The Harvest, March-April 2012

Inside The Harvest From the bishop

Bishop Wolfe describes how a threemonth sabbatical he’ll take this year will help usher in the third phase of his episcopacy. Page 2

Conference center renovations start, thanks to Crossroads campaign

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

W

Convention deadlines

Aug. 15 is the deadline for nominations for offices to be elected at diocesan convention, along with proposed debatable resolutions and changes to the diocesan constitution or canons. Page 4

EWARM

The Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministries is seeking volunteer help for a variety of tasks before they can help resettle refugees from Burma. Page 4

Cathedral murals

Murals that had been in storage for more than 50 years were uncovered in March at Grace Cathedral, Topeka, revealing panels depicting the Ascension and adoring angels. Page 5

Community garden

St. Paul’s, Kansas City, is preparing to plant a garden on its property to serve the neighborhood and those who use the church’s food pantry and Saturday morning breakfast. Page 6

Women’s ordination

Thirty years ago the first woman was ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. Several women who have served here in that time reflect on their experience as priests. Page 7

Around the diocese

Read how people across the diocese helped girls in south central Kansas go to their high school prom and about the first baptism in the diocese’s newest congregation. Page 8

St. Stephen’s, Wichita

To help the church celebrate its 50th anniversary, one of the founding members who now is the vicar of Trinity, Wall Street, is coming home to preach. Page 9

Ordinations

Six people from across the diocese will be ordained to the diaconate in a morning service June 2 at Grace Cathedral, Topeka. Page 9

Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has announced that he is stepping down at the end of the year to take over as Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge. Page 11

Photo by Melodie Woerman

Bishop Dean Wolfe on April 14 helps break a hole in a potion of a wall that will be removed as part of renovations at the Bethany Place Conference Center in Topeka. The upgrade of the center into a 20-bed facility to accommodate students at the Kansas School for Ministry comes from donations made to the Crossroads campaign.

Bishop urges study of samegender blessings

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

B

ishop Dean Wolfe on March 15 urged clergy in charge of parishes to spend time between now and July’s General Convention talking with their congregations about the possibility that trial liturgies to bless same-gender unions will be authorized by that body.

In addition to his message, Bishop Wolfe offered a variety of materials to help clergy engage in such a discussion, including a one-day curriculum, extra resources, and theological statements prepared by an advisory group he appointed last fall and by diocesan Canon Theologian the Rev. Andrew Grosso.

His message was prompted by the release of a proposed trial liturgy for such a blessing by the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, to be debated at General Convention when it meets in Indianapolis July 5-12.

The commission was responding to a mandate from the 2009 General Convention to create such a rite.

Bishop Wolfe said that while nothing has been decided yet, it seemed to him to be “prudent to prepare for the likelihood that some form of trial liturgies will be approved.”

He said acting as though nothing is happening on this matter would be the “easiest but least helpful thing we can do” (Please see Blessings, page 4)

ith one big swing of an ax, Bishop Dean Wolfe helped poke a hole in a wall to mark the beginning of the renovations of the Bethany Place Conference Center, made possible by contributions to the Crossroads capital campaign. The ceremony was dubbed a “plaster breaking” instead of a groundbreaking because most of the work will be to interior spaces.

The event took place on Saturday, April 14 and was attended by about 40 people, including students at the Kansas School for Ministry and those involved with the Crossroads efforts. The school currently is based at the conference center.

The renovations will provide sleeping space for 20 people, up from the 12 beds currently available. Two additional bathrooms will be added, and all the interior spaces will be refurbished and upgraded.

The living and dining rooms will provide common space for students and others using the building for meetings or retreats.

(Please see Center, page 3)

Good Friday:

one building, two faiths Jewish Seder and Holy Week service share space at St. Thomas the Apostle in Overland Park

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

F

or many Jews, Good Friday has meant centuries of anti-Semitic backlash from Christians centered on the day Jesus was crucified.

But this year, for the people of Temple Israel of Greater Kansas City, it meant a welcome return to St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Overland Park, which offered them a place to meet when the congregation first was formed and where friendships blossomed.

This year marked a rare occurrence when Good Friday and the first day of Passover fell on the same day. So while the Episcopal congregation was in the church marking the solemn events around Jesus’ death, the Jewish congregation was in the parish hall hailing the defeat of Pharaoh and the deliverance of the Jewish people.

A friendship is born

The Rev. Gar Demo, St. Thomas’ rector, and Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, Temple Israel’s leader, got to know each other when they jointly officiated at a wedding. They quickly struck up

Photo by Melodie Woerman

The congregations led by the Rev. Gar Demo (left) and Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn shared space on Good Friday, April 6, at St. Thomas in Overland Park, where Demo is the rector.

a friendship, based in their shared occupations as religious professionals and children of similar ages.

When Cukierkorn organized his new Reform congregation a little over a year ago, they found themselves without a place for weekly worship services. He asked Demo if they might use St. Thomas, and (Please see Building, page 6)

2 • The Harvest • March/April 2012

From the Bishop

The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe

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

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

Sabbatical prepares for third phase of episcopacy

D

ear Friends, This has been a busy month around the diocese, and a variety of our mission initiatives are moving at full speed. There is also a great deal of energy in parishes this Eastertide, and many of our congregations are now planning or implementing exhilarating new ventures in ministry.

We have “broken the plaster” and started work on the overnight accommodations facility for the Kansas School for Ministry, which we hope to have completed in time for our next diocesan convention. We are signing up campers and volunteers left and right for MegaCamp, our extraordinary summer camping program for youth in grades 3 through 12.

There are new initiatives in our Campus Ministries programs including “thelo,” an exciting summer mission program in Wichita for college students.

And the Finance Committee, the Council of Trustees and I have been hard at work in evaluating options for restructuring the diocesan staff to maximize our abilities to accomplish our mission while staying within our resources.

New initiatives started

In fact, we have kept a pretty constant pace since I arrived in Kansas in 2003. The diocesan staff has run flat out for long periods of time, often working without a full staff as we made transitions and combined positions.

In the first phase of my episcopate, we dealt with the extremely difficult loss of Christ Church, Overland Park, and we did a great deal of work strengthening relations between parishes and the diocese. We recruited fresh diocesan staff members and initiated an innovative campus ministries program, renovated the Canterbury House at KU, continued an excellent youth program, started energetic stewardship and development initiatives, and laid the groundwork for a new church plant in Johnson County.

We also started the Kansas to Kenya mission, the largest and most effective international mission program the diocese has ever attempted.

Second phase was active

In the second phase of my time in Kansas, we began the Crossroads initiative, a bold venture to build up and endow the Kansas School for Ministry. We navigated the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and still raised an astonishing $3.3 million to address the most pressing crisis currently facing the Episcopal Church in Kansas: the formation and training of excellent lay and ordained leadership.

We started new discernment programs for those considering Holy Orders, continued to recruit outstanding deacons and priests for the diocese, and a variety of parishes successfully completed capital campaigns of their own.

I was elected Vice President of the House of Bishops, the highest office held by a Bishop of Kansas in our 153-year history. I don’t say this to be prideful but rather to acknowledge that it is the creative and adaptive ministries you have helped initiate throughout our diocese that placed me in the position to be selected for such an honor.

Sabbatical planned

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas has gained a reputation around the Episcopal Church for doing more ministries with less money than any domestic diocese in the church. I hope you sense the enormous pride I take in the sacrificial contributions lay and ordained leaders in the diocese have made in order for us to accomplish these goals.

Photo by Stephen Butler

But I would be less than honest if I said all of these accomplishments have not come without a price. An intense travel schedule outside the diocese, an intense travel schedule within the diocese, combined with a constant schedule of public events, speaking engagements and visitations, has left me feeling the need for a refueling stop.

Plans for our capital campaign trumped my plans for a planned sabbatical in 2008, and now in 2012 I am long past due for a time of refreshment, study and rest. A number of clergy have admonished me about setting a good example, and a few have reminded me, “Bishop, we can’t take our sabbaticals until you take yours.” And so I shall try to set a better example to the clergy for self-care and do so.

I realize the concept of a sabbatical evokes some skepticism and perhaps even envy among hard-working people who do not receive such benefits. I know my father, who worked on a factory floor for most of his life, could never have imagined such a luxury.

However, I would gently remind critics of clergy sabbaticals that the pressures of ministry don’t evaporate on a day off, and the necessity for clergy to be at work while others are on holiday or at rest makes it easy for clergy to fall into habits that thwart healthy, creative and productive work.

Creating substantial teaching and inspiring preaching requires a different kind of energy, and most clergy would concede that digging ditches, while much harder physically, would be a relief from the emotional demands of conflict resolution or the heart-breaking demands of responding pastorally to crisis, illness or death.

Away for three months

After General Convention this July, I will come back for a two-week period to address any issues that might arise at Convention, and then I will leave for 88 days. Canon Loya, in whom I hold such high confidence, will manage the day-today work of the diocesan staff, and the Executive Committee of the Council of Trustees will be available to advise the Canon in my absence.

Neighboring bishops have volunteered their services if needed, but I believe we will be able to manage for this brief period using resources within the diocese. I will be available for periodic consultation and will be in touch with the Canon regularly.

(Please see Bishop, page 3)

March/April 2012 • The Harvest • 3

Center: More beds, access, are part of remodel (Continued from page 1) The work is expected to be completed by early October, in time for a walk-through during Diocesan Convention, at a cost of about $400,000. It’s the first project to begin using proceeds from the $3.3 million donated to Crossroads.

Bishop Wolfe said the event filled him with pride, in part because it showed the perseverance of the people of the diocese, who launched the campaign not long after the 2008 recession hit.

“I think what this shows me and I hope it shows you,” he said, “is that there is nothing, there is nothing, that the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas and the 12,000some souls that make up this body can’t do, if you believe in God and are willing to follow God’s leading into places you’re not sure that you want to go.”

Larry Bingham, chair of the Crossroads campaign, said this initial effort was just a piece of the overall vision for KSM but represented an important first step.

“Poking a hole in this wall gets me re-energized about the school and all that it can mean for the future,” he said. “One small step for KSM, one giant leap for leadership in the diocese.”

The Rev. Andrew Grosso, the school’s coordinator, called the ceremony and the renovations it represents the “first fruits” of the commitment of the people of the diocese to KSM through the Crossroads campaign. “This development represents an important and timely step in the direction of our being able to provide the kind of comprehensive formation programs we’ve been working on for several years now,” he said. “And our students will certainly appreciate the improved overnight accommodations.”

Improved interior

The renovations will result in some big changes to a structure that has served as the diocese’s conference center since the early 1980s.

On the first floor, a ramp will allow people with disabilities to reach the front door without steps, and an accessible bedroom and new adjacent bathroom will be built in what had been a chapel.

Hardwood floors that now are under carpeting in the living and dining rooms will be refinished, and all the interior spaces will receive cosmetic upgrades.

On the second floor, most of the walls will be removed and new bedrooms will be reconfigured.

The floor plan for the renovated conference center shows eight bedrooms to sleep 20, along with five full and one half baths.

Serving as architect for the project is Rob Junk, a member of St. Paul’s, Kansas City.

One of the two existing bathrooms will be removed, and two new bathrooms will be added upstairs.

Once completed, the building will provide beds for 20 people, along with five full bathrooms and one half bath.

Some major whole-building work also will take place. New windows will be installed for greater energy efficiency. A sprinkler system will replace the existing fire doors for added safety, and the removal of those doors will provide a more open floor plan throughout the first floor.

Upgrades will be made to the heating and cooling system and the electrical service.

MarLan, a construction company headquartered in Lawrence, will be in charge of the work, and Jim Clowers, a construction engineer and a member of St. David’s, Topeka, will serve as the diocese’s on-site representative for day-today decisions.

The Bethany Place Conference Center was created in the early 1980s by refurbishing what had been the home of Bishop Edward Turner and his family from 1956 until his retirement in 1981. It also had been the home of Bishop James Wise and his family from 1916 to 1939.

It had been built in 1875 as a barn to serve the needs of the College of the Sister of Bethany, an Episcopal girls’ school that stood on what is now the diocesan grounds from 1870 until it closed in 1928.

Project architect Rob Junk said that the building’s former life as a barn meant none of the loadbearing walls align within the interior. “It is a very solid structure and is architecturally interesting,” he said.

The conference center and the adjacent diocesan office building were placed on the Register of Historic Kansas Places in the 1970s, which requires that any exterior renovations, such as the new windows, conform to historic preservation standards.

Many uses for space

Bishop Wolfe said he hoped that in 20 years another bishop would have to undertake a fundraising campaign to refurbish the building again because it will have gotten so much use. He said he sees it as a place where “so many

Photo by Melodie Woerman

Old beds and mattresses from the Bethany Place Conference Center are loaded into a truck for use by people to be served by the Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry. Helping are (from left) Interim Youth Missioner Michael Funston, Director of Development and Stewardship Char DeWitt and the Rev. Shawn Streepy, a priest at St. Luke’s, Shawnee.

people spent the night here, so many people were having great theological conversations in that kitchen, so many real, tough theological issues were solved sitting around a table in this room, there were roommates who couldn’t go to sleep and stayed up late into the night talking about their dreams for the church.”

First-year KSM student Julie Ariagno said the School for Ministry already is doing just that. “This place is changing people lives,” she said. “It’s where formation is happening with a greater depth and speed than anything I’ve ever experienced. Now there are five or six students staying here. With 20 students here, the reverberation will be amazing.”

Sandy Horton-Smith will graduate from KSM in May and will be ordained a deacon on June 2.

She said she was sad she won’t get to use the renovated building as a student. “But I hope to bring

people here on retreats as a deacon serving in a parish,” she said.

While the remodeling of the conference center represents a first phase in the overall Crossroads campaign, Bishop Wolfe said he hopes it will spur additional donations toward the construction of a new Leadership Center, another part of the Crossroads campaign, which will provide expanded classrooms for KSM as well as modern diocesan offices.

He said, “I believe that when people start seeing sawdust and plaster dust and chaos here, they’re going to say, ‘You know what, those people are actually going to do it.’ And a few people who have been reticent to write the last check might be moved to say, ‘Well, all right then, let me help put this thing into being.’”

Crossroads also will provide funds for an endowment for the Kansas School for Ministry and diocesan outreach efforts. v

Bishop: Sabbatical time away is for study, renewal and rest (Continued from page 2) However, I will not be answering email or voicemail or keeping any appointments in the diocese during this time.

Pilgrimage and best practices

The sabbatical “recipe” I always have suggested to clergy requires one part study, one part spiritual renewal and one part rest, and this is the plan I will attempt to follow.

I plan to spend some time in England and Scotland visiting bishops who have graciously offered accommodations for me and my family. While I am there, I hope

to spend time visiting some of the great spiritual pilgrimage sites of the Celtic and Anglican traditions.

Then I plan to spend time visiting “best practice” dioceses and meeting with and learning from bishops around the Episcopal Church who are creatively leading their dioceses through these extraordinary times.

I will take important time for silent retreat at the monastery of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, where I am an associate. This time of spiritual direction and reflection is crucial in helping me to maintain a proper balance.

Finally, I plan to spend some time near an ocean to do some writing on topics about which I have been thinking for some time. And of course there should be time for

some lazy days under the sun, with time for exercise and an afternoon nap.

Upon my return to Kansas, I will be prepared to announce a strategic planning process for the diocese at our 153rd Diocesan Convention so we can begin to plan the third chapter of our remarkable journey together.

I pray I will be a good steward of this sabbatical opportunity and return to you with fresh visions for mission and new goals for the future.

I am thankful to the generosity of the diocese for affording me this time.

Grace and Peace, +Dean v

4 • The Harvest • March/April 2012

Convention deadlines, offices to be elected are announced

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

Convention at a glance

T

he deadline has been announced for submission of items to come before the annual Convention of the diocese when it meets Oct. 19-20 in Topeka. Aug. 15 is the date for diocesan committees to receive 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.

Ten to be elected

The following offices will be elected at this year’s convention: One at-large, lay member of the Council of Trustees, for a three-year term; One at-large, clergy member of the Council of Trustees, for a three-year term; One at-large, clergy member of the Council of Trustees, to fill a one-year unexpired term; and Three lay and four clergy members of the diocesan Disciplinary Board, for three-year 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 clergy and two lay members elected

What: The 153rd annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas When: Friday, Oct. 19 and Saturday, Oct.. 20, 2012 Where: Capitol Plaza Hotel and Maner Conference Center, Topeka Deadline: Aug. 15 for nominations for elections, debatable resolutions and amendments to the constitution or canons of the diocese by each of the four Convocation Boards and ratified by the convention.

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.

Membership consists of three lay and four clergy members.

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 Aug. 15 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. v

Blessing: Important to know what is proposed and how we got here (Continued from page 1)

and instead said it was important that lay and ordained leaders help Kansas parishioners understand the “substantial developments in our theological and liturgical approaches to same-gender unions.”

Decision not random

He noted that the actions of the Episcopal Church in the past 30 years that led the church to this point were made for “good and godly reasons” and said, “We have not arrived at this place randomly.”

The bishop said he believes approving the trial same-gender blessing liturgy represents “an essentially conservative position,” because it expresses the church’s expectations of the same “fidelity and steadfastness” for these relationships that it has for heterosexual couples.

Without the church’s blessing, he wrote, same-gender relationships “enjoy neither the same level of support within the community nor the same expectations of fidelity.”

Bishop Wolfe acknowledged that some people in the diocese won’t approve of these liturgies, and he made it clear that no priest will be forced to conduct a samegender blessing against his or her conscience.

He said in those instances he hopes the couple will be referred

Read more on the diocesan website:

http://www.episcopal-ks.org/resources/same-genderblessings.php

to priests and parishes who would offer this.

Advisory group created

Last fall Bishop Wolfe created a Bishop’s Advisory Group Regarding Same-Gender Blessings to gather resources so parishes could better understand this issue.

Its members are: Dr. Don Compier, chair, member of St. Michael and All Angels, Mission; Larry Bingham, member of St. Michael and All Angels, Mission; Dr. Linda Brown, member of St. Paul’s, Leavenworth; The Rev. Craig Loya, diocesan Canon to the Ordinary; and The Rev. Mary Siegmund, priest in charge, St. Matthew’s, Newton.

The advisory group issued a two-page statement, “Benedictio,” the Latin word for blessing, which provides a theological basis for rites of blessing, including samegender relationships.

In the document the group said, “Some persons will worry that the blessing of same-gender relationships departs from Scripture and the traditions of the church. An-

glicans rightly value the organic connection of all Christians, past, present and future. We understand, however, that our inheritance of faith reflects human efforts to be faithful to God.”

Unity and diversity

Grosso contributed a five-page statement, “Moving Forward Together: Unity and Diversity in the Church,” to the materials the group compiled.

He said the likelihood that trial liturgies for blessing same-gender unions will be authorized this summer offers the opportunity “to reflect on the nature of unity and diversity in the faith and practice of the church.”

He further asked, “How have the conversations we have had to date about human sexuality influenced our understanding of the nature of the unity of the church?

How have these conversations influenced our understanding of the viability of divergent beliefs and practices in the life of the church? Is it possible for the church to accommodate a range of beliefs and practices regarding controversial issues, or is unanimity necessary?” v

Tocher Lecture to explore ‘spiritual but not religious’

T

his year’s Tocher Lecture will feature a theologian and author who will explore how the church can reach out to those who identify themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” a group estimated to make up 20 percent of the U.S. population and up to half of those who are unchurched.

Dr. Marva Dawn, who teaches Spiritual Theology at Regent University in Vancouver, British Columbia, will give a public lecture on Thursday, May 24 at 7 p.m. at St. James’, 3750 East Douglas in Wichita.

Her speech is entitled, “Proclaiming in Word and Deed: Reaching Those Who are ‘Spiritual but Not Religious.’”

The lecture is free and open to the public, and a reception and book signing will follow the event.

Dawn also will speak at a 3 p.m. event for clergy on the proclamation of the church in today’s world, also at St. James’.

Those attending this event must sign up in advance.

Dr. Marva Dawn is an internationally renowned theologian, author and educator. She is the

Dr. Marva Dawn of Regent University in Vancouver will deliver this year’s Tocher Lecture.

author of more than 20 books and has made presentations to groups around the world.

She received her Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and holds degrees from Western Evangelical Seminary, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the University of Idaho.

Information about the public lecture is available from the St. James’ office by calling (316) 683-5686.

The Tocher Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Kansas School for Ministry. v

Wichita refugee agency seeks volunteer help

T

he Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministries continues to seek assistance from church members as it works to prepare in the coming months to welcome refugee families to Wichita from Burma.

Donations of time, talent, treasures and household items (new or gently used) are most appreciated.

EWARM also needs volunteers to help with a variety of tasks, including: English language tutors to make at least a one-hourper-week visit to a refugee’s home to share English conversations. EWARM will provide guidance to help you.

Assistance with a truck or moving of donations to storage and then to refugee housing once they have arrived in Wichita.

Shopping for groceries and household items to equip a new home for a refugee family’s arrival. EWARM provides the list of goods and covers the cost of supplies.

American life mentors to visit a refugee family and help them adjust to their new living environment by assisting with a variety of everyday tasks that may be unfamiliar to them, such as grocery shopping for the first time;

and using a public transit system, laundry facilities, a stove and other American appliances, the post office and other new experiences.

Vo lunteer assistance to help enroll children in school.

EWARM

office help for inventorying and tracking donations, creating one-page newsletter with updates, making copies, writing thank you notes, seeking donations, seeking employment partnerships, etc.

Child care at the EWARM office when refugee adults attend orientation classes or appointments with staff Additionally, EWARM needs help finding locate apartments that would be ideal for refugee families arriving in Wichita, as well as connections to area employers who may be willing to offer jobs to limited-English speakers.

EWARM’s director, Shannon Mahan, is available to make informational presentations to area faith communities, civic organizations or potential employment partners.

If interested in volunteering, donating needed items, receiving more information or making a contribution in support of this meaningful ministry, please contact Mahan at (316) 621-0682 or shannon.mahan@ewarm.org. v

March/April 2012 • The Harvest • 5

Ascension murals see new life After 50 years in storage, Grace Cathedral uncovers three historic panels The Ascension of Christ is the center of three panels painted on canvas by artist E. Martin Hennings.

The figure of Jesus is about 12 feet tall; the canvas panel measures about 14 feet square.

Photo by Michael Massey

Story by Melodie Woerman

T

hree large murals that

years after he painted these murals

hung over the altar at

went on to become a coveted South-

Grace Cathedral in To-

western artist in Taos, N.M.

peka from the late 1910s or early

In fact, it was a phone call this

1920s until their removal in 1961

spring from the family of Hennings’

have seen the light of day for the

great-niece that prompted cathedral

first time in 50 years.

Dean Steve Lipscomb and Verger

In March three metal stovepipe

Kent Wingerson to determine if the

tubes, each about 16 feet long,

murals still existed.

were lowered carefully from the

Wingerson said he knew the stor-

east cathedral tower where they

age tubes had been placed in safe-

had been in storage for about 35

keeping high in one of the cathedral

years.

towers, one of the only places with

Each tube contained one of

enough room to accommodate their

the three 14-foot-square canvas

length.

panels: one of the Ascension of

What he didn’t know was whether

Bob Swain, owner of a local art gallery, shows how Hennings used thin layers of paint to create the murals on large pieces of canvas.

Photo by Melodie Woerman

Christ that was the central image,

the murals inside were intact or

and two of adoring angels that

whether time and the elements had

flanked it.

disintegrated them. Before mak-

ric, so on March 14 one of the tower windows

ing their way to the tower, they had

was removed, and two employees of City Glass

been stored in an undercroft area

lowered the tubes onto the ground 40 feet be-

that took on water during the fire

low. Wingerson and one of the workers hoisted

that destroyed the cathedral in 1975.

each onto their shoulders and carried them to the

Each piece was carefully unrolled to expose the work of art-

A worker carefully lowers to the ground the tube containing one of the mural panels.

ist E. Martin Hennings, who in the

Photo by Melodie Woerman

A peek inside one of the tubes showed fab-

lower level fellowship hall, where they eventualThree murals painted on canvas depicting the Ascension and adoring angels hung behind the altar at Grace Cathedral, Topeka, from sometime in the late 1910s or early 1920s until they were removed in 1961.

They had been in storage for more than 50 years when they were uncovered on March 14.

Grace Cathedral photo

ly were unrolled. Each bore the carefully lettered signature of the artist.

A local art gallery owner who stopped by said the panels reflect a style common among Chicago artists in the early 20th century, when Hennings was active as a commercial muralist before leaving for New Mexico in 1921.

Lipscomb said the cathedral is in the process of having the works appraised so they can determine where they might find a more suitable permanent home. v

6 • The Harvest • March/April 2012

Diocesan events planned Anti-racism training: June 9

T

he Episcopal Diocese of Kansas will offer an anti-racism training workshop on Saturday, June 9 at St. David’s, 17th and Gage in Topeka. The event will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 5 p.m. The cost to attend is $20 per person and may be paid at the door.

Leading the workshop will be the Rev. Susan Terry, one of the campus missioners for the diocese.

To register, send your name, address, phone number and parish to Michele Moss at mmoss@episcopal-ks.org or call her at (800) 473-3563.

General Convention has mandated that lay and ordained leaders, including clergy, professional staff and people elected or appointed to committees or boards within the diocese, undergo anti-racism training. v

Vocationers’ weekend: June 22-23

T

he diocesan Commission on Ministry will host a weekend gathering for anyone who is considering or has considered a call to ordained ministry. It is set for June 22-23 at Grace Cathedral in Topeka and will run from dinner on Friday through mid-afternoon on Saturday.

The deadline to register is June 1; a registration form and an information flyer are online at www.episcopal-ks.org/resources/ Commission-on-Ministry.

Overnight accommodations will be at the Capitol Plaza Hotel at a discounted rate.

For more information contact the Rev. Art Rathbun at ajrad@ ksu.edu or the Rev. Tom Wilson at rector@ standrewsderby.org. v

Church preps for new community garden

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

S

t. Paul’s in Kansas City has begun the work necessary to turn a corner of their property into a garden to serve the people of their neighborhood and those who use the parish’s food pantry and Saturday morning breakfast program.

That effort got a big boost on March 31, when members from Leawood’s United Methodist Church of the Resurrection brought chain saws and people power to remove two trees from the property.

That will clear the way for construction of raised planting beds in the coming weeks.

According to the parish’s vicar, the Rev. Dixie Junk, creating a community garden is part of the congregation’s master plan for ministry to its community.

The goals for the garden are threefold: provide access to healthy foods for those who visit the food pantry and breakfast program; give focus, and increase sharing and collaboration among volunteers in existing ministries; and use the garden’s location on the corner of a busy intersection to highlight healthy food options to the underserved in Kansas City’s urban core.

“We believe that our community garden will serve as a unifying force of all our feeding ministries, bringing together caring individuals from inside and outside our faith community,” Junk said.

She said a future goal involves using the garden to teach neighborhood families to create their own gardens, as well as offer classes on nutrition and preparing fresh produce in an area often referred to as a “food desert.”

The church also recently received a $1,250 grant from groups committed to encouraging healthy eating and active

Above: Members of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection from Leawood clear away brush after removing two trees to make way for a community garden at St. Paul’s, Kansas City.

Right: St. Paul’s vicar, the Rev. Dixie Junk (left), surveys the efforts.

Submitted photos

lifestyles for people living in the neighborhood around St. Paul’s.

The grant is aimed specifically at increasing those activities in the burgeoning Latino population that lives in the neighborhood. Junk said the parish will be eligible for additional money from the

granting groups once their programs are fully operational.

Junk said, “We look forward to a successful first season of the St. Paul’s community garden as we strive to make St. Paul’s a welcoming and inviting gathering place for all our neighbors.” v

Building: Shared space points to acceptance of differences (Continued from page 1) the answer was an unqualified yes.

“The one person who helped me with no condition was Gar and St. Thomas,” Cukierkorn said.

Demo said his vestry was happy to learn of the arrangement.

“The value at St. Thomas is to be welcoming and reach out to the neighborhood,” he said. It also helped that with four synagogues just a mile from the church, many members have Jewish friends and neighbors.

“People take pride in what we stand for as Episcopalians,” Demo said, “like being inclusive with no expectation of conversion, and being a good neighbor.”

Cukierkorn said his congregation eventually found a new location a little more centrally located for its members. It now meets at Congregation Ohev Sholom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue in central Johnson County.

This arrangement works well for weekly services, since Reform Jews worship on Friday nights and Conservative Jews on Saturday mornings.

But there wasn’t room for both congregations to hold their Passover Seder, so the rabbi again

Left: The Rev. Ben Varnum carries a cross during Good Friday services at St. Thomas.

St. Thomas photo Above: Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn lifts a cup of wine for Elijah during the Passover Seder that took place that same evening.

Melodie Woerman photo

turned to his Episcopal priest friend for help.

Mistrust is overcome

The fact that the Jewish congregation would be in a Christian church on Good Friday wasn’t lost on Cukierkorn. His own father, in his native Brazil, wasn’t allowed to go outside on Good Friday, he said. Christians there observe the tradition found in parts of the world of “beating Judas,” a scarecrow effigy of the betraying dis-

ciple that is flogged in the streets after mid-day services. “Beating up Judas often became beating up Jews,” Cukierkorn said, so his grandmother kept her children inside for their protection.

Events like this, along with forced conversions of Jews during the Inquisition, created centuries of mistrust of churches for Jews, Cukierkorn said, but it doesn’t have to continue.

“The fact that we can get past that point means that we don’t just

tolerate but accept each other,” he said. “We don’t forget what happened in the past, but we don’t allow the past to define the future.

We are different people.”

He’s pleased the close association with St. Thomas means his daughters now think of a church just as they do a synagogue. He noted that, using the Hebrew word for temple, they recently said while in the car riding past St. Thomas, “Look, there’s our old shul.”

Demo said having Temple Israel in the church on such a holy night was “a good thing,” noting that just a few generations after Jesus, Christian congregations would have included Jews as well.

The two families also have begun to share their respective holidays. The Demos spent Yom Kippur at the temple, and Demo joined in the Passover Seder after his services were finished. His wife, Kelly, and son, Asher, also were there.

The Cukierkorns attended their first-ever Christmas Eve service last year at St. Thomas, and the rabbi then insisted the families share what he called “the ancient Jewish tradition of going out for Chinese food.”

Joint Holy Land trip

On April 16 the two men left for a trip to Israel they were leading, which included members of their congregations and others from the area.

Demo said this was a “bucket list” experience for him, and Cukierkorn said it offered a different take on the concluding Seder meal pronouncement, “next year in Jerusalem.”

“Not next year in Jerusalem, next week in Jerusalem,” he noted.

Both men said they appreciate being able to share the ups and downs of ministry with someone who experiences those in his own congregation, albeit of a different tradition.

“Talking to him is helpful,” Demo said. “He’s not in the middle of the things I am.”

Cukierkorn agreed. “No one is going to share what we say with someone of the other’s faith. We can offer each other a fresh perspective.”

Beyond that, Cukierkorn said they simply have become friends.

“We started as a priest and a rabbi doing a job,” he said. “It became a friendship. Our common humanity is so much more than what separates us.” v

March/April 2012 • The Harvest • 7

Thirty years and counting:

the ministry of ordained women in the diocese

M

By Melodie Woerman

A timeline of women’s ordination

ary Schrom never set out to be 1970: Women are permitted to be ordained as deacons 1974: Eleven women were irregularly ordained as priests a trailblazer; she just wanted to 1976: General Convention approves the ordination of women to the be faithful to God’s call for her priesthood 1982: The first woman priest is ordained in the Diocese of Kansas life. Yet when she knelt before 1988: Barbara Harris is elected the first woman bishop in the AngliBishop Richard Grein on can Communion 2006: Katharine Jefferts Schori becomes the first woman primate in May 24, 1982, and he made her a deacon on the Anglican Communion the way to the priesthood, she became the first woman ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Harris, the first woman bishop in resistance, since it was their first The Rev. Mary Schrom, 1982 experience of a woman priest. the Anglican Communion.

Kansas.

But, she noted, “once they got She added, “It amazes me that In the 30 years since then, dozens of women have served here, and an institution as traditionally ori- to know me, it was not a problem ented as the church, as prone to for almost anyone in the congretoday 17 of the 46 congregations are led by women priests. The two dislike change, now has elected a gation,” although one man never largest churches in the diocese now have women rectors. would take communion from her. woman as presiding bishop.”

She noted that some people Along the way, these women and the people they served made a had more trouble with her as a journey from occasional open hostility to inclusion. Here are the sto- Gail Greenwell preacher than as the celebrant at Ordained 2001 the Eucharist, given the biblical ries of six women who have been priests in this diocese.

Gail Greenwell

Mary Schrom Breese Ordained 1982

When Schrom, now the Rev. Mary Schrom Breese, felt the call to the priesthood, she faced one big hurdle. Bishop E d w a r d Tu r n e r, who didn’t approve of the ordination of women, was adamant that he wouldn’t ordain her.

He did allow her to go to seminary, however, and eventually announced his retirement the day after her 1981 graduation.

His successor, Bishop Grein, supported her call, laying hands on her in May 1982 as a deacon and in November as a priest in her home parish, St. Michael and All Angels in Mission.

In an interview with the Wichita newspaper prior to her ordination as a priest, Bishop Grein said, “I think some of the clergy won’t like it, but I think the majority of them will.”

Breese said naming her diocesan administrator was a wise move on the bishop’s part. In that capacity, she said, “I went almost every Sunday to a different parish.

It showed people in the diocese I didn’t have two heads.”

At the Diocesan Convention just before she became a priest, she was amused to overhear a woman say of her, “I thought she’d be tall, dark and wearing pants.” Breese in fact was short, blonde and preferred skirts.

Two years later Breese accepted a call to the Diocese of Northwest Texas, where she was the first ordained woman to serve there, too. She met her husband, the Rev. Sid Breese, there, and together they have served churches in Texas, Ohio, Kansas and now the Diocese of West Missouri.

Sid is retired, and Mary serves as a board certified chaplain and

director of resident services at a large adult care facility in St. Joseph, Mo. She loves her work, she said, but it isn’t the career path she’d predicted 30 years ago.

It was harder for women then to be considered for rector positions, she said, noting, “Soon the issue wasn’t the ordination of women but the deployment of women.”

Jo Anne Wright Ordained 1987

Jo Anne Wright was the first woman to serve as a rector in the diocese, when she was called to St. Luke’s, Wamego, after her graduation from seminary in 1987.

She was one of only two women in the diocese at that time; the other, the Rev. Anne Mallonee, was chaplain at KU. She called her reception in that role “a mixed bag,” noting “some people were delighted,” while one male priest colleague refused to receive communion from her. “That was really painful,” she said.

Once she started serving at St. Luke’s, she said even her most ardent critics came to accept her.

“One woman said she didn’t believe a woman could be a priest but agreed to stay in the church because I was a deacon at that time,” she said. “She ended up coming to my priest ordination.”

She served in Wamego for 11 years, including six years when she also was diocesan youth officer.

She said the women clergy at that time were “really supportive of one another,” and they even arranged overnight retreats together at the Bethany Place Conference Center.

That was a far cry from Wright’s first clergy conference, when she was the only woman

there. “I was really alone for a while,” she said.

Wright said it took a while for the number of women to grow from a handful in her earliest days, but after 16 years there were “a reasonable number.”

Wright now lives in Vinita, Okla., where she retired in 2005 after serving as rector there.

Susan Sawyer

Ordained 1985

Susan Sawyer is the woman currently serving in the Diocese of Kansas who has been ordained the longest — she was ordained in 1985 in the Diocese of Massachusetts.

When she became rector of St. Paul’s, Clay Center, in 1993, some people said they’d leave because of her, but she noted they all had returned within a few months.

She still is the only woman ever to lead a church of any denomination in Clay Center.

She said sometimes her gender is a plus, with some visitors saying they’d come to St. Paul’s just because she is a woman. Sawyer said some people, including men, tell her they find it easier to talk to her than to a male priest.

Today, with so women serving in many liturgical roles, she is conscious to be sure the altar party isn’t all female.

Sawyer recalls the powerful emotions she had when she first saw a woman celebrate the Eucharist, so she wants to be certain that boys in her congregation see other boys and men serving. She doesn’t want them to miss seeing their gender as celebrant, as she had done as a child.

One ministry highlight came when she voted in Massachusetts for the election of Barbara

leads St. Michael and All Angels, Mission, whose 2,300 members make it the largest church in the diocese.

She was ordained in 2001, and even then there were some who didn’t want to take communion from her or who asked for a male priest to officiate at a wedding. Those things happen less frequently now, she said.

Greenwell has been in three search processes, and she said she noticed some people assumed that as a woman she’d be less capable of handling administration or finances.

She’s countered that by always asking to see a parish’s financial records.

She does encounter a greater tendency for people to comment on her appearance than they would a man, she said — a new hair style or earrings — but she sees that as part of the way our culture approaches women, and it doesn’t really bother her.

She was quick to point out that men have been among her most ardent mentors and supporters, and she longs for a day when women don’t need “championing” and there is “less emphasis on that which sets us apart and more emphasis on our kinship in Christ.”

Dawn Frankfurt Ordained 2005

Dawn Frankfurt is rector of St. James’ in Wichita, the diocese’s s e c o n d - l a rg e s t congregation with nearly 900 members.

In the first church she served after her 2005 ordination, she said she did encounter

admonition for women not to speak in church.

She said she thinks search committees sometimes still long for the “traditional” rector of a male, married priest with children, but that is changing.

“Once people have the experience of female leadership in the church, I think their ideas about what an ‘ideal’ priest is like are reshaped,” she said.

Antoinette Tackkett Ordained 2011

Antoinette Tackkett is one of the newest priests of the diocese, ordained in 2011. She serves as the bivocational vicar of St. Paul’s, Coffeyville, where she had been a member before her ordination.

She said while she has experienced discrimination because of her gender in the past, it wasn’t a factor during her process toward ordination.

In fact, she thinks being a woman may help her in some aspects of her ministry.

“Naturally my responses to people and theirs to me is different from my male counterparts, not worse nor better,” she said Her greatest challenge as a new priest, Tackkett said, comes not from her gender but from working a full-time job while also serving a parish.

She said she hopes her priestly ministry exhibits the “wisdom and spiritual fortitude” that women priests who came before her in this diocese and elsewhere have shown. v

8 • The Harvest • March/April 2012

Around the diocese St. John’s, Abilene is being treated to a “cookie of the month” club thanks to young parishioner Ben Shafer. Between February and June, he’ll be selling homemade cookies for $5 a dozen to raise money for his trip to Australia later this summer as a student ambassador with People to People, a program started by President Eisenhower to promote relationships between nations.

Trinity, Atchison organist Jennifer Stammers has been selected for the faculty of the Sewanee Music Conference this summer.

The conference is a major event for musicians in the Episcopal Church taking place at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. Stammers has attended this conference for a number of years.

St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids has a prominent role in a display about area churches at the Blue Rapids Museum. It includes a variety of historic photos, Prayer Books, communion vessels and altar linens.

St. Paul’s, Clay Center vestry had its annual retreat in March, led by diocesan Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Craig Loya. The daylong event centered on “appreciative inquiry,” which stresses addressing situations from a standpoint of appreciating what is positive.

Four teams committed to new tasks during the year were formed as a result.

St. Paul’s, Coffeyville on March 24 hosted a workshop on how to discover one’s spiritual gifts, led by the Rev. Susan Terry, one of the campus missioners for the diocese.

St. Andrew’s, Derby provided two meals in March for those staying at the Wichita Overflow Shelter, which provides temporary housing in churches for people in need of shelter. Junior high members served one of the meals, and

a parish collection of toothbrushes and toothpaste was distributed.

worship service.

St. Martin’s, Edwardsville hosted an all-parish workday April 1, with an emphasis on cleaning up the interior and exterior of the building before Easter.

St. Paul’s, Leavenworth hosts a “Fibers of Faith” group that meets once a month in the parish hall for those who knit, crochet or do cross-stitch or needlepoint.

Those with more experience offer help to beginners.

St. Andrew’s, Emporia member Brianna Dougherty sang at Carnegie Hall in New York City on April 1 as a member of the Lawrence Children’s Choir. The 13-year-old also has sung several times for worship services at the parish.

St. Thomas’, Holton welcomed Bishop Dean Wolfe and his wife, Ellen, to the parish for a visitation on Feb. 26, followed by a special coffee hour reception.

Epiphany, Independence asked members to continue to donate nonperishable food items for the parish food pantry, as well as household items such as shampoo, soap and toilet paper. The appeal noted that demand goes up in the summer, when children aren’t receiving lunches at school.

Covenant, Junction City offers shopping cards to two area grocery stores. Members buy them for face value and use them like cash when they shop, and a portion of the proceeds returns to the church.

St. Paul’s, Marysville marked Earth Day a little early by providing the volunteers to work at the Marysville recycling center on April 7.

St. Michael’s, Mission had three young members selected to the elite Kansas Music Educators Association all-state orchestra that performed in concert for the group’s conference in Wichita in February. The talented parishioners are Isabel Zacharias, oboe; Adam Galigher, bass; and Katherine Sensenich, cello.

St. Matthew’s, Newton provided Easter cards to area soldiers and to those in the parish who are homebound.

St. Paul’s, Kansas City joined with St. Michael’s in Mission to participate in a women’s retreat in late April at nearby Conception Abbey. The event explored how differing ways of praying appeal to people of differing personality types. Vicar the Rev. Dixie Junk served as chaplain.

St. Aidan’s, Olathe member Joseph Bush helped his church by building a playground as his Eagle Scout project. The existing area was refurbished, and Joseph added new benches and shrubbery nearby. Parishioners helped the project with financial contributions.

St. Margaret’s, Lawrence now has a youth choir, led by Elinor Cowell. Designed for youngster in second grade and above, the choir will sing once a month at the youth and children’s

Grace, Ottawa has been busy in a variety of outreach areas: donating clothing for tornado victims, providing books for children in Afghanistan, supplying 150 dozen eggs for a local pantry, buying firewood for a local family in need and helping several people with gift cards.

Diocese helps girls go to prom

A

St. Paul’s, Manhattan vestry has made a commitment to adhering strictly to Safe Church guidelines, including hiring a second nursery attendant to be certain two adults are present at all times.

Training for all those involved in children’s and youth ministry also will be stressed.

n appeal for dresses and accessories for the Prom Dress Express at Grace, Winfield, resulted in an outpouring of support from across the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas.

The Rev. Betty Glover, the church’s rector, said the program had its most successful year since it opened in 2009. “We were so excited and pleased that we received donations from around the diocese this year, in addition to the donations we received from the Cowley County community,” she said.

This year, dresses went to young women from Arkansas City, Winfield, South Haven, Udall, Burden, Atlanta and Wichita. The program makes formal dresses and accessories available to girls who otherwise might not have the attire they need to attend their high school prom.

Bishop Seabury Academy senior Charlotte Burch donated 39 dresses to the cause, and the Rev. Jan Chubb, vicar of St. Timothy’s, Iola, spent part of the past year collecting jewelry. She delivered a box of earrings, necklaces and bracelets just in time for prom season. Archdeacon Charles Pearce from Manhattan also helped, delivering formal gowns to Topeka for Glover to retrieve while at a meeting.

Glover said, “We are grateful for the donations, and the young women who shopped at the Prom Dress Express were so delighted.” v

St. Francis, Overland Park explored the topic of contemplative prayer during Lent with an adult forum led by the Rev. Joe Alford. Holy Week was filled with services, capped off by covering the outdoor cross with flowers on Easter morning.

St. Thomas’, Overland Park is sponsoring a mission trip this summer to Cedar Springs, Ariz., to work on the Navajo reservation.

While there the seven youth and four adults will help build houses and religious buildings, as well as rehabilitating existing homes.

St. John’s, Parsons member Jennifer Beach has asked the congregation’s help in providing dresses and other clothing for young children in Kenya. She will travel this summer to the African

Photo by Dale Shipps

St. Clare’s celebrates first baptism St. Clare’s, Spring Hill, which was established in 2009, had its first baptism on Easter Day when Jason Shipps (above, left) received the sacrament. With him is the Rev. Philip Hubbard’s, priest at St. Clare’s.

Jason, a high school, sophomore, is the first of eight baptisms this spring at St. Clare’s — five took place on the second Sunday of Easter, with another two are set for Pentecost. v

country with the diocesan Kansas to Kenya ministry. She especially hopes to take with her 50 pillowcase dresses for little girls.

St. Peter’s, Pittsburg has earmarked the proceeds from its successful Shrove Tuesday pancake supper to help provide scholarships for young people attending the diocesan MegaCamp this summer at Camp Wood.

St. Luke’s, Shawnee hosted a Wii game night in March for the parish youth group. After polling members, selected games were played on the Wii game system, with middle and high school students participating. The church provided soft drinks; members brought their favorite snacks.

Grace Cathedral, Topeka youth choristers traveled to Nebraska to sing in two churches in late April. Stops included St. Mark’s Pro-Cathedral in Hastings and St. Matthew’s Church in Lincoln. The trip also included fun activities like the Omaha Zoo. St. Luke’s, Wamego offers a special program for children on Wednesday evenings. After a potluck supper and Evening Prayer, the group works on a mission project. In February they made Valentines to distribute to homebound parishioners and others in nearby care facilities.

Good Shepherd, Wichita hosted its annual “Taters for Youth” supper March 10. A baked

potato bar, with a variety of toppings, along with drinks and desserts, raised money to help send parish youngsters to diocesan youth events.

St. Bartholomew’s, Wichita in late March switched from spring and summer clothes to fall and winter items in its New to Me clothing bank. Members of the youth group at Glenn Park Christian Church helped change out all the merchandise, and Fran Penka provided pizza for the hungry workers.

St. James’, Wichita hosts a grief support group the third Saturday morning of each month in the church lounge. The effort is led by the bereavement coordinator for a local hospice.

St. John’s, Wichita offered is 41st annual Lenten “Luncheon and Speaker” series, which this year featured three bishops. Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe was joined

by Bishop Michael Milliken of Western Kansas and Bishop Martin Field from West Missouri.

Other speakers were Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Craig Loya and priest in charge the Rev. Earl Mahan.

St. Stephen’s, Wichita has expanded its worship outreach at Larksfield Place Retirement Community and now offers services there twice a month. Parish clergy also celebrated a Christmas Eve service there, as well as one on Ash Wednesday. v

March/April 2012 • The Harvest • 9

People

Vicar of Trinity, Wall Street, will help home parish celebrate

By Melodie Woerman Editor, The Harvest

T

Sense of excitement

She said being part of this new church involved a sense of excitement for her entire family, as new people were invited in. “That was an important formation for me,” she said. “It’s what church is about. It’s mission driven. We are about reaching out and sharing what we know about community in Christ. That has been a thread of my ministry.”

When the current church building was built in 1965, she was fascinated by its then-unusual shape — an upside down ark.

She, her siblings and parents were in church every Sunday.

“Dad said we just would go,” she recalls, and all of them were involved beyond just attending.

In the 1960s girls couldn’t serve as acolytes, so she joined the junior altar guild, a role she called “very important” in her understanding of what church is all about. She and other girls helped the altar guild set up on Saturdays for services and clean up afterward on Sundays.

She said handling the sacred

O

ne of the two ordination services the diocese conducts each year in June will see six people become deacons — three will be ordained to the transitional diaconate on their way to the priesthood, and three will begin their ministry as deacons in parishes.

The ordination service will take place Saturday, June 2 at Grace Cathedral in Topeka, beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Those being ordained as deacons are: Peg Flynn, St. John’s, Wichita Sandy Horton-Smith, St. Paul’s, Manhattan; and Rex Matney, Church of the Covenant, Junction City Those being ordained as transitional deacons are: David Jenkins, St. David’s, Topeka

St. Stephen’s, Wichita, will mark 50 years he Rev. Anne Mallonee vividly remembers the sense of warmth and community she had as a young child worshipping at the newly formed St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wichita, and she said that experience has shaped her ministry to this day.

As a 4-year-old in 1962, her name was included among the 80 founding members of the new congregation. Today she serves as vicar of Trinity Church in New York City, one of the Episcopal Church’s largest, wealthiest and most influential parishes.

Mallonee will be the guest preacher at the Eucharist marking the parish’s 50th anniversary celebration at 10:30 a.m. on May 13.

In a recent interview with The Harvest, Mallonee said her earliest memories of St. Stephen’s are of worshipping in the home of the Rev. James Warner, surrounded by people who were so excited to form this new congregation.

At that time there wasn’t an Episcopal church in the growing eastern part of Wichita, so a group of parishioners from St. James’ petitioned Bishop Edward Turner to permit the creation of St. Stephen’s. Warner, who was a priest at St. James’, was selected as the new congregation’s first vicar.

Mallonee recalls him as “a very warm, happy man.”

Six people to be ordained June 2 at Grace Cathedral David Lynch, St. Michael and All Angels, Mission; and Adrianna Shaw, St. Paul’s, Leavenworth Flynn, Horton-Smith and Matney all have studied at the Kansas School for Ministry, which educates people as clergy and lay leaders for parishes across the diocese. It is based at the Bethany Place Conference Center in Topeka Jenkins is being ordained after a career as a minister in the Disciples of Christ Church.

Lynch and Shaw are graduating from seminary this spring — Lynch from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., and Shaw from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Everyone in the diocese is invited to attend. v

Varnum ordination on May 9

Photo by Leah Reddy

The Rev. Anne Mallonee (left), vicar of Trinity, Wall Street, in New York City, will return to her home parish of St. Stephen’s, Wichita, for its 50th anniversary celebration May 13. She is pictured here during Trinity’s outdoor Palm Sunday procession on April 1.

communion vessels left a lasting impact. “This was foundational for me to understand the Eucharist as central to our practice,” she said. “It shaped my current vocation.”

Besides the adult women on the altar guild, she said Sunday school teachers and church friends of her parents served as mentors.

“There was such a sense of warmth, community and hospitality, and bringing people in and also reaching out. I got the sense that church is always to be reaching out,” she said.

But she also learned that church is to be fun. In the early 1970s she was part of a group that offered a “Godspell” liturgy, based on the popular Broadway musical of the life of Jesus. They took the service to other churches, all wearing red T-shirts. “It was so exciting,” she said. “We were reaching out, and church was fun. That’s a very powerful memory.”

A love for Lent

She has a love for the season of Lent, she said, born from years of attending 6:30 a.m. Lenten Eucharists every week with her mother.

She kept that tradition until she left to study at the University of Kansas, from which she graduated in 1980.

Mallonee said church helped her navigate the turbulence of being a teenager in the 1970s.

“I could have gone on a different path, but I was ensconced in church,” she said. To this day all her siblings remain active in their respective churches.

After college, Mallonee gradu-

ated from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in New Haven, Conn., and then came back to Kansas, accepting an offer from Bishop Richard Grein to be the part-time chaplain at KU and part-time diocesan communications officer.

She later served as an assistant at Christ Church, Overland Park, before leaving in 1997 for Minnesota. She served five years at the cathedral in Minneapolis, ultimately being named acting dean.

She went on to serve two years as interim dean at the cathedral in Hartford, Conn., and in 2004 she was called to Trinity, a 1,000-household congregation on Wall Street, where the church owns a significant amount of property.

Trinity has a rector who handles administration of the multimillion dollar budget, so as vicar, Mallonee oversees the day-to-day operations of the church, including worship, music, Christian education, faith formation and outreach.

“I get the fun part of what a church does,” she said. She manages a staff of 66, whom she calls a “fantastic team of creative, bright, grounded, committed people.”

Mallonee said her work at Trinity differs from that of any other parish only in size.

“It’s still one person at a time,” she said. “It’s Christian education, children, families, connecting faith to work and home. I haven’t encountered anything here that isn’t something that churches do everywhere. It’s just a different context and scale.” v

T

he Rev. Benedict Varnum, assistant rector of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Overland Park, will be ordained to the priesthood on May 9 at 7 p.m. at the church.

Bishop Dean Wolfe will officiate, on behalf of Bishop Jeffrey Lee of the Diocese of Chicago.

Varnum, who grew up at St. Michael and All Angels in Mission, attended seminary in Chicago and began the ordination process there.

He was ordained a transitional deacon in Chicago on Nov. 1. v

K-State campus intern sought

T

he diocesan campus ministry program is looking for a recent college graduate to serve as a paid intern at Kansas State University in Manhattan for the coming school year.

Interns, who are based at the Canterbury houses at K-State and the University of Kansas, work closely with the two ordained campus missioners to recruit, train and supervise peer ministers, who take the lead in direct ministry on their college campuses.

Interns provide pastoral and administrative support on their campus and assist the campus missioners in the effort to establish an Episcopal presence on campuses across the diocese.

They also must demonstrate Christian maturity.

A position description and application can be found on the campus ministry website, www.episcopal-ks.org/campusministry.

For more information, contact the Rev. Michael S. Bell at mbell@episcopal-ks.org. v

Editor’s photo earns top prize This photo of a street in Joplin, Mo., devastated by a tornado last May was named best news photo of 2011 in the annual Polly Bond awards competition sponsored by Episcopal Communicators.

The picture was taken by diocesan Director of Communications and editor of The Harvest, Melodie Woerman. Her story about that event earned an honorable mention award for news writing.

Woerman has received more than 50 Polly Bond awards for her work in writing, design and photography in the past 18 years.

Episcopal Communicators is an organization of communications professionals in the Episcopal Church. v

10 • The Harvest • March/April 2012

National and international news Anglican news briefs Episcopal News Service and Anglican Communion News Service  LA bishop diagnosed with leukemia: In a message to the Diocese of Los Angeles April 27, Bishop Jon Bruno announced that he has begun treatment for acute monocytic leukemia. He told his 64,000-member diocese that he will continue to serve as long as his health permits. He has been in office since 2002.  First Scottish female dean to serve Edinburgh diocese: History will be made in the Scottish Episcopal Church in May when the Rev. Susan Macdonald, 61, becomes the first female dean of the Diocese of Edinburgh. Macdonald has served as rector of Christ Church in Morningside, Edinburgh, since 2007 and will continue in that role. Her duties as dean will be both administrative and pastoral, overseeing church buildings and other aspects of congregational life, as well as assisting the bishop as needed.  Seabury Western and Bexley Hall federate, elect new leader: The Rev. Roger Ferlo has been elected to serve as the first president of a new federation that brings together Seabury Western Theological Seminary in Chicago and Bexley Hall in Columbus, Ohio.

Ferlo, who currently is an assistant dean at Virginia Theological Seminary, will begin July 1. The two schools since 2007 have been assessing the potential for a partnership. Meetings by each body’s boards of trustees in March made the federation official.

Together, Seabury and Bexley offer the full spectrum of graduate level theological education and lifelong learning. Bexley offers the Master of Divinity degree in conjunction with Trinity Lutheran Seminary, while Seabury offers Doctor of Ministry degrees in partnership with the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and the Association of Chicago Theological Schools, as well as a wide array of non-degree programs for church leaders.  Roman vespers unite pope, archbishop in prayer: Anglicans and Roman Catholics share a somewhat turbulent history, but differences were brushed aside March 10 when Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict XVI prayed together during an ecumenical vespers service at San Gregorio Magna al Celio in Rome. The service marked the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Italy’s Camaldoli monastic community, which includes a presence at San Gregorio, a site of major significance to the origins of the Church of England. Both Christian leaders, who held a private meeting earlier in the day to discuss human rights issues and concerns for the Holy Land, delivered a homily during the vespers and lit candles together in the chapel of St. Gregory.  Interim New Zealand cathedral gets go-ahead: A transitional cathedral for Christchurch, to be made of cardboard, will be built in Latimer Square on the site of St. John’s Church. Designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, the $ 4.5 million structure, will be used for worship and community events until a new permanent cathedral is built. It will then become the worship center for St. John’s Parish. It is due to be completed by Christmas. The old stone church, vicarage and hall on the corner of Hereford and Madras streets had to be demolished after the February 22 earthquake.  U.K. government explores same-sex marriage: The government of the United Kingdom on March 15 launched a 12-week consultation in England and Wales that is widely expected to lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage, despite strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and conservative elements within the Church of England. The coalition government led by Prime Minister David Cameron has made it clear that it wants to see a law that allows gays and lesbians to marry before the next general election in 2015. The plans for same-sex weddings only cover civil marriages. Religious buildings would only be used where church, temple, mosque or synagogue leaders wished to offer that ceremony.  Old Bible fragments found in Auckland: Tattered pieces from two Bibles more than 1,200 years old have been found in another Bible in an Auckland, New Zealand, library. The pieces, sewn into the four-volume Latin Bible, were discovered by staff at Sir George Grey’s Special Collections in the central city library.

They were found while staff was cataloguing books dating from before 1501. The tattered manuscript is believed to date from just after 800 A.D. and could be the earliest fragments of Western manuscripts in Australasia. v

Groups meet and prepare for July’s General Convention Executive Council looks at budget, racism

Bishops explore ‘Church of the 21st century’

Episcopal News Service

Episcopal News Service

T

he Episcopal Church’s Executive Council wrapped up its work of the 2010-2012 triennium in Salt Lake City on April 20 by discussing its on-going work against racism and issuing a memo saying that the proposed draft budget released to the church “is not exactly” the one it passed.

The memo says there are “potentially many explanations for the multiple errors in the document,” including “too many spreadsheets, too little time” and the “rapid discourse” involving two different budget proposals on the final day of council’s January session.

And, the council said, a decision to schedule the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance‘s meeting on the budget to begin the day after council adjourned in January required council to agree “to a final document before the treasurer’s office had adequate time to draft the document for final review by Executive Council.”

In its message to the church, council said that its “disappointment was not simply a reluctance to let go of the budget but instead a very clear statement that the budget sent to PB&F is not the budget council approved.”

Council also passed a number of resolutions at its three-day meeting dealing with racism, including one pledging itself to on-going anti-racism training.

In its message to the church, the council said it had a “heated and passionate discussion” centered on “how we tease out the differences between antiracism training and diversity and inclusion training.”

Other actions

In other actions, the Council: sent a resolution to General Convention that would reaffirm the church’s support of efforts to aid the Diocese of Haiti in its post-earthquake rebuilding work. heard that a firm is beginning a comprehensive study of real estate owned by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church, including the Episcopal Church Center at 815 Second Ave. in New York and a city block in Austin, Texas, that was purchased with the intent of constructing a new building for the archives of the Episcopal Church. The study also will explore issues such as the cost of relocating the church center and its impact on the staff. heard a presentation of a business plan for a Domestic and Foreign Missionary Cooperative, designed to be a voluntary coalition of dioceses, congregation and other church-affiliated institutions to share professional services and realize economies of scale. A pilot project was proposed with five dioceses sharing accounting and financial services, with the intent of expanding to include more participants and including purchasing of other goods and services. approved a completely revised employee handbook for Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society employees.

The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according to Canon I.4 (1)(a).

The council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods for six-year terms, plus the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies. v

T

he Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops spent much of its five-day March meeting at Camp Allen Conference & Retreat Center in Navasota, Texas, focusing on its ongoing theme of “Church for the 21st Century and the Gift of Episcope” and discussing issues related to the upcoming General Convention and same-gender blessings.

The House of Bishops adopted a resolution to send greetings to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as he prepares to leave his post and return to academia at the end of the year.

The meeting was billed as a retreat, and members of the public and the news media were not allowed to observe the sessions. There were 134 bishops in attendance.

During one session, the bishop members of the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music led a conversation on same-gender blessings. The SCLM has released excerpts of its report to General Convention, including the text of its proposed rite of blessing same-gender relationships, a theological reflection and two related legislative resolutions that it will recommend to convention.

The SCLM’s work comes in response to General Convention’s 2009 mandate that it work with the House of Bishops to collect and develop theological resources and liturgies for blessing same-gender relationships and report to this year’s convention.

According to a public affairs office account, the bishops continued discussion about same-gender blessings “in small groups, as a body, and then in indaba settings, an opportunity for each member of the house to speak his or her mind in a smaller, open setting.”

Indaba, which means “meaningful conversation,” is a process derived from African traditions that was used by the bishops at the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

Other sessions included a discussion on spiritual discipline and a conversation on the General Convention resolution that called for the study of reconciliation or dissolution of pastoral relations between conflicted dioceses and their bishops.

The bishops also heard presentations on the Anglican Covenant, a proposed set of principles intended to bind the Anglican Communion in spite of cultural and theological differences; and a revised document for Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO), provisions for dissenting congregations to seek reconciliation with their bishop or to request oversight from another bishop. Typically, DEPO has been used by congregations and bishops who have theological differences.

Jefferts Schori said the Episcopal Church will make a formal statement regarding the covenant at General Convention, one she hopes will express “our desire to stay in communion and covenant relationships.”

Bishop of Kansas Dean Wolfe, vice president of the House of Bishops, offered his thoughts on the covenant during the briefing, describing it as a “helpful instrument in promoting dialogue and conversations,” noting it has led to some important work.

Regarding the DEPO, Wolfe said, “The work that we did on the revised document had a wide acceptance in the house. I thought there was a wonderful and generous spirit around the document and the gentle editing.” v

March/April 2012 • The Harvest • 11

Archbishop of Canterbury to step down at year’s end Rowan Williams will become Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge, England

Anglican Communion and Episcopal news services

Who could be next?

A

rchbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on March 16 revealed that he is to step down from his role at the end of the year.

His decision comes after 10 years in the post and after accepting the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The college said that Williams “has the capacity and vision to guide the College in a time of unprecedented change in higher education.”

In a statement issued from Lambeth Palace, the Primate of All England said, “It has been an immense privilege to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, and moving on has not been an easy decision.

During the time remaining there is much to do, and I ask your prayers and support in this period and beyond.

“I am abidingly grateful to all those friends and colleagues who have so generously supported Jane and myself in these years, and all the many diverse parishes and communities in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion that have brought vision, hope and excitement to my own ministry. I look forward, with that same support and inspiration, to continuing to serve the Church’s mission and witness as best I can in the years ahead.”

Term marked by tension

Williams’ term has been marked by increased tension over the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the life of the church, the ordination of women, and overarching questions of biblical authority and orthodoxy.

During an interview with the Press Association after his announcement, Williams said that “the worst aspects of the job, I think, have been the sense that there are some conflicts that won’t go away, however long you struggle with them.”

Several top officials in the Church of England have been speculated to be among those who might be named the next Archbishop of Canterbury. They include: Archbishop of York John Sentamu, who holds the number two post in the church; Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London who gave the address at the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton last year; Graham Jones, Bishop of Norwich; Bishop of Bradford Nick Baines, known as the ‘’blogging’’ bishop, in recognition of his enthusiasm for new media; and Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester.

File photo/The Harvest

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will become Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge, England, at the end of 2012 after a decade of serving as head of the Church of England and titular head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Following Williams’ announcement, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori issued a statement.

“I am grateful for Rowan Williams’ service as archbishop of Canterbury during an exceedingly challenging season. We can all give thanks for his erudition and persistence in seeking reconciliation across a rapidly changing Anglican Communion,” she said.

“His leadership of that reconciling work through indaba and ubuntu is bearing remarkable fruit, and I believe this will be his most important legacy. I give thanks that his spiritual and intellectual gifts will continue to bless the larger world, albeit from a different vantage point.

“May the coming months bring well-deserved peace to him and his family, and may we join in blessing his ministry. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’”

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson called Williams “a kind and generous man, who faced an overwhelming challenge in attempting to hold the Anglican Communion together during these tumultuous years.

“Though I was frequently disappointed at the cost he expected lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians to pay on behalf of the wider Communion, I was deeply impressed by his keen intellect, his pastoral manner and his fidelity to God’s mission as he perceived it,” she said.

Job has multiple roles

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of All England as well as the Bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. He serves the historic function as the focus of unity for the 80 million members of Anglican Communion.

He is convener and host of the

Lambeth Conference, President of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and Chair of the Primates’ meeting.

In these roles he travels extensively throughout the Anglican Communion, visiting provinces and dioceses, and supporting and encouraging the witness of the Church in very diverse contexts.

As primus inter pares (first among equals) among the bishops, he has a special concern for those in episcopal ministry.

Williams’ announcement means that the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in New Zealand during the last quarter of this year will be his last as its president.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu said he was saddened to hear the news. “Our partnership in the gospel over the past six years has been the most creative period of my ministry. It has been life-giving to have led missions together, gone on retreats and prayed together. In his company I have drunk deeply from the wells of God’s mercy and love, and it has all been joyful. He is a real brother to me in Christ.

“The last decade has been a challenging time for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. Thankfully, Archbishop Rowan is a remarkable and gifted leader who has strengthened the bonds of affection.”

Prime Minister David Cameron thanked Williams for his

service, saying he “sought to unite different communities and offer a profoundly humane sense of moral leadership that was respected by people of all faiths and none.”

Process not announced

Cameron made no comment on the process to select Williams’ successor. When Williams was appointed in July 2002, the Crown Appointments Commission was charged in a very secret procedure to send two names to the prime minister who could then either return the names to the commission and ask them to make new choices or forward a single choice to Queen Elizabeth. The queen makes the formal announcement.

In his Press Association interview after his announcement, Williams had some thoughts about the person who will follow him in office. “I’d like the successor that God would like. I think it’s a job of immense demands, and I would hope that my successor has the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros really,” he said.

“He will, I think, have to look with positive, hopeful eyes on a church which, for all its problems, is still for so many people a place to which they resort in times of need and crisis, a place to which they look for inspiration and I think the Church of England is a great treasure. I wish my successor well in the stewardship of it.” v

Archbishop of Sudan appeals for peace as tensions rise Anglican Communion and Episcopal news services

T

he Anglican archbishop who was instrumental in delivering peace to Sudan has raised the specter of fullblown war and appealed for restraint from the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan.

Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak, leader of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, urged the two presidents to pursue peace in spite of the difficulties following the major clashes threatening the fragile peace that churches helped to broker in 2005.

In a statement released April 23, he wrote that he was deeply concerned that the conflict between the two countries has escalated close to full blown war. The current civil war began in 1983 and is one of the longest running conflicts in the world,

costing nearly two million lives.

After a long history of violence and war since independence, a second major conflict broke out in 1983 between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan.

Archbishop Daniel’s statement comes at a low moment in the peace process. The signatories of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the agreement which provided the path for the countries to separate last year, have lost momentum to follow through with their commitments.

Archbishop Daniel urged presidents Salva Kiir Mayardit and Omar Al Bashir not to lose the great amount of goodwill from their peoples shown during the process that led to the independence of South Sudan. He appealed to the people of both countries to refuse to be incited to return to war by their

leaderships.

“We should learn from the 55 years of war not to return to it so hastily,” he said.

“The blood of those who fought for peace should not have been poured in vain. We call on all sides to exercise restraint and pursue peace at all costs. God is on the side of those who seek peace.”

As tensions on both side of the border reached a high, there were attacks against Christian churches in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. Christians and Muslims across the usually tolerant city had joined together in condemning the violence.

2011 independence

In January 2011, South Sudan gained independence as a separate nation in a nationwide referendum. That election was part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace

Agreement intended to reduce conflict and provide sustainable peace and security in Sudan.

In February 2012, the government of Sudan (in the north) announced that by April 8 all Southern Sudanese living there had to leave after being stripped of their nationality.

The ultimatum will affect an estimated 500,000-700,000 people, who are mainly Christians of southern origin who still live in the north. Some church leaders have feared increased persecution of Christians in the north or even forced repatriation for those who may want to stay.

The fledgling state of South Sudan is facing problems with governance, infrastructure and the delivery of services.

Inter-ethnic fighting also has flared up, particularly in the state of Jonglei. v

12 • The Harvest • March/April 2012

Reflections on faith and life

Sharing the Good News

Reaching people means doing more than unlocking our doors By the Rev. Andrew O’Connor

O

nce upon a time, Episcopal evangelism was fairly simple and went something like this: on Sunday morning the front door was unlocked; members attended a high-quality worship service with lovely music and thoughtful preaching; visitors — usually members of the professional or educated classes — would come; and those who mastered the intricacies of Prayer Book worship stayed, all set to the glorious cadence of Elizabethan English.

Certainly, this is a broad caricature of how Episcopalians generally have welcomed and incorporated new members, but as a general description of strategy, the image of Episcopalians lovingly unlocking the door and waiting for folks to join us is fairly sound.

It’s as if we have been saying, “Just wait until you check us out, then you’ll see that this is a great formula for following Christ!”

Social dynamics changed

I believe that the challenge being presented to the church in our time is not primarily about staunching membership decline but about building sustainable spiritual community. Again, history shows that the need for such community transcends every sort of demographic rise and fall.

One approach, as a strategy, is about looking back with a great deal of unacknowledged grief and trying to figure out what went wrong.

The alternative is about faithfully living in the present time with an eye on God’s future and taking positive and constructive steps to renew and revitalize the local Christian community.

Both approaches take up vast amounts of emotional and material resources. Both approaches are hard work, but I know which approach fills me with excitement and optimism. How about you?

Back to Sunday morning. So long as it is the will of the Spirit, our doors shall be open and we shall offer authentic worship with great music and pretty good preaching, along with wellprepared Christian formation for both adults and children; and we will toss food, fun and fellowship into the bargain.

But we can do this only if we remember that we are going to these great lengths not for ourselves alone but for our guests.

In our own homes we all would go out of our way to ensure a warm welcome for our guests.

Why not at church?

Welcoming our guests

As we master the art of welcoming the stranger, we will discover new gifts for inviting the friend and neighbor. As we master the art of inviting friend and neighbor, we will learn new ways to incorporate and empower the disciple.

The ministry of hospitality is not a mere nicety but a crucial practice in building and sustaining a community of faith. Many of us already possess the gift for hospitality in abundance; we simply need to practice them a bit more intentionally on Sunday morning and wherever we gather as a Christian people.

Let us all make a commitment to the ministry of hospitality that not only grows the church but also the spirit of Christ in each of us.

Andrew O’Connor is rector of Good Shepherd, Wichita.

This first appeared in the parish newsletter, Talk of the Flock.

Reprinted by permission. v

May 2012

June 2012

5 Southwest Convocation meeting, St. Andrew’s, Derby

2 Ordinations to the diaconate, Grace Cathedral, Topeka

Small church summit, St. Margaret’s, Lawrence

3 Bishop Wolfe at Trinity, Lawrence

Bishop Wolfe at St. Bartholomew’s, Wichita

3 MegaCamp, Camp Wood YMCA, Elmdale (through June 9)

6 Bishop Wolfe at Trinity, El Dorado 11 Kansas School for Ministry classes, Grace Cathedral, Topeka (through May 12)

9 Anti-racism training, St. David’s, Topeka 10 Bishop Wolfe at St. Mark’s, Blue Rapids and St. Paul’s, Marysville

24 Tocher Series seminar and public lecture, St. James’, Wichita

16 Southwest Convocation meeting, St. John’s, Wichita

27 Bishop Wolfe at Grace Cathedral, Topeka, Pentecost

17 Bishop Wolfe at St. Margaret’s, Lawrence 19 Council of Trustees meeting, Grace Cathedral, Topeka 22 Commission on Ministry meeting, Grace Cathedral, Topeka

Vocationers’ weekend, Grace Cathedral, Topeka (through June 23)

24 Bishop Wolfe at St. Andrew’s, Emporia

For the latest news of the diocese, full calendar listings, and more, visit the diocesan website:

www.episcopal-ks.org Want to make a secure online donation to the diocese? Visit the website and click “Donate now.”

Follow the diocese on Facebook:

EpiscopalDioceseofKansas and on Twitter:

EpiscoKS

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas 835 S.W. Polk Street Topeka, KS 66612

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 601 Topeka, KS

The problem is that the social dynamics that made this strategy workable in one unique generation in Christian history have broken down and no longer serve to fill up pews on Sunday mornings.

Very simply, not being a member of a church no longer carries much, if any, stigma. I think this is an inevitability in a multicultural and democratic society — and I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing, but it does change the ground rules.

Not being a member of a church no longer carries much, if any, stigma. I think this is an inevitability in a multicultural and democratic society — and I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing, but it does change the ground rules.

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.