How does your church look?

We often do our usual thing on Sunday mornings without a why we do it that way, how it looks to first-time guests, and what it means. Today one of my new favorite bloggers visited a church in Indiana. Read his impressions of the place, which contain some praise, some criticism, and some questions.

Must of what he observes as "wrong" strikes me as spot on, and these are symptoms -- often found in the US -- of sloppy liturgy and shoddy theology. How would your congregation look to this kind of critic? Does it matter?

Bishop Wolf on the Rev'd Ann Holmes Redding

It's been widely covered in the blogosphere already, but for readers of this blog who may have missed it, here is a letter Bishop Wolf sent to clergy and diocesan leaders last week.

To: Clergy, Members of Diocesan Council and Standing Committee
From: The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf
Re: The Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding

As many of you know, The Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding is an Episcopal priest who has recently professed her faith in Islam. Dr. Redding is canonically resident in the Diocese of Rhode Island, though she has not served here for over twenty years.

After meeting with her I issued a Pastoral Direction giving her the opportunity to reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam. During the next year she is not to exercise any of the responsibilities and privileges of an Episcopal priest or deacon. Other aspects of the Pastoral Direction will remain private.

I am sending this e-mail to you because the continued web-site coverage suggests that I be as clear as possible with those exercising leadership in our diocese.

Here is the story, for those who missed it.

MDG Resource from the Diocese of Texas

Here is a gem of information from my counterparts in Texas. They did a great job creating a central hub for info and it is worth sharing. The MDG's are very important to this Diocese and it is nice to see work being done in other Dioceses as well.

July 8th has been designated Millennium Development Goals Sunday in the Episcopal Church celebrating the mid-point of the UN's MDG goal to reduce extreme poverty in the world by 2015.

Materials to celebrate a special Millennium Development Goals Sunday include a complete worship service with sermon and prayers of the people, bulletin inserts and background information. Curriculum for children and youth are also included with PowerPoint presentations of MDGs and another with an MDG atlas from the World Bank. God's Mission in the World, a study guide provided by the Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations was used for adult curriculum.

These materials are available for your use on July 8 or at any other time. They were prepared by the Diocese of Texas and are available at:

http://www.epicenter.org/images/edot/MGD/MDGContents.pdf

Vatican issues 10 Commandments for Driving

Ordinarily, I don't pay too much attention to proclamations emanating from Rome, but a fresh announcement made today caught my attention. It seems that the Vatican has offered some theological reflection on driving. As it happens some, of this is also compatible with that all-too-rarely-observed phenomenon, Right of Way. As someone who grew up in a part of the country with, shall we say, less problematic driving, I commend this latest Vatican announcement to you, dear reader -- especially if you are reading this from Rhode Island.

Here are the commandments:

You shall not kill.

The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

Support the families of accident victims.

Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

Feel responsible toward others.

I'm not going to swim the Tiber, but I can certainly agree with Their Eminences on this one. (BBC photo from here)

This day in history

Today we remember June 18, 2006. It was a day where the Episcopal Church gave the Boys Club (a.k.a the Primates) the greatest Father's Day gift of all. It was on this day just one year ago, that the House of Bishops elected The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. It has been an interesting year. Congrats to her and to us for all we have achieved. But, there are many more things to come we shall see what another year will.

PB on Bill Moyers

If you have a few minutes, make sure to watch Bishop Katharine on Bill Moyers' Journal. There is a lengthy interview in this program, which aired this weekend on many stations across the country. If you are anti-video, you can read the transcript.

There's lots of great stuff in the interview. Here's a teaser:

BILL MOYERS: So you would concede that as people like you want to modernize the Canon, the tradition and the Scripture, the traditionalists who look back and say, "This is our sacred tradition," would not-- want to come along on that journey.

BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: Absolutely. But I would take them back into that tradition to see within it far more complexity than they've been willing to admit.

BILL MOYERS: But can there be compromise and conciliation within the church when the positions are so fixed and the feelings are so strong?

BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think if we're willing to hold our positions a little more lightly. To say, "Yes, this is where we come to as a conclusion out of faithfulness. We understand you may come to a different conclusion, also out of faithfulness. Perhaps we don't have to decide one way or the other immediately." If we're willing to live in that place of a little more humility, yes, we can live together.

Going away to learn more about home, about life

Today's Projo has a column about a recent mission trip by youth from Grace Church, Providence. They attended the Toward Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM) conference in South Africa. This was a gathering of people from around the global Anglican Communion. The trip clearly had a profound impact:

"When we came back it was a big culture shock seeing Providence and the way we live," said Liz Wagner. "It would be so easy to come back here and just forget."

But they can't do that. There was just too much in their week in South Africa. There are lasting images that won't go away, conversations that changed them in ways they're still figuring out. And there's no way to be sure, of course, but there's a very good chance that there are people in South Africa and beyond who understand America a little better because the young people from Grace Church decided to take that trip.

Read the whole article to find out more about this life-changing trip. This is exactly why every parish should engage in mission work, whether it's in Africa or around the corner. These ministries change lives, and that's exactly why the church exists. Mission should not be an afterthought, but an essential part of every Christian communion and of every Christian's life.

A tragic loss

I'd like to echo the requests of Scott, in asking your prayers for the repose of the soul of Bishop James Kelsey, his family, and his diocese.

photo courtesy of http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot.com/

Rest in Peace Bishop Kelsey, you will be missed.

Bishop James Kelsey, RIP

No connection to Rhode Island that I know of, but let us pray for our sisters and brothers in Northern Michigan in what will be a difficult time. Keep Bishop Kelsey's family and the Diocese of Northen Michigan in your prayers.

ENS] Bishop James Kelsey of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan was killed in a road accident at around 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, while returning to Marquette from a parish visitation, Jane Cisluycis, diocesan operations coordinator confirmed.

Kelsey was traveling alone, but it is unclear at this time whether any other vehicles were involved in the incident.

"The Episcopal Church has today lost one of its bright lights," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said."We will be less without the easy grace of Bishop James Kelsey -- Jim to most of us -- and we shall miss his humor, insight, and passion for the ministry of all. He gave us much. We pray for the repose of his soul, and for his family. We pray also for the Diocese of Northern Michigan. All of us have lost a friend. May he rest in peace and rise in glory."

Born in 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland, Kelsey graduated from Ithaca College in 1974, and from General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1977. In 1985, Kelsey moved with his family to Oklahoma, where he served for four years as canon missioner for Cluster Ministries. In 1989, he was called to the Diocese of Northern Michigan, where he served for 10 years as ministry development coordinator before being elected bishop in 1999.

Kelsey will be remembered as a welcoming and open person who always endeavored to include others, Cisluycis said. "It is hard to imagine the hole he will leave behind," she said.

Time to rearrange the furniture?

Our church buildings in the Diocese are from earlier generations. There have been no new Episcopal Church buildings in the current generation, and very few congregations have even undertaken a significant renovation of the church space (other than polishing what's already there). Yet, if we look at church history, we can see that the interior of our worship spaces have evolved greatly. Previous generations were willing to rethink the way they inhabited sacred space.

Perhaps it's time for us too. Here's a slideshow from St. Paul's Chapel in New York City. It's well worth watching. It's about the issues that surrounded a re-ordering of worship space, including pastoral and theological matters.

Watch the slideshow. And then ask yourself some questions. What does your church space say about your understanding of community and of ministry? What would someone understand about your congregation from your space, if they had never been to your church before? Why do get new furniture at home, but not at church? Why do we expect our malls to stay fresh looking, but not our churches?

(Thanks to Karen Fraioli+ for alerting me to this slideshow. By the way, if you want to see some great re-ordered worship space, visit Karen and Church of the Epiphany in Providence.)