On Saturday, March 20, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, at Christ Church Cathedral, attend the Global Warming Cafe: from Conversation to Action. We know that global warming is a dangerous reality, one that will increasingly touch our lives, those of our children and grandchildren, and many of the poorest people on our planet. Serious consequences can already be seen in the form of floods, heat waves, more violent storms and the rise of sea levels. World Cafe is a wonderfully facilitated conversation. (Your editor has a good deal of experience with the conversation cafe movement, and when we were planning the first meeting of the online Episcopal School for Ministry book club mentioned this conversation style to Fr. Rod Wiltse, book club facilitator. Father Rod exclaimed, “Oh, Lectio Divina!”) At the end of the conversation, each participant in the conversation considers making a pledge to reduce his or her carbon footprint. If the cafe organizers are successful in their goal of 1,000 Cafés, this could result in a collective pledge of over 250 million pounds of carbon reduction. Please RSVP by March 15: bgclick@gmail.com

Have you met Sabine McDowell? Some know her as Grace-Kirkwood Rector Todd’s better half, and many others as a LEED AP and sustainability consultant. Her website, Our Green Choices, is filled with resources, including Green Choices for Places of Worship. Sabine has offered to work with any parish on energy audits, explaining what they are and why they are such a great opportunity, and updated information on Ameren specifics.

This year’s diocesan Flower Festival at Christ Church Cathedral, May 1 & 2, will be more focused on taking responsibility for the stewardship of what God has created. On Saturday a “Green Expo” is planned with information, demonstrations, displays and more about how to make your home, church, school, office and life more eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable. Flower Festival preacher on Saturday and Sunday will be the Rev. Becca Stevens. More details to follow from the festival planning committee.

• We need to merge our efforts to bridge the ecological divide and to bridge the economic divide. Our job should be to educate everyone about issues of sustainability.
• The faith community needs to be involved in the conversation about the green economy.
• We often think about the secular green organizations, the Sierra Clubs. How can we connect our faith to thinking green? Can we make changing light bulbs and recycling an expression of our gratitude to God?
• We need to find allies, because this work can’t be done alone. We as faithful believers need to be going to city hall, learning bill and resolution numbers, serving on steering and planning committees. We need to look deeper into our congregations for allies that may not be currently serving on our other ministries.
• We should consider beginning with education: for self, for congregation, for clergy and lay leadership. Can we start a bible study on economic justice or ecology issues, a film series. Can we educate both the workers and the guests at our food ministry. What would a faith based litter campaign look like?
• Speaking as an African American woman I ask why are we under-represented in this green conversation. A very helpful book to understand historical context is To Love the Wind and the Rain: African Americans and Environmental History by Diane Glave and Mark Stoll.
• We have to “infiltrate,” we have to bring these green concerns, our economic justice concerns, not only to our environmental concerns committee or social justice committee, but throughout the work of the church.
• One community of faith started looking at the issue of childhood obesity and linked it to access to nutritious food. An urban parish, they began raising vegetables in containers, connecting the children to the process of growing food. The garden was transformative. They wound up replacing all soda with fresh juices and clean water.
• One parish had a large mostly unused basement. They became a large deconstruction retail store, taking in used but re-usable building materials from structures being demolished.
• We should consider thinking of green issues for saving people, not polar bears. These should be vital issues for congregational care, for community care, not the “over there” and far away which the polar bear metaphor brings to mind. Sometimes I call it the “in your face” care, which starts at home, with us.
• When we buy that $5 t-shirt, we need to understand the real costs. This is difficult for us, but we need to understand the cost of our consumption. We don’t want to talk about our shopping bags full and child labor laws and how they are related. But our consumption drives this. (Veronica then shared some of her personal history, at one time she was a personal shopper.) This is work of understanding the purchase in its long transaction from manufacture of item to distribution to consumption.
• Make no mistake, environmental sustainability will require sacrifice from all of us. Can we get to the place that when we do something unsustainable, we understand we are cheating the community, all of us, and our legacy of sustainability.
• Can we host farmers’ markets to learn what food in season looks like. Can we talk about the sustainable implications of that huge chicken in the discount markets for .89 an lb.
• Every day is a struggle, because every day we choose between the short and long term, between the convenient and the sustainable. Can we live into the statement, when you know better, you do better?
• After our education piece and we have begun to make individual and community changes, it is time to step into the policy arena. We need to know the issues, the lobbyists and who they represent.
• Again, a stress on partnerships. When one parish became active in state government, they invited their college students to join in a lobbying effort. All were surprised: how interested the legislators were in meeting with young people, the youth surprised at how a citizen could engage with an elected official. A real win-win.
• Be tenacious. Paradigm shifts take time.
• Celebrate your successes, all of them, large and small.
• Give yourself permission to think in 3-D. It won’t happen if you can’t imagine it.
• One parish began a garden after needing herbs for culinary training they were offering. One parish developed a relationship with a local farmer, purchasing shares in a CSA type arrangement. Each share purchased was really two shares, one for the parishioner family and one for a family that couldn’t afford the share.
• We need to make the clear connection between caring for people, caring for community, and caring for the earth
• Food & Faith: Justice, Joy and Daily Bread by Michael Schut. (Mike was convener of the session.)
• One parish has 100 mi. potlucks, where all the food must have been grown or raised in a 100 mile radius.

We began our prayerful deliberation of this consent at our January meeting. While the details of the discussion are private, it is important to share something about our process. Together, we are committed to thoughtful, respectful, faithful discussion. In this election, there are complexities that will touch all of us. After an initial discussion in January, we agreed to give ourselves the gift of time and the matter was tabled. At our meeting on February 23, the discussion was reopened. Once again, we reiterated our commitment to thoughtful, respectful, faithful discussion. After a substantial conversation, the question was called. While the vote was not easy, quickly taken, or unanimous, we voted to grant our consent to the election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool.

The consent process continues; no bishops are ordained and consecrated without the consent of a majority of the Standing Committees of all the Dioceses, and the consent of a majority of the Bishops of this Church exercising jurisdiction.

The conversations leading up to the decision were all that we could hope for in terms of faithful interaction and commitment to real, respectful exchange.

Although, as noted above, we were not unanimous in our decision to consent to the consecration of Mary Glasspool, we were, and are, unanimous in our desire to continue this pattern of conversation.

Jane Klieve, President
Standing Committee of the Diocese of Missouri

Part of our governance as a church is our national Constitution and Canons, and diocesan Constitution and Canons. Every three years at General Convention the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies consider and enact changes to this governing document. More information about Bishops: their elections, the consent process and and their jurisdiction is in our national C&C, Article II.

Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church, 2009

Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, 2-2009
More information on the diocesan Standing Committee

To do otherwise is, first, to distrust the Spirit, and second, to disregard the gifts of the very community in which one serves. Any work worth doing can lead to fantasies that one is irreplaceable, a deception undercut by Allen’s good sense. The dignity and value intrinsic to any human being cannot be in doubt, and the pursuit of excellence in the doing of one’s vocation is a virtue. But no one person is indispensable, a truth worth remembering.

The practice of Sabbath itself, holy leisure, reminds the believer who is God—and who is not. Human being, capable creature of God that we are, does not run the universe. We have some responsibilities for the cosmos, yes, but we are not in charge. The full stop provided by Sabbath time, interwoven into the very structure of creation in Genesis 1, should remind us of that truth about God. We can quit working, and the universe goes on—precisely because we are not God. The God-ward direction of Sabbath time complements that other crucial piece inherent to the day, the practice of holy rest, the restorative value of intentional leisure, in and of itself.  Human being grows weary and needs rest, and Sabbath time is a gift from the Creator to these beloved creatures.

For years I have encouraged colleagues in ordained ministry to take substantial time away at regular intervals. I believe that the processes of disengagement from one’s community and re-engagement afterward bear fruit, both for the cleric involved and for the community. I have pushed people to make space in that time away for four purposes: sheer rest, self-care, spiritual renewal, and learning for its own sake.

So now it is time for me to heed my own advice, and I am taking two months, March and April, away from the day-to-day ministry as Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri. This is my first Sabbatical during my tenure as Bishop, and it will not be my last. Let me sketch out my plans. In early March I will head to South Texas, for two weeks of warm-weather camping, pure leisure. Later in March I will drive to Camp Allen, near Houston, for the spring meeting of the House of Bishops. (Let me say that I had considered not attending this meeting but came to realize how restorative I find this peculiar community, that I would miss not being with friends and colleagues.) I then will spend Holy Week and Easter at Sewanee, keeping the rites of the season with that community, mostly at the School of Theology. The rest of April I will devote to some pursuits of learning—and perhaps some writing.

I am grateful to the Diocese of Missouri for making it possible to be away; I know that I am eager for rest and renewal. I hope, in fact, that this time of Sabbatical will make for my deeper engagement with the Diocese of Missouri, and enhance the work we share in serving God’s mission.

+Wayne Smith
Tenth Bishop of Missouri

A Lenten Gift from St. Martin’s-Ellisville.

The concept is modeled (slightly) after Forward Day-by-Day. Contributors were asked to read the appointed Daily Office scriptures for their assigned day. After praying and pondering, they were asked to consider which readings spoke to them and share a personal story or some of their thoughts about why it moved them. Each reading also includes the Daily Office scriptures for that day.

An initial print run produced booklets for parishioners; for those able to contribute, a donation was asked to support Episcopal City Mission. As a Lenten gift to the diocese, the people of St. Martin’s have made this booklet available to us all. You can read it online or download it from scribd.

Link to the online version of A Lenten Gift (at scribd)

Link to St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Ellisville.

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Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori challenges Episcopalians to take on something new this Lent in her Lenten video reflection.

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Trinity-Kirksville is running an online Lenten devotional group featuring a daily question for reflection and discussion. The site is http://trinity3kv.blogspot.com/ and is open only to registered readers. For an invitation and more specific instructions, please contact Maria Evans at  crankycricker@yahoo.com.

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The Rev. Peter Van Horne, Interim at Trinity-Kirksville, reminded us of the words of Arthur Lichtenberger, sixth Bishop of Missouri, who later became twenty-first Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

When he was Presiding Bishop, he offered these

words of Lenten advice:

• Fast from criticism, and feast on praise.

• Fast from self-pity, and feast on joy.

• Fast from ill-temper, and feast on peace.

• Fast from resentment, and feast on contentment.

• Fast from jealousy, and feast on love.

• Fast from pride, and feast on humility.

• Fast from selfishness, and feast on service.

• Fast from fear, and feast on faith.

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40Love, from the youth and ministry leaders of Dayton, Ohio, in Province V. 40Love’s goal is to complete 40 acts of mission for the 40 days of Lent, spreading a message of peace, kindness and compassion. The youth developed a devotional guide for the period of Lent. Included are quotes from faith and peace leaders and suggested acts of kindness. Project coordinators also organized mission activities for each of the 40 days. Participants were encouraged to do what they knew they could commit to, during the time period from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday in the Christian tradition. Beginning with service at a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, youth of Dayton will be servant leaders, compassionate givers and loving volunteers, in the service of people in need.

The culmination of 40Love, including all the acts of mission around the community, will be a photo installation in the form of a labyrinth, set up as an interactive exhibit at St. Paul’s, Oakwood, during Holy Week. This will allow parish members and visitors to see the work completed, and the message of kindness, compassion and peace that was spread around the Miami Valley.

http://www.diosohio.org/40love-project.html

http://www.diosohio.org/40love-calendar.html

Visit the diocesan web page for more resources for a Holy Lent.

• Cathedral Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust St., St. Louis, MO 63103, ph 314-231-3454, www.christchurchcathedral.us
• St Barnabas St. Barnabas' Episcopal Church, 2900 St. Catherine, Florissant, MO 63033, ph 314-837-7113, www.stbarnabas-stl.org

Ashes-to-Go is an ecumenical, short, Ash Wednesday service with imposition of ashes held on the corner of Grand and Arsenal streets in St. Louis. Now in its fourth year, clergy and laity from St. John’s Episcopal Church-Tower Grove participate. “South Grand neighborhood in the City of St. Louis is a perfect place to bring church to the streets,” says the Rev. Teresa Danieley, rector at St. John’s-Tower Grove.

The first two years, the offices of the Bishop received “irate” phone calls from Episcopalians. Last year, your new communications director was happily promoting the event to the media, and was then surprised that making the evening’s news cycle didn’t create waves of joy in these offices. But, curiously, in year three, there were no phone calls of unhappiness.

The initial idea for Ashes To Go arose from a session of an ecumenical clergy Bible study group that Danieley attends weekly. The clerics were discussing differences in sacraments, and about how both Roman Catholics and Protestants may receive the imposition of ashes. “So, we were joking about doing an “Ashes Drive Thru” and then we thought, well why not? We have a great business district. And it is a way to bring church to the streets. As Christians we are called to GO and make disciples and to show God’s love to everyone. We are doing Ashes to Go in order to provide a unique opportunity to pause, to mark our mortality, and celebrate the blessings of this life – even in the midst of a busy work day,” said Danieley.

In 2007, the Rev. Jonathon Edwards, then pastor of Garden Light UCC, took the lead on the project. He had sandwich boards made that said “Ashes to Go.” Maureen Costello, the owner of corner restaurant MoKaBe, offered a tent and free coffee for participants.

Last year clergy participated from UCC, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and Episcopal churches. All of the participating clergy wear albs and purple stoles for a uniform look. They stand on two corners. The number of participants depends on the weather. Last year there were many reasons people stopped: the bus driver working a double shift and unable to make it to his own church; a woman bringing her elderly father by during his half block daily walk; several people who didn’t want the service or the ashes, but saw robed clergy on the street and just wanted to stop to ask for their prayers.

One of the pastors said this was her first experience with imposition of ashes; it was a “high church” experience and she wasn’t sure how she’d react. But in recounting the two hours, she was overcome by how deeply her heart had been touched, “by the need of people for Jesus, people just walking along the street. It was pretty powerful.”

Ashes to Go from Episcopal Diocese of Missouri on Vimeo.

UPDATE 2/16. Last week, we asked readers of the diocesan weekly news, iSeek, to participate in an online survey voicing their reactions to Ashes to Go. (It’s a free SurveyMonkey poll, so we had room for 100 respondents.)

25 of you responded. Of those responding this week, one felt it was not their cup of tea, one thought it was an idea, two thought it was a good idea, and all the rest though it a great idea.

You said: Provocative; It meets a need; evangelical; Exactly what Christ meant when He said:”Go ye therefore…”; In-the-world, not of-the-world; keepin it real!; evangelical; Evangelism!!!; Religious hype; Great Adaptation; Go and witness; Forward-thinking; ecumenical Christianity; spiritual; evangelism; Go for it!; evangelism; Wow!; AWE-some; Radical; Awesome; Inspired; edgy, missional.

• So many people assume that everyone thinks the church is irrelevant. Here is the church visibly on your street corner offering a witness and a reminder both of mortality and of the offer of salvation.
• As Episcopalians too many of us are worried about our “sometimes stuffy tradition” and how this will “look” instead of asking, what would Jesus do?
• (my face tells you more of what a I think — kind of scrunched up nose…)
• Maybe Ashes on the Walk would convey the same innovational thrust but not the quickie (and superficial) quality of -to-Go. However, the drive thru bank and the drive thru pharmacy both give the same quality of service as required by their rules as on gets by parking, climbing in/out of the car and being tempted by the merchandising inside the facility. Your stories of why people came speaks to the validity of the experience. It does offend the notion that one must be a regular church member to receive Christianity’s blessing. It sounds as if the rite was seriously handled and not like the waving Statue of Liberty tax services.
• What an awesome way to bring God into the streets, cause for pause, reflection – and to show that the “church” isn’t so stuffy that it has to be contained inside the walls of a building. It’s real, it’s right here, it’s for everyone!!!
• The Church needs continually to find new ways to reach people in their daily lives!
• I think it is a great idea and this is the first I have heard of it. Keep it up. Show, by our actions, who we are – God’s own children.
• If people don’t know we exist, how can they join us. For a few minutes people were perhaps thinking religiously — sometimes a ew minutes is all it takes to turn a life around.
• What a wonderful way to bring the joy of Christ to a neighborhood.
• daring to use the “E-word”, it is not only ecumenical but also Evangelical.
• Radical, as in Jesus-like
• This is another way to take the church to the market place. That is where the people are.
• What I like about ashes-to-go is that it lets us (OK, them) take the liturgical year and liturgical practice to the streets and to the people without feeling they have to bring something more “relevant” than the BCP into the nave. We can all get what we need. This is being evangelical without sacrificing the tradition.

The first respondents all identified themselves as attending church regularly, and all but one as members of the Diocese of Missouri. If you’d like to add your thoughts to the poll, feel free to do so here. A set of photos from last year available here.

• St John-TG St. John's Episcopal Church, 3664 Arsenal St., St. Louis, MO 63116, ph 314-772-3970, www.towergrovechurch.org

Even before the earthquake, visitors to Haiti had hearts touched hearing hymns sung by the faithful. Now, amid rubble and uncertainty, hymns continue to waft over the tent cities and places of refuge; a people’s response of prayer and determination.

Photos from Episcopal News Service. Cathedral in Nov. 2008, and Haiti’s Bishop Jean Duracin and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Feb 8, 2010, in front of the cathedral ruins.

The Diocese of Haiti is the largest diocese in the Episcopal Church, and she has lost a cathedral, a convent, schools that educated 80,000 children, colleges, and churches; she has lost parishioners. But the people of Haiti have not lost faith.

In Missouri, we were touched by Presbyterian missioner Suzi Parker’s description of those first hours after the earthquake. She and her husband slept those first nights outdoors, on a school soccer field, the beginning of one of the tent cities now served by the Bishop of Haiti, his clergy and staff, and the Sisters of St. Margaret. “At night we sleep in the yard behind the hospital where the bandstand was. It has fallen, as has the Episcopal school. They sing hymns until almost midnight, and we wake up to a church service with hymns, a morning prayer, and the Apostle’s Creed. The evening sky is glorious. In the field there is a real sense of community.”

To gather and sing is a profoundly affirming and hopeful act, in times of celebration and in times of need. Canon William Partridge, Christ Church Cathedral music director and organist,  came up with the idea for an “old fashioned hymn singing.” Hymns old and new chosen from the hymnal that Episcopalians share here and in Haiti, and Lift Every Voice and Sing II, and from the rich tradition around the Christian church.

The people of the diocese invite community members to join in singing for Haiti, and in praying for Haiti. A free-will offering will be taken to support the work of Episcopal Relief and Development, currently on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Musicians from around the diocese will attend; singing will be lead by the Cathedral Choir and Canon Partridge. John Stewart, Director of Vocal Studies at Washington University, and cathedral member, will conduct.

UPDATE from the Rev. Lauren Stanley, missioner to Haiti’s blog: Cathedral Ste. Trinite’s ‘Food for the soul’

On Friday in the Bel Air section of Port au Prince, an area of town that was poor before the earthquake, the Ste. Trinite Music School held a concert for the people. The Ste. Trinite Music School complex is destroyed, many of the instruments are gone, much of the music is missing. But that didn’t stop the music from being played.

The CNN report brings great joy personally, for it shows my parish, St. Jacques le Juste, looking intact! The musicians practiced there. And even more, one of my friends about whom I had known nothing, is right there playing the violin! There is great joy and much food for the soul in seeing this, and much of God’s grace!

See the CNN report on the concert here.
See the ABC report on the concert here.
To hear the NPR report, go here.

Qui cantat, bis orat (To sing is to pray twice). – St. Augustine

Photos from the recent visit by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Rev. Lauren Stanley to the Diocese of Haiti.

• Cathedral Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust St., St. Louis, MO 63103, ph 314-231-3454, www.christchurchcathedral.us

“Haitians celebrate three fat days, trois joursgras, or Kanaval, and so will we,” said Scott Alberts, Trinity choir director and the dinner’s organizer. “They go from Mass until Wednesday morning nonstop, so our custom of a Sunday party is perfect. We don’t just want to help Haiti, we want to celebrate Haiti.”

Funds raised will go to the Episcopal Relief & Development (ER-D) to support the church’s relief efforts in the quake devastated country.

Despite the fact that the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince was leveled, Haitian priests and nuns have been providing aid to the people there. According to the ER-D website, the Haitian diocese has set up a survivor’s camp the size of a football field to provide food, water, and a place to sleep for thousands.

“The party will start at 5:30,” Alberts said. “We’ll begin serving dinner at 6:00 and stop around 7:30.” Alberts hopes that the dinner can raise $1000 for the relief effort.

Some of the dishes on the menu include fried bananas, corn grits with bean sauce or sausage, and Haitian punch. Salads, desserts and other food will also be served.

For more information please contact is Scott Alberts, salberts@truman.edu, or Julie Seidler, jseidler@cableone.net. Join the Facebook event.

Pictured is Holy Trinity Cathedral when still standing, before the earthquake. For photos of the cathedral murals and artwork now lost, please visit haitiforever.com.

• Trinity-Kirksville Trinity Episcopal Church, 124 N. Mulanix, Kirksville, MO 63501, ph 660-665-6155, www.trinitykirksville.org

This year’s annual Leadership Conference for clergy and lay members of the diocese is devoted to Public Narrative; how we effectively, succinctly, and engagingly tell our story.

Keynote and lead presenter will be the Rev. Devon Anderson. In addition to her work as executive director of Episcopalians for Global Reconcilliation, Anderson was the project manager for the Episcopal Public Narrative Project.

More about the Episcopal Public Narrative Project

The Episcopal Public Narrative Project is a collaboration between Marshall Ganz, Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Bonnie Anderson, the President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church. After initial meetings with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in 2007, the project began with retreats for potential facilitators in 2008-09 and narrative training for deputations at this July’s General Convention in Anaheim. At GC09, four workshops were held covering: one’s own calling, shared calling, call to action, and putting it all together. The project continues as deputations bring the techniques and concepts back to the dioceses.

Conference details

The cost for this conference is $15 which includes lunch. Registration forms available in doc or pdf format. For more info on the conference program and agenda, as it becomes available, contact Robin Weisenborn, rweisenborn@diocesemo.org
Registration will be due by Feb. 19, 2010.