Greetings to you all from the board of directors of the Episcopal Women's Caucus! We're pleased to offer you another Monthly Caucus that's chock full of interesting, enriching information and stories. We're grateful to our editor, Gigi Conner, for once again for cooking up a repast that's both tasty and nutritious.

This month, each of our three contributors in "Making A Difference" share their unique experiences of the sacred. Whether helping a parish face its growing pains, leaping in faith all the way across the globe or giving voice to those who feel they have none, each writer illustrates how they and others have experienced the holy in their unique communities.

Those of us blessed with a ministry of pastoral care often encounter the sacred in unexpected ways. During my years as a hospital and community chaplain, in addition to innumerable prayers for healing and peace, I spent many hours at the bedside of the actively dying, praying with them and their loved ones, listening to laughter and stories, wiping tears and offering hugs. Any chaplain or hospice volunteer will tell you there is no more sacred space than the bedside of the dying. The veil between "Here" and "There" becomes thin, almost transparent, and the room often fills with Presence. Even when I have been the only other person in the room, I never felt alone.

 I have many warm memories of patients who were at peace with their impending death. Perhaps they had lived long, fruitful lives, enjoyed the birth of many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, said goodbye to a beloved spouse decades earlier and were unwilling to endure any further "heroic" efforts by the medical community to save them. These passing souls would offer comfort to their families and assure them of the ease they felt in going. (That peace, interestingly, was often shared by believers and non-believers alike.)

 Unnatural deaths, however, pose greater challenges and serve to hone skills in the ministry of presence. After all, how does one possibly comfort a grieving mother, still reeking of alcohol, whose beautiful baby boy was smothered when, in her drunkenness, she rolled over on him in bed? Or a parent whose handsome, bright and talented, but drug-addicted, son lingered in a week-long coma after injecting the contents of a stolen Fentanyl patch? Or the grandmother of a troubled teen who, after a night heavy drinking with a buddy, blew his head off with that friend's gun. (Wyoming is plagued with rampant substance abuse, the scourge of too many loaded guns and the tragedy of young men killing themselves nearly every day - we suffer the highest per capita suicide rate in the country. Virtually every family bears the scars of these violent, untimely deaths.)

 One memory which haunts me is standing on the porch of a home and hearing the sounds of families inside, knowing their world would shatter the moment I rang the doorbell. I'd pause, wanting to give them just a few more seconds of peace before crushing them with the news their child was dead. One awful Halloween night, I delivered three death notifications to the families of teenaged boys killed in a stupidly reckless accident.

 On multiple occasions, family members have thanked me for the care with which I gave them the news. I am grateful for intensive, extensive training and exceptional supervisors during four years of CPE. Yet, even with the best training, such moments would have been impossible to manage without grabbing fervently onto God before walking through the door and holding tightly to the conviction that, indeed, with God all things are possible.

 Despite the trauma I have witnessed and occasionally experienced, I recall those experiences as permeated with the presence of the Creator. Even in the darkest, most heartbreaking moments, there was exquisite Light - soothing, guiding, loving Light, reminding me that never do we walk alone when doing the work that God has given us to do.

* * * * *

 As you peruse this latest edition of the Monthly Caucus, please pay special attention to the call for a provincial delegate to represent The Episcopal Church at the 58th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York City, March 10 - 21, 2014.

 This is an exciting opportunity to serve the Church and your sisters throughout the globe. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is work that God wishes for you. Please consider submitting your application. The Episcopal Women's Caucus participate in this gathering by offering a variety of workshops on issues affecting women, girls and their communities. More news on that as the event nears.

 Until next time, I offer blessings for you and your walk - wherever God may lead you in the days ahead!

Bishop Search (note short time limit)

The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts has now opened its search for Bishop. There is a very short time span for nominations.... just until August 26! If you or anyone you know would be a great bishop for a large, interesting and mission-minded diocese, please send them !!!! Bishop Search

Commission on the Status of Women

The fifty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 - 21 March 2014 (tentative date). Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world attend the session.

 

Members of the Board of The Episcopal Women's Caucus will offer workshops during the first week of the UNCSW. The workshops will focus on the language of violence, violence against women in the military, and men who are involved in bringing about justice for women.

  

Priority theme: Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.

 

Review theme: Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work (agreed conclusions from the fifty-fifth session)

  

 

Malala Yousafzai  addressing the UN in July, 2013

BBC News - Malala Yousafzai speech in full

To Unbind the Church and Let it Loose                  

By the Rev. Kim L. Coleman

In November 2002, I accepted a call to serve as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. The first African-American female rector in the Diocese of Virginia, I celebrated the congregation's long standing diversity as well as its professed desires to enter the 21st century and to grow.

The once suburban environment surrounding Trinity had evolved into a multicultural, urban hub, progressive in its thinking and social justice oriented in its interests. Trinity evolved differently. Changing demographics, declining membership, leadership trust issues and resulting conflict infused a survivalist mentality into this once thriving then predominantly white congregation. As the community changed around the parish, the congregation turned inward.

Formerly front line responders to compelling human needs, the congregation shifted its outward focus to self-preservation, survival and maintaining things as they always had been. I soon discovered "we want to change" and "we want to grow" meant "we want to expand the status quo" and "we want to balance the budget."

Today, Trinity once again is a bustling operation. We are open and busy every day of the week. Our ministry is rooted in our community and yet worldwide in scope. We host Virginia's sole branch of the international Mothers' Union prayer fellowship, operate a year around preschool almost as diverse as the United Nations, support the community's needy through both our Columbia Pike Thrift Shop and partnership with several local outreach agencies, offer our commercial kitchen as an incubator for startup food businesses and share our worship space with a Latino congregation.

We are known for the dynamic, creative liturgy with blended and culturally diverse music that characterizes our joy-filled worship experience. We baptize nearly as as many adults as children and have allowed God to transform the face of our congregation so that we now mirror our surrounding community. We are white, black, Asian, Indian, Latino, gay, straight, young, old, and well on our way to becoming God's Revelation (7:9)

community, a sacred safe place where all nations, tribes, peoples and languages have room and place around God's throne. When asked how I would describe the Trinity of today, my favorite response is to say we are a broken and beloved people of God who are healing well.

How is it that we moved from being an insular, predominantly white congregation to being a richly diverse community that strives to see and serve the Christ in everyone and have everyone see the Christ in us? A simple response is to say by the grace of God. A more comprehensive answer speaks to the hard work of being Christ's agents of reconciliation and transformation.

I tell the story often of my hero Fred, a white man of 90 plus tender years. In year eight of my eleven year tenure at Trinity, Fred asked me out to lunch. Somewhere between the tuna fish sandwich and the coffee, Fred looked up at me and said, "It's not you. The resistance you're experiencing. The struggles you are having. It is not you. We did not want a woman. We did not want a person of color. And we've been angry about it. You're not doing anything wrong. We simply weren't ready. Some people still aren't ready."

Fred articulated a fundamental church renewal lesson I learned from the school of hard knocks. Not everyone was ready or even enthusiastic about a return to vibrancy, especially if such vibrancy necessitates change. We grew nonetheless.

Like the friends of Lazarus who were commanded to unbind Lazarus and let him loose after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11), we undertook the diligent work of naming obstacles to growth, establishing new community behavioral norms and holding ourselves accountable to those norms, even if doing so meant the departure of some old guard members. We cast a vision for the future grounded in Christ. We abandoned our maintenance only mindset and learned to open our eyes and hearts to the change inviting others that God faithfully keeps bringing into our midst. Some faith communities speak of praising God through the hard times. Trinity is who we are today because we committed to laugh and trust through the hard times, believing that God still has a mission and ministry for us to perform.

In all this deconstructive and reconstructive work, who have I become? I am a black, female priest who refuses to see the barriers of race, ethnicity, language, gender and sexual orientation as insurmountable. Having witnessed God's resurrection and transformation of this community of faith, no one now can convince me that we need to settle for less. I am confident that fearless and intentional partnership with our kaleidoscope God truly makes all things possible for our local parishes, for our world and for The Episcopal Church.

 Making the Circle Whole: Every Voice Matters

by Ana Hernandez

I teach chanting and community singing as spiritual practice. It's life-giving work, will wake you up in a second, and can involve absolutely everyone, even the people who have been told they can't carry a tune in a bucket (Hint: it's not true).

Over the years, the work has developed from leading church services, to facilitating individuals and groups in noticing the quality of the sounds we make, exploring how our bodies feel while we are making them, and wondering what opportunities the reflection might hold to help us live our one, wild life. Taking the time to listen and notice what's going on inside us can be very healing, and is also practice for hearing what's going on outside of us.

Exploring our inner life through song in the middle of a roomful of people isn't easy, and sometimes it feels like flying without a net. Until you experience it, it might seem like the last place you'd want to open your mouth, especially if you're an introvert like me. However, group practice holds promise. It lets us see how we react to the uncomfortable places while everyone else is doing the same thing, and shows us how to work through the discomfort quickly and efficiently, with a lot less fear and flinching.

We are creatures of habit and pattern, but sometimes the patterns leave us feeling dry and stale. All spiritual practice is like exercise: it takes a lot of intentional work, and we need to mix it up to keep getting good results. The thing I try to keep before me is that I am walking with the Spirit, and more than anything she likes to play. Singing together is a simple, playful way for each of us to explore how every voice might fit into the larger community. Learning how to be open and curious with one another is a prelude to finding our way together and being able to tackle the big stuff without tripping ourselves up.

I used to feel awkward when people would ask "What you do?" For a long time, I had no idea how to describe it, and I've been doing it for so long! It's just that it looks different in every context. Here's some of what I've seen: places where everyone participates, some beginning with only one note, growing in the confidence that they can negotiate their way as part of a vibrant community of singing and improvisation; learning that their voice matters and that they belong. Through deep attention, remembering to ask for what you need, and offering your gifts to the group, it only takes about a day to learn a few tools to take along. Sublime beauty and crazy fun break out on the way. People dissolve into fits of laughter, and create the most graceful endings just by listening to one another. Some show up afraid to sing at all, others afraid to listen. I see group vulnerability occur often, and improvised prayers and psalms of such beauty that the silences afterward are the holiest: peaceful, easy, long, and deep.

Insights and epiphanies flow like water in front of God and everybody, and I usually learn as much as I teach. And although sometimes the lessons don't sink in immediately, the most consistently important practice for me is that each and every voice is necessary to make the circle whole, especially the ones that grate on your nerves. Find a way to bring them in. It's a part of life's work. God has given each of us a voice, and your voice is unique. Equally important is that everyone else's voice is unique. Take a moment to pray on the voices that affect you for good or ill. What stories do you tell yourself about those voices? How much do you believe? How long have you been telling yourself the same story? How's that working for you? Are you flourishing? Are they?

Once there was a church where the choir director and the preacher didn't see eye to eye, so they asked me to come to teach some new songs and possibly open up space for dialogue to happen in a nonthreatening way. I'd been there a day, and felt welcome; when I entered the parish hall to teach, the children sat in the front row. As I began talking, one of the boys got fidgety, so I smiled and shushed him a couple of times. Before I knew it, a man swooped down and dragged him away by the arm, scolding as he went. I know the man was trying to be polite to me, but I don't have a stomach for public humiliation. I took a deep breath and continued, introducing my shruti box, a drone instrument. I began to teach a song, walking around the room, singing out parts, while people listened for their parts to sing. I wandered over to the corner to see how my friend was doing, and asked if he would play the shruti while I finished teaching. I showed him quickly, left him until the end of the song, and then asked him to come back to his seat and help me. That's all it took. Well, that and the grace of God. It turned out he was just excited and curious. He sang every part I asked, and had a fine sense of rhythm. If he can learn to manage his internal weather he'll make a fine and loving citizen. Same goes for the man that dragged him away. Same goes for me. Same goes for you.

The energy in a room when the last people are brought into the fold is holy.

About three years ago, I was doing a gig with Brian McLaren the historian and theologian, and he looked at me after one of the sessions and asked "Does anyone else do what you do?" I said that I didn't know anyone else, but it was doubtful because God's pay scale sucks; if there is one. We laughed, and he nodded and said he didn't know anyone else either. This spring, Brian mentioned me among a group of people exploring new, deeper and better territory. Is that what they call that? From where I sit, the territory looks like this: a painting workshop for parents and children in Newtown, CT; a Eucharist in Watertown, MA the Sunday after the Boston Marathon bomber was arrested in a boat a block from the church; the funeral of an old friend; a recovery ministry; Purim, Passover, Tenebrae, and a Good Friday Blues services; a hymn festival; a Wonder and Arts Festival; students and faculty at the Darrow School; a volunteer choir, a return visit to the Esperanza Academy Summer School.

With the voice God gave us, our natural resilience, kindness, emotional maturity, and a lot of laughter, singing together is a foundation for learning how to work with whatever issues show up. Life has its challenges, but one of the pleasures of a healthy, inclusive community is that you can ask for help negotiating them, and there's almost always a song to sing to smooth the way.

Adelynrood

PROGRAMS AT KANUGA - North Carolina     

2013 Lansing Lee Conference* October 20, 2013 - October 22,

Blue Ridge Tales:  Stories of Survival, Healing and Faith

Keynoter: The Reverend Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest currently serving as chaplain at St. Augustine's at Vanderbilt University. She is also founder and executive director of Magdalene & Thistle Farms, a community and social enterprise that stands with women recovering from violence, prostitution, addiction, and life on the streets. Recently named one of 15 Champions of Change by the White House for her work in domestic abuse, Rev. Stevens has been featured on NPR, PBS, and CNN as well as in the Huffington Post, Southern Living, Christian Century, and Victoria magazine. -

Turning Point: Becca Stevens and the Women of Magdalene/Thistle Farms

 PROGRAMS AT KIRKRIDGE  

TACKLING TOUGH TEXTS  

October 7-10

 Just as we cannot pick and choose aspects of our nation's history which we like, but rather have to deal with the warts as well as the wonders, so Christians as people of the Book cannot simply erase aspects of the Bible which they find unpalatable.

PROGRAMS AT LUTHERIDGE - North Carolina

                     AwakeningSoul Presents Modern Mind ~ Ancient Soul

                                              conference details

The Episcopal Women's Caucus strives to offer views from different women, lay or ordained, throughout the Church and to hold up celebrations, events, achievements, or struggles that involve women. If you are interested in contributing, whether through an article you have written or a newsworthy item, please contact either Karen Bota, editor of RUACH, at kdbota@aol.com or Gigi Conner, editor of "The Monthly Caucus," at gigipriest@prodigy.net.

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