Kentucky Refugee Ministries Winter Coat Drive

You may contact them via 502-479-9180 or www.kyrm.org 

#WATCHthisCAP: Small Hats Making a BIG Difference

The Seamen's Church Institute

Knit, Tag, Drop Off and Share Online: the instructions for SCI's campaign to awaken the nation to the contributions of mariners.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, the Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) asks knitters to help increase awareness of mariners' contributions by making-and hiding in plain sight-mini mariners' watchcaps. The hats draw attention to the fact that mariners, whose work is often hidden in plain sight, deliver more than 90% of all imported goods.

SCI makes available a pattern for a miniature mariners' watchcap (along with an informational tag to attach) as part of a nationwide activity called #WATCHthisCAP. Knitters and their friends place completed knits in conspicuous places to educate the public about the world's maritime workforce. SCI's #WATCHthisCAP movement hopes these handknit creations will reveal a fact few realize: much of what shoppers purchase on a day-to-day basis comes courtesy of the men and women of maritime commerce.

The hats fit bottle tops-from olive oil to wine-but also can garnish other things like gas pumps or bicycles. People can track the placement of the mini hats and monitor their impact on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #WATCHthisCAP. The colorful wool on top of everyday items might draw some strange looks, but people examining the tag affixed to each hat soon understand: "From smartphones to blue jeans, cars to fuel, mariners bring us the comforts of our daily lives."

SCI designed the miniature cap to mirror a life-sized watchcap, a hat design that has protected mariners traveling on cold waters for hundreds of years. Annually, thousands of SCI volunteers handcraft these hats to keep mariners' heads warm. Knitters and crocheters send in their creations-hats and scarves, vests and socks, too-to SCI's volunteer knitting program, Christmas at Sea, which distributes the garments to mariners arriving into ports around the United States.

Anyone interested in participating in this project should visit seamenschurch.org/WATCHthisCAP to learn more. SCI supplies tags, patterns and project promotion materials free of charge.

Bible Challenge ongoing

Christians from across our diocese have begun their journey to reach the goal of reading the Bible in one year as part of an initiative called The Bible Challenge. You can follow them on Facebook here, or read their weekly meditations on their blog here.

Developed to be easily integrated into your Windows or Mac calendar system - as well as your mobile device - the Liturgical eCalendar provides easy access to the appointed Episcopal lectionary readings and proper liturgical colors for 2014. 

Simply download the eCalendar then import it into iCal, Outlook, Google calendar, or other standards compliant calendar program, to have access to the information you need to organize the liturgical year without need for a separate planning program. 

Download here

You're invited to Louisville Seminary's eighth-annual Edwards-Presler lectures on peace, justice and mission, presented this year in partnership with the Center for Interfaith Relations.

Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, president of SCUPE (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education) will give the Presler lecture: "Greed as Violence: The Role of the Global Church in Addressing the Enduring Spiritual Crisis of our Time" on November 14 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern in Caldwell Chapel.  

Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, LPTS alumnae, chair of the department of Theology and associate professor of Theology at Bellarmine University will give the Edwards lecture: "The Problem of Wealth" on November 14 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern in Caldwell Chapel.   

The central theme around Premawardhana and Hinson-Hasty's talks is "Wealth Disparities: The Role of Religious Leadership."

Get more information

Register here

A study published last year in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking found that the more time people spent on Facebook, the happier they perceived their friends to be and the sadder they felt as a consequence. In other words, while some of us look at our friends' vacation photos and see joyful memories, most of us see Who We Are Not or Who We Should Be. Of course, Facebook itself isn't the problem, nor is Twitter or Instagram or smartphones. Human beings have always worked hard to construct and maintain identities for themselves. The only difference these days is that we have more-or-less nonstop opportunity to do so. It can be exhausting!

Fortunately, the Christian message directly addresses those whose browser histories don't match their status updates. Join us on Saturday, November 16 from 3-5pm Central at Grace as we explore what 'Rest for the Restless' might look like in a wired and tired world, maybe even the freedom and hope that Christ, our "Mediator and Advocate," extends to media-saturated men and women. Only requirement is a sense of humor about yourself. We hope to be able to provide child care for this event.

Workshop leader, David Zahl, is the director of Mockingbird Ministries, an organization that seeks to connect the Christian message with the realities of everyday life in fresh and down-to-earth ways, primarily through its ever-expanding multimedia platform. David serves as editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird blog (www.mbird.com), and his writing has appeared in Christianity Today, The Dish, Patheos, and The Living Church. He and his wife Cate reside in Charlottesville, VA, with their two sons, Charlie and Cabell, where David also serves on the staff of Christ Episcopal Church, where former Grace member Chip Ransler attends.

In addition to this Saturday presentation, David will be guest preacher at both the 7:30 and 9:45 am eucharists on Sunday, November 17. Thanks to Gail and Charlie Ransler for introducing us to David Zahl and thanks to the Beiderwell Trust for funding. David says that his Saturday topic may be serious, but that his workshops are ALWAYS FUN! Come see and hear for yourself and tell your friends.

Join St. Matthew's, Louisville for a three-week Advent conversation

Thursday evenings, 6:15 - 7:30 p.m.
December 5, 12 and 19, 2013

 "All baptized Christians are welcome to receive Communion" has been the standard invitation to the Eucharist in the Episcopal Church until recently.  Many Episcopal congregations, including St. Matthew's, have begun issuing an invitation to "all people," including people who have not been baptized and may even be adherents of another faith.  What happened?

Why do some believe that the Eucharist should be available to anyone who chooses to receive while others reserve it for baptized Christians? What should be the practice in the Episcopal Church?  In a church that claims to offer an "open table," what might that really look like?  What do the words "open," "table" and "our" mean to 21st century seekers and followers of Jesus?

Join us as the Rt. Rev. Terry White, the Rev. Anne Vouga and the Rev. Tom Momberg take turns sharing their theological understandings of important dimensions of our Christian faith, such as Baptism, Eucharist, hospitality and community.  There will be time for reflection, questions and responses.  Come and bring a friend!

Biblical Women: Who were they-these mothers, wives, sisters, concubines, and church leaders? After ages-long neglect, why are they important, 20 and even 30 centuries after the fact? What do they have to say to us today? Why did men even bother to write about them?

These and other questions will occupy attendees as they listen to the voices of biblical women every Wednesday in November at St. Andrew's, Louisville. Katerina Whitley, who has spent three decades listening to and writing about biblical women, will lead the study, which will follow the weekly 5:30 Eucharist and light supper. The study will start at 6:45 and end at 8 p.m. each week.

Katerina Whitley has written five books of dramatic monologues in the voices of biblical characters, specializing in the voices of women. She says: "When I started writing on biblical women there was scant literature on them. I remember the first time I presented my monologue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, simply telling the story, and a woman said to me: 'Do you realize what a powerful feminist theology this is?' I had no idea. From then on I started listening, really listening to find the strength, anger, pain, and faith in the women who populate the biblical stories. I continue to be surprised. Since then the literature on these women has exploded."

Katerina continues to travel to many dioceses around the country presenting her dramatic monologues. The most frequent and persistent response from listeners is this: "I will never read the Bible in the same way again. You made me feel as if I was there." So, it you too want to enter into another century to see and hear the biblical story as for the first time, we invite you to come to these study sessions.

The study is open to both men and women.

Read here for more details