Bishop's Schedule

Palm Sunday         April 17 - St. Paul's Cathedral

Maundy Thursday  April 21 - St. Paul's Cathedral

Good Friday           April 22 - St. Paul's Cathedral

Holy Saturday        April 23 - St. Paul's Cathedral

Holy Monday Service 

The service of liturgy for the Blessing of Oils, Renewal of Ordination Vows, and Holy Eucharist will be on Holy Monday, April 18, 2011, at St. Paul's Cathedral, 10:30 a.m. You are cordially invited to be a part of this ancient service. 

Empowering Youth to Heal A Hurting World of Clean Water and Sanitation  

Summer Camp/VBS version of Act Out: Empowering Youth to Heal a Hurting World of the Clean Water and Sanitation module on the Episcopal Relief & Development website.  You can download the module by pointing your browser to the following URL: http://www.er-d.org/userfiles/ActOut_CleanWaterCampingModule.pdf.  You can find more information about the program here also.

St. Mary's School Hosts 3rd Annual Science Fair 

What type of cheese molds faster in different environments?  Does the color of birdseed affect the bird's choice to eat it?  Does one of the five senses improve if another is lost?  These and other questions were researched by third, fourth and fifth graders at the annual St. Mary's School Science Fair this past week.

Led by science instructor, Patricia Brown, students utilized the 5-step scientific method to:  ask the question; form a hypothesis; perform the experiment and collect data; analyze the data; and publish a conclusion.

Budding scientists like third grader Avery Brown, asked the question, "How long would it take for a baby Guinea pig to quadruple its birth weight?"  Using her newborn pet guinea pig, "Cupcake", Avery hypothesized it would take three weeks to quadruple.  After days of measuring the pet's weight and recording the data on a growth chart, Avery concluded it took five weeks.    

  Avery Brown

Sahanya Bhaktaram, a fourth grader, examined the affects of music on the heartbeat.  Sahanya incorporated five participants in her experiment, ranging in ages from nine to 55.  She utilized two variables, soft and slow music, and loud and fast music.  She found the oldest participant had the lowest heartbeat with both music types and the youngest had the fastest heart rate.  She also attributed her findings to the ages of the participants. 

Second grade students also participated in the science fair by featuring individual research projects on native Oklahoma plants or animal species. 

Sophia Dykstra featured Sorghastrum nutans, better known as Indian Grass. "I found out that Indian Grass can grow as tall as me!" said Dykstra.  "And you have to dig as much as eight feet deep to get all of the roots".

As for conclusions to some of the other experiments, Sara Salomon discovered  that birds are not attracted to artificially colored bird seed and Skyler Gray found that in the time period that she had to experiment with the five senses, one did not improve over the other, if one was lost.  Nathan Goins, on the other hand, who by far had the experiment that most appealed to the sense of smell, discovered that Colby Jack cheese was the first to form mold in dark conditions when tested against others like American, Mozzarella and Gorgonzola.  "I don't even like cheese, but I do like to watch things rot," Goins said.

Trevor Turner
 

Churches to Receive Cash for Atwoods Receipts

From April 6, 2011 through April 23, 2011, shop at any Atwoods Ranch & Home locations; turn in the original sales receipts to your church; the church will send in claims to Atwoods; Atwoods sends your church a check for 5% of the net total. Check with your local Atwoods store for when receipts must be submitted!

Men's Retreat 

Kanuga Conference Center Training

Youth Leadership Program

It is very important that we at the Diocese help raise up our next generation of youth leaders, who in turn,may become our parish leaders. I am looking for a few good men and women to serve as a planning group in establishing a Youth Leadership Program for our children - Junior High and up. If you are interested in helping to form this program and form our children, please contact me at the number below. Leadership needs to be nurtured and we have all the resources in our diocese necessary to do a good job of this!

Task Force on Older Adult Ministries 

At General Convention 2009, Resolution D004 established the Task Force on Older Adult Ministries "to determine programs currently being offered by congregations, dioceses and provinces, to establish a method of sharing this information, and to explore ways the church can expand this ministry to connect with one another in intergenerational opportunities" and to prepare a "comprehensive plan to raise awareness and address the emerging crisis in health, care giving, and faith issues which cross generational and economic lines with emphasis on support of Congregational, Diocesan and Provincial programs for older adult ministry."

The Task Force is charged with reporting annually to Executive Council and in writing to the 77th General Convention, slated for July 2012 in Indianapolis IN.

Cited in the resolution were such facts as:

   - One in every eight Americans is age 65 or older

   - Over one in four live alone.

   - Within 10 years, the age 85+ population will increase by 40%.

*Task Force Members*   

In addition to co-conveners Morain and Sedlar, the Task Force members are:  John Belzer and Alma Belzer, Diocese of Oklahoma; Christy Campbell, Church Pension Fund; Bob Carlson, Diocese of Pennsylvania; Matt Ellis, Diocese of Indianapolis; Bud Holland, Diocese of Pennsylvania; Melody Marshall, Diocese of Florida; Ruth Mitman,  Diocese of Connecticut; Rose Samuels representing Native American ministries, Diocese of Long Island; Gary Stewart, Diocese of Lexington; Pam Tester, Diocese of Lexington; Ken Forde, Diocese of New York; and Ruth-Ann Collins, Episcopal Church Adult Formation and Lifelong Learning Officer and staff liaison.