Monday February 1, 2010

Hello and welcome to the February 1 edition of the eSpirit of Wyoming!

Super things happening here in the Diocese office! The new video conference system (courtesy of the Foundation for the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming) is being installed RIGHT NOW. Several churches from around the diocese have applied to host a video conference unit, and the process to help each “zone” select a site is underway. Hopefully by the end of February, the 9 technology zones in Wyoming will all have a video conference system up and operational! More news on this in the next eSpirit of Wyoming!

As always, a reminder that if you have articles you would like to share with the rest of the Diocese, please email them (and a picture if you have one) to info@wyomingdiocese.org. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering news or events, but anything you would like to share.

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To the Congregations

Several questions have come to the Diocese regarding the canons which address participation in the Electing Convention. As a practical matter, all churches should plan to send delegations and participate in the selection of our next Bishop . Several of our canons describe the process for participation and this memo sets out what should be done and when. An exception to these practices can be granted but it is best for all to follow what we all agreed was to be the standard when we adopted the canons at convention. A second reason to abide by the canons is as a service to our next Bishop; we should seek to provide a clear financial picture to that person.

After reviewing the canons, let me highlight several steps as appropriate for each Congregation to fully participate in the life of our Diocese through the election of our next Bishop. So please
 

• file your Parochial Reports promptly preferably for the year 2009 recognizing the financial statements are for the period ending December 31, 2009. Audit reports can be for the year 2008. If necessary, your 2008 Parochial Report may suffice but please explain promptly why that should be necessary.
• submit this Parochial Report by February 15, although we recognize past practice has been a bit later than that. The reason of course is that the names for the Electing Delegates must be submitted by February 20,. Exceptions can be made and those requests for exceptions can be submitted with the names of the Electing Delegates and no later than the date the names must be in to Jessica, February 20,.
• be current with assessment payments.

Any and all questions about what and how our canons apply should be directed to me by email, chancellor@wyomingdiocese.org or directly by telephone to me at 307.587.5061. In the event I am not reachable, you may also contact Jessica Reynolds at the Diocese office at 307.265.5200 or jessica@wyomingdiocese.org.

The clear intention is to insure that all churches participate in this election.

For those congregations with Youth Groups, a question has come to my attention about how young or old a youth delegate can be. The answer is that at the time of the Electing Convention, a youth is no younger than 16 nor older than 19.

Wallace Johnson, Chancellor
Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming

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Are you a member of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming and have a blog you would like to share? Please send your blog to info@wyomingdiocese.org to be included in the Diocese Blog Roll!

The Rev Canon Margaret Babcock
http://margaretinwyoming.blogspot.com

The Very Rev Marilyn Engstrom
http://marengstrom.blogspot.com

The Rev Ann Fontaine
http://seashellseller.blogspot.com

The Rev Kathy Robinson
http://storieswithkathy.blogspot.com

The Rev John Smilie
http://songsandsermons.blogspot.com

Mr. Pat Walsh (Wyoming Wilderness Camp)
http://wyomingwilderness2009.blogspot.com

The Rev Doug Wasinger
http://ministrydevelopmentregion4.blogspot.com

The Rev Linda Wilson
http://windriverrevs.blogspot.com
 

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8-DAY WALKABOUT BEGINS FEB. 24
Bishop Nominees hit the trail to meet the good folks of Wyoming

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WALKABOUT

“Walkabout” is a term used to describe the visit of nominees for bishop to the electing diocese. It is a time of discernment, both for the people of the diocese but equally for the candidates themselves.
Our Wyoming Walkabout will begin on Wednesday, February 24, and it will end onWednesday, March 3. You will find information concerning the route and daily scheduleon the following pages.

The primary goal of the Walkabout is to make it easy for as many Wyoming Episcopaliansas possible to personally meet the six nominees in a relatively short amount oftime. This goal has guided the Transition Committee in designing a route that takesthe nominees around the Diocese and to a variety of events hosted by local churches.The events include brief stops as well as some longer visits. The major events — also referred to as walkabouts — will generally take place in the evening.

What might one expect at a Walkabout? Wyoming Episcopalians will meet and have opportunity to separately question each nominee. You will be asked to submit questions on index cards that facilitators will then pose to the candidates. There are nostandard or pre-determined questions; rather, each group will determine its own questions.At the end of each session, there will be time for spontaneous questions from the floor.

When reviewing the route and times, please know you are encouraged to attend any ofthe events — and certainly more than one if you are able. If you’re traveling in Wyoming at the time of the Walkabout, consider attending the event wherever you happen to be or, if an event in a neighboring town works better for your personal schedule,don’t hesitate to attend that one rather than the meeting in your own community.Please understand that the following route and dates may have to be amended because of weather, unexpected road closures or other unforeseen circumstances. Every attempt will be made to quickly notify affected parishes of any such changes.

Be sure to come out and say HOWDY!

www.wyomingbishopsearch.com
Cindy King: Transition co-chair, cindylking@juno.com 307.259.2023
John Peacock: Transition co-chair, mettenheim@msn.com 307.631.8914
 

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By The Rev Warren Murphy. Email: warrencmurphy@gmail.com

JOHN ROBERTS- A LONG PASTORATE

In the Episcopal church today a "long pastorate" is considered to be anywhere from 8-15 years. Clergy in Wyoming are known for coming and going from one place to another. Not so for The Rev. John Roberts who came to Wyoming in the midst of a blizzard in February of 1883 to serve on the Wind River Indian Reservation. He was born in Wales and had served in the Bahamas and Colorado before being assigned to Wyoming Territory by Bishop James F. Spalding of Denver. Roberts soon established the Church of the Redeemer at Wind River to serve the Shoshone people of the reservation. He quickly became close friends with the legendary Chief Washakie and baptized the elderly chief shortly before his death on January 25, 1897. He officiated at the chief's funeral in 1900 and also led the burial service for the woman many think was Sacajawea of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He was the forerunner for a series of priests who came to the reservation and who Washakie liked to refer as "white robes" because of their vestments. This contrasted to the "black robes" worn by the Jesuits who were known by that name throughout the west.

John Robert's ministry lasted for a total of 66 years and he himself became a legendary figure in Fremont County. He was the lead organizer for many of the other churches in that county including Trinity in Lander, Our Father's House in Ethete, St. James in Riverton, St. Thomas in DuBois, and St. Andrews in Atlantic City. He also helped establish Holy Trinity in Thermopolis and churches in Hudson and Milford. He is best known for having established the Shoshone Episcopal Mission School for girls on a 160 acre tract of land donated to the diocese by the tribe. He was a principle teacher of the Shoshone as well as being their priest. The Chapel of the Holy Saints John was built to serve the school in 1899. For much of his life he lived in the tiny rectory on the mission school grounds. The Rev. John Roberts made a big impact on the churches of central Wyoming and the diocese during his "long pastorate". He is presently being considered for inclusion in a revision of the Episcopal Church's LESSER FEASTS AND FASTS that will soon be known as HOLY WOMEN; HOLY MEN.

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By Mr Tristan English: Email: trisenglish@hotmail.com

In November, the Evangelism and Outreach team at St. Stephen's Casper began a program by adopting a non-profit or social agency each month. This stemmed from our Mustard Seed discernment in which we were called to serve our youth and people in crisis. Through our discernment process, we met with several groups serving these needs and recognized that these are ongoing challenges and that we are called to serve them long after our Mustard Seed ends. Our goal has been to build reciprocal relationships with these groups, and we believe this continued outreach will serve this call.

For our first month, we adopted Family Promise of Casper. Family Promise is a group that houses homeless families in churches for a week at a time, rotating them each week through the supporting churches. Family Promise is significantly different than traditional missions, as it keeps the family intact. Rather than separating the husband, wife and children, they keep them together and preserves the family unit. Family Promise is new to Casper and was in desperate need of clothing and bedding prior to Dec. 1st when it served its first family. The Outreach team announced the need Nov. 1, and by the end of the month had collected enough to fill a pick-up.

In December, we worked to collect toiletries for homeless youth in Natrona County schools. With more than 500 homeless students identified within the District, the school system is overwhelmed trying to meet their needs. We collected travel-sized toiletries (soap, shampoo, toothpaste) and packaged these in Zip Loc bags. These packages were given to the homeless liaison who placed them throughout the schools, allowing the students to pick them up discreetly. Our goal was to provide the school system with 50 or more care packages.

If you would like to become involved or would like more information, you can reach Tristan English at trisenglish@hotmail.com or temple.heatherly@hilltopnationalbank.com

For more on Family Promise, visit at http://www.familypromiseofcasper.org or contact James Cummings, Executive Director, at 307-234-9343

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By Ms. Bobbe Fitzhugh. Email: bobbe@consultCBI.com

BOBBI’S HOUSE

Whether it’s a middle of the night emergency, or a planned surgery, Bobbi’s House is there to help families of patients at Memorial Hospital of Converse County. Sure, insurance covers most of the patient’s costs, but most insurance doesn’t provide for loved ones to be near – that’s where Bobbi’s House comes in.

Bobbi’s House offers out-of-town individuals and families who have a family member in the hospital a comfortable place to stay based on a strictly donation basis. In 2009 we hosted approximately 95 guests from Cody to Cheyenne and everywhere in between. In fact we were able to extend a hand of hospitality to families from Colorado, Washington, Kansas, and Oklahoma! But we could not have done this without the seven wonderful ladies (Vivian Boyer, Cheryl Ewing, Shann Gorden, Penni Helms, Jill Miller, Tracy Newton, Dorothy Taylor) that serve as our on-call volunteers. As the hostesses of Bobbi’s House, they ensure that each guest is personally welcomed and settled comfortably for their stay.

While our on-call volunteers took care of our guests, our nine member Board (Diahann Barrera, Evie DeMarce, Bobbe Fitzhugh, Shann Gorden, Blake Hollon, Elaine Moore, Sherri Mullinnix, Mark Nicol, Dorothy Taylor) focused on the upkeep of the beautifully restored house with the help of a $21,000 grant from the Episcopal Diocesan Foundation. A new hot water boiler was installed, damaged shingles on the exterior walls were replaced, the exterior of the house was repainted and a new motion sensor light was installed over the front door. But working on the house wasn’t all. We were also fortunate to have a Board member attend the National Association of Hospital Hospitality Homes conference in Rochester Minnesota. The information, ideas, and contacts they made will keep us busy this coming year as we continue to strive to improve as an organization and improve the services we offer. In addition the purchase of a new laptop computer will help us with the consolidation of our financial and organizational records and keep us in the digital age. Thanks to the energy and hard work of the extended Moore family, our annual fund raiser, “The Ride to Town”, was once again a success.

So how do you keep a home running and still manage to host so many guests? Not without the help and support of the Douglas community, our Board, our on-call volunteers, and the many other individuals who gave of their time and their donations. The year has just begun and already we have guest reservations. If you are interested in working with us in 2010 with our marketing, fundraising, house maintenance, or as an on-call volunteer please contact Dolores Neuerburg, Executive Director, at 307-351-2780. As always, donations are gratefully accepted at PO Box 983, Douglas, WY 82633.

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By Ms Rosanne Riley. Email: roril@msn.com

How many times have each of us repeated the Baptismal Covenant? Those of us taking the online Ethics course from the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) took another look at them this past weekend during our face to face session. I’d like to share some of those ideas and insights with you and encourage you to examine those words most of us have repeated many times again perhaps as part of your pre-Lenten or Lenten studies.

The first insight was the fact that the covenant is broken into two parts; a summary of who God is and then the things I agree to do, thankfully, with God’s help. We looked at each line in light of the “pie” that we looked at during the Rooted in God process and asked how each section of the pie is related to the covenant.

In other words how does this statement manifest itself in our daily life in the Liturgy, Pastoral Care, Adminis-tration, Formation and Transformation sections of the pie? Naturally some promises fit better with certain sections of the pie. For example it wasn’t difficult to see how the question “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?” would be played out in the liturgy section of the pie. On the other hand how do we carry out that promise in the area of church administration or pastoral care?

Next, it would be interesting to hear your ideas about how each of our baptismal promises can be effectively played out in every area of our life together so that we do make a difference in the lives of those both within and outside of the parish. Part of the value of this exercise for me was in hearing other people’s thoughts and ideas.

This is one way we learn together and build community which is a process that never ends. It is part of the ongoing formation piece we are each called to as members of this church. This is not just for those called out of our midst for various ministries it is part of our formation as a congregation, a continuous ongoing process.

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By The Rev Doug Wasinger. Email: doug@wyomingdiocese.org

Doug is trying out a new “blog voice". Doug asked the question “I wonder what my blog voice? Perhaps it could be understood like a family sitting around a table for a meal in which everybody shares and checks in with the family.” Also, another friendly chat around the family table. Plus, more blog sites are listed showing that the Diocese of Wyoming is getting out there in the technology world! Also lets give St. Thomas Episcopal Church a large shout out for their formation work being recognized in the ordination of Karen Buckingham. Check it out when you can and have a great week...and see if Doug found his "voice"!

http://ministrydevelopmentregion4.blogspot.com

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