Inside The Harvest From the Presiding Bishop
Preaching at the dedication of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said the school’s namesake was an advocate for local education. Page 2
Bishop Kemper School
The creation of the Bishop Kemper School was highlighted in various ways during the visit from the Presiding Bishop on Oct. 5. Page 3
Priest recalls Holy Land trip The Rev. Helen Hoch describes the power of her first visit to the Holy Land earlier this year, with a request for those interested in making a pilgrimage there. Page 4
Combined services
How do you create fellowship and community between two different congregations or between various services within one parish? You bring everyone together for worship and fun. Page 4
Convention awards
Outstanding ministry in the diocese was recognized with three special annual awards during the banquet during Diocesan Convention. Page 7
Blessing of the Animals
Diocesan Convention hears calls to cross frontiers, be with the poor ministry in Kenya and Haiti, and in showing hospitality to people to our communities from other counties — Burmese refugees being settled in Wichita through the Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry, and Latino worshippers who are welcomed at St. Paul’s, Kansas City. Undergirding these efforts is education at the new Bishop Kemper School for Ministry, a non-profit corporation owned jointly by four Midwestern dioceses, including the Diocese of Kansas, that provides local education for lay leaders and those seeking ordination as priests and deacons. He also asked for ongoing support for new school facilities at the proposed diocesan Leadership Center. He said, “Great things aren’t accomplished with small commitment, grudging support, lukewarm enthusiasm. We’ve got to take a risk. We have to leave home.”
By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest
Clergy and lay delegates to the 154th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas heard a call from Bishop Dean E. Wolfe to take risks to step beyond the “frontiers of faith,” the convention’s theme, to engage the people around us. Bishop Wolfe made his annual address as part of his sermon at the convention Eucharist. Keynote speaker Bishop Stacy Sauls followed that with two addresses in which he said the church is entering a time free of the captivity of modern culture and is ripe for mission, but only if the church rememPhoto by Deacon Bob Hirst bers that it is called to be with the poor. Bishop Stacy Sauls offers one of two Bishop Sauls is the chief operating of- keynote addresses to the 154th Annual ficer of The Episcopal Church. Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of In his address, Bishop Wolfe said that Kansas. the earliest followers of Jesus had to leave the comforts of home to be obedient to God’s call. That same Giving up power and being with the poor In the first of his two addresses to the convention, Bishop willingness to step beyond “the settled edges of our faith in Sauls said that the church today exists in a time when we can Kansas” can help the church reach out. He said that early pioneers who brought the gospel to the remember who we truly are and “free ourselves from cultural prairie encountered many hardships, but they did not “encounter domination for the first time in a long, long time.” He said that a more challenging context for ministry than the materialistic, when Christianity became the established religion of the Rosecularistic and individualistic contexts that currently challenge man Empire under Constantine, it “forgot who it was and made a compromise with power.” The church, he said, “forgot about us.” He called Kansas Episcopalians to take a risk and share their God” and instead concentrated on power, privilege and prestige. faith perspectives “on the frontiers of injustice and inequality.” (Please see Convention, page 6) He said international frontiers are being crossed with
Camels and spaniels and fish — oh my! Those were just a few of the animals that were blessed during St. Francis Day services in parishes around the diocese. Page 7
Food pantries see big jump in need
Around the diocese
By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest
Participants “Got vergers?” and a Wellington church has a new sign — just a few of the many activities taking place in congregations across the diocese. Page 8
Faithful servant
Deacon Jesse Milan has been ordained to a ministry of servanthood for only seven years, but he has spent his lifetime being a servant to his students and his community. Page 9
UTO grants
Guidelines for grants from the United Thank Offering have been released, to allow those wishing to apply plenty of time to prepare. Page 10
World Council of Churches
Bishop Dean Wolfe led the delegation from The Episcopal Church to the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, the largest gathering of Christians in the world, at its meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea. Page 11
Melissa comes often to the Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry, located at Trinity, Lawrence, to help her feed her two children, a high school freshman and a fourth grader. She works a full-time job at a local school but has trouble making ends meet on what she makes. Food stamp benefits recently were cut, and she called rent prices in the college town “atrocious.” She can’t use her college degree in psychology, she said, because she can’t find any jobs that pay more than she makes now. Jennifer also works 40 hours a week, and her husband works in construction. But the seasonal nature of his job means their income is “all over the board,” and she needs help every now and then to feed them and the two foster children for whom they recently became legal guardians. “There’s not enough income for necessities like food, rent and utilities,” she said. Utilities recently became a big problem for Zenella Young. When she received a gas bill for more than $300, she had trouble paying it, and her utilities were turned off. They’re back on now, and while her old house is drafty and expensive, she’s grateful to have it. But with things “sort of tight,” she recently visited the pantry for the second time this year. Michael Eugene Mumford (he asked that his full name be used) says food help from Trinity’s pantry has a “big impact” on his life. He works at Taco Bell but he can’t get any help with medical bills, because at age 63 and without dependent children or a disability, he doesn’t (Please see Pantries, page 5)
PB visit
Photo by Melodie Woerman
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (center) stands with Bishop Kemper School dean the Very Rev. Andrew Grosso (left) and Bishop Dean Wolfe during her visit to the diocese Oct. 5-6.
Presiding Bishop’s visit celebrates start of Bishop Kemper School Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made her second visit to the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas Oct. 5-6 to mark the creation of the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry and to dedicate some of the school’s facilities. More information and photos of her visit are on page 3. v