users from across this church. The result of their collective work is now ready to be published online. Check it out!
• 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
• Chicago archdiocese prepares for release of historical files on sex abuse ... [NCR] Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George is going on the defensive ahead of the release of records on 30 abusive priests, NCR reports.
• The Diocese of Stockton ... said it would become the 10th U.S. diocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of the church’s sexual-abuse scandal. [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• Pope Francis picks cardinals who point the way to Catholicism's future ... [RNS] In naming his first batch of new cardinals on Sunday (Jan. 12), Pope Francis made some surprising choices that largely confirmed the characteristics he wants in the Catholic Church he leads: a greater focus on the poor, a bigger voice for the Global South and a reduced emphasis on the traditional hierarchical perks. True to form, Francis wrote each of the new cardinals and stressed that the new title “does not imply promotion.” He asked them to refrain “from any expression of worldliness or from any form of celebration contrary to the evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty.” Read on. On
• Francis' Reforms ... [NYTimes Editorial] Although Pope Francis has shown no intention of changing church doctrine on issues like homosexuality and contraception, he has clearly started to alter the tone of the papacy in his first 10 months in the Vatican, making it less judgmental. ... The Roman Catholic Church is a less-powerful institution than it once was. Even so, it remains the largest religious organization in the world, with a formidable global network of charitable, educational and health services, as well as growing authority in the third world. Francis’ energetic efforts to unclog the Vatican’s stultifying bureaucracy, to bring more transparency to its dealings and to revitalize the ranks of prelates have captured the imagination of the world. Read on.
• Diocese of Allentown ... Here.
• Diocese of Scranton ... Here.
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ... Here.
• Catholic News Service ... Here.
The Vatican
• Vatican refuses ... to extradite a Polish archbishop accused of abuse from the Dominican Republic, essentially citing diplomatic immunity. [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• Vatican gets public grilling ... The Vatican came under blistering criticism from a U.N. committee for its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal, facing its most intense public grilling ever over allegations that it protected pedophile priests at the expense of victims. [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• Vatican wants to model best practice in prevention of abuse ... [NCR, John Allen] Facing a virtually unprecedented examination of its record on child sexual abuse by a U.N. panel, a senior Vatican official today asserted that the Catholic church wants to be "an example of best practice" in the prevention of abuse. Read on.
• Pope Francis cleans house at the Vatican Bank ... [AP] Just before he resigned a year ago, Pope Benedict XVI reappointed five cardinals to five-year terms overseeing the scandal-plagued Vatican Bank. Now, 11 months later, Pope Francis has replaced four of them. [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• The high cost of saint-making ... Francis has also ordered a “spending review” to cap the often prohibitive costs — except for the wealthy or well-connected — of saint-making, aka canonization. Dorothy Day might welcome the move. [h/t Religion News Roundup]
• The Joy of the Gospel ... Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, with detailed table of contents. Here.
• Vatican website ... Here.
• Vatican Information Service blog ... Here.
• Vatican News/Info Portal ... Here.
HealthSpin
• Heroic Measures ... [Bill Keller, NYTimes Opinion] Lisa Bonchek Adams has spent the last seven years in a fierce and very public cage fight with death. Since a mammogram detected the first toxic seeds of cancer in her left breast when she was 37, she has blogged and tweeted copiously about her contest with the advancing disease. She has tweeted through morphine haze and radiation burn. Even by contemporary standards of social-media self-disclosure, she is a phenomenon. (Last week she tweeted her 165,000th tweet.) A rapt audience of several thousand follows her unsparing narrative of mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, biopsies and scans, pumps and drains and catheters, grueling drug trials and grim side effects, along with her posts on how to tell the children, potshots at the breast cancer lobby, poetry and resolute calls to “persevere.” ...
Steven Goodman, an associate dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, said he cringes at the combat metaphor, because it suggests that those who choose not to spend their final days in battle, using every weapon in the high-tech medical arsenal, lack character or willpower.“I’m the last person to second-guess what she did,” Goodman told me, after perusing Adams’s blog. “I’m sure it has brought meaning, a deserved sense of accomplishment. But it shouldn’t be unduly praised. Equal praise is due to those who accept an inevitable fate with grace and courage.” Read on.
• 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
• Philomena ... [HuffPost] receives support from New Ways Ministry. Read on.
• Five films that will make 2014 'the year of the Bible' ... [RNS, Jonathan Merritt] Here.
Resources
• Jubilate for December 1 through March 2 ...The newest Jubilate, hymnody for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany is available at the DioBeth website under Diocesan Resources. This is graciously provided by Canon Cliff Carr. If you wish to receive this quarterly via email, in both Word and .pdf formats, use the Get Connected box on the righthand side of the DioBeth home page and sign-up for Jubilate.
• Many 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.
• Religious Freedom Blog ... a weekly look back at the top stories and developments on religious liberty around the world. 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.
SoulSpin Resources
• 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.
Bible&Worship Resources
• 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.
• Oremus Bible Browser ... Here.
• Enriching our Worship and Same-Sex Blessings ... Free download here.
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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 by Tuesday, 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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