Inside The Harvest From the bishop
Bishop Wolfe reports that the Crossroads fundraising campaign has raised the most ever in diocesan history, but work still remains in order to meet the $6 million goal. Page 2
Diocesan Convention
The 152nd annual meeting of the diocese takes place Sept. 23-24 in Topeka, with a speaker who will focus on congregational vitality. Page 3
Formation conference
The Kansas School for Ministry hosted a conference on how dioceses can form people seeking to be ordained. Representatives of 10 dioceses attended. Page 4
MegaCamp
The first-ever, everybody-inone-week summer camp experience was a huge hit, with more than 200 campers and a record number of staff gathering at Camp Wood. Page 5
Around the diocese
Read about what’s going on in parishes across the diocese, including how St. James’, Wichita, transformed its parish hall into a garden to raise funds for local charities. Page 8
Four new deacons
Four people were ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Wolfe on June 11. Learn more about who they are and where they will exercise their ministry. Page 9
100 years young
Bertha Milbank of St. James’, Wichita, celebrated her 100th birthday with a special reception in her parish on July 3. She has a long history of service to the Episcopal Church at the local, diocesan and national level. Page 9
Priests named to posts
Two priests have been named to represent the diocese in ministry positions that have an impact across the Episcopal Church, dealing with ecumenical relations and Jubilee ministries. Page 9
New Zealand hit again
Massive aftershocks that hit Christchurch, New Zealand, have destroyed the rose window in the Anglican cathedral there, and other area churches also were damaged or destroyed. Page 10
South Sudan celebrates South Sudan Episcopalians celebrated the birth of their new nation July 10 while acknowledging the difficult future of the world’s newest country. Page 11
Crossroads campaign enters third phase The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
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he Crossroads campaign has passed the halfway mark on its way to a goal of $6 million, and the Council of Trustees on June 21 approved moving into a third phase to raise the remainder. So far the effort has produced pledges of $3.18 million, coming from leadership and major donor gifts in Phase 1 and pledges from church members in Phase 2, according to campaign chair Larry Bingham, a member of St. Michael and All Angels in Mission. Bingham said that while the first phase brought in pledges of $2.54 million, an additional $2 million may be possible from potential donors who haven’t yet finalized a gift. Pledges in this phase also came from clergy and diocesan lay leaders. Phase 2 has resulted in $640,000 in pledges from a parish-based canvass of parishioners during Lent. So far commitments have come from people in 31 of the diocese’s 46 congregations. Bingham said he hopes the total of these pledges may double when all churches are involved and when people who haven’t pledged yet make their commitment. He said that the average 3-year pledge made during Phase 2 is $1,217.
Bingham said those involved with running the campaign are enthusiastic about reaching the $6 million goal but also realistic about the amount of work that lies ahead. The 15 churches that haven’t yet invited their people to make a pledge will be contacted individually, with assistance provided where needed. He said efforts to secure more large gifts take a lot of time but have the potential to generate significant pledges. There also may be some church-related or foundation grants that could support innovative leadership development, so those also will be explored.
Campaign vision has broad support
The Crossroads campaign seeks to enhance leadership development for parishes of all sizes in the diocese by endowing the Kansas School for Ministry and constructing a Leadership Center in Topeka. The center will provide space for diocesan offices and expanded classes to educate deacons and priests to serve large and small churches, and to prepare lay people for a variety of ministries. It also will provide space for meetings of diocesan groups. (Please see Crossroads, page 3)
the joplin tornado Joplin-area Episcopalians pick up, reach out Story and photos by Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest
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amona Shields picked through what remained of her tornado-ravaged house in Joplin, Mo., trying to find something intact from her 25 years there. There were a few things — some dishes and glassware, soggy books and newspaper clippings, a few pictures and a family heirloom mirror hanging on living room walls left shaky and roofless. Eight days after the monster EF-5 tornado ripped through her southwest Missouri hometown on May 22, Shields was stoic in the face of devastation that spread as far as one could see. Wearing a T-shirt with the name of her church, St. Philip’s Episcopal, and a cap with the Episcopal shield, she said she was determined to get things cleaned up so she and her husband, Hugh, could start to rebuild. But this time, she said, they’d have a storm shelter. Like almost all of the houses in Joplin, where the water table is high and the soil is rocky, hers didn’t have a basement. So the couple huddled in a corner of their recently remodeled bathroom with Maggie, their dog, and their four cats, covered themselves with towels, and listened while the house came down around them. “It was awful,” she said. “It was breaking apart. You could tell.” After the tornado had passed, they emerged to find the back wall of the kitchen blown away. They now could see St. John’s Medical Center, blocks away, since the houses and trees that stood between them simply were gone. “It was just carnage,” she said, describing her first glimpse of her neighborhood. “I turned around” — where she saw the now-open front of her house — “and it was more carnage.” (Please see Joplin, page 6)
Photo by Melodie Woerman
Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe (left) speaks during a May 30 interfaith service in Joplin, Mo., organized by St. Philip’s Episcopal Church there, while the rector, the Rev. Frank Sierra, listens.
Diocese of Kansas offers help and support By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest
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ithin hours of the May 22 tornado that tore through Joplin, Mo., people across the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas were providing help in the form of needed supplies and financial support.
The day after the twister hit, Bishop Dean Wolfe sent a special message to diocesan leaders asking that every parish take a special collection the following Sunday for the victims in Joplin and in Reading, Kan., a small town south of Emporia that had (Please see Support, page 6)