What is a bishop? - St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

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Earl Roney called to Rebuilding Together ministry
As this issue of Seasons of the Spirit was going into production, a dedicated team of St. Stephen’s
volunteers was at work during the annual Rebuilding Together of Richmond day (April 28).
One particularly active member of St. Stephen’s team last year was Earl Roney, who co-chaired
our effort with Virginia Moncure. After the official work day was over, Earl returned to the
home that our team had repaired to complete additional projects. Earl’s carpentry skills, his
passion for this ministry and his kind, gentle manner are an unbeatable combination when it
comes to projects of this kind. Naturally, the Rebuilding Together organization wanted him for
more than their annual workday, and now Earl is a member of their staff.
“For me, there is nothing more fulfilling than helping someone,” says Earl. “To see the
appreciation on the face of someone that you’ve helped is priceless. Through my involvement
with St. Stephen’s outreach ministries, I was introduced to the work of RTR. Now that I’m
a staff member there, my opportunities to help people in need have increased exponentially
and it just feels good!”
“We are incredibly fortunate to have met Earl through the Rebuilding Together of Richmond
project in 2011,” says RTR’s Amy King. “His talents, demeanor, heart to please and to be of
service are beautifully suited for the RTR field assistant position we created this fall.
Many HANDS make light work
The Outreach Committee of the vestry has
enthusiastically endorsed an idea Earl proposed for
a ministry called HANDS: Hammers and Nails
in Devoted Service. Participants will complete a
few light construction projects throughout the
year. In addition to our neighbors in the East End,
recipients of these efforts might include some of our
own elderly or homebound parishioners who need a
few things done in their homes.
If you would like to serve in the newly-forming
HANDS ministry, please contact Deb Lawrence
in the parish office, 288-2867, or dlawrence@
saintstephensrichmond.net.
Parishioner and team leader Mac Hines is shown with the homeowner whom our team
assisted during this year’s Rebuilding Together Day, April 28.
One of the highlights of my
week is spending Wednesday
afternoons with a small group of
3- to 6-year-olds in the Atrium,
the sacred space in our spiritual
formation program for young
children, Catechesis of the
Good Shepherd. This program
is also offered on Sundays, but
the Wednesday session is a bit
different. The group is smaller
and the pace a bit slower.
Regardless of the day of the week,
however, what isn’t different is
the grace-filled nature of this
experience. What isn’t different is
the way each child settles into the
space and fills it with wonder.
Photo by Doug Buerlein
What is this telling us about the Kingdom?
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is transformative for children and adults
In the Atrium, their sacred space, children
wonder together.
Inevitably, during each session at least one child is drawn to the Parable of the
Leaven, in which the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a woman baking bread.
The child’s work after hearing the parable is to prepare two different versions of
bread dough in two small ramekins: one contains flour mixed with a bit of sugar
beforehand, yeast/leaven and water; the other, only flour and water. As the children
prepare the ramekins, we talk about the physical attributes of the ingredients: what
do they smell like? What do they feel like?
After mixing each dough together, the children leave them covered on a heating
pad for the remainder of their Atrium time.
At the end of our time together, we return to the ramekins to observe. The
ramekin with the leaven is puffy and full of air bubbles because of the yeast. The
ramekin without the leaven is exactly as it was before, only warmer.
As the catechist, it is my role to wonder with the child about the two different
batches of dough: “I wonder what this is telling us about the Kingdom.” We
wonder about separating the yeast: can it be separated from the flour mixture?
How is that like the Kingdom? How is it like the Holy Spirit? Can we be separated
Photo by Doug Buerlein
Earl Roney (third from left) works with a team from St. Stephen’s and
from the Fork Episcopal Church in Doswell, Virginia, on a home site in
New Orleans.
“Barely a day goes by that [my colleague] Susan and I don’t look at each
other and say, ‘What did we do before we had Earl?’”
Now that Earl is working for RTR, others have stepped in to lead St.
Stephen’s team for the annual workday. This year’s leaders were Mac
Hines and Charlie Borill.
Earl is known at St. Stephen’s not only for his work with Rebuilding
Together of Richmond, but also with our post-hurricane rebuilding
teams who travel to the Gulf Coast, and with those who have taken his
workshops on how to build a prayer desk or prayer stool for your home.
Earl, his wife Sandy and their grandson Vincent are deeply involved in
the life of the community at St. Stephen’s. Sandy is one of the original
catechists (guides) in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd spiritual
formation program at St. Stephen’s, and through her involvement, Earl
has built some of the liturgical furnishings in the Atria (sacred spaces)
in which the program takes place, furnishings that are scaled to the
size of the young participants. Earl also is a regular chalice bearer and
subdeacon at the Sunday morning and Celtic services.
from the Kingdom? Can we be separated from the Holy Spirit? We wonder about
those bubbles, about the grace in us and around us.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is like the ramekin with the yeast.
Once a child has been part of an Atrium and allowed to wander in and among
all of the works and presentations available, he or she can’t be separated from the
overwhelming sense of holy wonder that pervades any Atrium.
Just as adults are, our children are overstimulated and overscheduled in so many
areas of their lives. We, and they, are bombarded with noise, with constant
messages and images in many forms. At St. Stephen’s, we are promoting a lively
faith in children while offering them a rich environment in which to wonder
quietly about their life in God. (And yes, despite the ages of these children, the
Atria are quiet.)
I have seen this in my own home. My daughter Lydia is a participant in
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She knows the Parable of the Leaven. Recently,
while I was baking rolls at home, she asked to help.
As I kneaded the dough and rolled it into many smaller balls, she asked to smell
the dough. Thinking nothing of it, I handed her a ball. She gently cradled it in
her hands, rolled it, smelled it, and then looked at me and said, “It smells like the
leaven, Mommy. It can’t be separated and neither can we.”
–Abigail Whorley
Spirit
The Lucan gospel portrays Jesus as one filled with,
anointed, and empowered by the Spirit. In his teaching
and healing encounters with others, that power is
continuously at work, limbering-up ossified traditions and inviting all to see and
rejoice in the ‘new thing’ that God is doing—in Jesus and his disciples, and in
the other men and women drawn to join them.
–Br. Jonathan Maury, SSJE
To receive brief reflections such as this one from the monks of the Society of
St. John the Evangelist, please visit www.ssje.org/word.
SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT
Photo by Janie Satterfield