Spirit Winter 2012

Spirit

CONVENTION RECAP • A NEW FACE BEHIND CAMPUS MINISTRY • PERSEVERING IN JOPLIN

Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri

Winter 2012 Volume 3, No. 2

DIOCESAN YOUTH EVENT

Spirit PUBLISHER: The Rt. Rev. Martin S. Field EDITOR: Hugh Welsh Spirit is published quarterly by the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri 420 W. 14th St. P.O. Box 413227 Kansas City, MO 64141 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: The Ven. John McCann, Archdeacon Hugh Welsh, Spirit The Rev. John Spicer, St. Andrew’s, Kansas City Angela Crawford, Administrative Assistant to the Archdeacon, Diocese of West Missouri SUBMISSIONS/LETTERS: Spirit welcomes submissions of news articles, photographs and letters to the editor on topics of interest to the diocese. Submissions should include the writer’s name, e-mail, mailing address and phone number and are subject to editing.

PHONE: (816) 471-6161, Ext. 15 or (800) 471-6160 FAX: (816) 471-0379 E-MAIL: westmo_spirit@swbell.net WEB SITE: www.episcopalwestmo.org ON THE COVER: Members of the diocese’s youth ministry prepare for the Diocesan Youth Event at St. Paul’s in Kansas City. Photo by Donya Ross.

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4 Editor’s Letter

A common question following marriage is where to attend church. Six months after trading vows, my wife and I are torn. I’m Middle English old fashioned and, well, she’s seeking a more contemporary sound.

By Hugh Welsh

5 Bishop Talk The bishop’s first Diocesan Convention address reflected on his first year as bishop, one that saw unpredictable charity – the diocese’s response to an EF-5 tornado in Joplin – and faithful forward thinking in overflow turnouts at three West Missouri Futuring Task Group forums.

By the Rt. Rev. Martin S. Field

6 From an Act of Desecration, a Message In August, a woman broke into Shepherd of the Hills in Branson, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in her wake. Why commit such a crime? “I wanted to punch God in the face,” she told authorities. For the parish’s rector, the incident was an opportunity.

By the Rev. Greg Hoover

7 The Pall of Addiction & Promise of Recovery We all know of someone who’s dealt with addiction. Or maybe that “someone” is us. In October, the Church of the Resurrection (Blue Springs) hosted a Recovery Sunday, a Church-sanctioned event that calls attention to the issue of addiction — and how to seek treatment.

By Hugh Welsh

8 Diocesan Gathering & Convention This year’s Diocesan Gathering and Convention was designed for maximum appeal with an eye towards the future. From the presentations and elections to the West Missouri Futuring Task Group’s report and Diocesan Youth Event, we offer a recap.

By Connie Pickett and Gary Zumwalt

Deacons Kathy Hall (St. Peter’s, Kansas City) and Nila Bishop (Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry) were ordained priests and Fr. Ron Verhaeghe was received into the priesthood of this communion Saturday, December 3 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City. Photo by Gary Zumwalt.

13 A Rundown of the Adopted Resolutions

18 A Sequel Better than the Original

Four resolutions were adopted at the past Diocesan Convention: the dissolution of Trinity Church in Marshall; a canon for assessment notification and review; a proposal to the General Convention to consider a special commission to reform the Church’s missional structure and strategy; a proposal to the General Convention to revise the current health care plan.

In October, Joplinites impacted by the May tornado again flocked to St. Philip’s for clothing, appliances, furniture and holiday decor. Three quarters of the donations — enough to fill two 18-wheelers — were gone in the first hour and a half. The difference this time around was the volunteer response.

14 Dawning of a New Dean

20 Glory in the Midst

The Rev. Peter DeVeau believes a church ought to be an appendage of a community. When he was rector at St. John the Baptist in West Seattle, he cooperated with the neighboring high school on a mutually beneficial parking lot project and blessed a flagship Safeway store, a boon to the area. As the new dean, he’s inclined to brand Grace and Holy Trinity as more than a church that lives for itself: “I see it as a church of the city.”

By Hugh Welsh

The Joplin tornado stole a lot from Ramona and Hugh Shields (St. Philip’s, Joplin), including their home, their vehicles and their rental properties. It robbed them of neighbors they knew well, including a man who jogged by their house most every night. What it didn’t take: their faith and compassion toward others.

By Hugh Welsh

16 College Bound Beth Belcher’s (St. Mary’s, Fayette) take on campus ministry with Central Methodist University is more sorority than study group. As the diocese’s new Campus Ministry Coordinator, she doesn’t expect every congregation’s ties to a nearby college to mirror hers.

She encourages every congregation within reach of higher education to establish some sort of relationship.

By Hugh Welsh

22 The Tree of Life The Tree of Life is a film about a man seeking redemption in his boyhood, when his mother proposed two pathways: one of self-serving nature and one of self-denying grace. When did he steer wrongly, and is it too late to remedy his life’s wayward course?

By Hugh Welsh SPIRIT, WINTER, 2012

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Editor’s Letter by Hugh Welsh MY WIFE, KIRBY, AND I ARE ENGAGED in an ongoing debate not uncommon among newlyweds: where to attend church? I was raised in the Methodist tradition and so was Kirby. We were married inside a Methodist church. So, case settled.

Well, not exactly. Before July 2009, when I accepted this position, I knew little about the Episcopal Church. Forebears of mine were Episcopalian and one of my heroes, Harry Truman, was an Episcopalian by conversion; his daughter, Margaret, was married at Trinity Church in Independence. In my time with this diocese, I have learned to adore the Episcopal Church: its clergy, its congregants and its customs.

I respect the fact that the Methodist Church was founded as Anglicanism for the working poor, stressing social concern and personal piety – a counterbalance to what Methodist pioneers decried as a Church born of the aristocracy.

This is a slap at its Church of England heritage, forever pockmarked by King Henry VIII’s selfpromotion as Supreme Head to grant himself an annulment after the Pope’s disproval.

I admit I’m not one to hold King Henry VIII’s misdeeds against the Anglican Communion (this could be due to Charles Laughton’s loveable portrayal of the flabby despot in The Private Life of Henry VIII).

For me, something is amiss in the lack of liturgy and sacraments in the Methodist churches I’ve attended. After all, the term “Methodist” was ascribed because of its devotees’ “methodical” outlook on life. A method, according to 4

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Methodism’s founder John Wesley, for the heart to be “strangely warmed” by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

For me, however, the lead up to a Methodist service is like I’m awaiting a ball game inside a gymnasium stripped of all its banners.

Don’t mistake me: I’ve known many vibrant Methodists, clergy and lay alike. No matter what is sung or said at a Methodist service, my mind stays true to its own path, which may be a chore that needs doing or whether I floss enough.

Truth be told, Kirby isn’t resisting because of what Methodism represents or the multitude of vestments worn by Episcopal clergy.

Partly, it’s that she’s uneasy about the kneeling, bowing and crossing (she’s left handed).

While I’ve insisted such customs are optional, she’s doubtful. “If you don’t participate or mess up, like cross yourself left to right instead of right to left, everyone’s eyes will be on you,” she says.

She also prefers 21st century Christian music to the timehonored stuff (I’m an Anglican chant sort of man). The same question follows any invitation to an Episcopal church: do they have a praise team?

You see, her radio dial is preset to 97.3 FM, a contemporary Christian station in Kansas City. Among the qualities I love most about Kirby is her voice, as melodious as a songbird at daybreak. When she’s listening to 97.3 FM, she’s Tina Turner circa 1968 – a gyration with range, baby. Hand her a hymnal, however, and she’s a mute. My baritone, as gruff as a bulldog hacking a hairball, is the standout.

Decisions, decisions. Maybe, for the time being, we’ll go our different ways. I can think of church as a portal to transcendence, and Kirby can find a church that suits her vocal talents. Or perhaps we can yet find a church that merges both our interests...

Bishop Talk the convention address (abridged)

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By the Rt. Rev. Martin S. Field

uffice it to say, the diocese has beat around the bush for a long time about the need for mission renewal, its vision of the future, how it should be structured, and what its budget should look like. From my newcomer’s point of view, I interpreted that you’ve been attempting to treat symptoms for some time without getting to the underlying, main cause. The leadership language of our day would say you’ve been attempting technical fixes where adaptive work is the real need. I proposed the Futuring Task Group to go after the main, underlying need.

The Futuring Task Group recently sponsored a series of forums called “Shaping Our Future”. Thank you because so many of you came out to aid your diocese by giving input at these forums. At the forums, you were asked to share what you celebrated about our life together in diocese, what challenges we face, and what you dream for the diocese.

Inherent in what you shared — and there are 17 categories in all that come out of the data collected at “Shaping Our Future”— is a pre-approval of some of the initiatives we’ve already begun together.

You want greater clergy availability and to have excellent leadership development for both lay and clergy. We’ve entered conversations with the Dioceses of Western Kansas and Kansas about bringing together our George Herbert Institute and the other dioceses’ local leadership schools. Bringing together the work of three into one means a bigger pool of teaching talent, larger learning communities (where a student can always count on classes beginning and not being cancelled for lack of enrollment), larger year-group cohorts, and more. This also allows us a greater emphasis on formation for lay persons.

Again, you’re concerned about clergy availability and deployment. We’ve started conversations with the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (which covers all of Kansas and Missouri — an area WE divide into four dioceses) to find ways to

live into the Lutheran-Episcopal concordat, “Called to Common Mission”, by sharing clergy in appropriate venues, starting joint work among Spanish-speaking population in the Kansas City area (with which we will also, it is hoped and expected, join with the Diocese of Kansas), and pursuing other ways to do ministry together.

We’ve also anticipated your input to “Shaping Our Future” by moving toward a greater use of technology, especially in communication about our diocesan family life. I electronically send “Bishop Marty’s Missive” to the clergy and appropriate lay leaders periodically (it’s supposed to be every two weeks but isn’t always). The E-Spirit (an e-mailed newsletter) goes out to all via your congregations twice a month. As you well know, we’ve moved to electronic registration for diocesan events. It’s important that we make these changes and adopt the use of more and more technology. In fact, you’ll not see another paper journal after conventions. Years and years of rising costs for printing have already reduced the distribution of the journal from all delegates and clergy to one copy per congregation, so this year we didn’t print one. The “Journal of the Convention” is now online.

I expect the use of technology to increase as we begin acquiring the means to meet electronically over long distances, thus eliminating a lot of driving. I hope to have several places around the diocese equipped for videoconferencing at a reasonable cost in the near future.

Lastly, I want to say a word about the 2012 budget.

Because of many distractions through 2011, the proposed 2012 budget is not much different than last year’s.

What I dislike about this budget has little to do with specific line items or the bottom line, but the fact that it doesn’t reflect what the diocese really wants. I am committed to a diocesan budget that will underwrite a program of ministry for, of, and to the diocese that everyone will find worthy of the resources invested: a budget to which congregations can contribute their “covenanted portion” with a sense of confidence that they will get the support they need when they need it; be led into greater labors for the Kingdom of God; and be helped to grow in spiritual health and numerical membership.

Our goal is to use our valuable but finite resources in the most effective ways — Holy Ways — ways that produce the greatest impact for our common mission before God. The address may be read in its entirety on the diocesan Web site, www.diowestmo.org.

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From an Act of Desecration, a Message

BY THE REV. GREG HOOVER Rector at Shepherd of the Hills (Branson) What follows is a pastoral letter written shortly after the Shepherd of the Hills break in by its rector, the Rev. Greg Hoover, as well as a postscript.

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ur church was broken into and desecrated. The night of the break-in I spent several hours walking around our church with the police, and praying for our congregation, as well as for the inwardly tormented woman who had been arrested, and was sitting outside in a police car.

Before it dried, the fresh blood made quite an impact on me.

Parallels between the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all its grace and power to bring life, and the Hepatitis-C infected blood smeared throughout our church, danced in my head. Several of our congregation have asked me the question, “Why did this happen? Why did she do this to our church?” I think it is important in moments like these to resist the temptation to find an easy answer.

To be honest, I don’t have all the answers. All I know is that the God of my understanding is a God of love, and compassion, and goodness, and forgiveness. And I know that this God can be trusted, in good times as well as bad. However, I feel that these questions are still well worth asking. Moreover, through wrestling with questions like these and avoiding the easy answers, we grow spiritually. “Why did this seemingly random event happen?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Where is God in all this?”

It’s important for us to remember that God didn’t will for this to happen to our church and our faith community.

But God was working in the hearts and hands of the many faithful people who helped us pick up the broken glass, replace the broken doors, sweep up the debris, and wipe off the blood stains. God was also working in the hearts of the kind policemen and women who helped us out that evening. I’ll never forget the look in the face of one of the policemen when a sudden realization came over him, and he looked me in the eyes and said, “Oh my God, the Eucharist.”

As most of you know, the woman who broke in told the police that she did what she did because she wanted to “punch God in the face.” This reminded me of our current Adult Bible Study, and our discussion of the Gospel of Mark. As we were talking about last Sunday, the demons were usually the first ones to recognize whom Jesus was. Eventually in the Gospel story, we see the Powers That Be doing their best to “Punch God in the face,” in the crucifixion of Jesus. In John 6

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15:18, Jesus teaches us, “If the people of this world hate you, just remember that they hated me first.”

In other words, if we are doing something right, if we are following our Crucified Lord, such surprises are to be expected on this amazing pilgrimage of faith called the Christian life.

In Genesis 50:20 we read, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done.” And the truth be told, God has already brought much goodness out of this challenging event. For instance, I feel I’ve grown closer to many of you. And our church — after the intense cleaning, disinfecting, and repairing — is starting to look better than it has in a long time. Also, several items were destroyed — such as our photocopier and our safe — which needed to be replaced, but we simply didn’t have the budget for it. However, Church Insurance will help us recover this loss, and in this way will turn even these difficult events into something positive. However, my hope and prayer is that something even greater is still going to come out of all this.

Something that I think we may have caught a glimpse of already. As you know, when I went to visit this woman in jail, I was not allowed to see her by the staff. This was due to the level of chemicals in her system, and because they were preparing to transfer her to another facility. However, when I spoke with Detective Morrow on the phone, he told me that the woman told him to give me a message. She said that she was sorry, and that she didn’t mean to harm me or our church. Perhaps this event was not so random after all.

THE LAST CONTACT I have had with the troubled woman was in the form of a letter she sent me. The letter was almost like a confession of her life, sins, and mistakes, including a long-term addiction to heroin, and so many destructive attempts to find ways of paying for her habit. She knew of our church because she attended the AA meetings which we have at the church three times a week, and she lived next door to the rectory in the inexpensive extended stay motel there. She confessed that she was sorry for what she had done, and asked for forgiveness. I wrote her back, and offered her our forgiveness, and I offered her support in whatever way we could provide. I was very sad when the letter I sent returned unopened, marked that she was no longer at that address. As luck would have it, I opened my mail this morning, and a letter from the prosecuting attorney stated that she was scheduled to be arraigned this month. I keep her in my prayers, and I hope she can find some peace, and be able to forgive herself.

The Pall of Addiction and Promise of Recovery

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BY HUGH WELSH

he Rev. Nila Bishop (Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry) is a recovering alcoholic. She acknowledged that she had a problem thirty years ago and needed help, enrolling in a 12-step program. The shame was great. Why couldn’t she resolve this on her own? Twelve-step programs, she believed, were for the undisciplined, the morally defect, the weak. At her first meeting, Bishop met two Roman Catholic priests who forever changed her outlook on 12-step programs. They, too, had come to terms with an addiction they could not quell on their own. She learned something: “those who society smiles upon are also struggling with the disease of addiction.” Bishop still attends a 12-step program. To her, it isn’t brainwashing or a cult. It’s a key to helping addicts find and keep spiritual enlightenment.

Beginning in 1976 with the General Convention’s Resolution on Alcoholism, the Episcopal Church committed to “actively support those suffering from chemical dependency and to raise the collective national church consciousness of alcohol and drug misuse.” Yet, Recovery Sundays – featuring adult forums on the prevalence of addiction, its pitfalls, local resources for recovery and a special Eucharist – are uncommon in this diocese and the greater Church. Addiction is a source of discomfort, for afflicted individuals and their families and friends who must cope with its ruin.

But it is a reality. The Rev. Ron Keel, rector at Church of the Resurrection (Blue Springs), says addiction affects roughly 12 percent of the population. “We are a worshipping community of 120 families,” Keel says. “That means we have 12 families dealing with addiction.”

Bishop teamed with Keel to plan Recovery Sundays at Church of the Resurrection October 16 and 23. The first would feature a guest speaker, the Rev. Carol Sanford.

The second would ask parishioners to share personal stories about alcoholism and recovery. Participants learned that addiction isn’t limited to alcoholism, smoking, prescription medicine or narcotics. Sex is

addictive as is eating, gambling or shopping. One addiction mentioned during the forums is generally smiled upon by society: work. “The guy who works 60 to 70 hours a week, sometimes at the expense of quality family time, is applauded,” Keel says. Before he was a priest, Keel was a hospital administrator who saw addiction’s hold on more than patients; he saw it in executives and medical staff, too. “It’s this unfair perception that addicts are run-down bums lying in the gutter,” Keel says. “Addiction cuts across all lines.”

The best illustrator of addiction’s many forms: there are 284 different 12-step programs. “Addiction is the loss of one’s self,” Sanford says. “Your basic values are trampled over. Addiction is chronic, progressive, fatal and affects people of every kind.”

Twelve-step programs, the first and most widespread of which is Alcoholics Anonymous, have a Christian basis: the Oxford Group, a Christian movement in the 1920s and 1930s that centered on personal reformation rather than societal issues; the Sermon on the Mount, particularly Matthew 7: 1-5 in which Jesus warns against judging others; and James 5:15, which reads: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”

According to Sanford, the point of Recovery Sundays is that “hope, peace and recovery are all possible – you are not alone.” For years and years, Sanford’s vision was muddied by addiction. It was through a 12-step program that Sanford rediscovered order in her life and dependence on one figure: Jesus Christ, the redeemer.

“Only by coming out of addiction, did I hear the call to be a priest,” she says.

That was six years ago: she was ordained alongside Keel. Sanford doesn’t declare herself “cured.” “Addiction isn’t a curable disease,” she says. “If I think I can fight it myself, it will always win. I need the Lord. Always.”

Sanford may be reached at 913-638-2648.

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DIOCESAN GATHERING & CONVENTION The Diocesan Gathering and Convention November 4 and 5 at Kansas City’s Bartle Hall was as much about the diocese’s future as the breadth of its membership with presentations for every interest, clergy or lay. Photos by Gary Zumwalt

(Top): The Rev. Bill McVey, rector at St. Matthew’s (Raytown), leads a presentation titled “Talking Like Leaders,” a concept built on the belief that effective leaders value dialogue. (Bottom): Ballots are cast and votes counted to determine who will serve on the Diocesan Council and Standing Committee.

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(Top, left): Jon Yeager, formerly the diocese’s Provost, was named Lay Canon of the Cathedral for his service by Bishop Martin Field.

(Top, right): The Rev. Frank Sierra, rector of St. Philip’s (Joplin), spoke about the diocese’s impact following the tornado. (Bottom): The voting process in action.

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DIOCESAN YOUTH EVENT Love Louder. That’s the message 79 youth members of the diocese brought to the Diocesan Convention November 5 when they opened the Saturday morning proceedings by leading worship “patterned off Morning Prayer,” said Kim Snodgrass, diocesan youth ministry coordinator. In designing the service, “we wanted to show how much we respect the tradition of our church,” said Kelly Phelan, service officiant and member of the Youth Action Council that plans and leads youth events for the diocese. “But we wanted to put a modern twist on it,” added Phelan, who belongs to St. Paul’s in Kansas City. The teens offered music accompanied by guitars and readings based on scripture from Matthew 22:37-39: “He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Story by Connie Pickett (Bottom): Diocesan youth created Christmas cards for soldiers overseas. (Opposite, top left): The diocesan youth ministry’s official emblem.

(Opposite, top right): Bishop Martin Field issued letters to each youth urging them to use sexuality in responsible Christian ways.

(Opposite, bottom right): The “wailing wall” was part of a room designated for reflection and prayer. Written on the wall were prayers and prayer requests. Photos by Donya Ross.

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AFTER THE SERVICE, Phelan and other members of the Youth Action Council presented their annual report to the convention, talking about their year’s activities for diocesan youth from 6th through 12th grades, including the Bishop’s Ball, a dance for teens; Happening, a twice-yearly spiritual retreat; Junior High gathering and retreat; Camp WEMO, a summer church camp; the General Convention; Missionpalooza, a weeklong event where teens provide community service in the Kansas City area; the Provincial Youth Network; and the Diocesan Youth Event, a yearly event held in concert with the Diocesan Convention — the very event that brought the 79 young people out for a weekend of spiritual fellowship and participation in the convention.

Of officiating at the Saturday service, Phelan, who wants to be a priest, said: “It was really neat and I was so grateful to have that opportunity.” Her other favorite youth events are Happening and Missionpalooza.

Snodgrass said the Diocesan Youth Event was held at St. Paul’s in Kansas City, starting on Friday, November 4, which was also the opening day of the Diocesan Convention. On Friday night, the teens played games and “enjoyed each other’s company.” After the service and presentation Saturday morning, three of the teens stayed behind as youth delegates to the Diocesan Convention, while the others went back to St. Paul’s for a program that included exploring the Art of Christian Relationships. The Rev. Stan Runnels, St. Paul’s rector, spoke to them about “being aware of the dignity of every human being and thinking of God’s plan for them in relationships,” Snodgrass said.

Michaela Johnson of Christ Church in Springfield said her first experience as a youth delegate to the Diocesan Convention “was very interesting” and added that she loved attending the annual DYE. When asked what she considered her favorite youth activity during the year, she said: “It’s so hard to choose, but Happening was awesome. It played a big role in my life — just a great spiritual event.”

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WEST MISSOURI FUTURING TASK GROUP

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n May, Bishop Martin Field convened a task force to take a look at the future of our diocese. The Diocese of West Missouri Futuring Task Group began its work by holding three forums on “Shaping Our Future.” About 280 people attended the fall gatherings held throughout the diocese.

The remarkable thing, according to the Very Rev. Lauren Lyon, rector of St. Mary’s (Kansas City) and co-chair of the task force along with Roger Ewing (Christ Church, Lexington), is how much we agree on our dreams and challenges as a diocese.

Our top five dreams: • Growth in size and number of congregations • Expanded ministry to youth and young adults • Inter-congregational community and support • Increased outreach and social ministries • Expanded leadership development (lay and clergy)

“We have tested along the way: Are we on track?“ Lyon said. “We have consistently gotten feedback Our top five that people are celebrations: interested and engaged in our • Outreach/ work so far.” social Field said he ministries established the • Ministry task force to to and by respond to two youth resolutions at 2010’s Diocesan • Worship Convention. and liturgy Those resolutions called • Leadership for exploring development possible mergers with neighboring • Communication dioceses and from the figuring out how Bishop’s Office The “Shaping Our Future” forum at St. Anne’s in Lee’s Summit. Submitted photo. our vision for the and Diocesan future would impact the diocese’s financial needs.

Ministries “I am convinced that mission and vision are always Our top five challenges: first. Then we plan how to achieve that vision,” he said. “There is a real sense we’ll be moving forward • Church/congregational growth together.”

In the next 12 to 18 months, the task force will • Diocesan budget process develop a plan that will help guide the diocese’s • Bishop’s staff and expense of diocesan actions at the 2012 convention for the 2013 budget. administration “These are the kind of things that could be game changers for the diocese,” Lyon said. “This is one of • Inter-congregational community and support the most instrumental things I’ve done in my work as a priest.”

• Clergy availability and deployment

— CONNIE PICKETT 12

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A RUNDOWN OF THE ADOPTED RESOLUTIONS The Dissolution of Trinity Church (Marshall) Jean Klein Horman was the matriarch at Trinity Church (Marshall) its final quarter century (the church was founded in 1872). Her positions at the church included Altar Guild directress and vestry member. But her role was far greater.

Horman’s accomplishments were many: she founded St. Matthew’s (Mexico) in 1958; a co-founder of the Peter Pan School for Exceptional Children, she was named Chillicothe’s “Outstanding Woman of the Year” in 1960; she was the first woman to serve on the Advisory Board of Trustees at North Kansas City Hospital.

Horman and her husband retired to Marshall in 1983, taking up membership at Trinity Church shortly thereafter. She would become a commissioner on the Housing Authority Board, a trustee on the Friends of Arrow Rock Board and a sponsor of the Marshall Philharmonic and the Lyceum Theater.

According to the Very Rev. Dr. William Fasel, canon missioner of the Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry, which included Trinity Church, small churches operate as families.

“Mrs. Horman was Trinity’s mother,” Fasel says. Horman was its leader and benefactor for nearly 30 years. “Every parishioner looked up to her and was committed because of her.”

Horman’s activity at the church survived the death of her first husband, Milton Klein, in 1993; in 1996, she married Elmer Horman, who is still living. He, like most of Trinity’s parishioners, found a different church after his wife’s passing in December 2010.

Membership at Trinity dwindled to three individuals. In June, Trinity Episcopal Preschool closed. It became apparent that Trinity could not continue as an organized congregation of the diocese.

Canon on Assessment Review Section 1: The diocese’s treasurer must notify all congregations of their preliminary assessment no later than September 1. Every congregation must provide a signed response to their actual assessment to the treasurer by December 1. Any congregation unable to meet its full assessment will be contacted by the Diocesan Assessment Review Committee.

Section 2: The Assessment Review Committee, which will report to the Diocesan Council, will be appointed by the bishop with the consent of the Diocesan Council. The diocese’s treasurer will be the committee’s chair.

Section 3: The Diocesan Convention (or, when not in session, the Diocesan Council) will have the sole authority to adjust assessments.

Section 4: Any action taken by the Diocesan Council regarding the duly levied assessment of a congregation will be reported to the Credentials Committee of the Diocesan Convention.

Special Commission on Missional Structure and Strategy The diocese filed a resolution to be considered at the 77th General Convention that would create a Special Commission on Missional Structure and Strategy. The commission will be charged with presenting a plan for reforming the Church’s structures, governance, administration and staff. The administrative and governance structures of the Episcopal Church have grown to comprise approximately 47 percent of the churchwide budget.

Insurance The diocese filed a resolution to be considered at the 77th General Convention that would suspend the implementation date of the new Denominational Health Plan and charge the Church Medical Trust with creating one health plan for the entire Episcopal Church with no variance in premium costs from diocese to diocese.

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DAWNING OF A NEW DEAN In January, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral ushered in a new dean: the Rev. Peter DeVeau. He is no stranger to the diocese or the cathedral.

By Hugh Welsh

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t was May 1986 when the Rev. Peter DeVeau had a premonition at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

He was in Kansas City to meet then-Bishop Arthur Vogel before accepting a call to serve as assistant rector at Christ Church in Springfield.

The cathedral was closed due to a partial collapse in the north wall. Plywood enveloped the windows; pews were dislodged. Appearances told of a place in decay.

DeVeau felt differently: to him, it exuded a sense of renewal and belonging. “I knew that one day Grace and Holy Trinity would be a special place for me,” says DeVeau, who served as Associate for Congressional Development at the Cathedral from 1990 to 1996. “I now know why.”

DeVeau sees the bigger picture, always has. Grace and Holy Trinity isn’t merely an urban parish – it’s a shrine at the heart of a downtown renaissance. “Grace and Holy Trinity is a church of the city,” he says. “We need to figure out how to interface with the rhythm of life downtown.”

DeVeau doesn’t intend to implement any ideas he may have about worship for at least a year after he’s taken office. “It’s like a garden you must watch through a oneyear cycle,” DeVeau says. “If you plant too early, you could lose the crop.”

To DeVeau, church is an extension of a community.

In his previous post as rector at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Seattle, Washington, DeVeau cooperated with the neighboring West Seattle High School to satisfy mutual needs. The school wanted to expand parking to include the lot where the church operated a house for outreach. The compromise: the house and land were sold to the high school with the agreement that the campuses be interlinked to maximize traffic flow, ease of access and, every Sunday, Christmas and Easter, the church would use the parking lot at its leisure. The same project resulted in the construction of 10 houses by Habitat for Humanity on a former church mission site acquired from the school; two of the houses are used by the Refugee Resettlement Program of the Diocese of Olympia.

(Opposite, top): The Rev. Peter DeVeau at the opening of a flagship Safeway store in West Seattle, a store he blessed. Photo from the West Seattle Blog. (Opposite, middle): Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral after its 2004 remodel. Photo from the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral Web site. (Opposite, bottom): In 2011, DeVeau participated in West Seattle’s annual Blessing of the Animals. Photo from the West Seattle Blog. (Top): Kansas City Community Kitchen during Navy Week 2010. DeVeau was among the kitchen’s founders. Photo by Navy Chief Mass Communication Specialist Steve Johnson.

WHEN THE NEWLY remodeled high school opened, St. John the Baptist delivered cookies and DeVeau was asked to speak at the dedication. The following May, Senior Breakfast was held at the church. St. John the Baptist still sponsors a tutoring program for academically challenged students. “This all happened because we entered into a conversation with the high school,” DeVeau says. Of the church’s 350 congregants, 80 are 16 or younger and 40 are between the ages of 16 and 30. The draw for younger people is manifold. For awhile, St. John the Baptist had the diocese’s youngest priest, whom DeVeau paid on a sermon-to-sermon basis (otherwise, the church couldn’t afford her services). It also borrows ideas from the emerging church, a 21st century movement that challenges the institutional church. For example: theology pubs, an outreach to those who would never darken a church doorway in which no subject is taboo, are commonplace. On a recent Good Friday, members of the parish toted a full-size cross they constructed themselves through the streets of downtown West Seattle.

At St. John the Baptist, DeVeau was more than a priest; he was a public figure. In August, when he received word of a flagship Safeway store opening nearby, he blessed it. “For this community, the Safeway

store opening was a big deal,” DeVeau says. “It was meaningful to a lot of people.”

In his previous stopover at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, DeVeau was fundamental to the founding of what was then a small hot food program in the old parish house building beneath the Common Room.

Today, Kansas City Community Kitchen, at a new location, prepares between 400 and 600 hot meals daily.

The priesthood wasn’t always in DeVeau’s plans.

He learned of his life’s calling over a bowl of porridge while studying abroad in Norway in his early 20s. He was out for a walk as the sun dipped below the horizon.

His neighbors, a husband and wife, asked if he’d like to have dinner with them. He accepted. They wanted to hear why he traveled to Norway. He said that he was restless, uncertain of what to do with himself.

He said he liked learning about foreign cultures and languages (previously, he was an exchange student at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark). The wife informed him that he would be a priest. He objected, explaining that he wanted to lead a normal life, that he didn’t want to be that good. For a moment, the lights in the room were brighter, as if infused by an unseen power. She was right.

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COLLEGE BOUND

Beth Belcher applied to be the diocese’s Campus Ministry coordinator on a whim. “I thought: why not,” she says.

Turns out, she was just the candidate the diocese needed.

By Hugh Welsh

B

ishop Martin Field has emphasized campus ministry as significant to the diocese’s long-term growth. Too often, as diocesan youth graduate high school and enroll in higher education, they leave the Episcopal Church.

Sometimes, they return when married or with children. Or not at all.

How to fulfill Field’s call of 100 percent coverage of all parishes in close proximity to institutions of higher learning (currently, there is about 50 percent) with a limited budget?

Hire someone whose passion for campus ministry is coupled with practical business knowledge.

“I’m not the type to say ‘gee, sure like to have that, but I can’t afford it,’” says Beth Belcher (St. Mary’s, Fayette), the diocese’s new Campus Ministry Coordinator. She owns two businesses in Fayette, Belcher Auction and Realty and Mary’s Material, a store that specializes in customized sewing and picture framing. Her model at St. Mary’s is a benchmark of how campus ministry can flourish alongside a congregation.

Belcher doesn’t want all campus ministries to clone hers. Campus ministry’s variables are manifold: the control is Christian fellowship. Belcher’s job is to water the seeds of campus ministry planted by a parish.

“It’s not my job to run these ministries,” she says. “I’m to be present when there is a need.”

Belcher remains in continuous communication with Kim Snodgrass, who coordinates the diocesan youth ministry, because she admires her passion and wants to maintain contact with youth who graduate into college, if that is the individual’s wish. In late January, the Committee on Campus Ministry, which Belcher heads, will meet to determine the full scope of the diocese’s vision for campus ministry. A few agenda items include: a rolling video on the diocesan Web site in which students talk about why campus ministry is important to them; a secure link on the diocesan Web site for campus ministry interns and ministers to access essential documents (such as background reports and reimbursement forms) and a forum where “best practices” in the area of campus ministry can be shared; workshops where ministers and interns can undergo training; a “passing of the torch” ceremony for graduating high school and college students at the Diocesan Convention. The ceremony will ask members of the diocese to light the candles of graduating college students who will, in turn, light the candles of graduating high school students. A prayer will be offered for the transition into a new chapter of life.

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(Opposite):Beth Belcher, far left, with her campus ministry group from Central Methodist University. (Top, left): The care package the group sent to a girl diagnosed with leukemia. (Top, right): The revamped space for campus ministry at St. Mary’s (Fayette). Submitted photos.

WHEN THE GROUP from Central Methodist University — where Belcher was previously a campus ministry intern since 2008 — arrives at St. Mary’s, they are entitled to their own space in Bishop’s Hall. Formerly, it was a dormant section walled in yellow with long tables and stacks of dusty Bibles and hymnals and documents that accumulated throughout the years.

“It wasn’t at all inviting,” Belcher says. “It was an area of the church without much life.”

A matching grant from the Episcopal Church’s Department of Congregational Development — Small Town/Rural allowed for the space to be reinvented: the walls are springtime green; bookshelves, cabinets and couches abound.

“This is now their home away from home,” Belcher says.

It is a hallowed ground where nothing is out of bounds.

“There is nothing they can say that would cause me to judge them,” Belcher says. “I always tell them that you can’t stay muddling around in this puddle; you’ll stay dirty.”

Most of those who attend the weekly gatherings are not Episcopalians — or Methodist, for that matter. The group is entirely female.

“The girls come from all different backgrounds,” Belcher says. “They’re all God’s children.”

As the ministry’s leader, Belcher is careful to snuff out elitist attitudes: “we are not God,” she says. She has a rule: each enters the church as sisters in Christ. Whatever is said does not exit church doors, with one exception: the good news of Jesus Christ. “We may disagree in lifestyle or theology, but we are to do it respectfully,” Belcher says.

A figure known to all who attend is a sidewalk preacher at Central Methodist, whose hellfire rants are the butt

of jokes. They laugh about how foolish it is to employ intimidation as a Christian recruiting tool. Belcher is careful to point out how such rhetoric can appear in different forms, including gossip or suggestion. She is considering a group study of The Faith Club, a memoir that arose from the Jihadist branding of Muslims in post9/11 America. Co-written by three women — a Muslim, Christian and Jew — it strives to show the commonalities among the religions.

Attendance can vary greatly from meeting to meeting.

Not that Belcher minds.

“I get it that these are college students who lead busy lives,” she says. “My goal is to meet them where they are with no expectation of anything in return.”

And yet, when the cause is mighty, the group responds accordingly. Every year, Central Methodist hosts a service day. Belcher’s campus ministry group participates in a number of ways: gardening, yard clean-up, window washing. But it was one instance of good will about a year ago that convinced Belcher of campus ministry’s significance. A friend of one of the girls had a 7-yearold sister diagnosed with leukemia. Belcher proposed a care package. She recommended some sketchbooks and crayons, but left it to the group to determine its contents.

They consulted the brother of the girl to find her interests, offering up a gift bag of Barbie dolls, pajamas, jumbo crayons, sketchbooks and candy. “What selflessness,” Belcher says.

Belcher’s take on campus ministry at St. Mary’s is akin to a sorority with a motto to boot: “We don’t care where you’ve been. We don’t care what you’ve done. We welcome you, no matter who you are.”

Belcher may be contacted at 660-728-1140.

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(Top, left): As soon as St. Philip’s opened its doors, Joplinites were busy perusing donations. (Top, right): Volunteers Janet and Jillian Hackney, St. Philip’s. (Bottom, left): Originally piled high, most of the donations would not last the day. (Bottom, right): Volunteer Bonnie Jones, Grace Church in Carthage.

A SEQUEL BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL

The second No-Charge Garage Sale at St. Philip’s in Joplin was superior to the first.

The need was the same — three quarters of the items were gone in the first hour and a half — but the outpouring of volunteers and donations was greater, according to the Rev. Frank Sierra, St. Philip’s rector. “We didn’t have the hiccups we had the first time around,” Sierra says.

At August’s giveaway, volunteers from St. Philip’s and Grace Church in nearby Carthage were rescued by a youth group from Green Bay, Wisconsin. This time, volunteers were in steady supply all week beginning the Saturday before the sale, when a bulk of donations were unloaded and sorted.

Inside St. Philip’s, clothing and bedding were stacked high on tables separated by the narrowest of aisles. Outside, the parking lot was laden with holiday decorations, furnishings and appliances. Sierra says the donations were enough to fill two 18 wheelers and, when it was all said and done, two dozen boxes remained, which were donated to Kathy’s Cowboy Angels, an organization serving 80 families living in poverty.

Sierra says parishes from throughout the diocese were well represented along with groups from St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Kansas and Fayetteville and Bella Vista, Arkansas. “The best way for me to describe it: awesome,” he says.

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(Top): The motif of the second no-charge garage sale: Christmas. (Bottom, left): Volunteer Judy Turner, St. Philip’s. (Bottom, right): Volunteers Nancy Jennings and Ramona Shields, St. Philip’s. Submitted photos.

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Ramona Shields salvages what she can days after the Joplin tornado destroyed her home. Photo by Andrew Kuhn.

GLORY IN THE MIDST It was already a difficult year for Ramona and Hugh Shields (St. Philip’s, Joplin) when the wall of wind touched down, leaving their town — and their neighborhood — a wreck of battered homes and lost lives. By Hugh Welsh

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STORY BY HUGH WELSH

AMONA SHIELDS (ST. PHILIP’S, JOPLIN) WAS AT HOME RECUPERATING from a round of radiation the afternoon of Sunday, May 22. She’d had a recurrence of breast cancer. Her husband, Hugh, had been away Sunday attending a graduation party and picking up the Rev. Frank Sierra (St. Philip’s rector) and his wife, Debi, from the airport. Ramona had given her husband explicit instructions: “don’t dilly dally; there’s bad weather coming.” When the first siren aired, he wasn’t home yet. Ramona slipped on her shoes, grabbed her purse and pillows and ushered the pets into the newly remodeled bathroom. It was the only room left standing. Ramona didn’t underestimate the initial siren. The sky wasn’t right, and it was deathly quiet. She heard the car door slam shut; Hugh was home. The sirens blared again. Ramona urged Hugh toward the bathroom as he peered out the window. He wanted to see it. “A mass of brownish black.” Ramona stared at the wall; she didn’t dare look at what sounded like an oncoming freight train. The splintering of trees was Hugh’s cue: take cover.

Ramona’s ears popped like she was scaling a mountaintop. “I had to swallow twice,” she says. Minutes were hours as the Shieldses’ home came apart around them. “I thought it would never end,” Ramona says.

IF NOT FOR the remodeled bathroom, Ramona and Hugh wouldn’t have survived. The west end of their house was gone, as if the subject of a disappearing act. Block after block of broken homes. Trees, which once insulated one house from another, were no more. Their neighborhood was a debris field. St. John’s Medical Center sat dark; usually, a brief period passed before the emergency generators powered on. Not this night. On the horizon, the blazing St. Mary’s Elementary School looked like a smokestack. Strewn among the ruins nearby was the body of a man who worked at McDonald’s and jogged daily by their house. They veiled his remains and prayed. A neighbor was bleeding to death. A family of nine emerged from a closet; they’d clung to their father in the hopes he’d defy the mighty updraft. The able bodied formed search-and-rescue teams, which combed the wreckage for anyone alive. In their yard was half a canoe with the words “serenity” etched onto it. All the while, it was raining. Incessant rain.

Most of their neighbors and friends survived. That’s the miracle: most lived. The Shields lost their home, their vehicles and all six rental properties they owned in Joplin. Two of their four cats fled in the storm’s wake never to return. St. Philip’s responded: fellow parishioners volunteered their homes to the Shields, and Hugh’s cousin, who lives in Neosho, proffered a car, his 1988 Mercury Marquee. A youth group from Golden City, Missouri salvaged the Shields’ World War II memorabilia.

Ramona and Hugh took heed in the tale of Job, a believer no matter the circumstances. They adopted a rule: goodwill ought to be paid forward. “The Shields are among the most selfless people I’ve ever met,” Sierra says. “They’ll do anything for anybody.”

They devoted long hours to fellow Joplinites caught in the

twister’s path, whether it was cleaning up or spiritual counsel.

They made grocery runs for needy elderly, one of whom suffered vertebrae damage in the storm. They donated land for rebuilding. They fought and won a case of renter’s insurance injustice for a beleaguered neighbor.

The neighborhood rebuilding process is underway. Ramona notices a lot of the older homes were left standing. “There’s a difference between a nail that’s hammered in vs. one nailed with a gun,” she says.

Homes can be rebuilt and trees planted, but the neighborhood will never be the same. Ramona’s grandparents moved there in 1919, building the house the Shields called home in 1921. The trees were like old souls to her, vanquished.

Since July, they’ve lived in a rental house acquired from the parents of children Ramona taught. Ramona happened upon them while at the bank. It’s in the older, unscathed section of town. Every night, she sets food out for her two lost cats, which will likely never return home.

For Ramona, it’s about what the twister didn’t take, not what it did. Her faith never splintered, and her health has taken a turn for the better after six weeks of hives following the tornado.

The cancer hasn’t spread.

Miracles rise from adversity. She’s heard a lot of survivors say they saw butterflies as the tornado bore down upon them.

One story involves a boy playing in the yard when the tornado approached. The boy’s father draped his body over him, clenching the grass. The twister tore the father’s shoes from his feet; it slashed his clothing and pelted him with flecks of debris.

Something kept him anchored. The boy said butterflies held them down. “The Lord does work in our lives all the time,” Ramona says. “His work in Joplin is not done.”

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ARTS J

ob 38: 4,7: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?...When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

It is this passage, this great riddle, that begins the film “Tree of Life,” director Terrence Malick’s most daring and rewarding film to date.

So often, the greatest art is autobiographical: if it doesn’t deal directly in past experience, the art is a derivative of it.

Memory may reveal a happening that frightened us, alerting us to the inevitability of death, or it may recall a dream that trumps reality in its vividness.

“The Tree of Life” is more an impressionistic rendering of boyhood memories than a narrative.

Jack (Sean Penn) is a man whose faith is well hidden. He cannot find it in his lover nor his creation: a skyscraper with lines that intersect and obstruct, a glass monolith that trammels f locks of migrating birds.

It is a monstrosity enlightened only by trees in a courtyard of manicured concrete. It reminds Jack of a message from his mother, Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain), upon planting a sapling when 22

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he was a child: “you’ll be grown before this tree is tall.” When did he go astray? Was it the death of his youngest brother, R.L., as true and kind as any of God’s creation, at age 19? Or was it before that? Such is the subject of “The Tree of Life.”

To find the answers he seeks, Penn revisits the beginning of not only his own conception and that of R.L. but the initial lighting in the darkness: the formation of the universe. “How did I lose you?” Jack inquires. “Find me” is his brother’s challenge.

Cosmological clouds pilot forth, at times taking on human dimensions, the bodies pulsing with electricity. They are in juxtaposition to an earlier shot of the Dallas skyline, where nighttime traffic casts streaks of light that hint at a modern world of aimless hustle and bustle. Malick retraces all of history, shifting from the universe to earthly happenings: the first single-cell organisms, dinosaurs, the original act of mercy, mass extinction, rebirth, humanity. Once Jack and his brother are old enough to understand, they are given a charge by their mother: “in man’s palace, there are two ways through life: the way of

nature and the way of grace. You have to choose from a job he pled loyalty to for decades. Finally, which one you’ll follow.” The film is a mosaic of he speaks words his sons never heard: “you’re all judgments, some graceful and some self-serving I have; all I want to have.” or self-destructive.

Then there is R.L., the one most like If his mother represents his mother, who died grace in her giving disposition, unrighteously. From a young his father, Mr. O’Brien (Brad age, Jack recognizes that there DEBRIEFED Pitt), is nature. Embittered is a goodness in R.L. that is WHAT IS IT? by a musical career that never foreign to him; Jack mirrors his The Tree of Life took root, he is wary of the father. When the neighborhood WHO DIRECTED IT? good will in others while never boys gesture at a pane of glass, Terrence Malick missing a day of church, where Jack is the one to cast the IN A NUTSHELL the organ is his exodus to the stone. He incessantly bullies The Tree of Life is the story of a divine. Mr. O’Brien etches R.L., who lacks the primal Midwestern family in the 1950s. lines in the dirt that mustn’t instinct to defend himself. Yet, The film follows the life journey be crossed and disciplines his Jack knows right from wrong: of the eldest son, Jack, through sons for slamming the screen that while it’s OK to mimic the the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he door while he is envious of a town drunk, it’s another matter tries to reconcile a complicated real estate tycoon and bangs entirely to ridicule a man relationship with his father (Brad the screen door at his leisure. whose dragfooted gait is not of Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean He is opposed to foul manners: his own doing.

Penn) finds himself a lost soul in poor posture at the dining Is there hope for Jack now the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life. room table, speaking when not that he is older and well spoken to. He warns his sons entrenched in the world? Must against the naivete of his wife’s he abolish all that he’s become compassion, when he is the first to react when a to find the true path? “For everyone who asks, boy disappears beneath the depths during a trip receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who to the local swimming hole. The boy ultimately knocks, the door will be opened.” dies, leading to Jack’s first f lirtation with doubt.

— HUGH WELSH Mr. O’Brien’s grace is restored when he is laid off SPIRIT, WINTER, 2012

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