The Episcopal Church's triennial General Convention takes place July 5-12 in Indianapolis.  Meet the Diocese of Massachusetts' deputies here. 

Massachusetts' bishops and deputies will be posting updates and reflections from the convention at
http://diomassatgc.wordpress.com. 

The Episcopal Church's General Convention Media Hub goes live on July 2 and will stream sessions from the House of Deputies and House of Bishops and feature other programming, photos, Episcopal News Service headlines and media feeds: http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/gc2012.

This spring, 18 congregations of the diocese were awarded a total of $174,392 in Green Improvement Grants. These grants represent the first disbursements of funds from the ongoing diocesan Together Now fundraising campaign's $2-million Creation Care Initiative.

The grants will help congregations--from Acton and Andover to Gloucester and Lowell to Wakefield and Waltham--make lighting and appliance conversions, replace windows, install insulation and improve inefficient heating systems.
 

An additional $3,980 was awarded in Simple Acts Grants to five congregations for projects that include a vacation garden school at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Watertown and a recycling project by the Episcopal Boston Chinese Ministry.    

The full list of grants, as of June 19, is available here.

"These grants and those that follow will allow congregations to dream about how their church buildings and spaces speak to their community and can reflect the glorious beauty and bounty of God--and then take real, practical steps to bring those dreams into being," the Rev. Karen Montagno, Director of Congregational Resources and Training, said in the June Together Now Campaign Update newsletter.    

The Creation Care Initiative (first known as the Green Grants Initiative when it was launched in 2010) exists to encourage, challenge  and support all the congregations of the diocese as they carry out their responsibility to care for God's creation.

  

The Diocese of Massachusetts' Together Now fundraising campaign has surpassed the $13-million mark on the way toward its $20-million goal.

Behind the numbers are a host of local success stories from participating congregations of all sizes. 

"Because we are a culture of individualism and congregationalism, we do not always realize that we have more power when we pull together to do the work of the Gospel," Bishop Gayle E. Harris wrote in the June Campaign Update newsletter, in which she asks congregations, if they have not done so already, to commit to one of the several options for participating.

Read more in the June Campaign Update, available here. 

Everyone loves a parade:  Bishops Tom Shaw and Barbara Harris of Massachusetts, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and Steve Lane of Maine led a large and lively contingent of New England Episcopalians in Boston's Pride Parade on June 9.  The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston hosted an after-parade celebration in honor of Bishop Robinson as he prepares to retire.  The steel drum band from St. Cyprian's Church in Roxbury provided festive music.  See more photos here.

Thirteen ordained:  Congratulations to the men and women ordained last month as transitional deacons and deacons at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston.  See photos here.
 

Courtesy PHOTO

Rainy day fun:  On June 2, 25 youth and 15 adults from five of the seven historically black churches in the diocese got together at St. Mark's Church in Dorchester for  basketball, coloring, group games where everyone got to know each other and food.  It was a rainy day, so everyone squeezed indoors for this group photo.  "A special thanks goes out to all of the teens that helped to plan such a great event, everyone at St. Mark's for opening their doors to us as the rain set in and all of the adults that cooked, cleaned and did all the little things to make this day a huge success!" Sam Gould, Director of Youth Ministry, said.

EDS graduates 28:  

PHOTO: Ken Kotch

Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) celebrated the graduation of 28 students during its 2012 commencement ceremony on May 17 at the First Church in Cambridge.  EDS also awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees to Dr. Robert W. Radtke and Dr. Bruce B. Lawrence.  Read more here.

Mission Tithe Council Grants:  Applications are now available for grants for existing global mission partnerships, made possible by the mission tithe from the ongoing Together Now fundraising campaign.  Read more here. 

White House visit lifts up partnership:  Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, on May 24 visited St. Stephen's Church in Boston and the lively Blackstone Elementary School next door to learn about how their partnership is helping to turn around a troubled school and strengthen the neighborhood. The Rev. Liz Steinhauser (pictured with DuBois) marshaled the troops for a whirlwind tour of both sites for the guests, who also included the Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Director of the U.S. Dept. of Education's Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; State Representative Byron Rushing; Boston City Council member John Connolly; and Canon to the Ordinary Mally Lloyd.  "We are going to lift up specific models and communicate that other communities can do exactly what they're doing here," DuBois said.  

 

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Five feed the hungry in Chelsea:  Volunteers from five Mystic Valley parishes gathered on May 19 at Grace Church in Medford for a barbecue to celebrate what began in 2009 as a soup kitchen partnership at St. Luke's/San Lucas Church in Chelsea and now includes a food pantry in addition to the meals served on Saturdays.  "These accomplishments together with our shared vision are sources of great hope in the viability and vitality of our church," the Rev. Edgar Gutiérrez-Duarte, Vicar of St. Luke's/San Lucas, said. "By reaching out beyond the walls of our parishes we are shaping the new church--a church whose strength is in its commitment to form community and to serve wherever we are called, much like the first Christians."  Other participating parishes are the Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester, St. Paul's Church in Lynnfield and Trinity Church in Melrose.  Read more here.

Walkers stock food pantries in Hanover and Rockland:  

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St. Andrew's Church in Hanover and Trinity Church in Rockland teamed up on May 19 to raise money by "walking to stock" their local food pantries.  The pledge walk started in Hanover and ended in Rockland, and followed Route 139 for most of the six miles. Thirty walkers from both parishes, together with food pantry volunteers, raised about $2,300.  Read more here.

MASS Design Group's work to build hospitals that improve care delivery in developing countries was featured by the Boston Globe on June 18.  The architecture group is designing the new medical clinic for the Bishop Masereka Christian Foundation in Uganda, toward which the Diocese of Massachusetts has contributed $250,000 from its Together Now fundraising campaign's mission tithe (read more about the project in the March-April Together Now Campaign Update here).

Hot meals are now being served for the children of the St. Thomas parish school in Arcahaie, Haiti, thanks to St. Michael's Church in Marblehead and proceeds from its lobster lunch sales during Marblehead's annual Arts Festival, according to this June 11 story in the Marblehead Reporter.  Enjoy lobster rolls and other lunch items at St. Michael's on July 4, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (see schedule here).

Nine bells that have hung in the tower at Grace Church in Medford since they were installed in 1873 have been removed for refurbishment, part of a larger renovation project underway at the church, detailed in a June 8 story in the Medford Transcript.