Inside The Harvest From the presiding bishop Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in her Christmas message calls us to discover the love of God. Page 2
Hurricane Sandy response Kansas Episcopalians can provide help to those hit hard by the fall hurricane, and a Wamego priest worked in New York as a Red Cross chaplain. Page 2
E-readers for Kenya Kansas to Kenya has helped provide a library with e-readers that give 1,200 students in Maai Mahiu, Kenya, access to thousands of books electronically. Page 3
Food ministry St. Aidan’s, Olathe, has created an extensive ministry of feeding people that includes nearly 75 percent of the congregation in its work. Page 4
ADVENTure
New youth missioner is named Karen Schlabach will begin work in mid-January
our program’s success will do everything they can to support her in this crucial ministry.” Bishop Wolfe said of her, “She is a lifelong Episcopalian and a woman of deep faith. She has been a volunteer in our program for many years, and the fact that she is known so well by so many By Melodie Woerman of our youth, parents and youth leaders Editor, The Harvest will make her transition into this position much easier.” Bishop Dean Wolfe has named Karen The Youth Missioner position became Schlabach as the new Youth Missioner open last December with the resignafor the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, tion of Chad Senuta, who moved to the beginning in mid-January. She will have Diocese of Chicago. Since February responsibility for the diocesan youth Michael Funston has served as Interim program, which provides a variety of Youth Missioner. Funston said that she events for youth in grades 6 through 12 had discerned a call to a new direction in in all 46 congregations of the diocese. her ministry at this time. Bishop Wolfe said he believes SchlaKaren Schlabach is the new Youth Missioner In announcing Schlabach’s selection, bach “will make a substantial contribufor the diocese, beginning in mid-January. Bishop Wolfe thanked Funston and Senuta, tion to this storied program.” along with the Rev. Gar Demo and the Rev. He noted in announcing her selection that she had been the unanimous choice of a search committee he had formed for this Kelly Demo, all previous holders of this position, who he said had been “a witness for Christ to the youth of this diocese.” position, which solicited nominations nationwide. He said, “I expect great things from Karen, and I know the many youth, parents, volunteers and interns who contribute to (Please see Missioner, page 3)
A new youth event brought teens from across the diocese together for fun, fellowship and lessons on the history and customs of Advent. Page 5
EWARM welcomes refugees, faces money challenges
Food pantry needs grow Demands are rising on food pantries across the diocese, with increasing numbers of people seeking help, many of them children and elderly. Page 6
By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest Shannon Mahan is thrilled that the fledgling Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry is seen as such a success. Just since July, seven refugee families from Burma have been sent to Wichita to establish new lives and new homes in Kansas, with help provided by Mahan (she’s the agency’s executive director) and the volunteers who sponsor the families. She’s just learned another four families are set to arrive in January. There’s just one problem — she doesn’t have volunteer financial sponsors to help all of them, and the agency itself needs long-term funding if it’s to continue. EWARM is the newest affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries, an official Episcopal agency that partners with the U.S. government to provide homes for refugees, people who had to flee their native country because of political or religious persecution.
Around the diocese Members of St. Matthew’s, Newton, are walking from “Nazareth to Bethlehem” during Advent, Daughters of the King in Haiti have crosses thanks to a Kansas parish, and lots more news. Page 8
Loya named to task force Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Craig Loya is one of 24 people named to a select task force charged with examining all aspects of the Episcopal Church’s structures, governance and administration. Page 9
Greenwell on bishop list The Rev. Gail Greenwell, rector of St. Michael and All Angels in Mission, is one of four nominees to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. Page 9
Sandy Hook victims As Trinity Church, Newtown, Conn., buried one of the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Episcopal and Anglican leaders offered support and prayer, and called for an end to gun violence. Page 11
Photo by Richard Klein
The Rev. Dixie Junk places a rose in front of an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe at a special service Dec. 12 at St. Paul’s, Kansas City. The parish is responding to the needs of its community by offering services and events geared to Latinos.
KC church works to bridges cultures By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest The Rev. Dixie Junk has worked hard to ensure that efforts to reach out to Latinos in the neighborhood around St. Paul’s, Kansas City, have included the parish’s existing members. Those efforts are paying off, as all members of the parish entered with gusto into recent celebrations of
the Day of the Dead on Nov. 4 and a service in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12. The two events have special meaning in Latino cultures, but Junk said those of other heritages embraced them, too. In fact, she said, several longtime members said the Guadalupe remembrance “was one of the most (Please see Cultures, page 7)
Matching grant offered Mahan said the initial start-up grant that helped get EWARM off the ground has ended, leaving a hole of about $46,000 to be filled by fundraising between now and the end of September 2013. That’s hard to do, she said, when most of her time as the sole EWARM employee is spent working directly with the families. But one bright light arrived in mid-December, she said, in the form of a $7,500 grant from a private foundation that asked to remain anonymous. It also pledged another $7,500 if EWARM could match it with $7,500 of its own, raised just for this purpose. Mahan said she’d welcome donations from (Please see EWARM, page 3)