(PHOTO:  istockphoto.com)

An Eastertide message from Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE:

Conference participant and former intern Natalie Finstad, with Life Together fellow Ben Whaley, one of the weekend's organizers (PHOTO:  Deborah Gardner Walker)

More than 120 young adult interns and directors from 17 Episcopal Service Corps programs across the country came together in Newton earlier this month to learn about servant leadership and walking "The Jesus Way" during a weekend training event hosted and led by the Diocese of Massachusetts' Life Together program.

"We got to see ourselves as a growing network and as a movement of young leaders in the Episcopal Church," the Rev. Arrington Chambliss, Director of Life Together, said of the experience.

Read the full story.

Special guest speakers at Clergy Conference, pictured, from left, with cathedral dean Jep Streit:  Mawdudur and Mahmood Rahman and Naila Baloch

With news of Osama bin Laden's death just breaking, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE opened the annual diocesan Clergy Conference, held May 2-4 in Brewster, with prayer for a more peaceful world, and said in his welcoming remarks to the 220 clergy in attendance:  "My hope and prayer is that we can use this new day as an opportunity for creating peace and unity and that we will work as actively and creatively as possible to heal the brokenness in the world."

Members of the Muslim congregation that prays each Friday at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston closed the conference with a presentation comprising personal stories and perspectives on Muslim teachings and practices, emphasizing how the larger principles of their faith--seeking and sharing knowledge, basing actions on good intention, service to others, the imperative to raise faithful children--inform day-to-day life.

"Our similarities are much stronger and binding than what keeps us apart," retired Suffolk University professor Mawdudur Rahman said of Christians and Muslims.  "At the end of the day, we all pray to the same God."

He thanked cathedral dean Jep Streit "for the hospitality provided by the cathedral to fulfill our Friday prayer obligation so that we can be better people and better people of faith."

During the question and answer period, the panel was asked for a response to bin Laden's death.

"Fear is not from God," Naila Baloch, a chaplain at Tufts University, said.  "I hope his death can also be a death of our fear," she said.

Mawdudur Rahman described the Koran's distinctions between killing for a just cause and killing defenseless enemies, and spoke of how misguided interpretations of holy text can lead to misguided actions.  The better approach, he said, is to focus on the Koran's messages of peace and mercy.  "We are to hold fast to forgiveness, and remember that to save a life is to save all of humanity," he said.

Grace Church, Medford Green Team members Jonathan Hunt and Linda Rodgers with EPA Region 1 coordinator Curt Spaulding

Grace Church greens up, cleans up Medford:  What do the president of the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Boston Bruins, the Waves Car Wash in West Roxbury and Grace Church in Medford all have in common?

They were among the 19 individuals, groups and businesses honored with environmental merit awards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), given out at Faneuil Hall in Boston on May 11.

The awards recognize contributions that the EPA deems valuable to environmental awareness and problem solving.  Grace Church's Green Up Clean Up Team got the honor for organizing a citywide parks clean-up effort last year, mobilizing more than 250 people to pick up trash, paint tables and benches, rake leaves, spread mulch and sand and generally improve public spaces in Medford.

Their efforts inspired other groups and residents unaffiliated with the church to organanize additional clean-ups.  In the end, eight parks got greened up and cleaned up.

"We wouldn't have been able to make such a difference without the amazing outpouring of support from the Medford community and local businesses," team member Jonathan Hunt said.

St. John's, Duxbury youth at St. Anna's Parish in New Orleans during Holy Week

Holy work during Holy Week:  Over Holy Week, 38 high school youth and seven adult chaperones from the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Duxbury traveled 36 hours by train to New Orleans to work with the organization Camp Restore to help in the ongoing recovery process of "restoring faith, home and community" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and resulting levee failure in 2005. 

The mission team attended the Palm Sunday service at St. Anna's Parish and worked throughout the week building fences and staircases, tiling floors and mudding and sheetrocking several homes.  The group also spent time helping several nonprofits thoughout the city, such as ARC of Greater New Orleans and Lower 9th Village. 

On the last day, the team worked on the St. John Berchmans Center.  The center, first used as an orphanage, dates back to 1926. The building, vacant since the hurricane, is currently being renovated so that the Sisters of the Holy Family can return from Africa to continue their mission of educating New Orleans children.

The Duxbury volunteers are part of this Camp Restore video about restoring the center.

Blessing of the bikes:  All Saints' Church in West Newbury reports that its second annual motorcycle blessing on May 1 was even bigger and better that last year's, with 105 motorcycles and 150 people on hand.  The parish welcomed everyone with a blessing followed by a barbecue with music.  It was hard to distinguish the parishioners from the bikers, the Rev. Viki Prett said. 

(PHOTO:  Diane McCormick)

Mayor recognizes Episcopal churches' Boston youth work:  Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined Bishop Tom Shaw on May 13 at the diocesan offices in Boston to celebrate the good works of three Episcopal organizations that serve Boston-area youth.  Staff and supporters of the Epiphany School, B-SAFE (Bishop's Summer Academic and Fun Enrichment program) and Trinity Boston Foundation's TEEP (Trinity Education for Excellence Program) were also present.  Pictured (from left) are Juan David Lozano, former TEEP student and current assistant director; Mayor Menino; Sandy Quispe, a counselor-in-training at the Epiphany School B-SAFE site; and Bishop Shaw.

The Rev. Luther Zeigler

New Harvard chaplain named:  The Rev. Luther Zeigler has been appointed the new Episcopal chaplain at Harvard University and will begin Aug. 1.  "We are delighted to announce the successful completion of our search and the appointment of the Rev. Luther Zeigler as our new chaplain.  We look forward with excitement to this new chapter in our common life.  Please join us in welcoming Luther to his new ministry at Harvard," the Board of the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Harvard said in an announcement following its May 15 meeting.  Read more here.

Breaking chaplaincy news:  Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE has appointed the Rev. Cameron Partridge as the new Episcopal chaplain at Boston University.  A full announcement will be in the June E-news.

Bishop Barbara C. Harris at the MGH chapel celebration (PHOTO:  Susan Sabia)

Chapel gift keeps on giving:  Bishop Barbara C. Harris on April 27 helped celebrate the 70th anniversary of the chapel at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), made possible by Bishop William H. Lawrence.  In her remarks, she described how Bishop Lawrence, as a grateful former patient of the hospital, raised $50,000 to build the chapel at a time when it cost $8.58 a day to be hospitalized at MGH.  President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt were among the donors; so was a ward of 41 patients who collected and sent $4.31 in small change.  "The hospital community remains a beneficiary of [Lawrence's] vision, his dedication and his heartfelt desire that MGH be a place of healing for body, mind and spirit," Harris said.

St. John's Day shared:  The brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist celebrated St. John's Day on May 7 and offer video, audio and photos on their Web site so others can share in the celebration.

Call to "courageous change":  Bonnie Anderson, President of the General Convention's House of Deputies, said in her May 5 Kellogg Lectures at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge that "the church is stuck in an organizational model" and instead needs to be a 2-million minister-strong movement.  Episcopal News Service's report is here.

Easter Day in Brockton:  Grace Chapel--the Episcopal congregation worshiping at First Lutheran Church in Brockton under the leadership of the Rev. Moses Sowale--was featured in an Easter photo gallery in the April 25 Brockton Enterprise.  (The Enterprise identifies only First Lutheran in the captions, but we say "Alleluia!" anyhow.)

"Stronger Communities, Stronger Schools":  Volunteers connected with St. Stephen's Church in Boston--Graciela Gonzales, Amanda Wyatt and Loren Cahill--were recognized in the South Ends News on April 14 (see page 7) for their project to lead educational activities for kids while parents were attending a parent-council meeting at the Blackstone Elementary School.