The Liar's Wife: Four Novellas

[at dotCommonweal, Cassandra Nelson reviews Mary Gordon's book]

Can good ever come from evil, or truth from a lie? St. Augustine answered the first question in the affirmative nearly sixteen centuries ago, when he observed that although the fall of man had brought sin and death into the world, it also paved the way for Christ’s incarnation and redemption. From him we have the idea of the felix culpa, or “fortunate fall,” for “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.”

As for the second question, poets and fiction writers have long demonstrated how certain lies, by a kind of alchemy, can teach us the truth.

Mary Gordon comes to these questions rather late in her career—The Liar’s Wife is her fourth collection of short fiction; other books include six novels and three memoirs—but in doing so, she has produced some of her finest work yet. The first novella in particular, from which the collection takes its name, is a small masterpiece of the form, not least because it asks questions as difficult and enduring as the two above, and it doesn’t settle for pat or easy answers. Read on.

Diocesan Life March/April 2012

Open publication - Free publishing - More diocesan life

You can download the publication from our issuu site or Download DL0312FinalCORRECTSmall

Arts on the Mountain, Feb. 19

Trinity Episcopal Church
139 Trinity Hill Rd.
Mt. Pocono, PA 18344
Contact: Peter Salmon 570-629-0644
Church office: 570-839-9376

On Sunday, February 19, 2012, Arts On the Mountain at Trinity Episcopal Church, Mt. Pocono, PA, will present a music and art event beginning with a reception for the artists at  3 PM. The Flute Choir of the Poconos  will perform a concert of varied works, beginning at 4 PM, and author Robert McMahon will offer selected readings from his new book “Wandering Thoughts”. Copies of the book, now in its second printing, will also be available for purchase, signed by the author. The Art Gallery in the Parish Hall will feature Photography by Frank Fiore. A suggested donation of $10. ($5. students) helps support programming by Arts On the Mountain.

Sunday Martin Luther King Jr Brunch at Trinity Bethlehem will benefit Soup Kitchen

Sunday Martin Luther King Jr Brunch at Trinity Bethlehem will benefit Soup Kitchen
From The Morning Call, Diane Stoneback

Jackie Onassis, Andy Warhol, Leonard Bernstein, Casey Stengel and Dick Clark all ate party foods prepared by caterer Edna "Ma" Bragg, who spent 40 years feeding New York City's rich and famous. Some of those same foods will be on the table Jan. 15 when Ma Bragg's daughters, Oceola "OC" and Gladys Bragg, will host a buffet-style, benefit brunch at Bethlehem's Trinity Episcopal Church. The dishes on the menu, from spoonbread, cornbread, grits and gravy to biscuits, collards, eggs, ham, sausage and blueberry coffeecake, are from recipes contained in a soon-to-be-published culinary memoir called "Country Cooking, City Style: Ma Bragg Brings Memphis to Manhattan."

More here.

Sunday, Jan. 15, 12:30 to 2:00, at Trinity, 44 E. Market, Bethlehem. Reservations here.

Trio of Montrose churches host Christmas bazaars on December 3rd.

[From Paul Walker, Rector of St. Paul's, Montrose]

Three churches in Montrose will all hold their Christmas bazaars on Saturday, December 3.

The Montrose United Methodist Church, 526 Church Street, will open the doors of The Christmas Department Store from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Lunch will be available.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 276 Church Street, will open the doors of The Country Store from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Breakfast and lunch will be available in The North Pole Café.

The Altar and Rosary Society of Holy Name of Mary Roman Catholic Church, 278 South Main Street, will hold their annual Christmas Bazaar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  A continental breakfast and lunch will be available.

In addition The Susquehanna County Historical Society and Free Library Association will be continuing their Christmas book sale at The Inn at Montrose, 26 South Main Street.

The churches of Montrose invite you to come and celebrate the holidays in Montrose!

Book by DioBeth authors among Church Publishing bestsellers

Your Faith Your Life: An Invitation to the Episcopal Church, by Jenifer Gamber with Bill Lewellis, published in 2009 by Morehouse/Church Publishing remains among Church Publishing's bestsellers, surpassed only by the BCP, hymnals and The Episcopal Handbook. It's available in paperback and on Kindle. More at Church Publishing and Amazon. Download a free Leader's Guide here.

"Not every useful book is heartfelt and not every heartfelt book is useful, but Jenifer Gamber and Bill Lewellis's new book is both." —The Rev. Barbara Crafton

Disguised as a reference book, YFYL is about transformation. It is about relationship. It is about process: being attentive, intelligent, reasonable, responsible and in Love. It is about increasing our attentiveness and transforming our consciousness through reflection on our faith and life and on being in Love. Ultimately it is about secrets of the heart, whispers within of the hidden presence of the real. It is about telling secrets of God's visitation.

Your Faith, Your Life: An Invitation to the Episcopal Church
Jenifer Gamber with Bill Lewellis  ISBN: 978-0-8192-2321-0  $15.00  Paper  192 pgs

”Your Faith, Your Life is more than an invitation to the Episcopal Church. It is an invitation to reflect on personal transformation as you consider facts about the Episcopal Church. Disguised as a reference book of information, as Bill has suggested, this book outlines a path toward authenticity and personal transformation.”

This ‘everything-you-need-to-know’ guide – now available from Morehouse Publishing, an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated (CPI) – carefully unpacks the Episcopal Church's language of worship, theology, church structure, and sacraments. Readers will gain the vocabulary and framework to share their beliefs and practices, explore the Bible, understand prayer, and discern their own ministry within the church.

Designed for denominational newcomers, parish study groups, clergy, and Christian formation specialists, Your Faith, Your Life features a unique format, utilizing sidebars, boxes, charts, reflection questions, and minimal text blocks to enhance reading appeal and aid in understanding.  Balanced didactic and experiential elements capture a wide variety of learning styles.

Closely linked to the Book of Common Prayer and the catechism and flexible for use with a variety of Christian formation models, it is supplemented by a leader guide and other supporting materials on the book's website.

Jenifer Gamber, a national youth-ministry workwop leader and a confirmation leader at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, has a BA in economics from Oberlin College and is the consulting editor for a principles of economics textbook published by McGraw Hill. 

Bill Lewellis, retired communication minister and editor of Diocesan Life for the Diocese of Bethlehem, has served the Roman Catholic and the Episcopal Church for more than 40 years. Local dailies have published more than 100 of his columns and op-ed pieces.

Your Faith Your Life - An Invitation to the Episcopal Church

[Episcopal News Service]

"Your Faith Your Life - An Invitation to the Episcopal Church" by Jenifer Gamber with Bill Lewellis, paperback, 208 pages, April 2009, $16.

[Church Publishing] This "everything-you-need-to-know" guide for newcomers to the Episcopal Church is written and designed to provide accessible and user-friendly reading, with an easy-going look and style that's packed full of substance.

The book carefully unpacks the Episcopal Church's language of worship, theology, church structure, and sacraments, so that newcomers will have the vocabulary and framework to share their beliefs and practices, explore the Bible, understand prayer and discern their own ministry within the church.

Drawing upon the success of an earlier book written for teens (My Faith, My Life - A Teen's Guide to the Episcopal Church), the new book
retains the same unique presentation, inviting readers to consider their relationship with God and the church community as an ongoing
process of transformation, while providing ways to engage in that process.

To order, please visit Episcopal Books and Resources online at
http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, call 800-903-5544, or visit your
local Episcopal bookstore.

Different hymns, different tunes

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University, has written a new book saying that there are differences in the world's major religions, that we cannot harmonize or homogenize them, and to try to do so is both naive and, very possibly, dangerous.

Here is an excerpt from The Boston Globe:

At least since the first petals of the counterculture bloomed across Europe and the United States in the 1960s, it has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful and all are true. This claim, which reaches back to “All Religions Are One” (1795) by the English poet, printmaker, and prophet William Blake, is as odd as it is intriguing. No one argues that different economic systems or political regimes are one and the same. Capitalism and socialism are so self-evidently at odds that their differences hardly bear mentioning. The same goes for democracy and monarchy. Yet scholars continue to claim that religious rivals such as Hinduism and Islam, Judaism and Christianity are, by some miracle of the imagination, both essentially the same and basically good.

This view resounds in the echo chamber of popular culture, not least on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and in Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestseller, “Eat Pray Love,” where the world’s religions are described as rivers emptying into the ocean of God. Karen Armstrong, author of “A History of God,” has made a career out of emphasizing the commonalities of religion while eliding their differences. Even the Dalai Lama, who should know better, has gotten into the act, claiming that “all major religious traditions carry basically the same message....”

...This is a lovely sentiment but it is untrue, disrespectful, and dangerous.

The gods of Hinduism are not the same as the orishas of Yoruba religion or the immortals of Daoism. To pretend that they are is to refuse to take seriously the beliefs and practices of ordinary religious folk who for centuries have had no problem distinguishing the Nicene Creed of Christianity from the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism from the Shahadah of Islam. It is also to lose sight of the unique beauty of each of the world’s religions.

But this lumping of the world’s religions into one megareligion is not just false and condescending, it is also a threat. How can we make sense of the ongoing conflict in Kashmir if we pretend that Hinduism and Islam are one and the same? Or of the impasse in the Middle East, if we pretend that there are no fundamental disagreements between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam...?

What the world’s religions share is not so much a finish line as a starting point. And where they begin is with this simple observation: Something is wrong with the world.

The title of his book says that "God is not one." More accurately, his point is that all religions are not fundamentally the same.

Read the rest here.

His book, God is Not One:  The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter may be found here.

--posted by Andrew Gerns

Christ's Own For Ever, by Archdeacon Stringfellow

From the Lectionaries
Christ’s Own For Ever
The Easter Vigil
Romans 6:3-11
By Archdeacon Howard Stringfellow
3 April 2010

At each Easter Vigil, we hear St. Paul’s famous Epistle exploring our union with Christ in his death and in his resurrection through our Baptism: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

Over the years, I have so accepted St. Paul’s identification of each of us with Christ’s death and resurrection that I have often thought that at our births and certainly at our Baptisms something of Christ’s dead body lies buried in each of us. And when it is raised in us, when we experience something like the Easter moment, we are raised with it to newness and abundance of life. It is the moment, in the words of the Celebrant’s opening address to the people at the Easter Vigil, that “we share in” the Lord’s “victory over death” (Prayer Book, page 285).

Getting In and Growing

A review of Your Faith Your Life (Jenifer Gamber and Bill Lewellis)
By David Kalvelage, executive editor
The Living Church, July 19, 2009

About 15 or so years ago, Bishop Roger J. White of Milwaukee made a telling comment about The Episcopal Church. It’s easier to get in than it is to get out, Bishop White told a group in St. Louis. He was right, of course. But there have been times and places where it hasn’t been easy to get in either. Invitations to be part of the church have not always come easily for our people. Two members of the Diocese of Bethlehem are trying to make it easier to get in. Someone else is going to have to address why it’s so difficult to get out.

Jenifer Gamber and Bill Lewellis are the authors of Your Faith, Your Life: An Invitation to the Episcopal Church, published recently by Morehouse Publishing, an imprint of Church Publishing, Inc. Both are eminently qualified to take on a book like this. Ms. Gamber already has written one book, and is active as a speaker on Christian formation and as a retreat leader. Fr. Lewellis is editor of Bethlehem’s diocesan newspaper and a member of the diocesan staff.

This is an unusual book, and not what one might expect when examining the title. For example, I anticipated a presentation about The Episcopal Church that would be so positive that it would make others want to join. That’s not what I found. Instead I found an informative book that is likely to make existing members of the church better Episcopalians.

In their introduction, the authors call their book “an invitation to reflect on personal transformation as you consider facts about the Episcopal Church.” I found that to be a tall order. The book presents a wealth of information about The Episcopal Church, and that alone would make it worthwhile, but readers are nudged to go beyond the information.

For example, at the end of each chapter, five “imperatives” are presented which could be used for individual study or in a group discussion. They are: Be Attentive, Be Intelligent, Be Reasonable, Be Responsible, and Be in Love Transformed. Some readers would suggest that the first four imperatives
would be impossible for me, but never mind. Each of the imperatives has reflective questions for readers to ponder.

This book covers a lot of ground. There’s a chapter on Bible stories, and another on history and others titled Navigating the Church, Spirituality (particularly good), Worship, and Sacraments. There’s even a glossary that contains everything from Corporal to Mandala to Trisagion.

This is a valuable book. There’s enough in it to sustain, for example, an adult education class in a parish for at least a year. But I wish the publisher had used a different subtitle. “An invitation” is a bit misleading, unless it were to read something like “An invitation to learn more about The Episcopal Church.”

Messages in the Mall -- a new book by Bishop Paul

By Bill Lewellis
Communication Minister, Diocese of Bethlehem

Soon after becoming Bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem in 1996, Paul Marshall wanted to connect with people he would not see in his church or in any church.

He decided to write a monthly column and offer it to local newspapers "to provide a polite but direct alternative to an extraordinarily conservative religious and political culture ... to offer good news particularly to those who cannot identify with or who have begun to question that culture, in either its protestant or Roman Catholic manifestations."

Since that time, daily and weekly newspapers in his 14-county Episcopal diocese in eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania have published some 130 of his monthly columns.

His latest book, Messages in the Mall: Looking at Life in 600 Words or Less (Seabury Books, 2008), is a compilation of more than 90 of those columns, organized along thematic lines.

"Given that most of the ink in the space allotted to religious columns in area newspapers is taken up by the dominant religious culture," he writes in the preface, "I have from the first spent most of my time each month attempting to reach those who think Christianity is irrelevant or anti-intellectual, and those who have been burned by rigorist religion."

He is the only bishop in the Episcopal Church -- perhaps the only bishop of any church -- whose columns have been published for so many years in area newspapers.

In 600 words or less ... A bishop engages the culture beyond his church

By Bill Lewellis
Communication Minister, Diocese of Bethlehem

Soon after becoming Bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem in 1996, Paul Marshall wanted to connect with people he would not see in his church or in any church.

He decided to write a monthly column and offer it to local newspapers "to provide a polite but direct alternative to an extraordinarily conservative religious and political culture ... to offer good news particularly to those who cannot identify with or who have begun to question that culture, in either its protestant or Roman Catholic manifestations."

Since that time, daily and weekly newspapers in his 14-county Episcopal diocese in eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania have published some 130 of his monthly columns.

He is the only bishop in the Episcopal Church -- perhaps the only bishop of any church -- whose columns have had such a long run in area newspapers.

The column is almost always different from another column he writes for Diocesan Life, the monthly newspaper of the Diocese of Bethlehem.

"Given that most of the ink in the space allotted to religious columns in area newspapers is taken up by the dominant religious culture," he writes in the preface of his new book, Messages in the Mall: Looking at Life in 600 Words or Less (Seabury Books, 2008) a compilation of more than 90 of his columns, organized along thematic lines, "I have from the first spent most of my time each month attempting to reach those who think Christianity is irrelevant or anti-intellectual, and those who have been burned by rigorist religion."

[Click here for more information about this and other books by Marshall]

In his columns, Marshall addresses all aspects of life, from the intimate and complex relationships of couples and families to thorny social and religious issues. With dry wit, gentle humor, deep compassion and, sometimes, anger, he writes about topics from the tragic Columbine school shootings to the spiritual ramifications of the TV series The Sopranos.

Download the entire story below.

Download messages_in_the_mall.doc

Messages in the Mall -- a new book by Bishop Paul

Messages in the Mall -- Looking at Life in 600 Words or Less (Church Publishing, 2008) is a new book by Bishop Paul Marshall who has written extensively both for scholars and clergy and for the general reader. His scholarly works have been described as “readable” and his popular works as “learned.” For more than a decade, Bishop Paul has written a monthly column for secular newspapers, usually 600 words or less and different from the monthly column he writes for Diocesan Life. This rigorous discipline of writing to strict space requirements was meant from its beginning in 1996 to engage the secular culture and to bring the church's message to it by commenting on the realities of the human condition and on issues of general interest. The book is a compilation of many of the columns, organized along thematic lines. Some six to eight papers in northeastern Pennsylvania currently publish the monthly column. Their combined circulation is about 400,000. Click here for more information.

A. Sapp's Fables

A book by the late Francis A. Sapp of Schuylkill County. Story by Kathy Burda.

Download a. Sapp's Fables.pdf

Celebrating the Eucharist -- An Invitation

Grace Church, Allentown, will celebrate the publication of Grace rector Patrick Malloy’s new book, Celebrating the Eucharist (Church Publishing, 2008). A special celebration of the Eucharist will take place at Grace on Sunday, January 20, at 4:00 p.m. Barbara Crafton will preach. Clay Morris, liturgical officer of the office of liturgy and music of the Episcopal Church, and Frank Tedeschi, executive editor of Church Publishing will be in attendance. Eucharist will be followed by a reception including hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and dinner. You are invited. Download the invitation below.

Please RSVP by January 10 to Robert House, parish administrator, by email or at 610-435-0782. Leave a message in Bob's voice mail, extension 200, if you do not reach him directly.

In the preface of his book, Father Malloy writes: “Annie Dillard famously wrote that Sunday congregations are like children with chemistry sets mixing up batches of TNT. They are blind to the power they hold … For six years, the people of Grace Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania, have realized that they were dealing with explosives, and they have handled them carefully. They have worked to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist with as much authenticity as they can muster, recognizing what is at stake.”

More info below.

Download 080105.Celebrating the Eucharist.The story that wrote the book.pdf

Download 080120.Invitation.pdf

Find more info about the book here.

Celebrating the Eucharist, by Patrick Malloy

In this first new Eucharistic customary in nearly 20 years (subtitle: A Practical Ceremonial Guide for Clergy and Other Liturgical Ministers), Father Malloy, liturgical scholar and rector of Grace Church, Allentown, presents a clear, illustrated guide for the presider and other leaders of the liturgy, contemporary in approach but based on ancient and classic principles of celebration. His book may be preordered from Church Publishing. Download more info below.

Download malloy.Celebrating the Eucharist.pdf

Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear

Download info about this new book by Scott Bader-Saye below ... and read an excerpt at Amazon.

Walter Brueggemann says this about the book: “Bader-Saye has written a timely and provocative book concerning Christian resources of faith in a culture besot by fear. He draws upon compelling contemporary cases of such courageous action but shows, with equally compelling articulation, how such courage finally is deeply rooted in God’s providence. His book is a bold theological exposition that has immediate and rich pastoral derivatives, all in the interest of an intentional church community acting congruently with its confession of faith.” Sam Wells writes: “This is an author who thinks with the practical wisdom of Aquinas and writes with an infectious zest. Here is a fresh voice to challenge and transform the anxieties of church and world."

A resident of Clarks Summit and a member of the Peacemeal Community in Scranton, Scott as a doctorate from Duke University and is associate professor of theology and religious studies at the  University of Scranton.

He and his wife, Mother Demery, diocesan youth missioner, are currently with youth from the Diocese of Bethlehem on a mission trip to New Orleans.

Download following_jesus_in_a_culture_of_fear.pdf

Your Heart's Desire: Sex and Love in Jewish Literature

A "Let's Talk About it" book reading and discussion series at Trexler Library, Muhlenberg College (3:30-5:00, one Sunday per month, Fall 2007). No fee. Books provided. Registration required. Download a poster ... Download jewish_literature.Identity and Imagination.pdf ... and find more info here.

Thanks to Kelly Cannon for this. Kelly is Business & Humanities Reference Librarian at Muhlenberg and Junior Warden at Grace, Allentown.

Taking the Plunge

You’ve chosen the godparents, dressed the baby in yards of white, and headed to church for the christening. Now what? What does the sacrament of baptism mean in your child’s life – and yours? In Taking the Plunge: Baptism and Parenting, a new book by Anne Kitch, canon for Christian formation at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, parents explore how the baptismal covenant helps to shape the experience of raising children. What are you promising when you baptize your child? Why are “please” and “thank you” theological words, not simply polite things to say? Anne Kitch writes with a light touch and includes plenty of real-life stories. More info below and at Morehouse Publishing

 

Download taking_the_plunge.pdf

My Faith My Life

Jennifer Gamber, a parishioner at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, wrote My Faith My Life "to provide young people in the Episcopal Church the tools to embrace their full place within the Church. When I began working with Canon Kitch on confirmation three years ago, it became clear that there were few resources available to help teens understand the language of our church, its worship, history, sacraments and approach to the Bible. There are a numberr of wonderful relational-based curricula, which is the basis of our faith, but no guide for navigating the institution, the Church."

My Faith, My Life: A Teen's Guide to the Episcopal Church ($9.95, Morehouse, 2006) is an essential handbook for teens in the Episcopal Church -- and a great resource for confirmation classes, youth study groups and high shool Christian education programs.

The book serves as a guide to the Christian faith and the Episcopal Church, covering everythng from scripture, church history and sacraments to the meaning of prayer and ministry in the lives of real teens today.

Read more at ...

Download my_faith_my_life.pdf