Monday April 13, 2009

Welcome to the April 10 issue of the eSpirit of Wyoming!

Hafa Adai (hello) from Guam! April 10? Well, I was on Chuuk with dialup Internet until Saturday night (Wyoming's Friday...we are ahead a day here) and went in to the office to work on it Monday morning (Wyoming's Sunday) thinking people could get an Easter issue in their email inbox. Well...the website that hosts the newsletter was shut down yesterday for maintenance. Probably assumed nobody would be on Easter and it was a good time to do that. WELL, now you will get it in your Tuesday morning email.

Just because I am in the field doesn't mean that work has stopped. 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. Also, the Diocese is interested in doing a printed publication to come out 2-4 times a year (depending on the budget). The first issue will be mission-focused. Not just international projects like Honduras, African relief, Micronesia outreach and the Wyoming connections, but very much local Wyoming projects, too. I am interested in getting your stories from the churches with the Mustard Seed Missions, but also any mission connections.

For those following my trip, thanks for the emails and support. The blog site is: http://kerrepiscopalwy.blogspot.com. I try to keep it current…or mostly current, anyway. Has been an incredible trip to return to my former home and work with people here. When I return, I would like to do some workshops on blogging, plus get a list together of Wyoming folks already blogging. If you have a blog and want it to be on a Diocese list, please send me the link.

So thanks and keep the stories coming!
God’s peace,
-Andrew
Email: andrew@wyomingdiocese.org or call (+1) 307.265.5200

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Mr. Clark Graham of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia met with Andrew Kerr for an interview about the Chuuk and his work there. This link is posted in Diocese's account with Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/WyomingDiocese or go direct to the video by clicking here.

Please give it some time to load...it may take a few minutes.

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By the Rev Doug Wasinger. Email: doug@wyomingdiocse.org

Hello members of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming. As we reorient ourselves toward a mission and outreach focus, I would like to bring to your attention a wonderful outreach opportunity found in our midst. It is a program called Safeguarding God’s Children. Now before everybody heads for the hills, please take a moment and read the philosophy of this program.

The purpose of the Safeguarding God’s Children program is to teach adults what they need to know to prevent sexual abuse. The premise of the program is that if every adult can protect one child, each of us will change one life, and together we will make a difference in this generation of children.

The training session is divided into two sessions. During the first session, the participants will watch a video or DVD called Safeguarding God’s Children for Parents and Congregations. This video/DVD provides information about preventing child sexual abuse in all environments and about protecting the children we know personally, such as the children of our family. The second session is a presentation of a video/DVD called Safeguarding God’s Children for Ministries. This video/DVD focuses on preventing child sexual abuse in church ministries.

Both as a parent and as a member of the church I have found the presentation of this information to be useful and relevant to day’s church and community environment. It gives us all tools to protect our children, other children and adults who work with our children. The program is more about educating and creating an environment where sexual abuse cannot operate. People don’t need to be identified as an offender, but they do need to be protected. This can be done when everybody has a better understanding of what are clear and healthy boundaries for loving relationships of all ages. If every adult member (ages 16 and above) participates in the Safeguarding God’s Children for Parents and Congregations our churches and our communities would become a better place to live and worship.

Here is a list of the trainers in Wyoming:

Ann Fontaine, Bob Spencer, Bobbie Fitzhugh, Candice Widman, Dawn Sopron, Doug Wasinger, Dwight Kuhl, Janet Seeley, Kay Rohde, Leigh Smith, Lynne Livingston, Nancy Johnson, Dick Naumann, Carole Buckingham, Russ Murphy, Sharon Johnson, Tom Fiske, and Trent Moore. Feel free to contact them and set a training date.

Please keep in mind there is a small fee of $10 associated with this training. The purpose of the fee is to offset the expenses of the printed material that is given to all participants of this training.

May the promise of the resurrection fulfill all your expectations and may the love of Christ be manifested in you as you become a blessing to those around you.

(Rev) Doug Wasinger, Ministry Developer in Region IV

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By Ms. Rose Zella Proctor. Email: rzellaproc31@vcn.com

On October 30, 2008 the People of Good Shepherd Church gathered at a meeting in anticipation of the announced Mustard Seed Mission. Much discussion was held on asking "What is god's will for our congregation and the use of this money?"

Many suggestions were made and by January 22, 2009 we had a meeting, set a plan in place and were ready to test our faith. The plan was to center on Youth Coalition with a school for special needs, and to branch out from that with smaller projects within our community. We began with the Bear Lodge High School, which is an alternative high school in Sundance. They have a green house and need help in getting some projects going and they also need interaction with other people and other groups.

The first project was a Thanksgiving Feast for the students and teachers at the Parish Hall. This was well received and we all got acquainted. Ladies of the Church cooked and also had students in the kitchen cooking, then later there was a cookie baking time with the students. Three different areas were chosen for work with the Bear Lodge School.
1. Periodic meals that are prepared/shared with and for the students and church members.
2. Greenhouse materials and training so students can learn skill and provide plants for local community projects.
3. A local trees for Cans program to support the local food bank. We will give tree seedlings for a can of good for the food bank.

This was the beginning.
Tree seedlings have been planted. The school needed items for their kitchen and bath, so items were collected. Also, winter coats and clothing were needed, so we organized a drive and had the students come shopping. Left over clothing was taking to Gillette
to the YES House which is a Youth Emergency Service and service Crook County too. The YES House has been one of our OUTREACH projects for several years. We have hit a few road blocks with the green House project but are still trying to work it out. In the meantime we will have trees to pot or plant and are working on a County Memorial Tree Program. The Good Shepherd Ladies are sewing. We shipped a large shipment of dolls to the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Belize, Central America and plan to send some to Honduras. We have a long range plan for some luncheons or parties for some of the Senior Citizens in the Town. Local projects will be planned as we go and as we see a need.

Everyone has been supportive and interested in our mission.

God Bless,
Rose Zella Proctor, Senior Warden and Administrator
 

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By Mr. John Peacock. Email: mettenheim@msn.com

WyoAIDS Walk: Cheyenne Busts Blizzard!
Event Raises in Excess of $4000

April 7, 2009, Cheyenne, Wyoming…..Despite road closures, wind, and blizzard warnings, 16 Cheyenne Wyoming residents took to the streets On Saturday, April 4, 2009, to support their fellow Wyomingites as part of WyoAIDS Walk: Cheyenne. Walkers followed the planned route from the Walk's official registration and gathering point, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, to the Wyoming State Capital and back.

While 2009 marks the eighth annual WyoAIDS Walk, this is the first year that Cheyenne, the state's capital, hosted it's own walk. The 16 individuals who walked today were part of 33 total participants who ventured out to turn in donations. All total, the Cheyenne community raised $4,063 to add the over $100,000 raised to date by WyoAIDS Walk. Today's event was marked by a proclamation from Wyoming's Governor, Dave Freudenthal, and official statements of support from the State's two Senators, Michael B. Enzi and Dr. John Barrasso.

The theme for this year's Walk was "The Risk Is Not Knowing. Get Tested." WyoAIDS Walk events continue throughout the month. Across All Lines, Laramie County Community College's gay-straight alliance, is hosting a flea market on Saturday, April 11th. Then, April 13 marks the beginning of a full week of educational and awareness events on the University of Wyoming Campus in Laramie, Wyoming, home of the first WyoAIDS Walk. On April 18, the Laramie community will host its own walk event. Finally, the Cheyenne community will gather again on April 25 at the Unitarian Universalist Church for a thank you party for volunteers, participants, supporters and anyone who were not able to participate in the Walk on the 4th.

Donations are still being gratefully accepted at the following locations:

The LCCC Flea Market from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 11
Mary Connor’s office in LCCC Admissions
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1908 Central Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001
The WyoAIDS Walk: Laramie event at UW on Saturday, April 18

Checks should be made out to Wyoming Equality/Cheyenne AIDS Walk and may be mailed to Wyoming Equality, P.O. Box 2539, Cheyenne, WY 82003.

WyoAIDS Walk’s fundraising efforts help Wyoming residents pay for the many expenses related to living with HIV/AIDS such as medication, co-pays, dental and vision care, counseling, and other needs that would otherwise go unmet by state and federal money. These funds are currently administered by Laramie Reproductive Health by request from HIV/AIDS Case Managers on behalf of HIV+ clients in Wyoming.

The WyoAIDS Walk: Cheyenne sponsors include Wyoming Equality, Cheyenne/Laramie County Health Department, Across All Lines, Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. For more information about WyoAIDS Walk, the Cheyenne or Laramie events, or to make a donation please visit www.wyomingequality.org and click on the Wyoming AIDS Walk Cheyenne link, or visit www.wyoaidswalk.org

Planning is underway for the 2010 WyoAIDS Walk: Cheyenne.

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By the Rev Kathy Robinson. Email: kathy@wyomingdiocese.org

Sometimes new and wonderful ideas come when we share our resources.  This piece by Kay Flores at St. Stephen's in Casper shows the kind of creativity that can come out of this kind of sharing. St. Stephen's is also using this same material with a power point presentation as a part of their Good Friday worship.

Kay continues: Some of you met Sister Claire Joy of the Community of the Holy Spirit when she visited Wyoming during the early days of Lent. I took part in the Quiet Day at St. Mark's in Casper, and was taken by the art and text she shared as we walked The Way of the Cross. Sister Claire Joy (the artist) and Deacon Joanna Depue (the author of the text) gave me permission to share their work in an electronic format. Friends from St. Stephen's donated some time after church one Sunday so I could record the text being read aloud.

The results are on my blog at http://yaksaboutlife.blogspot.com/

On the blog, click on each link in turn, starting with Opening Devotions and continuing through Station 14. If you want to hear the folks from St. Stephen's, click on the arrow in each audio player.

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

It is April, right? It looks like the “winter storms” about two weeks late. I would expect these kinds of weather related issues to be among us during the month of March, but not in April. Then again we do live in Wyoming where anything is possible. I hope that your entrance to Holy Week is full of anticipation and wonder. And now it is time to move onto the news of Carbon County and beyond. I hope this letter finds you well.

Before I get started I was brought up to speed what is taking place at St. James in Encampment. I have been noting that St. James in plugging along, well this is what plugging along at St. James looks like. Lois has started a new bible study in January. They are working out details for their new parish hall and outreach ministry. Roxanne is collecting bids, and then they will meet soon to walk the church grounds to decide on a placement/orientation for the new building. Then St. James will meet for a carry-in supper to discuss the configuration of rooms, needs and possible solutions. Next steps after that will be to write a Sargent Fund grant and get the ball rolling! See, they are working diligently in their part of God’s Kingdom. Thanks Fred for the up-date.

St. Thomas has worked hard to prepare for their Holy Week by having Maundy Thursday meal. Following the meal there will be a Eucharist service that will including washing of hands. Friday, St. Thomas will have a Good Friday service and then on Holy Saturday there will be another prayer service. Given that the weather does not create too much havoc on travel plans, (Rev) Jess Smith will travel from Laramie to preside at the Easter Sunday services. Following the service there will be an Easter Egg Hunt and a brunch.

I got snowed in Rawlins this Sunday and did not make it to Dixon for the Palm Sunday service. I waited to the very last moment before making the decision not to go. The e-mails and quick up-dates on Facebook between Linda and I keep the conversation going up to the very last minute. I understand that St. Paul had their Ministry Support Team meeting this morning and will catch up with them throughout the week to see what is on the horizon for the next month. St. Paul will have a Maundy Thursday meal and service. I am not sure they will have a Good Friday or Holy Saturday services this year. If you have any questions please give Linda Fleming a call. I am planning on attending the Easter Sunday services at St. Paul’s this year (given that the weather will cooperate) along with Kellie and the Wasinger girls.

St. Luke will be celebrating the Easter Vigil this year on Saturday. Arlen and I will be the worship leaders for these series of services (they are four services that incorporate the entire Easter Vigil event). It is a community event and I am looking forward to seeing some the other members of Medicine Bow on Saturday.

It is looking like a busy week. Other appointments and meetings I will be attending this week are as follows: Monday “The Bible For Today’s Church” book study in Rawlins at 9am. That evening I will be on a web/phone meeting with the Ministry Developers and Regional Reps with the main topic of discussion will be the Mustard Seed Project. That meeting will start at 5pm and last an hour. Tuesday I will be helping an Apostolic Team member get her computer up to speed. Wednesday I will be on the weekly web/phone meeting with Ministry Developers at 8am for an hour and that afternoon I head over to Laramie to work on a personal project and attend to some more tech issues. Thursday I dive into the Holy Week activities starting in Rawlins and ending the week in Dixon. Be well my friends.
Shalom,

Doug

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[April 12, 2009] The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, offered the following sermon on Easter Day, April 12, at St. James, Florence, Italy.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia! This is the great feast of the Christian year, for “on this day the Lord has acted” (Ps 118:24), “This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice” (Isa 25:9).

New life has come out of death, for God has raised Jesus from the dead.

When I landed here on Wednesday, I had a phone message. It was from the woman who cuts my hair in NY. She’s a Brazilian immigrant, who’s been in the US for 20 years. Her English is pretty good, but one day she said to me that she couldn’t write in English, and she wanted to take an ESL course, but the fees that language schools charge in NY are beyond her. She asked me if I knew any churches that offered ESL classes. Well, I went back to the office and started looking, but I kept running into dead ends. I’m sorry to say that the churches where I left messages or made inquiries didn’t call back. I couldn’t find anything on the website of the Diocese of New York, and I didn’t have any luck on the internet. I had to go back to her the next time and say that I hadn’t been able to find anything.

Well, I kept thinking about it, and it finally dawned on me that there must be some community offerings. Somebody must offer ESL classes in NY! I finally found the city department of education, and a list of the centers where adult education classes are offered. And, oh yes, ESL is part of those offerings. I printed out one page that gave the contact numbers for the different adult education centers in NYC. The next time I went back to see Val, I took that single piece of paper and told her what it was, and that most of the centers seemed to offer ESL classes. I offered to help, and told her I could probably find some funds if the classes had a fee.

The phone message was hard to understand, but it was from Val. She had gone to her first class the day before, there was no fee, and she said they even offered help with looking for other employment. She was falling all over herself with joy. This was a different person, and that was evident even in a garbled recording.

Sometimes we can recognize something new in a different context, but other times we may see but not recognize what we’re seeing.

Mary of Magdala went to the tomb early on the first day of the week to finish the burial rites. She discovered the tomb empty and figured the body had been stolen. She runs home and tells the guys that Jesus’ body is missing. Peter and the other one – maybe John – run to the tomb, and there’s this fascinating series of encounters. The other one gets there first and peeks in, but he waits for Peter. Peter goes in and sees the burial clothes, but doesn’t get it. Then the other disciple goes in, and it says that “he saw and believed” even though it’s not clear just what he believed. The gospeller is careful to tell us that they didn’t understand what they were seeing. So they go home – essentially unchanged and apparently still clueless.

Mary stays, and continues her grieving. Two angels confront her and she admits that she can’t even grieve properly without the body. She turns around, runs into the gardener, and asks what he’s done with the body. She sees, and doesn’t see. She sees him, and recognizes him as the gardener, but not the gardener she thinks she’s seeing. However, this is the gardener, the new Adam, the one who has restored the promise of the first garden. Jesus, risen, has renewed the life first given to Adam and Eve in the garden. When Jesus calls her by name, she finally figures out who he is. He tells her not to touch him or hang on to him, because he still has to finish rising. This heavenly bread-body is still waiting for its final proofing. The breath of spirit has yet to bless the disciples, though the process has begun. He will remain with them for a little while, for the work of his lasting presence isn’t finished just yet. Wait for Ascension and Pentecost, Easter isn’t done yet. The spirit is yet to come.

The Easter question for us is always, do we recognize what we’re seeing? Can we see newly risen life in l’Aquila? Can we find the presence of the risen one in those who come here to St. James to be fed? Can we see Jesus in unexpected joy?

We all spend at least part of our lives waiting, more or less expectantly, for that newly risen life, for that unexpected joy. The Afghani refugees I met Friday at St. Paul’s refugee center in Rome are waiting for justice, for the state of Italy to recognize them as human beings deserving of real dignity – the dignity that looks like viable employment and assistance to rebuild their lives. The Ecuadoran immigrant women I heard about are also waiting for real dignity, for recognition as human beings deserving of equal protection under the law, and the help of the community to raise their children in a vision of more abundant life. The Italian families who are served here at St. James each week are finding a glimpse of new life as they wait for the kind of dignity that will let them feed their families in an ongoing and reliable way. The students who come here for dinner on Wednesday are eager for community that will tell them they matter, even as strangers in a strange land.

While we wait, how is that hope sustained? What finally lets us recognize new life in what we’re seeing? The great assurance of Easter is that nothing can finally separate us from that hope, not even death. In Easter, God has reworked the nature of creation. Death is no longer the end of things. We live in the assurance that the deaths in Abruzzi are being turned for life, even though we may not see or recognize it for a long time. That hope is sustained in communities like this one – where the resurrected one keeps that hope lively in some so that it may inflame and infect others’ despair. Mary didn’t find that hope in solitary and lonely grief, she found it in her neighbor, Jesus in the guise of a gardener. Then she ran to tell the others. The Orthodox still call her the apostle to the apostles – the one who first announced the resurrection. We are meant to be gardeners of hope as well, and let the hope planted in us sustain others. That hope transcends the languages we speak and the cultures we inhabit. This hope is for all languages, families, peoples, and nations.

Our Easter joy is to recognize the gardener, and to help others to see the risen one in our midst. Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church

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