The Harvest, March-April 2011

Inside The Harvest From the bishop Bishop Wolfe asked every parish to read a special pastoral letter from him as part of the Crossroads capital campaign to benefit the Kansas School for Ministry.

You can read it here. Page 2

Refugee resettlement A Wichita parish is teaming up with Episcopal Migration Ministries to establish a site to help refugees get a new start in that Kansas city. Page 4

Summer camp It’s not too late to sign up for this year’s diocesan MegaCamp June 5-11, and Bishop Wolfe says there are many good reasons why children should be there. Page 4

Alternative spring break Young people at St. Michael and All Angels, Mission, spent part of their spring break in March helping their community, and having some fun in the process. Page 6

Volunteer award winners Episcopal Community Services of Kansas City honored St. Paul’s, Kansas City and Deacon Fran Wheeler with top awards for their volunteer efforts. Page 6

Crossroads pledges still coming in The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

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iocesan officials working with the Crossroads capital campaign have expressed their excitement at the level of participation received from the parish phase, but they won’t be able to release a total amount raised until pledge cards are received from all congregations. They hope to have that information by Pentecost in mid-June.

In late March and early April people across the diocese learned more about the campaign, dubbed “Securing the Path to Tomorrow,” through materials sent to them by their parishes. Brochures featured a letter from Bishop Dean Wolfe describing the need to invest in the Kansas School for Ministry, in order to provide the lay and clergy leaders that congregations will need to grow and thrive.

A pledge card, seeking a threeyear commitment, was part of the mailing, and people returned them in designated blue envelopes either in parishwide collections or by

mailing them directly to the diocesan office in Topeka.

Diocesan Director of Development and Stewardship, Char DeWitt, has been processing all the pledge cards, and she said they represent “incredible generosity.”

She said, “One of the greatest outcomes of the campaign is the opportunity for parishes and parishioners to come together for a common cause.

No single person or parish can accomplish what we can do if we work together.

It is inspiring to see the enthusiasm and spirit of generosity demonstrated by fellow parishioners.”

She noted that St. John’s, Parsons, was surprised when someone offered to match every pledge given by fellow parishioners, up to a certain dollar amount.

Jupe Allen, the congregation’s Crossroads campaign coordinator, said, “Our efforts got a boost when we heard about the matching pledge. I shared the good news with the parish, and we had more pledges come in to get the full match. By the next week, we had made it.”

What Crossroads will do Endow the Kansas School for Ministry: $1.2 million   

Build a Leadership Center: $3.8 million      



(Please see Crossroads, page 3)

K2K Three teams of people from the diocese are heading this summer to Kenya to offer a variety of ministries to people in need in that East African nation, through the Kansas to Kenya program. Page 7

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

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Around the diocese Read about what’s going on in parishes across the diocese, including an invitation to walk the labyrinth in El Dorado and a Lawrence parish that participated in an Earth Day parade. Page 8

Easter lasts 50 days Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Craig Loya says Episcopalians do a good job of observing the fasts of Lent, but we don’t do enough to observe the feasts of the full 50 days of the Easter season. Page 12

Serve people in need at home and abroad by tithing for outreach and mission opportunities

Diocesan paper repeats as top award winner

St. Luke’s, Shawnee turns pilowcases into dresses for little girls and britches for little boys in Africa, and sends love along with them. Page 7

Artist Makoto Fujimura said at this year’s Tocher Lecture activities that the antidote to society’s anxiety is to “consider the lilies of the field,” and the church can play a role in that. Page 9

Create first-floor classrooms for up to 80 people Provide a library, a chapel and a conference room Offer meeting and retreat space for parish and diocesan groups Include accessible offices for the bishop and his staff on the second floor Remodel the existing conference center to provide 22 beds for overnight stays Use eco-friendly building materials and processes

Outreach and Mission: 10 percent of money raised

Little dresses for Africa

Rehumanizing culture

Expand the number of lay people who can receive training for a variety of ministries Allow more people to prepare for ordination as deacons, to call the church into service Provide local education for priests who will lead parishes across the diocese

The Quayle Bible Collection at Baker University in Baldwin City has two first editions of the King James Bible, which marks its 400th anniversary this year.

  Story and photos

by Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

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t has been called one of the two greatest works of the English language, rivaled only by Shakespeare. For many, it is the only Bible they consider “authentic.”

It was seven years in the making, the work of a 54-member committee, but within 90 years it had come to be known simply as “the Bible.”

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the printing of the King James Bible, a work of religious, political and (Please see King James, page 3)

he Harvest, the newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, took top honors in its circulation category at the 2010 Polly Bond awards given by Episcopal Communicators at its conference April 8 in Memphis.

This is the second straight year the newspaper has taken the first-place Award of Excellence in the General Excellence category for diocesan periodicals with a circulation below 12,000. The Harvest has a circulation of 5,100.

The winner in the large circulation category was Episcopal New Yorker in the Diocese of New York.

The judge said of The Harvest, “This is an old-school newspaper with old-school values, perhaps foremost that of keeping the reader in mind.” He said it did an “exemplary job of illuminating diocesan activity” with a design that is “easy on the eyes” and “well-organized and thorough articles.”

He said, “This is quite an impressive publication.”

This marks the fourth time the paper has received the best newspaper prize during the 17-year editorship of Melodie Woerman. In addition to 2009, previous wins were in 1996 and 1997.

(Please see Harvest, page 2

2 • The Harvest • March/April 2011

From the Bishop

The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe

‘We are at a crossroads’ Publisher: The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, Bishop Editor: Melodie Woerman A member of Episcopal News Service and Episcopal Communicators, The Harvest is published six times a year by the Office of Communications of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas: February, April, June, August, October and December.

Stories, letters and photos are welcome. They will be used on a space-available basis and are subject to editing. Send all material (preferably in electronic format or by e-mail) to: Melodie Woerman, editor The Harvest 835 SW Polk St. Topeka, KS 66612-1688 phone: (800) 473-3563 fax: (785) 235-2449 mwoerman@episcopal-ks.org Send address changes to: Receptionist 835 SW Polk St., Topeka, KS 66612-1688 receptionist@episcopal-ks.org Upcoming deadlines: May/June issue: May 15 July/August issue: July 15 Subscription rate: $1.50 annually Third class mailing Permit No. 601, Topeka, Kansas POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Episcopal Diocese of Kansas 835 SW Polk St. Topeka, KS 66612-1688

The Anglican Communion A global community of 70 million Anglicans in 38 member churches/provinces in more than 160 countries.

Archbishop of Canterbury The Most Reverend and Right Honorable Rowan Williams Lambeth Palace, London WE1 7JU, United Kingdom www.anglicancommunion.org Episcopal seat: Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England

Editor’s note: Bishop Dean Wolfe issued this pastoral letter in conjunction with the Crossroads capital campaign and asked that it be read in every congregation in the diocese.

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ear Friends in Christ, I am taking the rare step of writing you this letter, which I have asked the clergy of the diocese to read aloud as a part of Sunday worship services.

I am doing this because, as your bishop, I believe the Episcopal Church in Kansas is facing one of the most urgent challenges in our history, and the church needs your help.

Sixty percent of our parishes currently are served by part-time or non-stipendiary clergy.

In the near future, more of our parishes will be served by bi-vocational clergy.

While we always will need full-time clergy educated at residential seminaries, we will need many more locally educated lay leaders, deacons and priests.

The Kansas School for Ministry was created Photo by Stephen Butler for this purpose and has prepared many people everyone can give a lot, but everyone can who have served our diocese with distinction. give something.

We need to build up this school, so it is 3. Consider your own call to ministry. How is equipped to prepare the next generation of leaders God asking you to serve the church, your for the Episcopal Church in Kansas. community and the world? KSM exists to This school arguably is the most crucial help you do that. program we have going in the We are at a crossroads…a diocese. Every strategy we point where we must decide have for growth and mission We are at a crosswhether or not we will follow depends on its success. roads…a point where the example of our heroic pioWe already have raised $2.5 we must decide whether neer forefathers and mothers million from about 60 deeply or not we will follow the who made such great sacrifices committed Episcopalians for example of our heroic for the work of Christ. this work. Now we need to I am speaking to you today raise a matching amount from pioneer forefathers and with unusual bluntness because the approximately 11,940 other mothers who made such of the urgency of this need.

Episcopalians in our diocese. great sacrifices for the We are on the verge of doing These funds will endow the work of Christ. something extraordinary, but school’s faculty, build sorely we are only half the way there. needed facilities and give 10 Every Episcopalian needs to be cents out of every dollar to part of this effort. outreach.

If you have any questions about this initiative Today, I am asking every member in every paror any of its plans, please feel free to contact your ish to do these three things. priest, your parish Crossroads Campaign representative or my office. May the Lord who has given us 1. Include this important mission in your prayers. We will accomplish nothing with- the will to do these things, grant us the grace and the strength to accomplish them. out God’s help.

Faithfully, 2. Prayerfully consider making a three-year The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe pledge to this vital work. This initiative Bishop of Kansas  will help every parish in the diocese. Not

The Episcopal Church A community of more than 2.1 million members in 110 dioceses in 16 countries in the Americas and abroad.

Presiding Bishop The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017 (800) 334-7626 www.episcopalchurch.org Episcopal seat: Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas A community of 12,000 members in 46 congregations, two diocesan institutions and one school in eastern Kansas.

Bishop The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe 835 SW Polk Street, Topeka, KS 66612-1688 (785) 235-9255 (800) 473-3563 www.episcopal-ks.org Episcopal seat: Grace Episcopal Cathedral, Topeka

Harvest: Website also is honored (Continued from page 1) Woerman also received first- and third-place awards for front-page newspaper design. She took a second-place award for feature writing for her story about Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, which the judge called a “great profile…well-written, engaging.”

The diocese’s new website, launched in December, received a third-place award for best website in the Episcopal Church in a tie with Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City. Top honors went to the website of Vital Practices, by the Episcopal Church Foundation.

The Kansas site was developed with design assistance from River City Studios in Kansas City, Mo. These five awards bring to 48 the number of Polly Bonds received by Woerman since becoming editor of the newspaper, then named Plenteous Harvest, in March 1994.

Woerman’s work is featured by Episcopal News Service and in the new independent monthly newspaper, Episcopal Journal.

She is a member of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Communications and Information Technology and the Episcopal News Service Advisory Committee. 

The winning entry for best front page design

March/April 2011 • The Harvest • 3

King James: Bible is among collection’s crown jewels (Continued from page 1)

QUAYLE COLLECTION BIBLES ON DISPLAY linguistic force that continues to shape the thinking and vocabulary of much of the English-speaking world.

Two copies of first editions of the Authorized Version, as it was known when printed in 1611, are in the Quayle Bible Collection at Baker University in Baldwin City, along with first or early editions of works that led up to the creation of the Bible authorized by King James I of England.

Kay Bradt, director of library services at Baker, said the two originals are known as the “He” and “She” Bibles, based on differing translations of Ruth 3:15 — one says “he went into the city,” and the other, “she went into the city.” That difference comes, she said, because different printers produced the first runs of the newly revised translation.

The confusion on their part is understandable, she said. “The Hebrew says ‘he,’ but the context indicates it should be ‘she,’” Bradt said.

These first editions are quite rare, with fewer than 50 of the “He” Bibles and fewer than 150 of the “She” versions still in existence.

The collection also has a copy of the infamously nicknamed “Wicked” Bible, an edition printed 20 years later in which the printer glaringly omitted “not” in the seventh commandment, rendering it “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Most of the 1,000 copies were destroyed, making this version very rare.

Bradt said errors in these Bibles were understandable, even in first editions, given that all the type was set by hand. “They would print some copies, find errors, change them, and then print more,” she said.

That didn’t help the printer

The collection is open to the public every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 1-4 p.m. Tours by appointment also can be arranged by calling (785) 594-8390 On display are the two first editions of the King James Bible, as well as copies of the Great Bible, the Bishops’ Bible and other predecessors of the King James, as well as a page from a Gutenberg Bible, fragments of clay tablets and papyrus scrolls, and other rare works.

The Quayle Collection is located at the south end of Baker University’s Collins Library at 518 8th St. in Baldwin City, south of Lawrence.

A previous owner wrote his name and other marks on this introductory page, which makes it clear for whom the translators had worked.

of the Wicked Bible, though. He landed in debtors’ prison, she said, unable to pay the fine levied against him for his mistake.

 The King James Bible didn’t spring just from the linguistic skills of the 54 learned men who produced it. Rather it was the result of more than 200 years of English translations of the Scriptures, and the Quayle Collection includes all of them, including many first editions.

John Wycliffe translated the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible into English in the late 1380s, an act that had the early reformer branded a heretic after his death.

As Reformation ideals spread across Europe, one of its adherents, William Tyndale, asked to translate the Bible into English but was denied. He then fled to Belgium, where in 1526 he produced an English New Testament; copies of it were smuggled into England in bales of cloth.

The Bishops’ Bible of Elizabeth I, issued in 1568, includes the odd translation of Ecclesiastes 11:1, “Lay thy bread upon wette faces.”

He offered a full Bible in English in 1530, but its Protestant leanings were too much for King Henry VIII. In spite of his eventual break with the Church in Rome, Henry feared the egalitarianism advocated by reformers. In 1536 Tyndale was strangled and his body burned at the stake.

 But the influence of Tyndale’s Bible already was being felt. After Henry’s break with Rome in 1531, he commissioned his own English Bible, known as the Great Bible because of its size, which was produced in 1538.

He wanted a text that would promote knowledge of the scriptures among his subject but wouldn’t introduce wholesale reformist ideals that were taking root elsewhere in Europe.

Myles Coverdale, who had done his own translation in 1535, gave Henry such a Bible, basing his version on Tyndale’s work but removing things the king found objectionable, like the use of “congregation” for “church,” and “senior” instead of “priest.”

Henry ordered that his Bible be placed in every church and chained to the lectern so it would be available at all times for those who wanted to read it for themselves.

After the tumultuous reign of the Catholic Queen Mary, Elizabeth I wanted an end to factional religious strife and hoped to advance it with her own Bible trans-

lation, which appeared in 1568.

Known as the Bishops’ Bible, it struck a balance between Henry’s Great Bible and an English version produced in 1560 by English Protestants who fled to the continent during Mary’s reign, known as the Geneva Bible.

It did, however, introduce some odd variations. The Great Bible translated Ecclesiastes 11:1 as “Lay thy bread upon the waters,” but the Bishops’ Bible offered the peculiar “Lay thy bread upon wette faces.”

Like the Great Bible, the Bishops’ Bible was printed in largeformat lectern editions. But the Geneva Bible was becoming a favorite among the people, with its smaller size, study aids like maps, and its novel idea of breaking up the biblical text into chapters and verses. It also was printed in easier-to-read Roman type, not the fancy Old English print style of the large lectern Bibles.

 A year after James became King of England in 1603, a group of Puritan clergy petitioned for greater reform in the church, and from that grew the need for a new translation that recognized the impact of the Geneva Bible on everyday life.

James, himself a noted linguist, gathered scholars to create his new text. He ordered them to use as their basis the Bishops’ Bible, “as little altered as the truth of the original will permit,” he decreed.

They also relied on previous English editions, as well as their knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts available to them.

In 1611 they gave their monarch the new Authorized Version that came to bear his name.

Its impact was so great that by 1700 James’ Bible had become the English Bible. A new, official translation wasn’t even under-

taken for another 250 years.

The real hero of the King James’ Bible, however, is William Tyndale.

More than 80 percent of his translation ended up in it, and his work introduced into the English language such phrases as the powers that be, my brother’s keeper, the salt of the earth, knock and it shall be opened unto you, seek and you shall find, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

 In addition to its copies of the King James, the Quayle has first editions of the Great Bible, the Bishops’ Bible and a catholic translation from 1582 called the Douay Bible.

It has very early, but not first editions, of Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s Bibles and Wycliffe’s New Testament. It also has a 1732 version of Luther’s Bible, as well as a 1692 reproduction of a Bible in Anglo-Saxon that dated to the year 1000.

 The impact the King James Bible has had upon the English language — beyond the everyday phrases it introduced — includes the rhythmic cadences heard in the words of Abraham Lincoln, poet Walt Whitman and Southern author Willa Cather.

Even noted atheist Richard Dawkins said that with its influence on the culture of Englishspeaking countries, “…not to know the King James Bible is to be in some small way, barbarian.”

Bradt said she hopes the Quayle’s display of the He and She Bibles, as well as all the versions that preceded it, will help people better understand this 400-yearold translation that has played such a key role in the formation of modern English Christian thought. 

Crossroads: Pledges reflect generosity and commitment (Continued from page 1) DeWitt said she has been struck by the intentionality represented by the pledges received so far. “They tell me how much every person wants to participate and the extent to which they’ve prayed about their involvement. For that, we are so grateful,” she said.

Noting the commitments already made, DeWitt said, “It is obvious that many of you are giving sacrificially.

The greatest blessing will come as each person responds faithfully to the will of God in their lives.”

Crossroads campaign chair Larry Bingham, a member of St. Michael and All Angels, Mission, said he also is excited by what the pledge cards represent.“It is not so much the money received (although that is important, too)

but the clear indication that the members of the Episcopal Church in our diocese have responded to the campaign with their sacrificial pledges,” he said. “I believe that we have full consensus on our long range plan to make the Kansas School for Ministry the centerpiece for the development of leadership in our diocese.”

Still time to pledge DeWitt urged people who will be receiving Crossroads materials in the next few weeks to look at them carefully, pray about a pledge and then return their card promptly.

Those who already have the material but who haven’t made a pledge yet still can be part of what she called “an exciting response by our diocesan family.” She said, “Not everyone can make the same level of commitment, but

every one of us can do something.”

DeWitt said the Crossroads campaign also offers the chance for spiritual growth. “Can you imagine what would happen if every person in this diocese earnestly prayed that God would show them what God wants to do through them to accomplish these significant objectives, and then become obedient to that call?” she said. “This would be the real victory.”

DeWitt noted that the diocesan website, www.episcopalks.org, includes the Crossroads video (describing the campaign in greater depth), as well as informational brochures and additional information about the Kansas School for Ministry. Parishes needing additional pledge cards or envelopes should contact DeWitt at cdewitt@episcopal-ks. org or (785) 250-0060. 

4 • The Harvest • March/April 2011

Convention deadlines, offices to be elected are announced

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

Convention at a glance

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ith the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas occurring a month earlier than usual, the deadline for items to be considered by clergy and lay delegates also is earlier.

The diocesan office has announced that the deadline will be July 8 for nominations for offices to be elected at the convention, as well as proposed debatable resolutions or amendments to the constitution or canons of the diocese. By that date these items must be submitted to the committee overseeing that area.

What: The 152nd annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas When: Friday, Sept. 23 and Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011 Where: Capitol Plaza Hotel and Maner Conference Center, Topeka Who: Elected lay delegates from every parish, plus clergy who are canonically resident Deadline: July 8 for nominations for elections, debatable resolutions and amendments to the constitution or canons of the diocese

Five to be elected The following offices will be elected at this year’s convention:  An at-large, lay, member of the Council of Trustees, for a three-year term;  An at-large, clergy, member of the Council of Trustees, for a three-year term; and  Three lay members of a new diocesan Disciplinary Board, to filled one-year unexpired terms.

Lay nominees must be a confirmed member of a parish of the Diocese of Kansas and at least 16 years old. Clergy nominees must be canonically resident in the diocese and in good standing.

The Council of Trustees is the governing body for the diocese between conventions. It oversees all matters relating to programs and finance, and it functions as the canonical Standing Committee for approving candidates for ordination and the election of bishops.

Membership consists of six at-large members (three lay, three clergy) elected by Diocesan Convention, and two members elected by each of the four Convocation Boards and ratified by the convention (four lay, four clergy).

The Convocation Boards will elect their clergy representatives at their meetings scheduled in August.

The Disciplinary Board replaces the Ecclesiastical Trial Court but has additional duties and requirements that the Court did not. The Disciplinary Board is part of a revamped Title IV process

that assesses a variety of complaints that might be brought against members of the clergy of the diocese and assists officers of the process in developing an appropriate outcome.

The Board will take office on July 1, and its membership will include the current members of the Ecclesiastical Trial Court who are not members of the Council of Trustees (a requirement of the diocesan canon regarding the Board).

Because the three current lay Court members are members of the Council of Trustees, they are ineligible to serve on the Board. Bishop Dean Wolfe will name new lay members to begin serving on July 1, and those people will be eligible to stand for election to one-year unexpired terms, should they choose to do so.

Submissions go to committee chairs Nominations for positions to be elected, proposed resolutions and proposed amendments to the constitution or canons must be submitted by the July 8 deadline to the chair of the respective committees: Nominations: the Rev. Betty Glover, PO Box 490, Winfield, KS 67156-0490; chaplainbetty@ sbcglobal.net; (620) 221-4252.

Debatable resolutions: the Rev. Shawn Streepy; 10700 W. 53rd St., Shawnee, KS 66203-1838; shawn@stlukes.net; (913) 631-8548.

Constitution and canons: Frank Taylor; P.O. Box 550, Olathe, KS 66051-0550; ftaylor@nhrk. com; (913) 782-2350. 

Wichita church starts refugee aid program

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t. John’s, Wichita, is partnering with Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) to start a refugee resettlement office in Wichita, and the effort recently received approval by the U.S. government.

Heading the program for St. John’s are members Peg Flynn and Shirley Orr, who have coordinated the start-up effort.

According to its website, EMM is one of nine national agencies that hold agreements with the Department of State to resettle refugees in cities across the United States. The agency is a part of the Episcopal Church.

According to the Rev. Craig Loya, the diocese’s canon to the ordinary who has been assisting with this start-up, the Kansas site will be enhanced by a partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a major global refugee agency that responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The two entities are exploring shared office space at St. John’s, to further opportunities for cooperation, he said.

Loya said that after identifying Wichita as a potential location for a new office, EMM helped

secure a federal grant to pay for start-up costs. They also paid for a consultant to do a feasibility study, to make sure the needed infrastructure was in place.

Wichita is a good match Because this program will resettle refugees — people who have fled their homes because of serious human rights abuses — there are significant needs for support that must be in place before they arrive.

When the study showed Wichita was a good match, St. John’s added some additional support, and Flynn and Orr started the wheels turning to get federal approval, a requirement since funding for refugee assistance through EMM comes almost entirely from the federal government.

Loya said that within a few weeks, the two will help set up the site’s permanent structure, including picking a name, developing a board of directors, creating a budget and searching for a permanent executive director.

Loya said that this effort may become a separate entity in the future, but for now it maintains close ties both with St. John’s and with

the diocesan office, which will provide some basic initial support services once staff is hired.

Loya said both the U.S. government and the IRC believe the Wichita office can start to resettle refugees as early as this fall.

Helping the persecuted According to EMM’s website, there are more than 15 million refugees worldwide who have fled persecution, oppression and conflict in their home country and won’t be protected if they tried to return.

EMM and their partner sites provide 90-days worth of assistance, including housing, furnishings, clothing, food, assistance in applying for Social Security cards, medical screenings, English language instruction and job placement.

From Oct. 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011, EMM helped 1,779 refugees from across the world:  Europe: 10 people  Africa: 163 people  Near East and South Asia: 991 people  East Asia: 528 people  Latin America: 87 people — Melodie Woerman 

Photo by Chad Senuta

The ropes course at Camp Wood is just one of the fun activities children can experience at this year’s diocesan MegaCamp at Camp Wood YMCA June 5-11.

Bishop: Summer camp is ‘as good as it gets’

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ear Parents, What are your children doing this summer?

Traveling? Attending more school? Just hanging out?

Why not give your child an opportunity to have an educational experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives?

The summer church camp programs of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas are as good as it gets. Each June we go to Camp Wood, a highly regarded YMCA camp in Elmdale, Kansas, where elementary, junior and senior high students grow closer to God and to one another.

Our camping program brings young people together to answer life’s difficult questions, while they have the time of their lives.

This year we’ve organized our camping program to maximize the excitement and the opportunity to make new friends. MegaCamp is designed so that all our young people can be at one place, at one time, for one amazing experience.

I believe your children need to be part of this camp. I believe this experience has the

power to change young hearts and minds. I believe children who have their faith awakened at summer camp have the opportunity of holding onto that experience forever.

I know your children can be resistant to new experiences like this one. I know you worry about costs and safety. I will tell you that if your child is willing to give this camp a try, they will love it.

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas MegaCamp is one of the best supervised, most cost-effective and absolutely fun programs available for kids anywhere — and it’s not too late to secure a spot for this once-in-a–lifetime experience.

So ask you child — no, tell your child — that June 5-11 you’re going to provide them with a summer experience that will prepare them for the real world. You and your children will be glad you did.

For more information see www.episcopal-ks.org/youth/ summercamp or call our Youth Missioner, Chad Senuta, at (913) 362-1470. +Dean The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe 

Women’s retreat helps with stress

By Mary Roberts

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hirty-five ladies met together on Saturday, April 2, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, in Wichita. They came to share and learn about stress management and the Christian life at the retreat “Bless That Stress and Pray: Stress Management in the Christian Life.”

Throughout the day participants explored ways of dealing with stress as a Christian through a variety of activities: fellowship, sharing, prayers, presentations on stress management, lectio divina, guided meditation and a Taize service.

Melissa Roberts, graduate of the Virginia Theological Seminary and author of the book The Everything Guide to Stress Management, facilitated the retreat.

Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of Kansas organized the retreat as a ministry to offer a day of rest, fellowship and learning to women of all ages.

All women attending Episcopal churches in Kansas automatically are members of Episcopal Church Women, or ECW, and are eligible to attend ECW events. For more information about ECW and future ECW events, please check us out on the diocesan website at www. episcopal-ks.org/life/Episcopal-Church-Women.

Mary Roberts is publicity chair for the Episcopal Church Women of the diocese. 

March/April 2011 • The Harvest • 5

A walk through

Holy Week

Holy Week is just that — the holiest time in the Christian year. From Palm Sunday to the celebrations of Easter, church services are designed to help worshippers not only understand but experience the last days in the life of Jesus Christ, followed by the joy of his resurrection.

This drama was played out in churches across the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas again this year, as liturgies helped worshippers recall events of the week we now call Holy.

People from eight churches in Emporia carried a cross during the annual outdoor Stations of the Cross that wound through downtown streets at noon on Good Friday.

Members of Grace Cathedral, Topeka, hold palms aloft as they are blessed during the Palm Sunday service.

Cathedral Dean Steve Lipscomb pours water into the baptismal font as Bishop Dean Wolfe prepares to bless it during the renewal of baptismal vows at the Great Vigil of Easter at the cathedral on Easter Eve.

Text and photos

by Melodie Woerman

Barefoot youth choir members wait for their turn to participate in the foot washing during the Maundy Thursday service at Grace Cathedral.

6 • The Harvest • March/April 2011

Mission youths help others during spring break

By Karen Schlabach

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outh at St. Michael and All Angels in Mission spent part of their spring break week helping their community and church with the parish’s first Youth Alternative Spring Break March 14-16.

Twenty-seven youth in grade 6 through 12, along with eight adults, spent their mornings doing a variety of volunteer work and afternoons engaged in fun activities.

On Monday, the youth volunteered at Bishop Spencer Place, a retirement community in Kansas City, Mo. They played bingo with the residents and then toured the facility and visited individual residents.

After playing bingo, youth group member Megan Pyle said, “The woman at our table was awesome, and I want to be just like her.” The youth were very impressed with the living facilities at Bishop Spencer Place, and many talked about how they were ready to move in.

On Tuesday, the youth volunteered at Harvesters. As the only

Photos by Karen Schlabach

Left: Sixth grader Natalie Kidwell packs food into a box at Harvesters during the alternative spring break for youth at St. Michael and All Angels, Mission.

Above: Eighth grader Maddie Matthew washes a pew in the nave at the church.

food bank in the area, Harvesters is a clearinghouse for the collection and distribution of food and household products.

The youth and their adult sponsors learned about the realities of

hunger in the United States and the Kansas City area. They heard that Missouri ranks sixth and Kansas ranks eight in the nation for food insecurity, the concept of a person not knowing what,

when or from where their next meal will come.

After a tour of the facility, the group got to work. They set up an assembly line to build and label boxes and then filled them with

a variety of food (such as cereal, juice, dry milk, fruit, vegetables, tuna and peanut butter), taped them shut, and stacked them on palettes ready to be delivered.

It was hard work, but it gave participants a sense of accomplishment when they realized they had packed 440 boxes.

On Wednesday, the youth volunteered at St. Michael’s.

The parish’s sexton had provided them with a long list of projects: washing windows, cleaning the playground, washing the pews and kneelers with soap and water, cleaning out gutters, polishing brass door plates, turning over dirt for a new flower bed, sharpening pencils, and folding and stuffing the weekly newsletter.

All that hard work didn’t go unrewarded. On Monday the group enjoyed a movie together, on Tuesday they went bowling and played mini-golf, and on Wednesday they had a pizza party and visited the zoo.

Plans call for the event to take place again next year.

Karen Schlabach is youth minister at St. Michael’s. 

Diocese picked for small church pilot program

ECS honors Kansas parish, deacon, with annual awards

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

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he Episcopal Diocese of Kansas has been selected to participate in “New Dreams-New Visions,” a pilot project that connects vital retired clergy with vibrant, small worshipping communities.

Kansas and four other dioceses — East Tennessee, Indianapolis, Massachusetts and Southern Ohio — join nine previously announced dioceses in the NDNV effort: Vermont, Western Massachusetts, Atlanta, Southwest Florida, Eastern Michigan, Oklahoma, Spokane, Iowa and Southeastern Mexico.

Coordinator for this project in Kansas is Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Craig Loya.

Loya said that the program was developed within the past year so is still being refined, but its purpose is to help small congregations move beyond maintaining the status quo into a new sense of mission.

“The reality is that more and more congregations in the Episcopal Church cannot afford full-time clergy, which requires a different way of conceiving of parish leadership,” Loya said. “This tries to leverage some of the resources of the Church Pension Fund and other partner entities to help congregations move into a new way of being the church.”

A news release announcing the new participating dioceses notes, “Thousands of priests will be eligible to retire within the next few years yet still feel called to minister in new ways. At the same time, more and more family- or pastoral-sized congregations or

faith communities, with an average Sunday attendance of 140 or fewer, are unable to support a full-time priest. This is an opportunity … to help clergy and congregations explore new models of leadership and ministry.”

Loya said that pension rules allow a priest who is 55 years old with 30 years of service to retire with full benefits. But some of these priests aren’t ready to give up parish ministry, he said, and would welcome the chance to work with a small church that wants to grow in vitality.

These clergy, Loya said, won’t just be spending a comfortable few years before final retirement.

Instead, the program looks for people with passions and “skills in coaching a congregation on how to do church a little differently,” he said.

Loya and Bishop Dean Wolfe will begin within a few months to contact two or three congregations they think might be a good fit for this new model.

If interested, a congregation’s vestry and members will complete a survey to see if the church’s commitment matches the goals of the program.

If they do, New Dreams-New Visions will suggest priests who might be a good fit for a few years of intentional ministry.

Loya said the program provides support and coaching but no financial resources.

New Dreams-New Visions is a collaborative effort led by the Church Pension Group, the Episcopal Church Foundation and the Episcopal Church Center, supported by CREDO and FreshStart. 

piscopal Community Services of Kansas City gave its highest volunteer awards to a Diocese of Kansas parish and to a newly ordained Kansas deacon.

St. Paul’s, Kansas City, was recognized as the Volunteer Parish of the Year for its outreach to the community through its food pantry and Saturday morning breakfast program. The pantry provides nonperishable and fresh food to hundreds of people every month, and the breakfast program has offered a hot meal to more than 200 people each week for the past 10 years.

Deacon Fran Wheeler received the John Kost Award as the individual who best exemplifies the agency’s mission of “Feeding the Hungry/ Changing Lives.”

Deacon Wheeler,who was ordained a deacon in Fran Wheeler January of this year, was honored for her work with the BackSnack program at St. Aidan’s, Olathe, as well as with a new food ministry to address hunger in Johnson County.

The awards were made at the agency’s annual volunteer reception on April 28.

ECS is an institution of the Episcopal

Deacon Gail Reynolds (left) of St. Paul’s, Kansas City, accepts the Volunteer Parish of the Year award from Episcopal Community Services board president Shirley Bolden during the agency’s volunteer reception April 28.

Dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri and serves people in need on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri state line.

— Melodie Woerman 

Four to be ordained deacons June 11

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our people will be ordained as deacons during a service set for Saturday, June 11 at 10:30 a.m. at Grace Cathedral in Topeka.

They are:  Oliver Bunker, from Grace, Ottawa;  Elizabeth Drumm, from St. Michael and All Angels, Mission;  Peter Doddema, from

Trinity, Lawrence; and  Patrick Funston, also from St. Michael’s.

Doddema and Funston will become transitional deacons, as they later will be ordained as priests. They will graduate this spring after three years at Virginia Theological Seminary.

Bunker and Drumm will be deacons whose call is to enable servant ministry in people and

parishes within the diocese.

They have completed two years of specialized education at the Kansas School for Ministry and will spend the next year in an internship designed to prepare them for diaconal ministry in a parish.

The celebrant and preacher at the service will be Bishop Dean Wolfe, and people across the diocese are invited to attend. 

March/April 2011 • The Harvest • 7

Remnants become dresses, and hope, for African girls

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

“We are sending affirmation that the little girls who receive these dresses are worthy and loved.”

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embers of St. Luke’s, Shawnee, are turning pillowcases, fabric remnants and trim into dresses for little girls in Africa, and they quickly have almost surpassed their initial goal of 100 dresses.

Outreach chair Deb Callaway heard about the project, “Little Dresses for Africa,” from her sister, Cathy Dingler.

The idea was born in 2007 by a Michigan woman who wanted to provide clothing, as well as a sense of self-esteem, for young African girls who had become primary caregivers for siblings orphaned by AIDS. The premise is simple — take a pillowcase (or a similarly sized fabric remnant), cut head- and armholes and trim them with colored bias tape, add decorative touches like pockets, and you have a dress that fits a little girl.

Callaway said her sister’s commitment to the project convinced her to offer it at St. Luke’s, and the response has been enthusiastic.

Parishioner Willie McCallum, who leads a quilting guild that meets at the church, headed a sewing day Feb. 26.

Guild members and other parishioners provided lots of fabric remnants (sewers are known for having leftover fabric). Sewers stitched up about 20 dresses that day, and people have continued to work at home, resulting in about 75 little dresses made so far.

About 25 came from decora-

— Deb Callaway St. Luke’s, Shawnee

Submitted photo

Members of St. Luke’s, Shawnee, are making dresses and shorts from pillowcases and fabric remnants to help clothe children in Africa. They already have created 75 dresses and hope to have many more before shipping them in January. Pictured are (from left) Christine Uhrmacher, June Cassingham, Willie McCallum, Deb Callaway and Cindy Speicher.

tive pillowcases, Callaway said, and the rest from donated fabric.

“It really is lots of fun to mix and match all the fabrics and trims,” she said.

After a few dresses were made, Callaway said they were hung around the fellowship hall as a way to build excitement about the project. Since then she’s collected even more supplies.

Callaway said she can only imagine the lift these brightly colored frocks will bring to the girls who receive them. “They are pretty, fresh and new, made just for them,” she said. “They’re not used, something from Goodwill.

They’ll know they were made just for them.”

After her husband chided her about leaving out little boys,

Callaway said they’ve started making the companion “little britches,” elastic-waist shorts that also can be made from a pillowcase or remnant.

A non-sewer has offered her services to cut the britches from donated cloth using a pattern.

The parish is hosting another sewing day May 21, and those who want to help can spend the

whole day or drop in as they can.

McCallum will head this effort, and Callaway said they hope to have another day this fall.

She said her sister has become so involved with this project that she is planning to travel to Central Africa in January to take as many dresses as she can, from St. Luke’s and the other groups around the country who have started making them.

Callaway said a clothing class at Johnson County Community College recently has taken up the cause, too.

A June 25 art auction at the church will help raise funds to pay to ship the dresses and britches to Africa with Dingler in January.

When they do, Callaway said she knows that more than just fabric and trim will be in the packages. “We are sending affirmation that the little girls who receive these dresses are worthy and loved.”

More information about the project, along with instructions for making the dresses, is available at www.littledressesforafrica. org. 

Kansans readying for Kenya mission trips

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Photo by Melodie Woerman

Topeka church gets high-level kitchen help Members of St. David’s, Topeka, got some kitchen help from an unexpected source March 23 when Gov. Sam Brownback took his turn on the serving line at Let’s Help, an agency in downtown Topeka that provides a daily hot lunch to people in need.

Staffing the serving line are (from left) Marilyn Homan, Brownback, Sherry Newman and the Rev. Barbara Bloxsom.

Diana Allen, who has overseen St. David’s monthly meal at Let’s Help since 1990, learned the day before that the governor would be helping out. Brownback brought his daughter and a friend of hers to assist in the kitchen while the girls were on spring break. 

hree teams of Kansans will head this summer to Kenya through the ministry of the diocesan Kansas to Kenya program.

Known as K2K, the effort is centered in the region around Maai Mahiu and works to provide people there with resources to improve their lives of poverty.

K2K sent its first teams to the East African nation in 2007, where it also seeks to enhance relationships between the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas.

Deacon Steve Segebrecht of Trinity, Lawrence, who has done medical mission work in Kenya for many years as a physician, is K2K’s director.

The Community Team, with 14 members, leaves June 1 for two weeks and will deal with issues of public health, education, housing and women’s rights.

They will build several kinds of latrines and provide HIV/ AIDS education, provide nutrition education for local students and start a pilot project to improve attendance for teenage girls, explore development of a library at the school, develop a microfinance program to empower women’s

entrepreneurship, offer seminars on women’s rights, and build two homes in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity.

Deacon Barbara Gibson will serve as chaplain for this group.

The Medical Team leaves June 17 for 12 days in Kenya, and will include 24 doctors, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists and pre-med students. They will offer medical care to Maai Mahiu residents who normally have little access to it.

The Rev. Robert Terrill is this group’s chaplain.

The College Team departs June 29 for two weeks and will include Bishop Dean Wolfe and the Revs. Michael Bell and Andrew O’Connor, as well as five college students.

Along with youth leaders from the Anglican church, they will build two houses for people who were displaced by violence following presidential elections in 2008 and who now live in tents.

The construction will be done with Habitat for Humanity.

The college students not only raised the money for their trip but also enough to purchase the materials and supplies needed to build the two houses.

— Melodie Woerman 

8 • The Harvest • March/April 2011

Around the diocese  St. John’s, Abilene observed some liturgical changes during Lent, including using Rite I for Sunday worship, with all lessons being read from the King James Version of the Bible, in observance of its 400th anniversary.  Trinity, Arkansas City hosted the annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper for its members and those of Grace, Winfield. Together the congregations form the Episcopal Church in Cowley County.  Trinity, Atchison gave Bibles to third graders in its Godly Play Christian education program, with younger students receiving a book of Bible stories. In class, students have been learning about using the Bible for faith formation at home as well as at church.  St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids hosted a training event March 26 for parishioners interested in serving as one of the canonical areas of lay ministry — pastoral leader, worship leader, preacher, Eucharistic minister and Eucharistic visitor.  St. Paul’s, Clay Center continues its commitment to feeding the hungry by serving as the site for a new “senior commodities program.” Those who are eligible receive a 25-pound box of food.

Parishioners also were recruited to serve as volunteers.  Grace, Chanute hosted a speaker from the local Alliance of Churches for Christian Living as preacher at the parish’s Palm Sunday service. The Alliance also offered ecumenical Holy Week services at the First Presbyterian Church.

 St. Paul’s, Coffeyville hosted its 111th annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper. The tradition began in 1900, when the Rev. Percy Eversden brought the idea from his native England and started it in Coffeyville. In the 1950s Bishop Goodrich Fenner said it was at that time the oldest continuous observance in the diocese.  St. Andrew’s, Derby collected $866 to help with disaster relief in Japan during a special collection March 20. The money will be forwarded to Episcopal Relief and Development for distribution through their sources there.  St. Martin’s, Edwardsville cleaned up the congregation’s adopted section of a local highway on April 3.  St. Andrew’s, Emporia hosted an organ concert April 29 for students of local music teacher Doug Amend. Three of the pieces were played on the three organs in the church: an 1869 reed organ, a 1963 Reuter pipe organ and the current 2010 three-manual Johannus digital organ.  St. Thomas’, Holton helped longtime member Ansel Searles celebrate his 90th birthday with a reception at his home.  Epiphany, Independence St. Martha’s Guild members are collecting supplies for members of the military serving overseas, as well as items for the Midwest Pregnancy Care Center.  Covenant, Junction City hosted a farewell reception for outgoing rector the Rev. Dale

Plummer on May 1.  St. Paul’s, Kansas City vestry members took part in a vestry orientation session March 11-12 at the Sanctuary of Hope retreat center in Kansas City.  St. Margaret’s, Lawrence has a children’s service the second Sunday of every month, in which they read the lessons, lead the prayers and serve as crucifer for parish worship, as well as bringing forward food offerings collected for the Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry.  Trinity, Lawrence hosted its annual Trinity Treasures Vintage Sale April 29-30, featuring “mediocre antiques and superlative junque.” Proceeds from the sale help with needed projects at the parish and in the greater community.  St. Paul’s, Leavenworth book club — the Happy Bookers — explored Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her on April 13. The monthly gathering includes discussion, refreshments and fellowship.  St. Paul’s, Manhattan Daughters of the King offered a Lenten quiet day March 19 for women and men of the parish. It ended at noon with a brown bag lunch and discussion called a “feedbag and feedback” session.  St. Paul’s, Marysville members have begun volunteering at the Marshall County Food Pantry every Thursday afternoon, and they added a volunteer stint at the local recycling center in early April.  St. Michael’s, Mission expanded on the usual Maundy Thursday foot washing by collecting clean, new socks for the homeless throughout Holy Week.

Those who are homeless often suffer from foot problems because of the lack of opportunities for proper hygiene.

Photo by Anne Patterson

Lawrence church marks Earth Day Ellyn Owen (above, left) a member of the Environmental Stewardship Team at Trinity, Lawrence, and about 20 fellow parishioners marched in that city’s downtown Earth Day parade April 16.

Members of the group, along with other parishioners, made signs after church on April 10. The group also sponsored an informational booth after the parade.

The worldwide observance of Earth Day was April 22. 

Members of Trinity, El Dorado, walk the church’s labyrinth after it was completed in 2010.

El Dorado church offers labyrinth to all Trinity, El Dorado, has extended an invitation to members of other churches in the diocese who might be in the area to stop by and walk the labyrinth at the church, located at 400 West Ash. The 38-foot walking path, designed to offer participants a time of reflection and centering prayer, was completed in May 2010.

The church is readily accessible from the Kansas Turnpike or Highway 254, and people may stop and walk at their convenience, day or night, or phone ahead for a group facilitator.

The church’s phone number is (316) 321-6606. 

ing for a mission trip to Puerto Rico in July. To raise funds they sponsored a typical Puerto Rican dinner May 1 at the church.  St. John’s, Parsons did a major basement clean-up on March 6, with workers rewarded with hot dogs and hamburgers provided by Mike Scarborough.  St. Peter’s, Pittsburg recently received word that its ministry effort at Pittsburg State University has received a grant of $1,200 from the diocesan campus ministry committee.  St. Luke’s, Shawnee is set to explore the much-talked-about book by Pastor Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, during its Wednesday Noon Refresher Group. After discussion participants will share a brown-bag lunch and conclude with Noonday Prayers.

 St. Matthew’s, Newton is taking reservations for plots in the parish’s community garden.

They measure 20 by 30 feet, are free, and provide access to water, shared tools, and some community herbs and perennials. Each gardener is required to spend six hours each season in community garden spaces.

 St. Clare’s, Spring Hill received a new set of banners for its worship space, thanks to graphic artist Nicholas Traub, whose parents are members of the congregation. One of the floor-to-ceiling banners depicts the Nativity, and the other features St. Clare and a prayer she wrote.

 St. Aidan’s, Olathe went door-to-door April 16 to invite neighbors to Easter services.

Members delivered a copy of the New Testament along with an information card.

 Grace Cathedral, Topeka will field a co-rec City League softball team this summer, designed for young adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s. The team will play a 12-game season starting in mid-May.

 Grace, Ottawa hosted a Mardi Gras party on Shrove Tuesday, complete with dinner, fun, games and friends.

 St. David’s, Topeka observed St. David’s Day March 6. To honor their Welsh patron saint, lunch included Welsh beef stew, as well as fettuccine alfredo. Parishioners filled in with side dishes and desserts.

 St. Thomas, Overland Park youth group members are prepar-

 St. Luke’s, Wamego youth Olivia Divish, Laurina Hannan and Luke Hannan are raising money to attend this summer’s triennial Episcopal Youth Event in Minnesota by preparing dinners each week after the 9:30 a.m. service.  Good Shepherd, Wichita hosted “Tea for Tinies” May 1 to raise money for a revamped nursery at the church. Tickets provided participants with a meal and the chance to see plans for the nursery project.  St. Bartholomew’s, Wichita received help in April with its “New to Me” clothing give-away room, thanks to the local Glen Park youth group and the Mead Middle School ROTC. Students helped sort clothing by season, to ready the room for spring and summer needs.  St. James’, Wichita is collecting personal hygiene products in a “head to toe” outreach effort.

Everything from shampoo to soap, along with toilet paper and baby products, were solicited, to be distributed by a local ecumenical hygiene pantry.  St. Stephen’s, Wichita offers a “whispering table” in its worship space to keep young churchgoers busy during services. They can color children’s bulletins or play with pipe cleaners or other soft objects, with the understanding they don’t speak above a whisper, to allow others to hear.  Grace, Winfield gave bags of snacks, including raisins, pretzels and cookies, to the women’s basketball team from Southwestern College as they left for the NAIA national tournament in Sioux Falls, Iowa. Good luck wishes were written on each bag. 

March/April 2011 • The Harvest • 9

People Episcopal agencies announce new leaders

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Photo by Melodie Woerman

Artist Makoto Fujimura stands with a print of his painting that depicts the gospel of John, which is hanging in the gallery at Grace Cathedral, Topeka. Fujimura offered the Tocher Lecture May 5 and addressed a seminar that afternoon.

Art and faith can rehumanize culture Tocher lecturer calls church to ‘consider the lilies’

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

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he need to rehumanize culture, and the role the arts and the church play in it, was the focus of a seminar by noted artist Makoto Fujimura as part of the Tocher Lecture series May 5 at Grace Cathedral in Topeka.

Fujimura is also a writer and speaker who has been recognized by faith-based and secular media for his influence on modern culture.

In his remarks to an afternoon discussion session that preceded his public lecture that evening, Fujimura said that today’s culture promotes fear and division, and its essence itself is starting to be called into question.

“Institutional realities no longer can be counted on,” he said, calling its ephemeral nature “liquid reality.”

He reminded his listeners of how frequently news headlines use the term “unprecedented” to describe events. “There are unprecedented shifts in every sphere,” he said, exemplified by recent events in Japan — an earthquake that spawned a giant tsunami that created disasters at nuclear power plants.

So, he asked, if things are being washed away, what do you do?

His answer was to return to the familiar world of our senses, made manifest in artistic expression. Art, he said, should offer goodness, truth and beauty to the world.

That means that “the arts are not a peripheral luxury for the elite few but a cultural necessity.”

Consider the lilies And that is where art and faith intersect, he said, using Matthew 6 as an example. Jesus tells his followers to not be anxious but instead to “consider the lilies

of the field.” It is in the beauty expressed by the lilies, Fujimura said, that Jesus’ disciples will find peace.

It is the role of artists always to consider the lilies, he said, and to help others to see that “even in the panic and fear we see every day, we have to practice considering the lilies.”

Fujimura, an active member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, said the only way to overcome society’s fragmentation is to collaborate with one another, and the church can foster that understanding.

“One thing we should be very good about is knowing we need each other,” he said. “We have a paradigm for love and generosity that the world doesn’t have.”

The collaboration of the Christian community “would be a great witness” to the fragmentation of the world, he said.

The creativity expressed by art is inherent in the life of faith, he said, noting that the Bible is filled with descriptions of God’s creative actions.

Fujimura said that the church often depicts God’s kingdom as a wedding feast, “which means it will be filled with music, dancing, art and food.”

Interpreting the gospels Fujimura recently created five large paintings — one for each of the four gospels and a fifth as his interpretation of them — in honor of the 400th anniversary of the printing of the King James Bible.

Using his technique of applying dozens of layers of paint and ground minerals to handmade paper, he created abstract interpretations of the gospels. 39-by-46 inch prints of them are on display in the cathedral’s cloister gallery, and to those who heard him speak it would be no surprise that his “Matthew” painting was titled, “Consider the Lilies.” 

wo diocesan institutions recently and executive director of Episcopal Comannounced the hiring of new leaders. munity Services in Kansas City on Jan. 1.

Episcopal Social Services in Wichita Before that he had served the agency as diand Episcopal Community Services in Kan- rector of community relations and marketsas City provide services to the poor and ing. He also has been a volunteer with ECS also offer opportunities for Episcopalians and the Kansas City Community Kitchen to serve others. for nearly 20 years. He has Dr. Barbara Andres is worked in management for the new executive director several major corporations, of Episcopal Social Serincluding Sony and United vices in Wichita, effective Telecom.

May 1. Andres’ involveHe is a member or chair of ment with ESS dates back many groups addressing hunto 1987, before she became ger relief and homelessness, the founding executive direcincluding the Greater Kansas tor of Breakthrough Club in City Food Policy Coalition, 1993. She retired from the the Mid-America Assistance Breakthrough organization Coalition, the Homeless Serin 2010 after 16 years of vices Coalition of Greater Dr. Barb Andres service. She currently provides Kansas City and the Greater strategic planning, leadership development Kansas City Homelessness Task Force. and fundraising consulting for nonprofits in He is a graduate of Rockhurst College Kansas, Iowa, New Jersey and New York. with a concentration in communications Andres holds a Ph.D. from Capella and psychology.

University, Minneapolis, Minn., in human He succeeds Jay Lehnertz, who retired services: nonprofit management; a M.S.W. on Dec. 31. from the University of Kansas in clinical ECS and its Episcopal Hunger Relief social work; and a B.S. from Mid-America Network brings the public, private and faith Nazarene University, Olathe, in psychology sectors together to address issues of povand mathematics. erty. They provide more than 500 meals a Andres succeeds Sandra Lyon, who died day through the Community Kitchen, serve in September 2010. breakfast to more than 200 people every In 2010, ESS provided assistance to Saturday at St. Paul’s in Kansas City, Kan., more than 1,500 unemployed individuals, support more than a dozen hot meal and 300 clients with mental illness and 400 at- food pantry programs in Episcopal churches risk youth. The agency also served 24,893 on both sides of the state line, assist seniors hot meals through the Food Outreach Pro- through Meals on Wheels deliveries, and gram. ESS has 16 employees and more than help hungry school children through the 160 volunteers.

BackSnack program in conjunction with John Hornbeck took over as president Harvesters. 

Iola acolyte picks Air Force Academy

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harles Apt, an acolyte at St. Timothy’s, Iola, will attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs starting this fall. He picked that academy over the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he also was accepted.

Apt, a senior at Iola High School, hopes to train as a pilot or a medic assigned to rescue operations after he completes his five-year course of study and is commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He has been the parish’s only acolyte for the past five years and is described by the Rev. Janet Chubb, vicar, as “my right hand.”

He also has assisted the church’s backpack meal program by getting fellow members of his high school FFA chapter involved with weekly distribution to about 60

needy elementary school students.

In high school Apt has participated in varsity football, basketball, baseball and track. He also has been a member and officer in StuCharles Apt dent Council, FFA, Future Business Leaders of America and Students Against Destructive Decisions.

He also served as an ambassador for the Link Crew mentoring program. He has been a member of the Iola High School Singers select ensemble and represented his school as a delegate to Boys’ State.

He is the son of Chuck and Mary Apt. 

Clergy news The Rev. Gail Davis began her ministry as interim rector of Immanuel Episcopal Church in San Angelo, Texas, on April 1. She previously was rector of Grace, Ottawa.

The Rev. Dale Plummer has concluded his ministry as rector of the Church of the Covenant in Junction City, effective May 1.

Two May graduates from Virginia Theological Seminary who will be ordained deacons in June have been named to their future posts. Patrick Funston will become the new chaplain at Bishop Seabury Academy in Lawrence, a diocesan parochial school for grades 7-12, in early July. Peter Doddema has accepted a call to become deacon-in-charge of St. Philip’s, Harrodsburg, Ky., in the Diocese of Lexington, beginning in July.

The Very Rev. R. Steve Lipscomb, dean of Grace Cathedral, Topeka, in March was named by Bishop Dean Wolfe as the dean of the Northwest Convocation.

The Rev. R. Jack Bunday, who was rector of St. Andrew’s, Emporia, from 1972 to 1984, died Feb. 26 in Milwaukee. Bunday, who was 91, had been a priest for 65 years. 

10 • The Harvest • March/April 2011

National and international news Anglican news briefs Episcopal News Service  Simultaneous Canadian, U.S. liturgies mark 10th anniversary of full communion. U.S. Episcopalians, Canadian Anglicans and Lutherans in both countries came together May 1 to honor the 10th anniversaries of their denominations’ declarations of full communion. Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, Anglican Church in Canada Archbishop Fred Hiltz and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada National Bishop Susan Johnson participated in unique simultaneous liturgies on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. Johnson presided and Jefferts Schori preached at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Fort Erie, Ontario. Hanson presided and Hiltz preached at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Buffalo. The celebrations included elements of the worship services of the four denominations.  Anglicans play central role at historic royal wedding. An estimated 2 billion people around the world tuned in on April 29 to watch the historic royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, a ceremony infused with British pageantry and steeped in elements of Anglicanism, past, present and future. Inside the abbey, the Very Rev. John Hall, dean of Westminster, conducted the service according to a 1966 version of the liturgy of matrimony from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, while Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, as head of the officially established Church of England, presided over the royal wedding and solemnized the marriage. The Anglican leaders of Scotland, Ireland and Wales were among the 2,000 guests also to attend the ceremony, alongside representatives from other faith traditions.  Aid urgently needed for victims of post-election violence in Nigeria. The team leader at the Centre for Gospel Health and Development in Jos, Nigeria, has warned that blankets, mattresses and medical care are urgently needed for victims of post-election violence in Jos. The Ven. Noel Bewarang, who is also a steering group member of the Anglican Communion’s Anglican Alliance, said that about 3,000 people, mostly Christians, had been attacked in Toro, Tilden Fulani and Magaman Gumau in Bauchi state. Risking his own safety to go into the affected communities, he saw homes destroyed by fire and spoke to some of the people affected by the violence. Violence in Jos erupted on April 18 as the results of the presidential elections were announced.  Church of England says attendance is growing at cathedrals. The Church of England released statistics on May 5 showing that weekly attendance at its 43 cathedrals rose by 7 percent in 2010. The report showed that more than 3,150 specially arranged services were conducted by cathedrals in 2010 and they attracted almost 1 million people. Regular services attracted 2 million people, while 1.63 million attended about 5,150 public/civil events. About 15,800 adults and 3,100 children and young people attend Sunday services at cathedrals, while over the whole week the figures rise (by 73 percent) to 27,400 and 7,600 respectively.  Vintage Canadian Anglican church to sell vintage wines.

The 19th-century St. Matthew’s Anglican Church was moved by ferry from its original site in Walton, Nova Scotia, to Newport Landing in the Annapolis Valley, where it will become a wine store. Vintners Stewart Creaser and Lorraine Vassalo bought the church for the same price paid in 1837 by its original congregation — $1.67 — to house their new wine store. They had learned that the simple-yet-elegant church was scheduled for the wrecking ball. It closed its doors to a congregation of just four people and underwent deconsecration in 2008.  Titus Presler appointed principal of Edwardes College in Peshawar, Pakistan. The former dean of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, the Rev. Dr. Titus Presler, has been appointed principal of Edwardes College in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Presler began his duties May 1 at the century-old college of 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Church Missionary Society founded Edwardes High School, the first educational institution in the region, in 1853, and expanded it to establish the college in 1900. It continues as an institution of the Diocese of Peshawar, one of eight dioceses of the Church of Pakistan, which was formed in 1970 from the union of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans. 

Kansas deputies respond to Anglican Covenant

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eputies to General Convention from the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas have responded to a request from church leaders to offer thoughts about the proposed Anglican Covenant (the statement is printed below).

In it, they object to the proposal’s fourth section, calling it “inconsistent with our traditional understanding of covenants, as reflected in the marriage covenant or the baptismal covenant.”

The Anglican Covenant first was proposed in the 2004 Windsor Report as a way that the communion and its 38 autonomous provinces might maintain unity despite differences, especially relating to biblical interpretation and human sexuality issues.

Some Episcopalians , including Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and members of the Executive Council, have raised concerns about the covenant being used as an instrument of control, particularly in section 4, which outlines a method for resolving disputes in the communion.

Executive Council has predicted that formal approval of the covenant by the Episcopal Church could not come until at least 2015 should endorsement require changes to the church’s constitution.

Constitutional changes require approval by two consecutive meetings of the church’s triennial convention.

Statement from the Diocese of Kansas General Convention deputation The deputies to the 2012 General Convention from the Diocese of Kansas met to discuss the proposed Anglican Covenant. Consistent with the principles set out in resolution D025 of the Episcopal Church General Convention in 2009, we reaffirm the abiding commitment of the Episcopal Church to live in fellowship with the churches that constitute the Anglican Communion and we seek to live into the highest degree of communion possible. We desire to have the Episcopal Church participate to the fullest extent possible in the many instruments, networks and relationships of the Anglican Communion.

With this in mind, we gave prayerful consideration to the proposed Covenant. There were no major issues raised by members of the deputation regarding the first three sections of the proposed covenant.

However, the deputation does not support Section Four of the covenant, which for the first time in the history of the Anglican Communion, imposes penal-

ties or “relational consequences” against Churches in the Communion should they refuse to “defer a controversial action” deemed to be “incompatible with the Covenant.” Imposing penalties for actions or decisions deemed incompatible with the Covenant is inconsistent with our traditional understanding of covenants, as reflected in the marriage covenant or the baptismal covenant. These covenants do not include penalties or “relational consequences.” The deputation believes that the inclusion of such penalties would be antithetical to any covenantal relationship. The inclusion of penalties is consistent with a contractual or legal relationship in the secular world, not a covenantal relationship.

The Anglican Communion has grown and thrived without any need for a centralized authority or the imposition of penalties for controversial actions or decisions. The members of the Anglican Communion are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and our unity should not be imperiled because of a lack of uniformity in practices or beliefs. In the 1860s, the Episcopal Church refused to split despite strong disagreement about slavery which led to a bloody Civil War. By remaining one body during this very difficult time, we emerged a stronger, healthier and more faithful church. As Bishop Alexander stated in his book This Far by Grace, living together in tension and disagreement is always preferable to schism. Furthermore, the areas of agreement that bind us together in the Anglican Communion far exceed those areas in which we are not of one mind.

We look forward to continuing to walk together with all our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion and give thanks for our fellowship.

Lay deputies: Mr. Larry Bingham, Mr. Mike Morrow (chair), Mr. Robert Skaggs, Ms. Natalie Vanatta Lay alternates: Mr. Steven King, Ms. Teresa Rogers, Ms. Harriet Duff, Mr. Joe Mitchell Clergy deputies: The Rev. Canon Craig Loya, The Rev. Julianne Sifers, Deacon Steve Segebrecht, The Rev. Betty Glover Clergy alternates: The Rev. Gail Greenwell —Episcopal News Service also contributed to this report. 

Deacons’ group announces new name

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ssociation for Episcopal Deacons (AED) is the new name of the organization for Episcopal deacons formerly known as the North American Association for the Diaconate, or NAAD. The new name was officially adopted in March.

The Association for Episcopal Deacons is the professional association serving the approximately 2,900 deacons throughout the Episcopal Church.

According to Deacon Pamela Nesbit, newly-elected president of AED, the name was changed in order to better reflect the organization’s mission within The Episcopal Church, which is active in 16 nations around the world.

The association’s mission is to provide a broad range of informational and educational resources to deacons and those interested in or studying for the diaconate.

In addition, AED has expanded its vision to engage the diakonia

of all believers, recognizing that all Episcopalians are called by our Baptismal Covenant to serve the marginalized in Christ’s name.

Among the recent initiatives of the Association for Episcopal Deacons are: The Seven: A part-time, 10-month, hands-on spiritual and educational exploration program for young adults (18-30 years old) who want to engage in meaningful work and reflection in their communities while discerning their own vocational calls in mentored relationships with Episcopal deacons.

A Latin Experience: A program for deacons, or those in formation for the diaconate, to spend time sharing in the lives and ministries of deacons in the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic.

A Statement on Engaging the Diakonia of All Believers, based on work done by the Lutheran

World Federation in a statement titled Prophetic Diakonia: For the Healing of the World. As the Association expands in the way it encourages the diakonia of all believers, the Board has endorsed this statement as one for the whole church to engage.

The statement urges all members of the Body of Christ to recognize the ways in which they are called to Christ-like service.

A Domestic Poverty Initiative is mobilizing interested deacons and others to create and expand local programs to combat poverty through the sharing of information and resources. This is the Association’s response to Resolution A155 from the 2009 General Convention.

The Association maintains a website at www.diakonai.org and also publishes a journal, Diakoneo, and an online newsletter, Deacon Update, which are available through the website. 

March/April 2011 • The Harvest • 11

Church’s tornado relief efforts continue in Alabama

By Mary Frances Schjonberg Episcopal News Service

T

he Episcopal Diocese of Alabama is helping its members and neighbors recover from the late-April series of tornadoes that blew up across the southern United States.

Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama made a daylong visit to Tuscaloosa May 1. He delivered emergency relief funds to Christ Episcopal Church, St. Matthias' Episcopal Church and Canterbury Chapel on the University of Alabama campus for use in meeting the urgent needs of parishioners and members of the wider community affected by the storms.

Parsley participated in morning worship services at Christ Church and evening services at Canterbury Chapel, the only diocesan facility known to have sustained damage from the storms.

The Ven. David Drachlis, diocesan disaster officer, said that the chapel’s roof was damaged when early straight-line winds in advance of the main storm blew a tree down.

University students help Despite that damage and a resulting lost of power and phone service, Canterbury members began early on to organize students who wanted to help with relief efforts.

On April 28, their Twitter feed said, “We do not have power or phone but are available for shelter to those in need. Will try to provide food later today. Gas kitchen!” Canterbury members also began going out of Tuscaloosa to help in surrounding counties.

Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Guntersville began feeding recovery workers, Drachlis said, adding

Photo by David Drachlis, Diocese of Alabama

People volunteering to help with tornado relief in Tuscaloosa, Ala., came May 1 to St. Matthias Episcopal Church, which is serving as a staging area. Forty-five congregations and 13 denominations came together in the Compassion Coalition to organize the effort.

that several parishes throughout the state are collection points for relief supplies.

A group of Episcopalians from the Birmingham area delivered water, clothing and toiletries to the impoverished rural Sawyerville area of Hale county — home of the diocese’s Sawyerville Day Camp ministry — soon after the storm.

Homes there were destroyed and four lives were reported lost, according to Drachlis.

“And the list goes on,” he said.

In an April 29 letter to the diocese, Parsley said, “The reports of so many deaths, injuries, and widespread destruction are heartrending.”

“We pray particularly for those families who have lost loved

ones and those who are homeless,” he wrote. “It appears that our diocesan churches were not badly damaged, although some of our parishioners and clergy did suffer significant damage to their homes.”

Parish hosts volunteers While in Tuscaloosa, Parsley inspected tornado-damaged areas of the city and visited the Spontaneous Volunteer Coordination center established in the St. Matthias’ parish hall.

Staffed in large part by St. Matthias’ parishioners, the center is being operated by Compassionate Coalition, a group of area faith-based organizations that have joined together to work with Tuscaloosa County Volunteer Or-

ganizations Active in Disaster, the Tuscaloosa County Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross to meet countywide needs after disasters, the diocesan news story said.

To date, the St. Matthias’ center has processed more than 4,000 volunteers, Betty Hust, a member of the St. Matthias’ vestry and the Compassionate Coalition board of directors, said.

The center is fielding volunteers in response to emergency needs articulated by the Tuscaloosa mayor’s office.

The volunteers’ work has included chain saw crews, triage teams that go door to door checking on the needs of residents in damaged areas and transport crews to deliver relief supplies to

the field, the diocese said.

Within two hours of St. Matthias opening up as a headquarters for volunteer coordination in Tuscaloosa to help with disaster relief efforts, 745 people came out to lend a hand, according to the website of Crimson White, the University of Alabama student newspaper.

Mobilization Chair Nancy Green said 45 congregations and 13 denominations came together in the coalition, the web story said.

“One of the biggest things we need is debris pickup,” Hust said at that time. “But we also have chain saw crews, medical aid crews, transportation groups and organizational crews.”

St. Matthias also accepted cash and food donations, especially bottled water.

“The steady output of volunteers is hopefully good for the community,” Green said. “I feel our community is greatly blessed in talent, resources and people. We are very sorry for the people who have been impacted.”

Massive storm kills 65 The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado, one of an estimated 362 tornadoes that were spawned by storms April 25-28, caused at least 65 deaths, the National Weather Service said, and had a maximum width of 1.5 miles and a track 80 miles long.

The agency's Birmingham office said May 2 that the tornado was an EF-4, the second-highest designation of strength, with peak winds of up to 190 miles an hour.

The most recent wave of destructive weather comes after storms barreled through the Southeast over the weekend of April 16.

The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.

Japanese church helps areas hit hard by quake, tsunami Note: The following report was sent to the Anglican News Service on April 15 by Shinya Yawata, the International Secretary of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Anglican Church in Japan.

T

he overall impact of earthquake and tsunami according to the government has been:  Death: about 13,200 people  Missing: about 14,300 people  Displaced: about 167,000 people  Totally demolished homes: 52,800 homes Most damage has been caused by the tsunami rather than earthquake itself. In addition we are facing the potential impact of nuclear radiation caused by malfunction of the nuclear power plant. We are experiencing many aftershocks with some of them causing more damage to already weakened structures.

Except in a few places the structural damage to churches and related institutions in the diocese of Tohoku and Kita Kanto is relatively minor. I can report that, miraculously, the tsunami did very little damage to buildings.

In Tohoku diocese Sendai Christ Church building was badly damaged by the earth-

quake and not the tsunami, although parts of the city of Sendai along the coastal line were destroyed by the tsunami.

The church building has been designated as unsafe. Therefore services have been held in the parish hall.

All other churches in Tohoku diocese have avoided damage from the tsunami because they are located far enough from the shore or on higher ground. They have, however, suffered varying levels of earthquake damage, including cracked or fallen walls and windows, damaged ceilings, broken furniture, etc. None are totally demolished.

Many churches in Tohoku diocese have kindergartens attached. Some of the parents of the children who attend these report that they have lost their homes, shops, stores and farmland.

One person in the diocese was killed and two are still missing. All three are lay members of the church. None of the clergy were lost.

In Kita Kanto diocese two church buildings were badly damaged. St. Stephen’s Church in Mito city lost its bell tower. It was so badly damaged that it had to be torn down immediately for safety reasons. The church building of St. Andrew’s Church in Hitachi city has a damaged ceiling, cracked/

fallen walls, cracks on ground, etc. Few others have suffered damage but none have been totally destroyed. There are no reports of human casualties in Kita Kanto diocese.

Several dioceses within NSKK have started providing pastoral care for Anglicans by regularly sending out their clergy, and this applies to both parishes and attached kindergartens. At the time of this calamity the diocese of Tohoku had nine ordained personnel including one from Anglican Church of Korea, plus one bishop to cover vast area of six prefectures.

In addition a couple of more churches will be receiving clergy from dioceses of Yokohama and Tokyo.

Thus far, the major area of relief work for affected people is supplying food and necessary goods for daily life, such as cooking fuel, clean towels, clothing, etc.

As already reported on the Anglican Communion News Service, supplies of food have been delivered to elderly people by an ecumenical group based at St. Timothy Church in Onahama, Iwaki-shi. Personnel from three dioceses in Kansai, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto dioceses, are travelling to the area to assist with that initiative.

In Kamaishi city where the tsunami caused widespread devastation, there is

one church, Grace Church, Kamaishi with a nursery school attached. This location will become a very important focal point for local community services.

This site will become a safe place for children, and mental care will be provided for children whose parent(s) have been lost. To do this Tohoku diocese will receive personnel assistance from the diocese of Hokkaido. At the moment food supplies are the priority but, as with St. Timothy Church in Onahama, the nature of the relief work will eventually change when food becomes more widely available.

Currently all these activities are responses to immediate needs. Until things change the Provincial Office will focus on providing care where and when it is required. However, at a Provincial-level meeting, staff there, along with other diocesan representatives, agreed to establish a task force located in Sendai. This team will conduct a needs assessment to identify where NSKK should focus its efforts.

Following a recommendation from the task force, an implementation team will be established. All this will, however, take some time to carry out.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. 

12 • The Harvest • March/April 2011

Reflections on faith and life

Sharing the Good News

Celebrate Easter its full 50 days By the Rev. Craig Loya

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May 2011 15 Bishop Wolfe at Trinity, Lawrence 17 Council of Trustees meeting, Grace Cathedral, Topeka

June 2011 3

Bishop Wolfe preaches at ordinations of the Central States Synod, ELCA, Kansas City

4

Southwest Convocation meeting, St. Matthew’s Newton

5

Mega Camp, Camp Wood YMCA, Elmdale, grades 3-12 (through June 11)

11 Ordination to the Diaconate of Oliver Bunker, Elizabeth Drumm, Peter Doddema and Patrick Funston, Grace Cathedral, Topeka; reception following 12 Pentecost. Bishop Wolfe at Grace Cathedral, Topeka 14 Conference: “Local Formation and the Missional Church,” a conference sponsored by the Diocese of Kansas for representatives of Province 6 and 7 involved in theological formation, Savior Pastoral Center, Kansas City (through June 16) 18 Northeast Convocation meeting, St. Aidan’s, Olathe 19 Bishop Wolfe at St. Paul’s, Kansas City 21 Council of Trustees meeting, Grace Cathedral, Topeka 22 Episcopal Youth Event, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minn. (through June 26) 24 Vocationers’ Weekend (through June 25) Commission on Ministry meeting

For the latest news of the diocese, full calendar listings and more, visit the diocesan website: www.episcopal-ks.org.

Follow the diocese on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EpiscopalDioceseofKansas and on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EpiscoKS

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or the church, this is, in fact, still Easter. Easter is not meant to be just one sunny Sunday, marked by a hearty meal and pastel hues, but it is, rather, a full season of feasting.

Each one of the Great 50 Days of Easter ought to be marked and celebrated as Easter.

We are called during this season to find some way, every day, to celebrate and feast.

And if you really think about it, this makes a lot of sense.

Easter is the central event of our faith. Christ lived, really lived, like each one of us is alive.

Then Christ died, really died, like so many of our loved ones have died and like we, too, will one day die.

Then the unthinkable, the unexpected, the unimaginable happened: Christ was alive again, really alive — physically and spiritually, but also changed and transformed. Christ was alive in such a way that he can never die again.

This resurrection is a preview and a foretaste of what God has in store for all of us, all of our loved ones, and indeed, the whole creation and cosmos at the last day, and it is our assurance that God will do it.

It means that God’s victory of life and love has defeated all that

tries to break down and destroy ourselves,” (Book of Common God’s children: the forces of ha- Prayer, 218), but Easter reminds tred, violence, vengeance, sickus that God does, God has and ness and death. In this way the God will. resurrection transforms how we We celebrate this great and experience this life, even as in so joyful fact for a full 50 days, many ways, we walk through the because learning what it means valley of the shadow of death. to live in the light of the resurThe resurrection is now the rection takes practice. light by which It takes us 40 we live our days of Lent to It takes us 40 days lives, and sharreally learn that of Lent to really learn we cannot save ing the news of that we cannot save ourselves or our it is the main ourselves or our reason we do evworld, and it erything we do takes 50 days of world, and it takes in the Church.

50 days of Easter for Easter for us to That’s worth us to be gripped and be gripped and celebrating, vigtransformed by transformed by the orously, for at the fact that God fact that God can. least 50 days. can.

In the church, So what is we tend to do a your Easter dispretty good job of observing the cipline this year? How are you fast of Lent. We know how to finding some way, every day, examine what inside of us needs to celebrate and to feast? Jesus’ to be cleared out in order to alfinal command to us was to go low more room for God to work and make disciples. in and through us.

We can only convince others We’re usually pretty good at to follow Jesus when our own knowing what we need to turn lives shine with the light of resaround and make right in our urrection hope and joy, and that lives. But I think we tend to not can only happen when we’ve be so good at keeping the feast feasted on Easter’s life-changing of Easter, where for 50 days abundance. we are called to steep ourselves The Rev. Craig Loya is canon in the unimaginable joy of the to the ordinary for the Episcopal resurrection.

Diocese of Kansas.

Lent reminds us that, as The Great Fifty Days run the collect puts it, “We have from Easter, April 24, through no power in ourselves to help Pentecost, June 12. 

Diocesan Calendar

The mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas is to gather, equip and send disciples of Jesus Christ to witness to God’s reconciling love.