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Coming up
Sep 28-30: New England Deacons Network Conference: "Crushing Poverty," Sheraton, Framingham
Sep 29: Resource Day, Mass Bay Community College, Wellesley Hills, 8:30 a.m.
Sep 29: Sisters of St. Margaret New Residence Open House, Duxbury, 10 a.m.
Oct 2: Refreshment Day led by author David Rynick, Bethany House of Prayer, Arlington, 9 a.m. Oct 2: First Tuesday Young Adult Service and "Meal with Monks," Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, 5:30 p.m. Oct 4: "God is Great, Gay is Good" Series at MIT: Screening of film "Love Free or Die," MIT Room 6-120, 7 p.m. Oct 6: "True Resurrection" Program, Adelynrood, Byfield, 9 a.m. Oct 7: 100th Anniversary Celebration and Service of Rededication, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 3 p.m. Oct 9: Retired Clergy Gatherings, St. Peter's Church, Weston, 10:30am Oct 9: Ecclesia Ministries common art reception and auction, with State Rep. Byron Rushing, Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, 6 p.m. Oct 11: Retired Clergy Gathering, St. David's Church, South Yarmouth, 10:30 a.m.
Oct 11: "God is Great, Gay is Good" Series at MIT: "Coming out Faithful" Interfaith Panel and Dinner, MIT 4-145, 5 p.m. Oct 13: Eucharistic Visitor Training, Trinity Church, Wrentham, 9 a.m. Oct 13: Saturday SSJE Workshop: "Discerning a Vocation," Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, 9 a.m. Oct 13: Regional Youth Day, Church of Our Redeemer, Lexington, 10 a.m. Oct 16: Pre-Diocesan Convention Forum, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 7 p.m. Oct 17: Pre-Diocesan Convention Forum, Christ Church, Needham, 7 p.m. Oct 17: Contemplative Eucharist, Bethany House of Prayer, Arlington, 7 p.m. Oct 18: Diocesan Council, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 6 p.m. Oct 20: Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) Workshop, St. Gabriel's Church, Marion, 9 a.m. Oct 20: Regional Youth Day, St. Peter's-on-the-Canal Church, Buzzards Bay, 10 a.m. Oct 24: Pre-Diocesan Convention Forum, Trinity Church, Topsfield, 7 p.m. Oct 25: Pre-Diocesan Convention Forum, St. Peter's-on-the-Canal Church, Buzzards Bay, 7 p.m. Oct 27: Safe Church Training, St. Paul's Church, Natick, 8:30 a.m.
Oct 27: Episcopal Church Women Retreat, Walker Center, Newton, 9:30 a.m. |
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Diocesan community remembers shooting victim Jorge Fuentes
 | | Jorge Fuentes |
Over-capacity congregations flowed through St. Stephen's Church in Boston's South End the week of Sept. 17 in remembrance of Jorge Fuentes, 19, a beloved B-SAFE program member who was shot and killed on the street outside of his Dorchester home on Sept. 10. Fuentes was a child when he joined the church's B-SAFE program in its first year, and grew up in it, eventually becoming a lead counselor. Begun 13 years ago at St. Stephen's Church to give neighborhood kids a safe and productive place to be during the summer weeks, the program has grown to serve 625 youth with the support of volunteers from 55 Episcopal churches.
"You know, Jorge was doing everything we hoped would come from B-SAFE, not the least of which was connecting Episcopalians in the suburbs with the Episcopal Church's work in the city," Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE said during a pastoral visit to St. Stephen's Church after the shooting. He is convening a small group to help discern what meaningful action the diocesan community might take in response. Read more. |
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Answering God's urgent call together: On campus
 | | Emily Garcia and Luther Zeigler at Harvard's Student Activities Fair |
With young adults back to school in full force, the six Episcopal college and university ministries in this diocese seek to reach out to them in an array of ways.
Whether it is an evening service that provides a space in which to breathe out the angst of the day and breathe in God's peace, a home-cooked meal and conversation around a parish hall table, or forums for asking questions about ethical decision making and vocational discernment, campus ministries are in a position to be all about the inviting, forming, sending, serving kind of ministry that is at the heart of mission strategy in the Diocese of Massachusetts. What does it mean to answer God's urgent call together on campus? Three chaplains offer their insights here.
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Diocese to celebrate 100th anniversary of Cathedral Church of St. Paul
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An early 1900's postcard image of St. Paul's Church, just before it was dedicated as the diocese's
cathedral church |
Join the bishops and the whole of the diocesan community for a 100th anniversary service of celebration and rededication of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (138 Tremont Street) in Boston, on Sunday, Oct. 7, 3-5 p.m. Singers from congregations across the diocese will form a 100-voice choir for the occasion, under the direction of Mark Engelhardt, principal parish musician at Grace Church in Salem.
There are also plans for group photos on the church steps, starting at 2 p.m., for those who were baptized, confirmed, ordained or married at the cathedral, and there will be music and refreshments following the service.
For information visit www.stpaulboston.org. |
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NewsNotes
Sisters of St. Margaret relocate: Having sold their Roxbury convent at the end of August to Emmanuel College, and with construction of their new residence in Duxbury nearly complete, the sisters of the Society of St. Margaret are in the final stages of relocating and have issued an invitation to the diocesan community to join them for an open house on Saturday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The new residence is located at 50 Harden Hill Road in Duxbury. Read more about it here. |
 | | The Episcopal Church's three bishops who are women of color: Gayle E. Harris, Barbara C. Harris and Carol Gallagher, pictured at General Convention in Indianapolis |
The church moving forward: Retired bishop suffragan Barbara C. Harris set off for South Africa on Sept. 21, where she will preach during the Anglican Church of Southern Africa's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of women's ordination in that province of the church. The trip coincides with the anniversary of her own historic election, on Sept. 24, 1988, as the Anglican Communion's first female bishop. She was looking forward to the trip when she sat down for an interview in August, and, having just returned from the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Indianapolis, she also had a few things to say about conventions past, present and future and what she thinks the church needs to recapture as it moves forward. Read more. |
 | | (PHOTO: Garnick Moore) |
An estimated 1,400 Christians, Muslims and Jews made a witness for peace by attending the Aug. 23 service at Trinity Church in Boston, previewed here by the Boston Globe.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches (MCC) organized the service to show solidarity and support for the Sikh community following the shooting rampage at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. "I hope that the Episcopal Diocese can be proud of our Christian witness to hospitality and solidarity on your behalf that we shared with the Sikh community and the wider interreligious community in the wake of such violence," the MCC's executive director, the Rev. Laura Everett, said, by e-mail, after the event. |
 Creation Care Season: What would happen if every congregation observed a holy season of creation care? Retired bishop suffragan Bud Cederholm posed the question in a Sept. 4 letter to congregations, encouraging them to take up late Pentecost as "Creation Care Season." He and others plan to post weekly reflections through October and November, to be posted here, where other creation care resources and links are available. |
LDI "Taste and See": The Leadership Development Initiative (LDI), a rigorous, hands-on, six-month training that aims to develop spiritual leadership in congregations and interchurch teams, is hosting a "Taste and See" event on Saturday, Nov. 17, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at Grace Church in Medford, where teams interested in the program can meet LDI leaders and learn practices for discerning urgent needs in their communities. Attending the meeting does not require having a full leadership team in place or committing to LDI for the year. Learn more at www.diomassleads.org. |
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ParishCircuit
 Children spent a week in July learning all about water, seeds, soil and harvest during Vacation Garden School at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Watertown, and also about how thanksgiving grows in people's hearts. Here Gregory, 8, and Rebecca, 9, see how they measure up to the popcorn growing in Good Shepherd's garden. Both were "junior counselors," which meant, Gregory said, that they helped "teach the little kids." They had been doing a lot of singing, they said, and they had written some prayers. Gregory's was for people who don't have enough water; Rebecca was praying that the weather would take care of the seeds she had planted. What they liked best, they said, was making mud pies in the garden and collecting "roly-polies" and other creepy crawlies in the compost bin. And rainbows: It was a rainy week and by Thursday they had seen two of them. |
 On Sept. 9, Bishop Gayle E. Harris blessed the new boiler at Grace Church in Medford, saying, "Today we celebrate the most practical of gifts, the gift of boilers to warm our church, that it may serve as the gathering and meeting place for our congregation and the community." The $100,000 project replaced the church's old failing oil system with high efficiency gas condensing boilers, with the objective of saving the church money on energy costs and reducing the building's carbon footprint. The boiler replacement is part of Grace Church's historical restoration and building greening project funded by the church's 2011 capital campaign. |
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NewsLinks
The Rev. Paul LaCharite, former rector of St. James's Church in Somerville and, in retirement, a priest associate at Old North Church in Boston, has been arrested and arraigned on child sexual assault charges. The diocese's Sept. 7 statement is available here. Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE has since suspended him from the exercise of his ministry as a priest pending the outcome of criminal and any canonical disciplinary proceedings.
Calvary Church in Danvers and St. Paul's Church in Peabody are in the process of merging, and they've caught the news media's interest with their contest to come up with a new name for their new church. Read more about it in the Salem News and the Boston Globe. Old North Church in Boston received a $75,000 grant from the Freedom Trail Foundation for restoration of the church's famed steeple and masonry work. See photos from the Sept. 18 presentation of the big check at northendwaterfront.com here. The Rev. Christopher Morck, the new priest-in-charge at Grace Church in New Bedford, was featured on South Coast Today on Sept. 15, as was the Rev. James LaMacchia, new rector of the Parish of the Messiah in Auburndale, in the Newton Tab on Sept. 14. The Rev. Daphne Noyes and the Massachusetts Council of Churches' executive director, the Rev. Laura Everett, offered their perspective on ballot Question 2 in Lisa Wangsness' Sept. 11 Boston Globe story. The knitting group at St. Luke's Church in Scituate was featured in the Patriot Ledger's July 24 "A Good Age" column for the prayer shawls its members make for people in need of healing. |
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E-News
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