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Coming up
Oct 23: Theology on Tap: "Caesar's Rending: American Electoral Politics, Duplicity and the Christian Conscience," Rattlesnake Bar, Boston, 7 p.m. Oct 24: "How Does Our Faith Influence Our Vote?" Dinner and Discussion Program, St. Mary's Church, Newton Lower Falls, 6:30 p.m. Oct 24: Pre-Diocesan Convention Forum, Trinity Church, Topsfield, 7 p.m. Oct 25: Pre-Diocesan Convention Forum, St. Peter's 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 Day, Walker Center, Newton, 9:30 a.m. Oct 28: 170th Anniversary Service and Brunch, St. Peter's Church, Cambridge, 10:30 a.m.
Oct 30: Theology on Tap: "Caesar's Rending: American Electoral Politics, Duplicity and the Christian Conscience," Rattlesnake Bar, Boston, 7 p.m. Nov 2-3: Diocesan Convention, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
Nov 4: Fall Coffee Hour Series featuring Episcopal City Mission, St. Peter's Church, Cambridge, 12:05 p.m.
Nov 4: Interfaith Panel: "Corrective Lenses: Jesus in his Jewish Context," Emmanuel Church, Boston, 4 p.m. Nov 6: First Tuesday Young Adult Service and "Meal with Monks," Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, 5:30 p.m. Nov 10: Eucharistic Visitor Training, St. Mary's Church, Barnstable, 9 a.m. Nov 10: Saturday SSJE Workshop: "The Gift of Intercessory Prayer," Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, 9 a.m. Nov 10: Festival of Russian Sacred Choral Music, 9 a.m., with Public Concert, 3 p.m., St. James's Church, Cambridge Nov 11: Fall Coffee Hour Series featuring Dr. Douglas Huber and public health mission, St. Peter's Church, Cambridge, 12:05 p.m.
Nov 16-18: Middle School Youth Retreat, Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center, Greenfield, N.H., 7 p.m. Nov 17: Leadership Development Initiative "Taste and See" Event, Grace Church, Medford, 9 a.m.
Dec 1: Eucharistic Visitor Training, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 9 a.m.
Dec 1: Advent Retreat Day, Bethany House of Prayer, Arlington, 9:30 a.m.
Dec 4: Advent Refreshment Day, Bethany House of Prayer, Arlington, 9 a.m.
Dec 4: First Tuesday Young Adult Service and "Meal with Monks," Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, 5:30 p.m.
Dec 6: Diocesan Council, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 6 p.m.
Dec 8: Saturday SSJE Workshop, "The Gift of Hope," Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, 9 a.m. |
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"Out on the streets, where God wants us": A message from Bishop Tom Shaw
 "Back in the 1980s there was a man who used to preach in Harvard Square about Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation. One afternoon as I was passing through the square I heard his familiar voice and it suddenly came to me: "We should be doing that. My brothers and I should be here as people come up out of the subway, preaching about God's love like friars in the middle ages in Europe." My brothers in my religious community, however, when I suggested to them that we go out into the streets of Cambridge to preach, didn't think much of my idea. I didn't have the courage to go out there on my own." Bishop Shaw shares the rest of his story here, and would like to hear others' stories about being out on the street, witnessing to God's love. |
Church's role is prophetic not partisan, Episcopalians say as Election Da y nears
"Jesus was deeply concerned with political processes in his own day, challenging people around him as well as the Roman and religious governments about injustice, violence and exploitation," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says in a recent Episcopal News Service feature, in which those interviewed agree that at the intersection of faith and politics, the church's role must be prophetic, not partisan.
"Our task as Christians is always to explore how the political processes and decisions before us can help or hinder the coming of the reign of God in our midst," Jefferts Schori said. "Does a tax proposal seem to care for 'the least of these'? Does a policy decision mean greater justice for the 'little ones'? Does one candidate seem to have a greater interest than another in the primary issues of justice that Jesus spoke most about?"
"How Does Our Faith Influence Our Vote?": Members of the Ecumenical Advocacy Coalition--including the Massachusetts Council of Churches and Episcopal City Mission--are hosting an Oct. 24 dinner and discussion program at St. Mary's Church in Newton Lower Falls about the three ballot questions that will be before Massachusetts voters on Nov. 6. Find sign-up information here. |
Economic justice issues top Nov. 2-3 Diocesan Convention agenda
Bank divestment, criminal justice reform and disaster preparedness are among the issues that eastern Massachusetts Episcopalians will put their voices and votes to when they gather for the diocese's 227th annual convention.
They also will hear about the progress of the diocese's Together Now fundraising campaign--publicly launched at last year's convention--toward its $20-million goal, and will vote on the $6.3-million diocesan budget proposed for 2013.
The convention takes place Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2-3, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, with Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE and Bishop Gayle E. Harris presiding.
"Our Diocesan Convention is such an important part of our Episcopal Church identity in the way that it draws all of us into the governance of our church," Shaw said. "Regardless of our individual positions on the issues, our deliberations together are really important because they help inform our mission strategy and our advocacy on behalf of those we are meant to serve in Christ's name. I'm looking forward to our time together in convention."
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NewsNotes
100 and counting: People who were baptized, confirmed, ordained or married at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul gathered with the bishops, cathedral clergy and choir for a reunion photo on Oct. 7--the 100th anniversary of its dedication as the diocese's cathedral church. A rededication service that day featured a 140-plus voice choir of singers from all around the diocese and testimonials about the difference the cathedral's ministries make in people's lives. (PHOTO: Liese Jones) |
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 "Turn Off the Lights, For God's Sake": This is a provincewide educational campaign to encourage energy-use reduction by New England's 675 Episcopal churches. Read more about it here.
Creation Care Season continues throughout October and November, with Bishop Bud Cederholm and others posting reflections on ways to observe the season all year around. Find them here. |
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New bishops for God's church: Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE was a co-conscrator at the Oct. 20 consecration of the Rt. Rev. Dorsey McConnell as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. A provisional bishop has been in place there since 2009, following the departure from the Episcopal Church of the former bishop and a significant portion of the membership. "Dorsey is a healer and a reconciler and those gifts will be greatly appreciated in his new diocese. We're praying for him and for the people of the Diocese of Pittsburgh." Shaw said. McConnell is the former rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Bishop Gayle E. Harris also served as a co-consecrator at what she described as the "glorious occasion" of the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Wright's Oct. 13 consecration as the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, celebrated at Morehouse College.
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BCH Center staff appointments announced:
John Koch (near right) has been named excecutive director of the diocese's Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H. where he has been serving over the past year in an interim capacity.
Additionally, Sam Gould (far right) has been appointed acting camp director while a hiring process gets underway for a permanant camp director.
Read more. |
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ParishCircuit
Walpole finds church in Epiphany's pumpkin patch:
Pam Driscoll, whose birthday happens to fall on Halloween, loves pumpkins. She loves them so much that she dreamed about a pumpkin patch on the front lawn of her church, Epiphany Parish in Walpole.
She told people at church about her dream. "Our parish decided that they would like to support this vision of having this happy place for the community to come to," she said.
And so, for seven years now, just as the leaves begin their bright turn toward autumn, a couple of truckloads of pumpkins arrive at little Epiphany Parish in Walpole and, for the month of October, the place transforms into a great pumpkin patch.
It turns out that a lot of other people love pumpkins, too. There have been birthday parties in Epiphany's pumpkin patch, and brides have been photographed there. One family stopped by on the way home from the hospital with a newborn baby.
"The pumpkin patch is a bit like a local coffee shop," Driscoll said.
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Bedford builds a coalition to care for transitionally housed families: Nearly two years ago, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began to place unhoused families from all over the Boston area at a small motel in Bedford for stays from one to five months. Over the past year, parishioners from St. Paul's Church in Bedford have partnered with other faith communities in the town, the Bedford Department of Youth and Families Services and other community leaders to form a community task force to provide care and support to these families.
"The purpose of this group is, of course, to provide services to families who have been uprooted from their familiar home communities and resource networks," the Rev. Christopher Wendell, Rector of St. Paul's, said. "But it is also to transform the dynamic within the town from one of guarded concern about these new residents to one of hospitality and neighborliness."
In addition to providing community meals, presents at Christmas time, free shopping at the parish thrift sale and hand-knit blankets for the newborns in the community, members of St. Paul's also applied for and received a House of Mercy grant from the diocese to provide Charlie Cards to family members so they could use the MBTA bus line in Bedford to access recreation resources in the town during the summer months.
The distribution was so successful, that the community task force has asked St. Paul's to apply for another round of funding for the program. Other faith communities provide different kinds of support, including clothing, toys, passes to the town water park and installation of laundry facilities in the motel. The town leaders provide help accessing municipal resources for children and families. "This task force is a wonderful example of how interfaith and local government collaboration can drive community transformation and invite a deeper experience of reconciliation within a town," Wendell said. |
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NewsLinks
Many congregations welcomed pets to church for annual St. Francis Day blessings, including St. Mark's Church in Foxboro, which was covered by the Foxboro Reporter on Oct. 4.
Three William Benjamin Goulds were at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Dedham for a lecture--by one of them, William Benjamin Gould IV--about their ancestor's Civil War diary, the Dedham Transcript reported on Sept. 28. The senior Gould was a former slave and Navy veteran and a founder of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Harvard Divinity School featured in this Sept. 27 story the Rev. Tim Crellin and the Rev. Liz Steinhauser and their efforts to draw a circle of care. |
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E-News
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