Friday August 7, 2009

Hello and welcome to the August 7 edition of the eSpirit of Wyoming!

General Convention is over and time is marching on to the Wyoming Convention! August 8 is the pre-convention meeting with locations all over the state! Email: office@wyomingdiocese.org or call 307.265.5200 for more information.

Also, if you are still in the planning (or even preplanning) stages for the Mustard Seed Mission, the Diocese and Foundation are standing by to help you! Let us know! As always, we are a phone call (307.265.5200) or email away. At the October Convention each congregation that participated in the Mustard Seed Mission is expected to report back at Convention. So if you are stuck, or just need an extra helping hand, please contact the Diocese and Foundation offices.

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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43RD ANNUAL CONVENTION OF
THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF WYOMING

October 1 – 4, 2009
Casper, Wyoming
 

It is our greatest pleasure to welcome you all to the 43rd Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, being hosted this year by the Diocesan Office in Casper, Wyoming.

We have reserved a block of rooms at The Parkway Plaza Hotel located at 123 West E Street (southwest corner of I-25 and Center St). Room rates are $60 per night. Reservations should be made as soon as possible by calling the hotel directly at (307) 235-1777. Please refer to the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming room block when making your reservations. Please note that the reserved rooms at this special rate may not be available after September 17th, 2009.

Convention registration fees can be found on the enclosed registration form and ‘meals only’ form. A late fee of $25 applies to payments postmarked after September 3rd, 2009. Check-in will begin on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at the newly remodeled Diocesan Office located at 123 S. Durbin St. from 4:00pm to 6:30pm. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served; plan time to eat, greet and tour the new office. The Opening of the Convention and Gathering Liturgy will begin at 7:00pm in the Grand Ballroom at the Parkway Plaza Hotel.

A convention agenda will be distributed at check in. Your registration fee includes the Thursday night reception, lunches and snacks on Friday and Saturday, the reception and dinner on Friday evening and the Bishop’s farewell dinner on Saturday night. All convention meals and activities will be held at The Parkway Plaza Hotel (123 Wes E Street) with the exception of check-in which is at the above stated location.

We look forward to greeting each and every one of you on October 1st in Casper! If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the diocesan office manager Jessica Reynolds at jessica@wyomingdiocese.org or (307) 265-5200.

We look forward to seeing you in Casper!

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RAISING UP YOUR CONGREGATION
A Short Course on Church Administration

The Thomas the Apostle Center announces an upcoming course in September entitled, RAISING UP YOUR CONGREGATION. This course will focus on church administration and will be especially designed for clergy and church administrators both paid and volunteer. This course will include practical organizational information such as how to do proper record keeping, maintain parish registers, develop budgets, run efficient meetings, prepare for an increasingly technological future and develop communication and marketing techniques. Representatives of any congregation are welcome to participate.

RAISING UP YOUR CONGREGATION will be offered twice. The first session will be held September 11-12 at the Thomas the Apostle Center in Cody. It will begin at 5 PM on Friday and conclude following lunch on Saturday. There is no cost for the course and the first 15 attendees will receive free lodging at TAC. The second course offering will be held on Saturday September 26 at All Souls Episcopal Church in Wheatland. It will begin at 9 AM and conclude by 3 PM. There is no limitation on the amount of attendees. It is part of the "TAC on the road" educational program and will also be offered free of charge. Funding for both of these programs is made possible from a grant from the Episcopal Foundation of the Diocese of Wyoming.

The course will be led by The Rev. Warren Murphy of Cody. Warren has over 32 years of experience administering congregations and not for profit programs in Wyoming. He has served parishes in Little Snake River, Lander, the Shoshone Mission and Cody. Most recently he has served as Director of the Wyoming Association of Churches. He will be joined for these sessions by Andrew Kerr , communication officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, who will present the section on communication technology. Warren stated regarding this course, " the course is designed to help those in charge of congregational administration maintain an efficient office so that others in the congregation may effectively do their ministries".

To enroll in the course please contact TAC at thomap@tritel.net or call them at 307-587-4400. Remember the first 15 who desire to stay at TAC may register for free. This is on a first come basis.
Contact TAC for any further information.

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By The Very Rev Marilyn Engstrom. Email: stmattsdean@aol.com

St. Matthew's Cathedral, Laramie?is pleased to offer a workshop for choir members and directors who desire to get primed for the fall worship schedule.? On Saturday, August 29 from 1-5 pm, Dr. James Bowyer of the UW Music Department will conduct the workshop at the Cathedral. He is new to UW, but is no stranger to choral directing and performing.? Dr. Bowyer brings over 15 years experience, having conducted the 60 voice sanctuary choir and festival orchestra of Seattle First Baptist Church, as well as the University of the Puget Sound Chorale, the Gonzaga University Singers, Symphony and Chorus and the Bethany Theological Seminary Chapel Choir.? He has performed as a tenor soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Princeton Chamber Orchestra Count Basie Theatre and the Sploleto Festival USA.? His academic degrees are from Manchester College, Bethany Theological Seminary, Westminster Choir College and the University of Washington.? He is loads of fun, enthusiastic and brings out the best in others' talents!

This workshop is funded by the Lilly Endowment as part of the national clergy renewal project and is the first of several events which will be held this fall while Marilyn Engstrom, Dean of the Cathedral, is on sabbatical.? Anyone interested in participating is urged to to e-mail or to call the Cathedral at 307 742-6608 for additional information.

During the morning from 8-12, the Cathedral is holding a Boot (Car Trunk) sale on the parking lot.? Crafts, handmade items and assorted "treasures" are for sale with bargain prices.? Proceeds will go to the Millennium Development Goals and to the Downtown Clinic. So plan to come early to the choir workshop and get a souvenir in the process.

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By Charlie DeWolf. Email: charlie.dewolf@yahoo.com

St. Matthew’s Looking for Students to Participate in Mustard Seed Program for Fall Semester

As the calendar flips to August, it seems like summer is just now arriving. However, “back to school” time is just around the corner. For college students headed or returning to Laramie, there is an opportunity to participate in St. Matthew’s Mustard Seed Project.

St. Matthew’s Mustard Seed project is titled L3: Living, Learning and Leadership. L3 is designed to build relationships between members of St. Matthew’s and college students who are living in Laramie while attending the University of Wyoming, Laramie County Community College, Laramie campus or WyoTech. Students will propose and complete a project in an area of Cathedral life over the course of a semester. In return they will receive a small amount of financial support ($600). During the time of their project, students will work with an assigned mentor, gather periodically with other students and meet with host families for social events. We anticipate that students will learn “real world skills” and gain leadership experience through their project. More important are the living relationships which will develop with other students, members of the parish and with the Living God.

Assistance in getting the word out to students in Wyoming congregations is greatly appreciated. We hope to select several students for participation in L3 this fall. The deadline for applications is September 1. For more information contact Carla Rumsey at crumsey@hydrologicusa.com.

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Evangelism may be one of the most misunderstood words in all of church jargon. A couple of things it does not mean…. It does not mean knocking on people’s doors. It does not mean saving someone’s soul. Only God can do that!! And as the article below by Emily M. C. Scott tells us, it does not even mean inviting people to church. It is an article well worth reading.
Kathy Robinson (email: kathy@wyomingdiocese.org)

Refraining from Invitation: Evangelism in Context

By Emily M. D. Scott

Reprinted with permission from Daily Episcopalian

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:16-20

Graduating from Divinity School, some friends and I had the bright idea to spell out the word “R-E-P-E-N-T” on the top of our mortar boards. Assembled together (and in the right order!) we poked fun at a stereotype of Christians: the crazed evangelist on the city street corner, wearing his sandwich board and waving his leaflets. Though our act was lighthearted, it pointed out our own discomfort with our religious tradition. We’re not those people, we were saying. And we have enough distance from them that we can make fun of them.
After the street corner-sandwich board image, when I think of “evangelist,” I see John the Baptist staggering from the wilderness in his wild and wooly state, warning the people of Israel to prepare the way. My third connotation with the word is that of the earnest Christian, usually more theologically and politically conservative than me, who speaks in a heartfelt way of the love of Jesus, and warmly invites me to his church. I appreciate his generous desire to bring me into the fold, but, to be honest, am often suspicious of his invitation. His freshly shaven face, crisp shirt and relentlessly cheerful demeanor causes me to wonder if the whole of who I am would be embraced at his church Sunday morning: my sarcasm, my doubt, my ambition, my irreverence. Politics and theology aside, I suspect that he will soon ask me to give up some part of myself (and the culture I both embrace and confront) to be “good.”

I live in New York City and I’m 28 years old. The people I meet at bars or at parties are artists, musicians, designers, and writers. Often, they seem to physically take a step back from me when I tell them I work at a church. Their heads tilt slightly to the side and their brows furrow in suspicion as they try to figure out if I’m suddenly going to spring some Jesus speech on them. They’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting to see if I’m just pretending to be a normal human being and if I’m actually here in this bar for some other reason. I’ve learned how to get through these uncomfortable moments with as much ease as possible, explaining quickly that my church is progressive. Often I’ll laughingly say, “But don’t worry, I’m not creepy.” I may be laughing, but I’m not actually joking. For some of the folks I talk to, the disconnect is not easily overcome. They look shocked when I swear or make crass jokes. They seem to think they need to be careful or delicate around me and avoid talking about sex. We could write volumes on the theological implications of this response – the ways in which Christians have come to see themselves as needing to be in some way protected from the realities of the secular world. Reading of Jesus sitting down to eat with prostitutes and tax collectors, I wonder that people should be so shocked to meet a church goer at a bar on the Lower East Side. But this seems to be the expectation. The people I meet seem to think that they need to be “good” when they’re around me … when all I want them to be is honest. Honest, and figuring things out.

And so the question becomes: what does it mean to be an evangelist in our current cultural context? When the simple act of inviting someone to church can be so easily seen as a judgmental deceit, an aggressive attack or a desire to co-opt, how do we live our lives as evangelists, sharing the Good News with all people?

I’m the founder of a congregation in New York City called St. Lydia’s. We’re in the very beginning stages of this thing, and I don’t know that it will be successful. I only know that God is calling me to do this, and I’ve decided to listen. Along the way, I’ve learned something important things about evangelism: in a bar on the Lower East Side in New York City, the most powerful tool of evangelism is not inviting someone to church. In a bar on the Lower East Side of New York City, good evangelism does not have to be about preaching, proclaiming, pamphletting, or proselytizing. It is about relationships.

Return in your mind to that bar stool where I sit talking with some pour soul who doesn’t realize I’m a Christian. He asks me what I do. I drop the bomb. He looks at me suspiciously. I tell him my church is very progressive. I don’t invite him to church. He says, “So you don’t hate gay people?” I say no. I love gay people. I don’t invite him to church. He asks me what it means to be a liturgist. I tell him it’s like being a director and dramaturg in the theatre, but everyone gets to participate. I don’t invite him to church. We get started talking about theatre. I don’t invite him to church.

You get the idea. And though this is a caricature of an interaction I might have on a Friday night, like a caricature, it is an exaggeration of the truth. What happens next on that bar stool is key to reworking our understanding of evangelism.

1. We wrap up our conversation and go our separate ways. My new friend has a new (and positive) impression of at least one Christian, which, in and of itself, is a work of the Spirit. 2. We wrap up our conversation, but run into each other again – even become friends. Somewhere along the line, my new friend and I start talking about life and how it unfolds, maybe God, maybe community, maybe doubt. It’s not a formal relationship, but one day he begins to joke that I’m his spiritual advisor. I have a number of people like this in my life, and I’ve never once (other than to hear me preach) invited any of them to church. This is not to say that they will never want to come. But I believe that they will tell me if they’d like to. 3. We continue talking. We talk a lot. About faith and doubt and God and relationships. And at some point he opens a door and says something like, “You know, I’ve really been looking for a place to have this conversation.” And then I invite him to church. In context. These are the people who are coming to St. Lydia’s. Often we think that evangelism is all about converting the unconverted. My experience has been that it’s all about reaching out to people who are looking for something that they can’t find. St. Lydia’s has been designed around filling that need. We’re building our congregation around the idea that there are people out there who are desperately seeking God, and haven’t found a Church to do that with.

In all three cases above, evangelizing – bringing the Good News – is not about convincing someone to believe in Jesus. It’s about bearing witness to what God has done with the whole of our existence, within the context of our cultures and the patterns of our lives. I bear witness to my Good News every time I sit on a bar stool on the Lower East Side and meet some new people, because that’s what I like to do. Through that act, which is fully and wholly natural to me, I’m telling a story of how God doesn’t need me to hide from the world within the confines of the Church, but to be a part of the whole of the world around me. I bear witness to my Good News every time I’m sarcastic, edgy, questioning, breaking the stereotype of a “good Christian girl.” I’m telling a story of a God who gave us brains and guts and bodies so that we could use them to love the world. I bear witness to my Good News every time I refrain from invitation, and try, instead, to listen. I’m telling a story of how God’s love is so deep and so wide that she doesn’t ask me to change people, but to walk with them, trusting that that she will do her work naturally, easily, in the context of relationship.
 

Emily M. D. Scott is a lay liturgist and an Episcopalian. She is currently the Director of Worship at The Riverside Church in New York City, and the founder of a budding congregation called St. Lydia’s, that meets weekly in Manhattan. She is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music, and a member of the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission (APLM). She may be reached at emilymdscott@gmail.com.

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The Episcopal Church, Office of Public Affairs

The Episcopal Church Center feels the effects of the new budget

The Episcopal Church Center has begun the process of implementing the staff reductions and program changes necessitated by the General Convention’s triennial budget.

The $141 million budget for 2010-2012 adopted by General Convention calls for cuts in most areas and results in staff reductions across program, canonical and corporate areas. Approximately 40 staff positions are being eliminated or will have hours reduced, affecting some 35 current employees. Staff members are being provided with resources and assistance, including outplacement services, and are being counseled individually regarding severance benefits. As individual circumstances differ, managers are conferring with each affected staff member to determine departure dates, between now and the end of the year.

In addition to layoffs, General Convention 2009 reduced most departmental budgets. The implications of these reductions are beginning to be analyzed. The Rev. Margaret Rose, director of the Mission Leadership Center, is convening a group that is considering how to reconfigure the program area. Another group will be considering how to foster internal collaboration with an eye to more focus on team and project-based work.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has challenged the staff to “rediscover the creative ability to innovate” as the budgetary realities are implemented. Questions of “what work will be done?” and “how will that work be accomplished” will be examined.

It is hoped that this time of great change and challenge will also be a time of reinventing and rebuilding.

The Episcopal Church, with 110 dioceses in 16 nations, is a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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The following positions will be voted on at the Diocesan Convention:
 

Diocesan Council
1 lay person for a 3 year term
1 clergy person for a 3 year term
Bishop appoints one person

Ecclesiastical Court
1 lay person for a 3 year term
1 clergy person for a 3 year term

Provincial Synod
3 lay persons for a 1 year term
3 clergy persons for a 1 year term

Standing Committee
1 lay person for a 3 year term
1 clergy person for a 3 year term

If you are interested in any of these positions please submit to Bob Eldan (nominations chair) your name along with a statement of why you fill suited by October 1 at the latest. Via email: eldan@bresnan.net, phone: 307-332-2075,
or mail:
249 Mount Arter Loop
Lander, Wyoming 82520-2921

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