ECM's acting executive director, Bishop Bud Cederholm, with Bishop Burgess's daughters, Margaret Harrison and Julia Burgess. Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh

About 450 friends and supporters of Episcopal City Mission (ECM) turned out for the organization's annual fundraising dinner on June 9 at Boston University, where they helped celebrate organizations and activists working for social change, heard various rallying calls to give and act for social justice and were urged to engage in some "sacred gossip."

The evening's program highlighted ECM's Burgess Urban Fund, which marks its 40th anniversary.  It began as the Joint Urban Fund, created by the 12th bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, the late Rt. Rev. John M. Burgess, to help address city poverty.  Despite some controversy at the time, every church in the diocese gave money to the effort, and $250,000 launched the fund.  ECM renamed the fund in Burgess's honor when he retired in 1975. 

To date, according to ECM, the fund has provided nearly $5 million in grants to 283 organizations that work to address the systemic causes of urban poverty through community organizing, advocacy and leadership development. ECM's goal at the dinner was to raise $40,000 for the fund's 40th year.  Read more.   

"Holy curiosity and sacred gossip":
At the ECM dinner, keynote speaker Sister Simone Campbell spoke about how it's easy to become overwhelmed and paralyzed in the face of the world's needs and counseled choosing and taking action on just one thing.  She also recommended "holy curiosity and sacred gossip" as a social action method:  "We have to ask the question:  Is justice happening here?"--and then spread the word, she said.

Two of ECM's social justice award winners, the Rev. Ed Cardoza and the Rev. Liz Steinhauser, offer their take on Campbell's advice, here.  

Grace Church in New Bedford has joined a national movement to provide something that is taken for granted by many, but sometimes out of reach for the homeless and working poor: clean laundry.  South Coast Mission Hub Life Together intern Victoria Laskey learned of the nationwide Laundry Love movement, and realized it was a perfect candidate for a new ministry for Grace Church. 

"It really resonated with me, because it wasn't a typical model of service. It's not like folks line up and we hand them food-- it's more of a community event, just a really innovative way to do service and be the church in the world," Laskey said. 

Laundry Love began more than 10 years ago, in Ventura, Calif., and has expanded across the country as an initiative any group or individual can start in their neighborhood.  Since starting, Laundry Love estimates that more than 600,000 loads of laundry have been washed, and 450,000 people have been served. Participants register their location on the Laundry Love map online, but run their community events independently. 

Laskey said that Grace Church already serves the large homeless and working poor populations in New Bedford through a food pantry and a weekly breakfast. "I met a lot of folks that come to those events and asked a lot of them if [laundry] was something they need, and overwhelmingly they said yes," she said.  Read more. 

Bishop Gayle E. Harris ordained 11 new deacons and received one priest at a service on Saturday, June 6 at Emmanuel Church in Boston.

Photo: Bob Greiner

Pictured with Harris (front, center), they are:  (front row, from left) The Rev. Yolanda Rolle (sponsored by Emmanuel Church, Boston), The Rev. Andrea Wyatt (Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown), The Rev. Charlotte LaForest (St. Anne's-in-the-Fields Church, Lincoln) and The Rev. Aileen DiBenedetto (St. Stephen's Church, Lynn), all transitional deacons, and The Rev. Jim Chapman (St. James's Church, Amesbury), deacon; (back row, from left) The Rev. Eric Litman (Church of the Advent, Boston), The Rev. Stephen McCarthy (St. Paul's Church, Natick), The Rev. Edward Cardoza (St. Thomas's Church, Taunton), The Rev. Matthew Lindeman (Christ Church, South Hamilton), The Rev. Noah Van Niel (Church of the Good Shepherd, Waban) and The Rev. Michael Bousquet (St. John's Church, Charlestown), all transitional deacons, and The Rev. Brian Raiche (St. Paul's Church, Newburyport), received as an Episcopal priest.

Grace Church in North Attleboro reached out to the community to help keep the town's World War II Memorial Swimming Pool open this summer while honoring fallen veterans.

The Rev. Phillip Kutta conducted a special church service at Grace Church on Sunday, May 31, with music, prayers, songs and patriotic fellowship to honor all veterans who gave their lives in service.  Fred Fish, a 92-year-old parishioner who served on the Pacific front, was a special guest of honor. 

The service also paid tribute to the WWII veterans who upon returning home from the war donated their separation-of-service pay to the town to benefit the children of North Attleboro. The result was the WWII Memorial Swimming Pool.    

A special collection was taken and donated to Make A Splash, the nonprofit group that raises money to keep the pool open each summer after budget cuts threatened to close it permanently a few years ago. Read more. 

Kutta reflected on the special Memorial Day service in a column in the Sun Chronicle, saying: "When I learned the history of the pool, I was moved by the sense of love and service these veterans showed to their community. That pool speaks to all that is good and decent which we need to know and preserve about these heroes."  Kutta said that he plans to make Memorial Day service an annual tradition at Grace Church.

The service, it turns out, was geared to lift awareness about those who are needy and homeless, and to act upon it: Congregants were asked to bring fresh pajamas to be donated to Crayons to Cradles, a Brighton-based nonprofit that provides essential items to low-income and homeless children.  Read more. 

Boston Globe: Should Massachusetts reinstate the death penalty?: "Forgiveness does not exclude punishment, but to take another's person's life is always sinful," the Rev. Sara Irwin of Christ Church in Waltham writes in response to the Globe's question:  Should Massachusetts reinstate the death penalty?  Read more. 

Wicked Local: Meet the Minister, Joanna Barrett: A decade of joy and challenges at Trinity, Topsfield: The sign outside Trinity Church, Topsfield reads "A Welcoming Community" and the pastor, the Rev. Johanna Barrett, truly makes everyone that enters her office feel welcome.  "One of the things I have learned is that I continually need to learn new things or reach out to someone that can do what needs to be done," remarked Barrett, now in her 10th year as pastor. Read more. 

Randolph Herald: Trinity, Randolph celebrates 100 years: Trinity Church is celebrating 100 years of Christian ministry and witness in Randolph. The seed for the establishment of an Episcopal mission in Randolph was planted in 1912 at the corner of Orchard Street and Bartlett Road when a group of Episcopalians gathered for fellowship and worship in the living room of Edith Driscoll. During that year, the Episcopal Diocese canvassed the town to determine the feasibility of starting a mission congregation with support from the diocese. Read more.