The Bible Challenge kicks off October 7th

The Bible Challenge is set to kick-off October 7.  Please let The Rev. Katherine Doyle know that your parish is joining by emailing her at katherine.doyle@calvaryepiscopal.org.  Additionally, please send the names of those in your parish who have committed to this challenge.  They will be added to the Diocesan prayer list. 

To learn more and join us in the Bible Challenge, visit our website.

Canon kicks of new blog

Greetings in Christ! I've just started up a new blog in connection with my new work as your Canon for Congregational Vitality. It is called, "Life Giving Practice." Here I will write reflections on the many places I see the Life of the Spirit active and present in my daily work and world, and my many interactions with you around the Diocese in your parishes and ministry settings. I'd love for you to go and check it out and tell me what you think in the comments within the blog. And if you have a blog that you'd like to share with me (one that you write or love to follow), please, don't hesitate to email or message it to me. I'd love to read it! 

Faithfully yours in Christ, 
Canon Jason+  

Mark Linder resigns as Transition Officer

After several years of faithful service, the Rev. Mark Linder has resigned his position as Transition Officer of the diocese. As of October 1, he has handed over that work to the Canon to the Ordinary. We are very thankful for Fr. Linder's dedication, especially since his original appointment was to be for just a few months! Mark will continue his work as a consultant to churches in clergy transition, working with them through the process of self-study and reflection as they prepare to call new ordained leadership. 

The Office of Communications is searching for a few good folks to help participate in a short assignment to reconfigure the website navigation. The assignment is known as card sorting, and it basically helps designers organize navigation in the most efficient way possible. It makes sure that the navigation is user focused and not based off of the diocesan organizational structure. 

If you'd like to participate, please email bkinnaman@episcopalky.org, so we can set up a date and time to run the experiment. Participants outside of Louisville will be sent the cards in the mail with instructions on how to run assignment.

Thank you for your participation in this as our office works to create a new website that serves you and your needs.

By: Patrick T. Sullivan of the Courier-Journal

Bell Award winner Curtis Taylor, left, talks with Klein Thornton, a resident at Jefferson Street Baptist Center. Taylor started the volunteer-based ministry Fishes and Loaves to help feed the homeless. / Angela Shoemaker/Special to The Courier-Journal

In 2000, the furthest thing from Curtis Taylor's mind was helping people with their problems. He had just been laid off and was parked beneath a downtown overpass feeling lonely and depressed.

But when Taylor caught a glimpse of a homeless man preparing to eat half of a hamburger foraged from a nearby trash can, Taylor immediately knew he would devote his life to feeding the hungry.

"I saw that, and I wanted to start challenging myself to help others," he said.

So Taylor, 45, who lives on Hasbrook Drive in south central Jefferson County, began collecting food, loading it into his van and distributing it to homeless people around Louisville.

Now, 13 years later, Taylor continues to help the needy through his ministry, Fishes and Loaves. For his efforts to help feed Louisville's hungry, Taylor was named a WLKY Bell Award winner.

Fishes and Loaves, a full-fledged food ministry that gets volunteers and donations from St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Harrods Creek, is filling the empty stomachs of hundreds of the city's poor and homeless each month.

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The members of St. Andrew's have put their money where their hearts are.  Since 2010, they have contributed $130,539.08 toward the creation of a new church to be built on 21.44 rolling acres in Northeast Glasgow.  The effort of our small congregation has been more than we could have imagined when our dream was born.  We have been blessed with the purchase of our large, beautiful site and by the commission of a revolutionary architectural plan all without incurring one penny of debt.

However, now we must turn to those whose lives have been influenced by this church, to those who have worshipped here, and to those who believe in a loving, welcoming Episcopal presence in Barren and surrounding counties.  

Please make Saint Andrew's your deductible project of choice for 2013.  Perhaps memorial gifts suit your circumstances.  Perhaps you are required to take a taxable minimum distribution from an IRA during 2013.  If so, you may instruct your custodian/trustee to make the distribution payable to Saint Andrew's and escape federal income tax on it.

You and those you love have been an important part of the remarkable history of Saint Andrew's, and we ask that you join us in investing in the future of our church.

Thank you and feel free to call or write to us if you have any questions.

Faithfully yours,

St. Andrew's Capital Campaign Committee 

Carla W. Allen                                      Edward B. Hatchett, Jr., Co-Chairs

Email: cwallen@scrtc.com                    Email:  EBHatchett@aol.com    

(270) 646-8865                                     (502) 330-9120                    

By: Ann Fontaine of the Episcopal Cafe

Despite the government shut down, the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) begins to go into effect today, October 1. Church Pension Group and Episcopal Church Health Ministries have some helpful information.

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By: Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] The House of Bishops ended its fall meeting Sept. 24 in Nashville, Tennessee, following six days focused on the theme "Transforming Loss into New Possibilities."

"This has been a grace-filled meeting," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during a telephone press conference after the meeting ended.

The bishops looked at mission as going out into the community rather than as staying in "beautiful churches" waiting for people to come, she said. "There were challenges from and to the bishops to get engaged in communities."

From the first day, said Bishop Todd Ousely of the Diocese of Eastern Michigan, the presentation "Missional Wisdom: Beginning Theologically" by Dr. Elaine Heath presented a challenge to the bishops. Heath is McCreless professor of evangelism at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and co-founder of the Missional Wisdom Foundation.

"She talked about going into neighborhoods and engaging people where they are, where they live," he said during the press conference, adding that the challenge for bishops can go beyond neighborhoods and be applied to reengaging ecumenical partners and other bishops.

Throughout the meeting, the 148 bishops attending heard presentations on innovative ways of doing mission, the new Diocesan Partnership Program and the work of the Task Force to Reimagine the Episcopal Church. The bishops also discussed topics such as gun violence, ecumenical partnerships, and peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land.

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