The Harvest, May-June 2010

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Inside The Harvest UTO grant Mother-to-Mother of Kansas City has received a $4,000 United Thank Offering grant to expand its ability to help families in need. Page 2

Diocesan Con vention Conv Noted speaker Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina will be featured at this fall’s Diocesan Convention. Convention deadlines also are announced. Page 4

KSM opens classes Upcoming classes at the Kansas School for Ministry will be open to non-ordination track students through a special policy. Page 5

Fighting c hildhood hunger childhood Two parishes, one small and one large, have found a way to feed hungry children during summer months when other programs disappear. Page 6

Lending a hand to Habit at Habitat Volunteers, including college students and Bishop Wolfe, helped the construction of a Habitat for Humanity house get off the ground in Coffeyville. Page 7

Around the diocese Find out why a church was surrounded by emergency vehicles in May, and see a classroom wall full of crosses. Page 8

Four ordained Two priests and two transitional deacons were ordained by Bishop Wolfe during a service June 5 at Topeka’s Grace Cathedral. Page 9

Ser ving the poor Serving A Lawrence man will spend the next year working among the poor in New Haven, Conn., as part of a church-sponsored vocational discernment program. Page 9

Lambeth of ficial q ues tioned official ques uestioned Anglican Communion Secretary General the Rev. Kenneth Kearon left some members of Executive Council wishing for more clarity when he spoke to the group on June 18. Page 10

Gulf oil disas ter disaster Prayers and financial help are needed most for those whose jobs have been lost on the Gulf. Read also about a Houston church where prayer brought oil executives and environmentalists together. Page 11

‘W e are all connected’ ‘We Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, a trained oceanographer, writes that the oil disaster reminds us of our connectedness. Page 11

St. Clare’s mo o its ne w home movves int into new Pentecost service welcomed worshippers to Spring Hill By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

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entecost took on special meaning for the people of St. Clare’s, the newest worshipping congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. On May 23 they had their first public worship service in their new home in historic downtown Spring Hill. Until then, worshippers had met in the living room of the congregation’s vicar, the Rev. Philip Hubbard, and his family in Overland Park. Hubbard was hired by the diocese in 2008 to start a new congregation in Johnson County, part of the greater Kansas City area. The decision to give St. Clare’s a permanent home in Spring Hill, a town of 6,500 that straddles the Johnson and Miami county line, came earlier this year, based on its potential for growth in the area.

Man ir st-timer att ender Manyy ffir irst-timer attender enderss Hubbard said about half of the 39 people at the Pentecost service were attending St. Clare’s for the first time. Patti Stites and her husband, Art Canright, had met Hubbard at the local Farmer’s Market and, struck by his enthusiasm, decided to visit that day. They’d never been to an Episcopal church for worship before, but Canright called it “fun” and Stites said Hubbard’s conversation-style sermon was “very enjoyable.” Susan and Don Traub met Hubbard at the Farmer’s Market just the day before and as longtime Episcopalians were delighted to learn they could attend an Episcopal Church without leaving Spring Hill. Former members of St. John’s in Abilene, the couple had been driving to Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kansas City, Mo., for church.

Photos by Melodie Woerman

A young worshipper shakes a red-ribbon Pentecost streamer during the first public worship service of St. Clare’s in Spring Hill on May 23.

Don Traub said he liked the pioneer feel of St. Clare’s startup. “That’s the way the church was built,” he said. Scott and Jacque Snavely and their three sons were at St. Clare’s for the second time on Pentecost; the congregation had a

Facebook phenomenon Lawrence priest’s site, “Unapologetically Episcopalian,” has 7,000 fans celebrating the Episcopal Church

Prayer guides Crossroads effort By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

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By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

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he Rev. Ron Pogue didn’t like what he was hearing from fellow Episcopalians. It wasn’t conflict or theological disagreements that troubled the interim rector at Trinity, Lawrence, the most — it was all the apologizing. “I was weary of people apologizing for being who we are as a church,” he said. “Things like, “We don’t do Bible study,’ ‘Our music is stuffy,’ ‘The Prayer Book is hard to use, ‘We’re all about conflict.’” On the evening of May 1, after reading what he called a particularly apologetic and whiny e-mail, he’d had enough. He went to Facebook, the popular Internet-based social networking site, and created a page he called “Unapologetically Episcopalian” as a place to celebrate the positive things happening across the Episcopal Church. He invited his circle of Facebook friends to join the site, and from there

Please see St. Clare’s, page 3

Photo by Melodie Woerman

The Rev. Ron Pogue, interim at Trinity, Lawrence, is the creator of Unapologetically Episcopalian, a Facebook site celebrating the good things happening in the Episcopal Church. In two months it has 7,000 fans.

the word spread rapidly. Within five days the page had more than 3,000 “fans,” and now, about two months later, that number is more than 7,000, making it something of a Facebook phenomenon in Episcopal circles. And the people who signed up as fans are making their voices heard there, something he’d suspected would happen. Please see Facebook, page 3

hile the effort is underway to secure initial gifts to the diocesanwide fundraising campaign, “Crossroads: Securing the Path to Tomorrow,” Director of Development and Stewardship Char DeWitt said what makes it all possible is prayer, including a special prayer composed just for the effort. Earlier this year Bishop Dean Wolfe announced the launch of a major fundraising campaign designed to provide lay and clergy leadership for parishes across the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. The focus of the effort is the Kansas School for Ministry, which currently educates people for ordination as priests and deacons. Plans call for the school to expand its offering to include extensive lay ministry education and training. Money raised will create a major endowment for KSM and will build a Leadership Center to provide additional classrooms and refurbished diocesan offices. In addition, 10 percent of all money raised will go to diocesan outreach and mission efforts.

Please see Prayer, page 2


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