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St. Thomas' Episcopal Church
315 Lindsey Street • Reidsville, N.C.
NEWS FROM THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH, USA
The following news stories are courtesy
of Episcopal News Service (ENS):
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June 29,
2001 Episcopal Church encourages
compromise on public funding of 'faith-based' social services
(ENS) The Episcopal Church today called on Congress and the Bush administration to
seek out compromise in the current debate over faith-based initiatives. According to a
statement, the church supports the "longstanding practice of receiving public funding
for faith-based social services so long as such programs do not discriminate or
proselytize as part of receiving services." While concerned with the current
"charitable choice" provisions of H.R. 7, the statement said the church is
"encouraged" by the administration's willingness to address constitutional and
discrimination concerns raised by the faith community.
"Receiving public monies from local, state or federal
governments is nothing new to the Episcopal Church or other faith-based groups for that
matter," said Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. "I am pleased the questions
around this issue have brought serving the needs of others to our public discourse."
The Executive Council, meeting in Salt Lake City, approved
a resolution on June 11 which called for establishing a balanced approach in accepting
public funds in some cases, while maintaining important discrimination, accounting and
church-state separation safeguards. The resolution also called on the federal government
to increase public funding for programs aimed at critical human needs.
The church continues to support proposals in H.R. 7 to use
the tax code to create incentives for increasing charitable giving. Tax incentives
proposals are supported by almost every major faith group and denomination.
The statement also requested that the government improve
the delivery of assistance to faith-based organizations by simplifying paperwork
requirements and providing timely payment for services, as well as appropriate technical
assistance. "This position balances the increasing need for social services
with fairness and accountability in the use of public dollars. The church recognizes that
discrimination has no place in the delivery of social services," said Thomas H. Hart
of the church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. "The government
should and certainly can expand the opportunity parishes and faith organizations have to
help those in need with public funds, but should clearly put new money behind those
proposals and critical existing programs."
The Rev. Jan Nunley
Deputy Director
Episcopal News Service
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April 19,
2001
A statement on the execution of Timothy McVeigh
I am appalled by the events developing around the execution of
Timothy McVeigh. Reports of people wanting to sell T-shirts and buttons conjure up
images of executions in the Middle Ages and Roman times when these events were public
entertainment. Such an atmosphere demeans our judicial system as it promotes frenzy
and revenge. A public ritual of death can only coarsen our spirits and deaden our
sensibilities, placing us in danger of becoming persons of death, rather than life. Though
undoubtedly Timothy McVeigh committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history of our
country, I fear that execution as spectacle can only poison the soul of our nation.
We can't fully know the pain of those so tragically effected by
the Oklahoma City bombing, most particularly their families. I am
concerned, however, that the provisions being made for them to witness the execution may
only deepen the trauma they have already experienced, rather than help them recover from
it.
Nothing is served by revenge. And here I note that the Episcopal
Church, along with many other faith communities, is on record as being opposed to capital
punishment.
I pray for Timothy McVeigh as he prepares to encounter the God,
who made him, even as I pray for his victims and their families. I invite all
persons of faith to join me in these prayers as we seek with God' help to become
instruments of God's peace and make our own the prayer of St. Francis: "Where there
is hatred let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is despair, hope;
where there is sadness, joy."
April 19, 2001
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
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April 10,
2001
Presiding Bishop's Easter Message 2001
The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
Alleluia. Christ is Risen. The Lord is risen indeed.
Alleluia. As we acclaim with joy the resurrection of Jesus, let us give thanks as well
that we too have been raised with Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is our own
resurrection: our being set free from imprisoning self-preoccupation with our successes
and failures in order that we might enter into the peace of God which passes all
understanding, and has the power to reconcile us to ourselves and one another, to heal us
and to make us whole.
The risen Christ bestows this peace upon the disciples and upon
us in the Holy Spirit: it is his own peace he gives us. It is the very gift of himself
because he is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). Christ's peace is not, however, the
accommodating, compromising peace of this world, but something far deeper: it is a peace
that inhabits our hearts, transforms our minds, and cracks us open to God's passionate
desire for the wellbeing of the whole creation. It is a peace that works in us the mystery
of compassion: a compassion not of our own devising, but a compassion that is formed in us
over time as we are conformed by the Spirit to the image of the risen One (Romans 8:29).
The accounts of resurrection bear witness to this compassion.
They show us a Christ who gently draws near and meets us on our way as he met the two
downcast disciples on the road to Emmaus; Christ who companions us and enters into the
burdens we bear; Christ, the Word within the word, who renders scripture alive and active
and sharper than a two-edged sword as it pierces us and causes our hearts to burn within
us; Christ who reveals himself in the breaking of bread, in sign and symbol and sacrament,
and the things of this earth; Christ who in the silence of the garden addresses Mary
Magdalene tenderly and intimately by name and in so doing sets her free from the isolation
of her grief; Christ who ministers to Thomas' need of certitude by inviting him to touch
his wounds; Christ who overcomes the awe and confusion of his disciples by gently asking
for something to eat; Christ who delivers Peter from his guilt and shame and rekindles his
love by entrusting to him the care of his sheep.
In similar ways the risen Christ approaches us, meeting us in the
midst of our lives, our struggles and our joys, and with infinite patience and great care
invites us to come forth into a new place, a new reality, a new way of seeing and being
that can welcome all in the power of Christ's own compassion worked in us by the Spirit.
This compassion is animated by God's love poured into our hearts by the Spirit, a love
that can bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things
(1Corinthians 13:7).
May this deep compassion, rooted in God's peace, be Christ's
Easter gift to each one of us who through baptism are limbs and members of his risen body
the Church. And may the Church truly be a community of compassion bearing witness in all
aspects of her life and mission to the risen Lord in whom all things are reconciled to God
and made whole and free.
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April 11,
2001
Interfaith coalition decries proposed Bush tax cut
by Jan Nunley
(ENS) An interfaith coalition says President Bush's $1.6 trillion
tax cut proposal is "too inequitable, too large, and threatens the future well being
of our nation."
"As representatives of the faith community, we believe that
government is intended to serve God's purposes by promoting the common good," said a
statement issued by the Religious Community for Responsible Tax Policy on April 5. The
statement argued that "responsible tax policy should be structured so that the
poorest households benefit."
"There is no surplus as long as children are living in
poverty," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of
Churches, at a news conference in Washington, D.C. which coincided with the inauguration
of the new Progressive Religious Partnership.
Signers of the statement included leaders from the American
Baptist Churches USA, the American Friends Service Committee, Bread for the World, Church
Women United,
Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Joint Commission on Social Action of Reform
Judaism, the Mennonite Central Committee of the US, the National Council of Churches of
Christ in the USA, NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, the Presbyterian
Church USA, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the United Church of Christ, and
the United Methodist Church.
Children in poverty a 'moral scandal'
At a news conference, the Rev. George Regas, an Episcopal priest
and president of the Regas Institute in California, accused Bush of "hijacking"
the Children's Defense Fund slogan "Leave No Child Behind" during the 2000
presidential campaign, then
ignoring the needs of children.
"President Bush proposes to cut the already modest funding
for child-care assistance for low-income families, as well as funding for programs to
train doctors in child health care. Is that what it means to 'leave no child
behind'?" asked Regas, retired rector of All Saints Church in Pasadena, California.
"We need to talk about moral scandals in this country that
have less to do with sexual practices and more to do with the government's policies toward
children," he said. "It is a moral scandal that in this country with the largest
period of prosperity
in history we could not find a way to put into place those policies that would take
children out of poverty."
"A society is judged by how it treats its people, not by how
low its taxes are," said Sister Anne Curtis of the national Catholic social justice
advocacy group NETWORK.
"People, not taxes, should be the center of our economic priorities."
In a similar declaration, Evangelicals for Social Action urged
Bush to include more tax benefits for low-income people. "President Bush's proposal
is blatantly unjust," said ESA president Ron Sider. "A proposal that gives 40
percent of a huge tax cut to the richest 1 percent and only 4 percent to the bottom 40
percent is simply wrong."
Mark Pelavin of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism,
citing Deuteronomy 15:4, called for "investing in initiatives. that will help us
realize the biblical vision 'there shall be no needy among you'."
'No divine guidance' on tax policy
But a conservative lobby group has condemned the statements.
"Our churches may legitimately teach us that we have the responsibility as citizens
to obey our tax laws," said Diane Knippers, an Episcopalian who is president of the
Institute on Religion and Democracy. "But I am appalled to see church leaders
squander their moral authority on highly partisan debates over tax and budgetary
policies."
"Most church members do not want their church officials
adopting controversial stances on issues to which the Scriptures do not speak
directly," said Knippers. "The Lord has given us no direct guidance on which tax
rates He prefers."
The House and the Senate have already passed competing versions
of the congressional budget resolution, and must produce a compromise which gives
appropriations subcommittees in both houses the authority to designate funding for federal
programs and agencies.
That will happen when members of the House and Senate return from
a two-week spring recess on April 23. Appropriations bills will be produced from
mid-spring into the autumn, and by law the President should sign those bills by October 1,
which begins the next fiscal year.
--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of the Office of News and Information for the
Episcopal Church.
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March 13,
2001 Episcopalians participate in
sweeping study of religion in America
by James Solheim
(ENS) Episcopalians participated in a massive study of
religious life in America and, like the other groups included in the study, learned a few
things that might help plans for the future. The results were released at a news
conference in New York City March 13.
Faith Communities Today (FACT): A Report on Religion in the
United States Today was conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, based
at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, and was funded by the Lilly Endowment and the
cooperating religious bodies.
It is the most broadly based survey of religious
institutions--churches, synagogues and mosques--ever conducted in this country, involving
14,301 congregations in 41 different faith groups.
The basic questionnaire used in the study was mailed last spring
to 1,100 Episcopal churches drawn from the 1998 Parochial Report database. A total of 726
were returned with an effective response rate of 67.8 percent.
The 200 core questions covered six broad areas--worship and
identity, location and facilities, internal and mission-oriented programs, leadership and
organizational dynamics, and finances. Prof. Carl Dudley and Prof. David Roozen of the
Hartford Institute estimate that the survey data "applies to about 90 percent of the
worshippers in the United States," even though it did not include several large
groups.
The study revealed, among other things, that half of the
congregations participating report that they are growing, most report that they welcome
change, and, to no one's surprise, that changes in worship often prompt serious
congregational conflict.
"These congregations feel good about themselves," said
Dudley at the news conference. When compared with the past, "these congregations are
larger and financially stronger than the past. Despite the challenges of changing
community populations and the natural process of institutional aging," he added,
"the vast number of congregations feel that they have been able to renew their
strength and to sustain themselves."
Leadership still an issue
In the section on leadership, the
study concluded that "religious leadership should be recognized for its significant
contribution to the vitality and growth of congregations. Leaders should be applauded for
guiding a remarkably complex array of worship, educational, fellowship and outreach
activities." Yet the report also noted that "some report that they have lost
energy that comes with clear vision," with age cited as one factor that "places
a drag on a congregation's sense of energy and purpose."
The study suggests that "clergy with a seminary education
are no more likely, and in many cases less likely, to report that their congregations are
well-organized, vital and alive, growing in participants, openly dealing with conflict and
scoring high on a clear sense of purpose." While urging some caution in
interpretation, Dudley said that those responsible for theological
education might "consider ways to help religious leaders deal with conflict
constructively within denominational polities, and specifically with areas known to induce
tension, such as developing contemporary expressions that are appropriate in various
worship traditions."
On the all-important concept of change, the study revealed that
"change does not come without the emotional cost of conflict," pointing out the
relationship between growth, change and conflict. "Congregations see themselves as
growing by
cultural heritage, by intentional and focused sense of mission, and by affirming standards
of personal morality and social justice," the study concluded. "They see
themselves as willing to change, especially where they can imagine the alternatives."
Analysis of the Episcopal Church data reveals that:
*about a third of the responding churches are growing, another
third have plateaued and a third are declining;
*the largest proportion of churches
report locations nearly equally divided between cities with a population between 10,000
and 50,000 and towns with a population under 10,000;
*the largest church responding had
6,094 members with a median membership of all reporting churches of 246;
*the median Sunday morning worship
attendance was 110 and the median sanctuary seating capacity was 200;
*almost half the churches
responding have two weekend worship services, often with slightly different formats;
*over half (52 percent) reported
that "a sense of God's presence" characterizes their worship "very
well";
*about 91 percent report that they
"always" read creeds or statements of faith during worship, and 89 percent
always pass the peace, but less than 1 percent include dance or drama.
In reporting on congregational finances, the median total income
among churches responding to the survey was $158,000. Almost 60 percent of the churches
indicate that their financial situation today is excellent or good. The median for the
budget includes 50 percent of income for staff salaries, 20 percent on congregational
operations, 10 percent on denominational mission work, and 5 percent on program support
and materials.
"Without the texture of these faith communities woven into
the life of virtually every corner of our society, the culture of the United States would
be far less than our best," the report said in a postscript.
Good timing
"The study comes at the right time for us," commented
the Rev. Charles Fulton of the Episcopal Church Building Fund, who helped coordinate the
church's participation as a missioner for Congregational Ministries. "We are
particularly interested in the characteristics of growing congregations--and this gives us
some concrete data."
The Episcopal Church's determination to build membership through
special evangelism efforts can draw on the data, according to the Rev. Winston Ching,
director of Congregational Ministries, who represented the church at the
news conference. "As we seek to build our capacity for ministry, we will now have a
better idea of what people are looking for--we will have a better understanding of our
context for ministry," he said.
The study makes it clear, Ching said, that "worship and
liturgy are strong points for Episcopalians. And yet the power of symbols is changing and
we must look for new symbols with meaning for a different generation. The study gives us a
useful map for the future, helping us draw on our strengths and uniqueness while remaining
open to the future," he said. (The report is available at www.facts@hartsem.edu.)
--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and
Information.
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March
13, 2001 Sewanee Church Music
Conference set for July
(ENS) The 52nd annual Sewanee Church Music Conference
will be held July 9-15 at the University of the South and the DuBose Conference Center in
Sewanee and Monteagle, Tennessee.
The conference, which offers continuing education in church music
and attracts organists, choir directors, and clergy from across the country, has
commissioned new music from American composers Dale Wood and David Ashley White.
During the conference, concerts will be held in the newly
consecrated Chapel of the Apostles on the Sewanee campus. They will feature the Schola
Cantorum of Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. John Fenstermaker, organist of the Fine Arts Museum
of
San Francisco and Dr. Stephen Hamilton, minister of music at the Church of the Most Holy
Trinity, in New York City.
Conference classes will include choral rehearsal techniques,
rehearsal and performance techniques for chanting, organ improvisation, organ repertoire,
and conducting from the console. Reading sessions will be offered featuring anthems as
well as hymn-based organ and liturgical repertoire.
For further information visit the conference's web site at
http://www.sewaneeconf.com
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February
26, 2001 Advent and Lenten guide
available
(ENS) The Higher Education Ministries Arena, an ecumenical
partnership of seven denominations, recently announced the availability of an Advent and
Lenten meditation guide for students. This year's guide was written by a team of three
students and one chaplain and is now available via e-mail for free.
To receive emails go to join-lent2001@epicom.org
and during the Lenten season, you can receive a plain-text message along with an Adobe pdf
with a brief meditation, a prayer, a simple chant, and on Sundays, an art meditation.
The partnership includes the American Baptist Churches USA, the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ,
and the United Methodist Church.
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February
26, 2001 Going to church can save
your life
(HealthScout) Researchers at the Human Population Laboratory in
California who looked at the statistics from a long-running study of Alameda County
residents have concluded that if you go to church regularly you'll be healthier than your
neighbor who doesn't.
The researchers have been tracking the health and social habits
of about 7,000 people in the Northern California enclave since 1965. About 2,000 are still
in the study.
"We've known for some time that people who attend church
services live longer, but the question is why," said William Strawbridge, senior
research scientist at the laboratory. "It turns out that regular attendees are in
better health at the start, and those who don't have good health habits are apt to improve
if they go to church."
The study found those who go to church at least once a week are
almost twice as likely to stop smoking as those who don't go to church, and are 50 percent
more likely to become physically active. And regular churchgoing apparently has an even
greater positive effect on women.
"Women are more apt to improve and maintain health
behaviors," Strawbridge says. "For instance, women are more than four times more
likely to stop excess drinking than men."
The study, which was supported by the National Institute on Aging
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), appears in the current issue of
the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Regular churchgoers also seem to form lasting relationships
outside church more readily than those who never darken the vestibule doorway, the study
concludes. This additional social contact could be another reason they are healthier.
For more information see: http://www.healthscout.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Af?ap=43&id=108229
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Presiding Bishop
Frank T. Griswold
Photo courtesy of ECUSA |
February 2,
2001
Presiding bishop reflects on first triennium of his leadership
by James Solheim
(ENS) Reflecting on his first triennium as presiding
bishop, Frank T. Griswold sent a reflective letter to all bishops of the church (www.ecusa.anglican.org/presiding-bishop/1221001t.html)
and sat down for an interview with the church's new director of communications.
"I continue to view our General Convention as a profound
experience of grace which exceeded all my expectations, though to be sure we have yet to
live out some of our decisions made in Denver in ways that reveal Christ and upbuild the
body while respecting the variety of its many parts," he wrote in his December letter
to bishops.
He expressed regrets that "some in our community of faith
have reduced 'orthodoxy' to particular views of sexuality" because that
"suggests that sex overrides the gospel," he said. "How our sexuality is
integrated into our response to the gospel is an important ethical concern, but for it to
occlude all else that binds us together in Christ--including Scripture, the Sacraments and
the Creeds--is to make sexuality an idol."
He reminded the bishops that the Executive Council is charged by
General Convention with implementing the canons on the ordination of women. He said that
he trusts the council's judgement and was "exceedingly mindful of my own
responsibility" to insure that such implementation is carried forward with
"courtesy, tolerance, mutual respect and prayer for one another," as stated in a
resolution from the House of Bishops.
Beyond the labels
Griswold said that, in preparation for a meeting of his Council
of Advice, he asked the nine members, representing the church's nine provinces, "to
try to determine by checking with the bishops in their province the extent of the
separations of congregations from the communion of the Episcopal Church" as the
result of new missionary efforts by conservatives who contend they are trying to protect
"orthodox" churches.
According to the reports he received, Griswold said that
"there are actually few such cases" and that "the pattern seems to be that
departing congregations have had long-standing difficulties that contributed to their
departure, such as a history of conflict with, or isolation from, the bishop and diocese
on the part of the congregation, and more often the clergy."
Yet the loss of any members of the body of Christ "is a
cause for grief and deep sadness," Griswold added. "When one member of the body
suffers, we all suffer and therefore we must pray and work always for the Spirit to
reconcile and consecrate us in the Truth." He also reminded the bishops that they are
charged with the unity of the church, making it particularly painful for them "to
take part in the alienation or division of a congregation under our care."
He added, "It is possible that in our struggles, and those
going on in other parts of the Anglican Communion, God is at work seeking to draw us all
more deeply into communion in Christ and one another in ways yet to be revealed that
transcend our categories of 'conservative' or 'liberal' and the like."
A wise friend
In the midst of the struggles, Griswold told his Council of
Advice that he is in frequent contact with Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and
"he has been extremely helpful and supportive. I consider him in every way a wise and
discerning friend."
Griswold said that Carey was very clear that "he strongly
disapproves of the Singapore ordinations" of two Episcopal priests as
"missionary bishops." Any regularization of those ordinations "can come
only from the Episcopal Church," he said. Carey has also made it clear, according to
Griswold, that he "would not recognize a body other than the Episcopal Church as a
province of the Anglican Communion in the USA." Conservatives have formed the
Anglican Mission in America in hopes of creating a second province in this country that
would gather disaffected conservatives.
The Council of Advice was "very enthusiastic about this
direct communication of the PB with all the bishops--and particularly pleased with his
upbeat response to the state of the church," according to Bishop Douglas Theuner of
New Hampshire, the new president of the council.
The bishops picked up on his comment about how easily events can
be distorted and misinterpreted in an electronic age and they "welcomed this
opportunity to communicate directly," Theuner said. The council is broadly
representative of the church since its members are elected, rather than appointed.
More than fixing an institution
"Rebuilding the church isn't fixing an institution,"
Griswold told Dan England, the church's new director of communication, in an interview.
"It is the commitment or the recommitment of the members of the church as living
stones to the mission of the church." (Hear full conversation at www.ecusa.anglican.org/presiding-bishop/122100cv.html)
Drawing on his experiences in the first three years as presiding
bishop, Griswold said that he has seen "a real refocusing of the life of the church
on mission," and especially its efforts to seek reconciliation "within the
community and beyond the community in terms of justice, peace and love."
He also sees "a lot of very good energy coursing through the
veins of Christ's body as it is represented within the Episcopal Church. I see a recovery
of confidence, a sense that our tradition actually is a life-giving tradition." He
also thinks that the church "has become less contentious and begun to appreciate more
deeply what it means to reconcile difference in a context of common prayer."
Responding to a question on his relationship to the archbishop of
Canterbury, Griswold said, "We couldn't be better friends and stronger colleagues. We
have very much the same sense of the diversity of the communion and the richness of that
diversity," looking for positive ways to channel that energy in "all the
cultures and historical contexts in which Anglicans are seeking to proclaim and live the
Gospel."
Constant contact and "direct means of communicating"
make it less likely that others can "misrepresent the wonderful vitality and
faithfulness of the Episcopal Church." According to Griswold, Carey "sees us as
a very important ally in his ministry, as a sign and symbol of unity in the Anglican
Communion."
The diverse center
Addressing what he called "some real issues in the life of
the church," Griswold acknowledged that "there are some people who are deeply
distressed by what they perceive to be the direction of the church." Yet he said that
the vast majority of church members, what he called "the diverse center," are
grounded in "a love of the church, not as an idol but because it really is the
context in which they meet Christ in word and sacrament and in fellowship with others.
They love the church. They have a deep sense of its unity. And the deep sense of unity
gives them the capacity to make room for difference without being fractured or feeling
that everything is falling to pieces."
Differences contribute to the church's vitality, Griswold said.
"You absolutely need the extremes or you're not going to have any life at all. You
need people who are impatient and tugging and pulling you toward a yet-to-be-disclosed
future that may be problematic or frightening."
At the same time, "you need people who are reminding you of
your grounding, the tradition, Holy Scripture, of the creeds. You need these sort of
tensions. But it is very much this sort of a broad middle" where every viewpoint is
represented, Griswold argued.
--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and Information.
Episcopal News Service
Friday, February 2, 2001 |
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