Canon Kate Cullinane

Easter was glorious, but it seems long ago now. As I write this we are about to celebrate Pentecost Sunday and Trinity Sunday. There seem to be lots of church year celebrations associated with springtime. After Trinity Sunday we enter what some call "the long green season." It's called the long green season since the liturgical color from Trinity Sunday up until Advent (other than feast days) is green. It used to be called the Sundays after Trinity. We now call it the Sundays after Pentecost. The Roman Catholics call it "ordinary time." All of these names all refer to the same thing...the long green season. The green season from Trinity to Advent is the longest season of our liturgical year.

We are now also in the midst of spring. This is a time when new seedlings appear above the ground, but it is also a time when perennial plants come back to life. I love perennials. Not only are they less work, they also remind me of the resurrection. Each year they come back to life in the spring reminding us all that life begins again. In the midst of an ordinary year, new life comes back.

I sort of like the term "ordinary time" in reference to this season. I believe that it reminds us that most of life is lived in the ordinary. Sure, there are good times, sad times, difficult times and even glorious times. But most of life is lived in the ordinary. I believe that the season of ordinary time reminds us that God is found in the ordinary. God is found in ordinary bread and ordinary wine. God is found in the day-to-day and the everyday.

Let us continue to rejoice in the everyday and in the ordinary since it is in the day-to-day that God is most often found. May God's blessings be on all of you during this long green season.

Canon Kate

St. John's Tulare Preschool bolsters community  

 By Pat McCaughan

A change of building plans helped St. John's Episcopal Church realize the congregation's dream of starting a preschool and bringing new life to its Tulare community.

With some creative visioning, the church remodeled--rather than demolished as initially planned-an office building into the St. John's Children's Learning Center, which opened last August.

The center is approaching its first anniversary with an enrollment of 20 children and the enthusiastic support of parents like Jennifer Harlan, whose 5-year-old Sabrina has been a student since the doors opened.

"We love the atmosphere, it's a safe place for our children to go," said Harlan, a Visalia resident who works in Tulare.

"They're not treated as students, they're treated as part of the family and they know they're loved by Jenna and Fr. Rob. I know Sabrina is more than just a student. This is family.

"We have truly been blessed by having her go to St. John's Children's Learning Center. Emotionally, socially, academically, spiritually Sabrina has grown in multiple ways because of the environment and who she is exposed to," Harlan said.

Most of the children are from the neighboring community, according to Jenna Saldivar, 32, a St. John's parishioner and the center director.

"A lot of housing development has gone up around the church," prompting the congregation to consider starting the preschool, said Saldivar, who said she grew up with some of the mothers of her students.

"They were looking for a way to create a quality child care program with good moral values," Saldivar said. "We started the program with a whole-child curriculum, creating opportunities for each child to succeed."  

Judy Wilds, St. John's senior warden, served on the vestry that decided to create the preschool.

Eyeglasses for Haiti

Faye Chaote (St. Matthew's) , Stephanie Gilmer (St. Paul's) and Edd Endicott (St. Paul's) packing the eyeglasses for the trip to Haiti

Over even hundred and seven (725) pairs of glasses were recently packed to accompany Bishop Talton and other members of the diocese as they flew to Haiti to attend the consecration of the new Bishop Suffragan in Haiti. Three additional suitcases were needed to hold all of the eyeglasses. Luckily, American Airlines allows one free checked bag for each passenger to an international destination.

It is amazing what opticians and ophthalmologists can do with limited equipment. With an assortment of gradated lenses they will be able to fit the patient to the appropriate pair of glasses. The eyeglasses will be able to be re-fitted and matched with people in Haiti who otherwise would have no access to vision correction. The Haiti Task Force is pleased that so many people from throughout the diocese were able to participate in this outreach project to assist those with so much need.

Sauls to Keynote Ministry Conference 

the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls

Bishop Sauls will share views about the future of the church.

As Chief Operating Officer, he oversees the staff of the Episcopal Church in New York City as well as Washington D.C. and other satellite offices. Sauls also coordinates the work of the Church's mission program, communications, finance and administration duties while assisting the Presiding Bishop in her role as Chief Executive Officer.

Before coming to work with the Presiding Bishop in September of 2011 Sauls was the sixth Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky. He also has worked as a corporate lawyer and is a member of the State Bar in Georgia, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Ecclesiastical Law Society (United Kingdom).

At the Celebration of Ministry Conference we will be celebrating our ministry successes and introducing exciting new opportunities in mission. The events will include presentations from Kairos prison ministry, and workshops on spiritual development, Facebook and other topics.

Registration information will be forthcoming, watch for news in the Friday Reflection.

People  

Marion Austin, Stan Boone, Sandy and Jerry DeGraff, Susan Hall (St Anne's, Lodi),  Richard Jennings, Nancy Key and Lynette Zelezny were honored on Pentecost Sunday during a festal Eucharist at Holy Family, Fresno, officiated by Bishop Chet Talton. They are the first EFM graduating class in the diocese!

Gail Bernthal has further discerned her call toward priesthood and Bishop Talton has now made her a postulant for Holy Orders.

The Rev. Harold Clinehens has announced his retirement after 33 years of ordained ministry. His last Sunday at St. John's in Lodi will be August 12.

The Rev. Stanley Collins, assisting at Christ the King, Riverbank, has been elected the new President of the Northern Deanery.  

Doris Fernandez is retiring after seven years as the Soup Kitchen Manager at Church of the Saviour in Hanford. Bennie Herrell is the new Soup Kitchen Manager. The Soup Kitchen in Hanford serves an average of 237 meals per day, six days per week.

Gregg Glenn of Grace, Bakersfield has been elected the new President of the Southern Deanery.

Nancy Key has been made a postulant for Holy Orders by Bishop Talton following her discernment meeting with the Commission on Ministry. Nancy is discerning a call to the diaconate.

Juanita Weber of St. Anne's in Stockton has been elected the new Vice-President of the Northern Deanery.

An interview with the Rev. Carolyn Woodall is featured in "Voices of Witness: Out of the Box", a ground-breaking documentary about the witness of transgender Episcopalians courageously telling their stories of hope, healing and wholeness. The 26-minute film is available online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCANWGsEdc  and will also be distributed by DVD to every bishop and deputy prior to the 77th General Convention July 5-12 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. It will also be screened during General Convention A study guide written by the Reverend Gary Hall is also in progress.

Letter to the Editor:     

The May 2012 ECCO Women's Retreat:  An Altar in our Midst

Rev Karin White, Deacon Carolyn Woodall, Deacon Susan Reeve preparing for celebration of Eucharist on Saturday morning at the outdoor altar

God had called us and we came ... 23 Episcopal lay and clergy women of the Diocese of San Joaquin. We came to the pines and peace of Oakhurst to discover and feel God's presence amongst us, within us, around us.  

It would have been enough to walk in mild, clean air with an echo of winter crispness, the sun on our faces, beside the still pond reflecting clear blue, deep green, and the snowy white elegance of swans. It would have been enough to watch the geese, skimming the surface while gliding in for a landing. Or the antics of ducks turning tail-feathers up to feed on a shallow bottom. Or to watch the fish, suspended and hovering in the lazy spring sun. But God, in his Grace, filled us with so much more.

In a blessed blend of solitude and community, we opened our hearts and discovered God in compassionate, creative, wondrous glory....everywhere:  

. . . in the white crown of a solitary bald eagle perched high in the pines on Friday morning;

. . . in the convergent rendezvous of swans, ducks, and geese across the water to meet up with our walking meditation around the pond in the afternoon;

. . . in the changing, uneven ground which called us to pay attention beneath our unshod feet as we made an evening labyrinth pilgrimage together in silence;

. . . in the black and white dog who shared Saturday chapel with us and followed our Rogation Day procession;

. . . in our women's voices--soft or clear or strong or melodic--as we offered poetry, blessings and prayers, and read from Barbara Brown Taylor aloud;

. . . as we chanted blessings upon the earth, as we walked or sang old campfire songs and show tunes by a bonfire;

. . . in our tears, laughter, listening, and deep sharing of sorrows, fears, hopes, and decisions about family, church, ministries, friends, and self;

. . . in our breath as we moved our bodies through yoga meditation;

. . . in our donations for Haiti as we picked up "free" books donated from someone else's overrun library;

. . . in images we cut from magazines which told our story in collage, the discoveries from which we shared with each other like excited schoolchildren;

           . . . in the invincible, earthen sculpture of four women seated around a candle flame;

. . . in our worship, our rest, our reflective time alone on a bench or a rock, in the wisdom of writers and poets and saints and sisters in faith.

Everywhere, God's wonder, grace, and energy trumping despair, disappointment, and the discomfort and uncertainty of the "in-between", that state of being between old and new.  

Now, several weeks later, we have received the letters we wrote to ourselves with messages from our deep, wise hearts. We pull out our journals and folders, and run our hands over the collaged images. We remember what it was to feel a little more connected, lighter, braver, more open to God's voice in what is before us. We say YES to Spirit and offer a prayer of thanks.

With special gratitude to the Rev. Kathie Galicia for organizing the retreat, the Rev. Karin White for the concept and her leadership to help us find for ourselves what the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor found in An Altar in the World, to the ECCO staff, and to the 23 women who gave themselves to the experience. Also contributing to retreat activity leadership were Rev Lyn Morlan, Juanita Weber, Linsey White Krolik, and Carol Bower Foote.    

For the women reading this article, please consider joining us in 2013.

Submitted by,

Carol Bower Foote, St John's, Lodi