INSIDE
JOINING JESUS IN
THE NEW MISSIONAL AGE
SEEKING GOD
IN ALL PEOPLE
LOVING THOSE
ON THE MARGINS
FOLLOWING JESUS
ONTO THE ISLAND
OF HISPANIOLA
PERFIL DE LA
REVERENDA LOYDA
E. MORALES
VOLUME 8, ISSUE 1 I OCTOBER 2019
Episcopal Church in Connecticut
The Commons
290 Pratt Street ı Box 52 ı Meriden, CT 06450
203 - 639 - 3501 ı episcopalct.org
Publisher ı Episcopal Church in Connecticut
Bishop Diocesan ı The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas
Bishop Suffragan ı The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens
Guest Editor ı Karin Hamilton
Canon for Mission Communications & Media ı
Jasree Peralta
Design ı Elizabeth Parker, EP Graphic Design
info@epgraphicdesign.com
Change of address and other circulation correspondence
should be addressed to jperalta@episcopalct.org.
Episcopal Church in Connecticut
(episcopalct.org) is a community of 60,000 members in
160+ parishes and worshiping communities across the
state. It is a diocese in The Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church
(episcopalchurch.org) is a multi-national community of two
million members in 111 dioceses and regional areas across
the United States and in 16 other nations. It is a province of
the Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Communion
(anglicancommunion.org) is a global community of tens of
millions of Anglicans in 40 national or regional provinces and
five extra-provincial areas in more than 165 countries.
Cover Photo: Elizabeth Parker
Photo: Ian T. Douglas
The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens celebrates the Eucharist at Wadi Qelt in the
Holy Land during the 2019 ECCT Pilgrimage.
from the GUEST EDITOR
Karin Hamilton
Why does our culture/society toss groups of people "into the
margins" and what enables some of us to see and honor God
in them? How can we see people whom our society sees as
“broken”— including ourselves and our own family members
and friends who may have mental illnesses, or are homeless or
in prison, or who are substance abusers and addicts — through
the eyes of God, as beloved, respected with dignity, the equal
of all? Especially when the behaviors often associated with
these challenges breaks hearts, hurts, goes against good
advice, or repeats patterns that continually fail. Behaviors that
get people pushed away into the margins. How can we orient
ourselves to forgive seventy times seven, as the Scriptures
say; to love those in the margins as if our life depends on it?
If we love you, God, we will take care of ourselves and each
other, even when it hurts. “Peter, do you love me? Feed my
sheep,” said Jesus. We are all one in Christ. There is no real
margin, because there is no edge to God’s embrace. How then
can we love as God loves?
In our first feature you can read about two people in Vermont,
friends to many in ECCT, who are living a life devoted to
contemplative practice. They have a mission “to support all
people to know and enter into divine life.” And while many
of us think of the Kingdom of God as something far away, or
even an idealized version of the real world right now, they lay
claim to Luke 17:21 in which Jesus says that God’s kingdom
is “already among you,” alternatively translated as, “already
within you.”
In the second feature, you’ll meet people who are working
with the mentally ill, homeless, imprisoned, and addicted,
grounded in God and making the Kingdom manifest; showing
us a way.
Elsewhere in this issue you’ll learn about others who are also
making manifest the Kingdom, from long-time leaders to
new ones. In addition you’ll be introduced to three teens who
embrace an interfaith future of peace, and a follower of Jesus
who set up summer camps for impoverished children on the
island of Hispaniola. You’ll also hear from your bishops, ECCT
staff, and others who serve God faithfully and do their best to
support you on your own journey of faith.
May the joy of the Lord be your strength. (Neh. 8:10)
Karin Hamilton served as Canon for Mission Communications &
Media for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut for 25 years before
retiring in July 2019.
IN THIS ISSUE
4
Union with God:
A dream for all,
from a farm in
Vermont
Karin Hamilton
Two friends of ECCT now
in Vermont talk about
the hows and whys of
contemplative living
8
Loving those on
the margins
Karin Hamilton
How can we love when
our loved ones' behavior
challenges us? An
introduction to a series of
interviews
30
Following Jesus
Frankye Regis
Following Jesus onto the
island of Hispaniola to
bring a summer camp for
children to both its nations
2 From the guest editor Karin Hamilton
18 Joining Jesus in a New Missional Age Ian T. Douglas
24 Jesus cleanses ten lepers Laura J. Ahrens
26 Seeking God in all people Barbara Curry
28 A love for ministry on the margins Ranjit Mathews
34 Profile of the Rev. Loyda E. Morales Karin Hamilton
36 Perfil de la Reverenda Loyda E. Morales Karin Hamilton
38 Profile of A. Bates Lyons Karin Hamilton
40 From ECCT
46 Connecticut diocese engages parishes in
collaboration by replacing deaneries with
Region Missionaries (Episcopal News Service)
Egan Millard
48 I am a Christian. I am Muslim. I am a Jew. Karin Hamilton
Our dream is to imagine and incarnate a sustainable way of
living that leads to wholeness of body, soul, and spirit not just
for ourselves, but for all who share this earth – including the
earth herself! We believe the only path forward is through union
with God as healer of our wounds, sustainer of the physical
world, and lover of our souls. Our souls are restless until they
find their rest in God. Without dwelling in the infinite love of
God we will always chase after finite things that will lead to pain
for ourselves, others, and the earth. We must learn to pray.
Union with God:
A path forward for all and a dream from a farm in Vermont
Karin Hamilton
Photo: Mark and Lisa Kutolowski
4
Here’s the dream that Mark and Lisa Kutolowski share, presented on their
website, metanoiavt.com:
Our dream is to imagine and incarnate a sustainable
way of living that leads to wholeness of body, soul, and
spirit not just for ourselves, but for all who share this
earth – including the earth herself! We believe the only
path forward is through union with God as healer of our
wounds, sustainer of the physical world, and lover of our
souls. Our souls are restless until they find their rest in
God. Without dwelling in the infinite love of God we will
always chase after finite things that will lead to pain for
ourselves, others, and the earth. We must learn to pray.
Mark and Lisa are known to many in the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut (ECCT) for leading the Connecticut River Pilgrimage
in 2017. They also led a shorter river pilgrimage in 2019 for two
ECCT Regions. On each, they served as both river guides and spiritual
directors. Bishop Ian Douglas and his wife Kristin Harris were among
those on that 2017 trip and Ian later said that he found it life-changing: as
an extrovert uncomfortable with silences, he grew to love them over the
day and weeks of their time on the river.
The couple met in 2015 and married soon thereafter. Mark is a Benedictine
Oblate, and a wilderness guide and instructor, while Lisa led campus
ministry programs, including outdoor leadership trips, then worked as
an artisanal bread baker. Mark is Roman Catholic; Lisa was raised in the
Mennonite tradition and joined the Roman Catholic Church shortly before
meeting Mark.
While leading pilgrimages is an important and an essential component
of their lives and their livelihoods, they have an even bigger, more
encompassing vision, as expressed in the quote above. They don’t want
to just preach that more people must learn to pray, they live it themselves
and truly want to help others to do that as well. They want to be midwives
of that process.
PREPARING THE LAND
For the past two years, Mark and Lisa have been living, and praying, on a
10-acre farm in northern Vermont named “Table Rock Farm” after a glacial
rock formation on the property. They call it their homestead and it’s where
they hope to have people join them in their ongoing life of prayer.
“Sometimes we take what we are doing out on a pilgrimage and to
retreats,” Lisa said. “But more and more, we’re turning to wanting to
invite people here, where they can be served by the land, and we can be
supporting them as well.”
The view at Table Rock Farm in northern Vermont.
An old farmhouse on the homestead was beyond repair and had to be torn
down, with the help of friends. They saved many barn boards, beams, and
the fieldstones from the foundation for later repurposing. Mark and Lisa
5
personally live in a four-season yurt without
electricity. There is also an old barn, used
to store canoes and other equipment, and
a newer, two-story former basket-making
shop, with electricity and Internet access.
A small room in that building is used as an
office and library and they’re renovating the
shop area on the main floor to provide a
cozy gathering space. They’re also building
a bakery and guest quarters on a single slab
foundation.
“[Lisa and I] have talked a lot about our
experiences on pilgrimage and also on
welcoming people here,” Mark explained.
“In both of those environments it feels very
much like our role is to support the structure
of prayer and the sort of spaciousness
that allows people to enter into this deep
encounter with the Spirit.
“We can’t give people that experience [but]
we can guard the boundaries, so to speak, to
“We’re giving space for people to encounter
this reality.”
Lisa explained it as removing distractions.
“It’s becoming more and more obvious to
me that we need to take things away – we
need to take distraction away, and we need
to take busy-ness away. There’s nothing that
we have to add to our lives to see that the
Kingdom of God is here,” she said.
The wood-fired bakery oven will
have the capacity to bake up to
160 loaves a day, as an income
producer, though they say they’ll
start more modestly.
The vista from the hill near where
these buildings stand is glorious;
the neighbors are sparse yet
welcoming; the guests few now
but anticipated next year; and
the love of contemplative prayer
deep and endless.
There are currently no additional
plans for a traditional Yankee
farm with agricultural production
for sale, though they do plan
to grow more food in coming
years. There’s no plan to turn the
homestead into a retreat center
with programming, either. Table
Rock Farm’s land is for prayer
and relationship. It is a place to
live out the Benedictine values of
prayer, study, and work.
“We’re interested in living a lay
contemplative life, and inviting
others to share in that, much the
way a monastery is not a retreat center,”
said Mark. The basic framework for guests
will be to join Mark and Lisa for prayer,
silences, meals, conversations, and various
types of physical work on the land.
CONTEMPLATIVE LIVING
Finding union with God is hard work, and so
much harder to do when you’re burdened
with the stresses and distractions of life. Yet
that’s the vision.
Personally, they pray five times a day and
include two 20-minute periods of silence,
stretched to 30 minutes in the seasons of
Lent, East, Advent, and Christmas.
The old farm house that was beyond repair and was torn down. Photo: Mark and Lisa
Kutolowski.
allow that experience to take place,” he said.
For example, he said, they asked the river
pilgrims not to speak outside the liturgy from
the time they woke up until an hour or so
into their paddling.
He said that it allowed people to be able
to stay in that space and not to have to
socialize at a superficial level, which allowed
them to be more open and present.
“And then the Spirit will speak to them
through something that wells up from
within, or something that they see, and
they’re present enough to see it and let it
touch them in a deeper way,” he said.
They know the contemplative
tradition is challenging.
“I think what is so vibrant
about Christ’s path and the way
of the cross is that once we
remove all the outside stuff then
there’s all this inside stuff that
we have to wrestle with,” Lisa
said. “We have to come face to
face with all the suffering that
we’ve experienced and with the
suffering of the world, and then
take up our cross daily.
“As soon as you turn off
everything else, then it’s the
inside you have to deal with,
which is a lot scarier.”
Yet its promise is the potential
for you to experience an intimate
connection with God.
“We don’t necessarily see that
reality of God’s Kingdom here and
now, so we have to be changed,
to be transformed, to be broken
open,” Mark said. “We need to
consciously share in God’s life, to
open the depths of our being – or we might
say – to open our heart to the presence of
God in and through everything. That is to
enter into the Kingdom of God.”
THE BODY OF CHRIST
At some point in the future they may
partner with the poor, or perhaps stand
with specific “marginalized” groups, but
the contemplative life doesn’t start with
activism. Lisa admits that she still struggles
with a desire to act immediately.
“There are times when I ask myself, what
are we even doing here? There is so much
we need to be doing. We need to be out on
the streets. Jesus said to clothe the naked
and feed the poor.
6
Photo: Karin Hamilton
Lisa and Mark Kutolowski at Table Rock Farm, named after a glacial rock formation on their property.
“What is so interesting is that I almost come
to that place as a comfort to grab onto.
Something painful is dislodging [in prayer]
and it would feel good to my ego, like I
am actually doing something good in the
world. That’s an unhealthy savior complex.
It doesn’t mean we don’t act, but this path
we’re talking about is about seeking God for
God’s own sake. If God is leading you to that
kind of ministry, it’s not going to be about
you, and it’s going to be a lot more sacrificial.
It requires a conversion of the heart.”
She also reminds herself that “we don't
each have to be the whole body of Christ. …
The work that we're doing here on this land,
our prayer, is supportive to the whole body
of Christ,” she said.
Mark also underscored that intensity and
importance for the whole world of the work
of prayer:
“I think it’s a grave mistake to associate
going off to silence and solitude as a retreat
from the problems of the world. It’s precisely
in coming away from the exterior clamor
that you can face the problems of the world
spiritually. Our engagement with the pain of
the world is much more intense in our prayer
than it would be if we were on phones all
the time and if we were distracted and
rushing around and concerned with our
personal survival.
“[These contemplative practices] give you
a space to feel the world suffering. In fact,
to feel that at a much deeper level because
we are not just connected to God, we're
connected to every other human being
on the planet, and to the planet as well.
When you are still enough that you feel that
experientially, your prayer is a sharing both in
the fullness of God but also in the weakness
and brokenness of the human condition,
and in your own heart there's an interplay
between those two.”
When the time is right, they will be open to
more retreatants on the land. It will be open
We need to consciously
share in God’s life, to
open the depths of our
being — or we might say
— to open our heart to
the presence of God in
and through everything.
That is to enter into the
Kingdom of God.
Mark Kutolowski
to all, though they realize the contemplative
path won't be attractive to everyone. Their
dream for you, and all who share the earth,
and for earth herself, will still be the same:
“… union with God as healer of our wounds,
sustainer of the physical world, and lover of
our souls….”
“Wherever you are, if you fall deeply in love
with God, it will change you,” said Mark,
adding that "and it just might change what
you do.” ◊
7
8
Loving those on
the margins
Karin Hamilton
The Rev. Kathryn Greene-McCreight, Episcopal priest in New Haven,
theologian, and author, has written what Archbishop of Canterbury Justin
Welby has called a “brave and compassionate book” about mental
illness, responding to it, and looking for God in all of the suffering. Her book,
Darkness Is My Only Companion; A Christian Response to Mental Illness, is
based on her own experience. She writes in one section:
“My husband, Matthew, just wants to help. He keeps asking me what he can
do. He says that he feels so helpless. He is indeed helpless, and so am I. There
is nothing he can do. Yet maybe there is. I tell him not to treat me as an invalid.
When I can’t get up, when I can’t crack a smile through my plaster mask of a
face, when I can’t do anything but weep, just hold my hand. But please don’t
be in pain for me. Because then I can see that on your face and it makes my
pain worse. Just treat me in a matter-of-fact way: Kathryn is depressed again.
Or when I am hypomanic, don’t get scared of me. Don’t get mad at me just
because I talk too much, have too much energy, burst at the seams with ideas
for the garden, the house, vacations, books. It is not my fault that I swing from
one extreme to the other. I know loving me right now is a big challenge. But
that’s how I can be helped.”
Kathryn’s book next included the full hymn text of “How Firm a Foundation.”
(see sidebar). She continued:
“This hymn would always make me cry when I was depressed. I always
wondered, what did my parish think as I wept during many of the hymns?
But no one ever asked. Maybe they never noticed? Or maybe they were too
embarrassed for my sake to say anything, too polite. “That soul, though all hell
should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.” I felt entirely
forsaken, but God’s promise in Christ to me was overwhelmingly comforting.”
— Excerpt from Darkness Is My Only Companion; A Christian
Response to Mental Illness, by Kathryn Greene-McCreight,
Brazos Press, 2015, pp.68-69.
Many of us (and I include myself) love people who have mental illness, or are
addicted, or homeless, or imprisoned, or all of these — or face other challenges
that can end up with them being shunned and consigned to the margins — or
maybe we’re the ones who are facing those challenges and are marginalized.
Like Kathryn, we need to hang on to God’s promise, too. We need strength to
trust God is with our loved ones, and God is with us, as well, trying to love as
best we can.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
is laid for your faith in God’s excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you that for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Feat not I am with thee; O be not dismayed!
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to
stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials try pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
The soul that to Jesus hath fled for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.
John Rippon (1751-1836)
There’s hope for us. Archbishop Justin Welby, in his preface to Kathryn’s book,
wrote: “The reconciliation of God, I have learned afresh from this book, is
overwhelmingly more powerful than all the brokenness of my humanity.”
Here are stories from some Episcopalians in ECCT who have chosen to work
with several of the many groups of people who are at, or in, the margins of
our culture and society. They each share how they came to the work they do,
how they pray, and how they work with the people they do in a way that offers
respect and dignity.
9
Loving those on the margins
Mental health should be a communal endeavor
AN INTERVIEW WITH DEACON KYLE PEDERSEN
Karin Hamilton
We must promote —
to the best of our ability
and by all possible and
appropriate means —
the mental and physical
health of all our citizens.
John F. Kennedy, address to Congress, 1963
To think it all started with gardening.
The Rev. Kyle Pedersen, M.A.R.,
an Episcopal deacon, is executive
director for a mental health center
foundation that works with people in New
Haven who are challenged with mental
illnesses. The Community Mental Health
Foundation is a partnership between the
State of Connecticut and Yale University.
Technically, he’s a Yale employee. He also
teaches at Yale Divinity School in their Office
of Supervised Ministries.
Kyle started out as a Yale student but
decided to drop out after his sophomore
year. He ended up working in the flower
business doing design and sales, both retail
and wholesale, throughout New England.
After about 10 years he moved to New
York and reconnected with a woman he’d
met at Yale, Lucile; they later married. She
was working for an agency that did case
management for people who had histories
of mental health challenges, substance
abuse, and homelessness. The agency was
completing a 20-unit HUD-funded garden
apartment complex and Kyle was brought on
board to be the garden director.
“One day, one of the case managers they
had hired quit, and so they asked if I could
just help meet with the clients while they
searched for a new case manager,” he said.
“A few weeks after that they invited me to
be the case manager. And so I said, sure.”
Kyle went back to college to learn about
mental health services, this time at the
New School in New York City, while also
getting on-the-job training. In the meantime,
he had gotten involved at Grace Church in
Brooklyn Heights and soon entered a formal
discernment process in the Diocese of Long
Island.
His next step was theological education, to
support his work.
“A core belief for me theologically is that
we are all created in the image of God. And
part of that means that we have creative
capacity, because God is creative. So, if
we think about all people, including people
who struggle with mental health issues, as
having creative capacity, that changes your
perspective on what you know people are
capable of.
“I started in mental health services by
working in the garden with people, and I
tell that story because it actually was my
entry point, and it’s still like a touchstone
for me, that my work was always about just
connecting with people as people, people
who I have an interest in, and not people as
diagnoses.
“I learned about serious mental health
issues by meeting the various people that I
was supporting as a case manager, and that
continues to be the way I think about mental
health issues — that it is part of your life but
is not your whole life. Even people who are
struggling very profoundly have a life that
they want to live. It may be really impacted
or reduced by the mental health symptoms
that they're experiencing, but never lose
sight of that person who's there.
“I remember someone reframing this and
saying, it’s not ‘what disease does this
person have,’ but ‘what person does this
disease have.’”
Kyle was ordained in 2003 and is now
assigned to be the deacon for Trinity on the
Green and the Episcopal Church at Yale,
both in New Haven. In his role as a deacon,
as well as foundation administration staff,
he considers the systems and structures
10
I started in mental health services by
working in the garden with people...my
work was always about just connecting
with people as people...
Kyle Pedersen
that need attention. He thinks about how the church can be more
responsive and supportive and suggests that offering “Mental
Health First Aid” courses might be one example; increasing basic
awareness is another, as might be changing the prayers of the
people. He also considers the intersection of race and poverty and
how it affects health outcomes. He’s trained in Undoing Racism/
Community Organizing with the People’s Institute, and passionate
about the impact of racism on health.
“We know that proportionately, you see much poorer health
outcomes in people of color, especially African Americans,” he said.
“Health exists within this much larger constellation of relationships
and access to resources.”
BE THE “WE”
His work for the foundation includes raising money and also
awareness. His approach to it is reflected in his business card, which
has “be the WE” on one side. A companion infocard, with additional
contact information and some statistics, has the full quote from
President John F. Kennedy to Congress, made in 1963, urging the
establishment of community mental health centers, which inspired
Kyle’s “be the WE” slogan.
The quote reads, “We must promote — to the best of our ability and
by all possible and appropriate means — the mental and physical
health of all our citizens.”
“I was really captured by that,” Kyle said. He recalled listening to
a Jewish medical school resident talking on an NPR story, relating
Kennedy’s line to the line from the Seder, “We were slaves to the
Pharaoh in Egypt.”
“[The student] said, imagine if we brought that perspective to health
care -- that it's not about an individual problem or failing or diagnosis,
but if someone is struggling with mental health issues it's about us
and it's about our community,” Kyle recalled.
He continued: “And that's maybe what enables me to take a different
sort of view. It doesn't mean that you ignore the person in their
immediate need and struggle. But for me, as a deacon – interpreting
to the church the hopes, needs, and concerns of the world, it’s a
bigger kind of endeavor.
Photo: Karin Hamilton
Kyle Pedersen, executive director at the Community Mental Health Foundation.
“Thinking about being the ‘we’ is the perspective that I want to adopt
at all times, that it’s a communal endeavor.”
He also embraces the concept from mental health and recovery
called the “dignity to fail.”
“Dignity means you are able to accompany someone through a
process where they might fail” and you don’t protect them from that
experience, he said. “If we look at our own lives, I know it’s taught
me a lot, and if that had been taken away from me, that would have
robbed me from some of my dignity. It’s always balancing that risk.”
When asked how his personal prayer life supports his work with
people who live with mental health challenges, he said: “I’m a very
kinesthetic person, so to me that means to live in a prayerful way all
the time, to live consciously.”
Kyle has continued his gardening, tending to lots of flowers, a
“profusion of cherries,” pole beans, eggplant, herbs, and blueberries
for the birds. One could argue that gardening is also a significant
spiritual practice. It requires attention to the present, planning for
the long-term, being patient, giving, and dealing with the realities of
weather, bugs, and more.
It certainly proved sufficient preparation for a life serving others. ◊
11
Loving those on the margins
Respecting other's free will
AN INTERVIEW WITH ROXANA ROSARIO
Pam Dawkins
Photo: Elizabeth Parker
Addicts, and their addictions, come
in all shapes and sizes. A common
denominator for many, said Roxana
Rosario, is that a family history of addiction,
domestic violence or other trauma tilted the
scales from the start.
Roxana is a licensed clinical social worker
and a program director with the Connecticut
Department of Mental Health and Addiction
Services, in the Southeastern Mental Health
Authority. She spent the first part of her
career with the Connecticut Department
of Children and Families working for Child
Protective Services in the trauma field.
The addict is no different
from anyone else; the
disease cuts across
race, age, gender, and
economic class.
She attends the Church of the Good
Shepherd in Hartford now but traces the
beginnings of her Episcopal faith to St. Ann’s
Episcopal Church in the south Bronx. Roxana
was six or seven when she moved from
Puerto Rico to The Bronx, and four years
older when she began attending St. Ann’s.
She moved to Connecticut soon after and
attended a number of Hartford churches
— St. Monica’s, St. James, Christ Church
Cathedral — before finding Good Shepherd.
Her belief in God and that she has a purpose
helps her to work with her patients. “This is
a calling … to want to be with human beings
at their lowest of low …”
12
She sees that some very educated people
— she has a bachelor’s from the University
of Hartford, an MSW from UCONN and is a
Ph.D. candidate at The Institute for Clinical
Social Work — can sometimes fail to see the
humanity in addicts.
Roxana’s faith allows her to bring hope and
acceptance to the table. “I accept people for
where they’re at and who they are.”
Her religious upbringing did not give her the
tools to work with addicts, but a connection
to God and to others helps with their
recovery, whether it’s with organized religion
or a twelve-step program.
Roxana credits her own participation in a
twelve-step program for families affected
by alcoholism with strengthening her
relationship with God. Not surprising, she
said, considering that many of the 12 steps
came from the Bible — taking inventory,
making amends, being witnesses to
one another. And recovery meetings are
organized like a Mass, with a reading from a
book and sharing testimony.
“It brings you right back to God… the
unconscious collective, the consciousness of
the group. Miracles happen. It’s fascinating.”
The Episcopal Church even has a more direct
connection to twelve-step programs.
Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, rector at
Calvary Church in New York from the 1920s
to the 1950s, was a member of the Oxford
Group, a Christian fellowship organization
founded in the 1920s. The Oxford Group
helped Bill Wilson (Bill W.) get sober and
connected him with Dr. Bob Smith (Dr.
Bob S.); the two later founded Alcoholics
Anonymous, adopting variants of some of
the Oxford Group’s practices.
According to a biography of Dr. Shoemaker
on AA’s website:
“Bill W. made it clear that Sam
Shoemaker ‘passed on the spiritual
keys by which we were liberated’.
The first three Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous, the starting point for
sobriety in the A.A. program, were
inspired in part by Shoemaker. Bill
further explained that “the early A.A.
got its ideas of self-examination,
acknowledgement of character
defects, restitution for harm done,
and working with others straight from
the Oxford Groups and directly from
Sam Shoemaker, their former leader
in America, and from nowhere else.
“Dr. Shoemaker helped A.A. in
fundamental ways. Physically, he
provided refuge for alcoholics in
New York though Calvary Church. Of
greater importance was his spiritual
aid, which directly influenced the
Twelve Steps and the nature of A.A.’s
program of recovery. His long and
close friendship with Bill W. provided
support to the co-founder, and helped
the Fellowship weather its fledgling
years.”
Nearly 85 years have passed since A.A. got
its start, and dozens of similar programs now
exist. Addiction, which often goes handin-hand
with mental illness, is treated as a
disease instead of a character flaw and, as
Roxana has learned, the addict is no different
from anyone else; the disease cuts across
race, age, gender, and economic class.
There are more downs than ups in the work,
Roxana said, and nothing happens quickly.
But, “I love my job, I love what I do,” even
though it is frustrating to be powerless.
“I still do not have power over their free
will,” she said. “We have to respect the free
will of another human being.”
She has learned a lot from her clients,
including resiliency, growth and survival.
“When they heal, I heal.”
What do we know
about the opioid
crisis?
Roughly 21 to 29 % of patients prescribed
opioids for chronic pain misuse them
Between 8 & 12 % develop an opioid use
disorder
An estimated 4 to 6 % who misuse
prescription opioids transition to heroin
About 80 % of people who use heroin first
misused prescription opioids
Opioid overdoses increased 30 % from July
2016 through September 2017 in 52 areas
in 45 states
The Midwestern region saw opioid
overdoses increase 70 % from July 2016
through September 2017
Opioid overdoses in large cities increase by
54 % in 16 states
Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Institutes
of Health; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Resources & Services
In Connecticut
• Department of Mental Health & Addiction
Services (DMHAS) offer a full range of
services and resources — ct.gov/dhmas
• Connecticut affiliate of NAMI (National
Alliance on Mental Illness) see description
below — namict.org (check website for
local resources and groups)
Nationally
• The HEAL (Helping to End Addiction
Long-term) SM Initiative of the National
Institutes of Health, offers hope for
people, families, and communities
affected by this crisis — heal.nih.gov/
• Mental Health First Aid (courses to teach
people "how to identify, understand, and
respond to signs of mental health
illnesses and substance use disorders")
— mentalhealthfirstaid.org
Pam Dawkins is a Middletown, CT based freelance writer. She is the former business
section editor of The Middletown Press and the Connecticut Post.
• NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
offers educational programs, advocacy, a
help line, and public awareness events
and activities — nami.org
13
Loving those on the margins
Worthy by nature
INTERVIEWS WITH THE REV. ANN PERROTT & DEACON ELLEN ADAMS
Pam Dawkins
Men and women aren’t their crime, aren’t
their prison time. “It’s not the whole book.
That is a chapter in the book.”
The Rev. Ann Perrott
Faith informs and transforms lives — those of the faithful and
those whose situations can make personal faith a challenge.
But how do the faithful harness their personal beliefs into strengths
they can share with others, particularly when those others have run
afoul of the law?
“As Episcopalians, we are lucky to have the Baptismal Covenant,”
which specifically calls for respect for the dignity of every human
being, said Deacon Ellen Adams.
Deacon Adams, 71, is president of the board of the nondenominational
New Life Ministry of Southeastern Connecticut,
which helps women who are newly released from York Correctional
Institute in Niantic.
“They come out with absolutely nothing. They have to start all over
again,” said the Rev. Ann Perrott, 68, of the women.
Ann is executive director of New Life Ministry, which provides these
women with one-on-one mentors who help them find employment
and social services like Alcoholics Anonymous. The ministry —
founded 20 years ago by Father St. Onge, a pastor of the Roman
Catholic Church of Christ the King in Old Lyme — also runs two
apartments able to house four women at a time, who pay a nominal
rent after they find a job.
Ann, who serves at Christ Church in Middle Haddam, also works
with male prisoners through the Houses of Healing program.
“We peel back the onion of a person’s life,” to discover how they got
to their current situation, she said of the 12-week Houses of Healing
program. “There’s no copping out of their crime,” she said, but she
realizes they usually didn’t get to this place in a vacuum.
“It’s the closest thing to God that I have felt in my calling,” Ann,
who spent most of her life working in social services, said. These
men and women have experienced much trauma but if she can help
one person, it may mean generations to come might not end up in
prison. “It’s all [about] God … I need you to help me.”
The Rev. Ann Perrott at her church office in Middle Haddam.
Ellen, who also works at St. Francis House, an intentional Christian
community in New London, and serves at St. James' Episcopal
Church in New London, taught school in Norwich for 35 years. She
believes she was called to be a deacon because of her involvement
with the Learn and Serve Movement, teaching curriculum through
community service. Teachers at her school asked her to consider
becoming a minister but being a deacon was the only job that
allowed her to continue teaching.
A friend brought Ellen to a Faith Behind Bars and Beyond (a ministry
of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut) meeting, which led her to
the New Life Ministry.
“We only take people that we think are ready to have a new life,”
she said. Some women turn out not to be ready; they work with
parole officers to get those women into half-way houses. Overall,
New Life Ministry has had an 88 percent success rate in 20 years.
As a mentor, Ellen said she teaches the women how to make
choices — what to eat and wear, where to work, whether to reconnect
with family. She aligns this with the Episcopal Church’s
14
They need to hear that they are worthy to
stand before you. There’s dignity, welcoming,
love and forgiveness in that.
Deacon Ellen Adams
“I try to be real and then the trust starts to seep in. It takes time
... it’s a beautiful, hard thing.” She tries to not learn what crime the
inmates are in prison for, because it’s not productive. Instead, “I
see Jesus Christ. Jesus is sitting there, angry, he has been sexually
abused, physically abused … he’s turned to drugs to medicate
himself…”
Ellen has not experienced these traumas herself but had what she
called a “transforming experience,” which she wants to offer to
others. To get to that place, she said, it’s about respecting her clients
as human beings and listening to their stories, to earn their trust.
She offers intercessory prayers for her clients and practices
centering prayer for 20 minutes each day, which “resets that
perspective that God has on people, somehow… I don’t know how
it works but it does.”
Deacon Ellen Adams in the room used for mentoring at St. James', New London.
Catechism, which says the freedom to make choices is what it
means to be created in the image of God.
“I look at everyone as a child of God and, therefore, good,” Ellen
said, even if that goodness is not always visible at first glance. “I
have never met anyone that was a completely bad apple.”
God, she said, knows us better than we know ourselves, and loves
us in spite of it. “I figure if God can do that, I will trust God to lead
me to what I need to know to support someone.”
Ann likens the men and women’s feelings of unworthiness -
about 90 percent of them were sexually abused, and both groups
were looking for parental figures – with the Episcopal prayer that
proclaims God made us worthy to stand before him.
She was a single mother on welfare, raising her daughter and
waiting tables after her husband left, and saw what happened to
family members who were abused, so identifies a lot with their
insecurities, and not having a lot of expectations for their lives. She
listens, encourages, is kind and prays with them.
It’s more about building relationships with people than it is about
ministering to them, Ellen said. “Your perspective changes and so
does theirs.” She has become more patient and more willing to
invest time in people and relationships.
Ann believes — teaches — that the men and women aren’t their
crime, aren’t their prison time. “It’s not the whole book. That is a
chapter in the book.”
What’s important, Ann said, is the trying. “That’s God, in the trying
to get to.”
“Men and women need to hear that they are worthy to stand before
you,” Ann said. “There’s dignity, welcoming, love and forgiveness in
that.”
Pam Dawkins is a Middletown, CT based freelance writer.
She is the former business section editor of The Middletown
Press and the Connecticut Post.
15
Loving those on the margins
Starting with the heart
AN INTERVIEW WITH DEACON RON STEED
Karin Hamilton
Deacon Ron Steed works from an attic
office in New London’s Homeless
Hospitality Center. He began his
passion for this work around 2006 while
attending St. James’ Episcopal Church, and
now serves as the Center’s Deputy Director
for Housing.
The Center, less than a mile from St. James’,
opened in 2013. Its origin is tied to St.
James’ and its story began about the time
that Ron arrived at the parish.
A CITY SHELTER
In 2006 after the New London city council
made funding cuts to its social services, a
homeless man died outside in the woods
a week after the winter shelter closed. A
group of faith leaders in the community
insisted that this wasn’t acceptable and
vowed to work together to find ways to help
the homeless in their city. Those leaders
included the late Rev. Emmett Jarrett,
TSSF, of St. Francis House, an intentional
community; the Rev. Michel Belt, rector
of St. James’ Episcopal Church; the Rev.
Catherine Zall, pastor of First Congregational
Church; and the Rev. Carolyn Paterno,
minister at All Souls Unitarian Universalist
congregation.
The group determined that St. James’ would
open its parish hall as an overnight shelter
and All Soul’s Unitarian Universalist’s building
would serve as a drop-in center for the
homeless during the day. They also vowed
to continue to push for restored funding and
permanent facilities.
Not everyone at St. James’ was happy with
the decision to locate the shelter on their
premises. Some saw it as their Gospel
responsibility; others just didn’t like the
ministry, especially on Sundays when they
had to navigate through a valley of cots in
the parish hall after worship, on the way to
their coffee and fellowship time.
Deacon Ron Steed outside the New London Homeless
Hospitality Center.
The causes of
homelessness are very
complex, and there's
no substitute for faceto-face
interaction with
each person. There's a
complexity that argues
against tough love.
Ron Steed
At about this time, Ron Steed was newly
retired from the Navy, where he had served
as Commodore of eight nuclear submarines.
He had recently returned to attending church
services and decided to join St. James’.
“I was encountering scriptures as an adult
really for the first time,” he said. He was
profoundly moved by the Gospel readings
and saw the ministry to the homeless as
exactly what they called for.
The parish hired diocesan consultant
Barbara Casey to help them navigate their
conflict and find a unified way forward. The
rector appointed a committee with people
on both sides of the debate. Following
the guidelines Barbara set up, committee
members listened deeply and respectfully to
each other and to others in the community.
After eight months, they all agreed that the
ministry could continue at St. James’. It
turned out the primary concerns had been
about establishing reasonable, safe, and
written guidelines. The cots moved down to
the basement level of the parish hall, while
the search continued for a permanent site.
Barbara Casey was impressed by the
committee’s work. “I have had experience
in conflict situations in lots of churches, and
this one was exceptional,” she said “It was
knotty and challenging, but we set up good
ground rules. And it was a good outcome,”
she added.
Ron had served as a leader in the parish
discernment process and said he learned a
lot through it.
“The causes of homelessness are very
complex, and there’s no substitute for faceto-face
interaction with each person. There’s
a complexity that argues against tough love,”
he said. “I witnessed the transformation of
people’s hearts.”
16
The shelter at the parish was part of a citywide
response to homelessness. The initial
faith leaders addressing the crisis had helped
to form a non-profit organization headed by
a board of directors, which continued the
search for a permanent location and secure
funding. In 2008 Ron was asked to serve
on the board, which was headed by Pastor
Cathy Zall.
The board oversaw the purchase
of the former Sts. Peter and
Paul Polish National Catholic
Church and its successful
renovations that established the
current New London Homeless
Hospitality Center there in
2013. It includes an overnight
shelter for men and for women,
daytime hospitality center,
respite center, help center with
computers and mailboxes,
and offices for staff and social
service providers.
After a decade of serving on the
board, Ron began volunteering
regularly at the shelter and in
December 2018, Pastor Zall
asked Ron to serve on the staff.
He said yes, and serves as
Deputy Director for Housing.
Ron was ordained a vocational
deacon in 2017. He serves at
the altar at both St. James’,
Poquetanuck and Grace, Yantic
as a deacon. His daily prayer
life includes the daily offices,
and up to an hour of centering prayer and
meditation each morning, which he says
helps him let go of self-criticism and other
unhelpful thoughts. His practices help him
let go of his own emotional baggage, focus
on the present, and bring the Holy Spirit into
his interactions with others.
“The Spirit of God literally dwells within us
…and people can experience God every
day,” he said. “We can sink into that heart
space anytime.”
He is passionate about his work.
“People come in with all kinds of problems,
and housing is the first piece of it,” he said.
“They might have mental health issues,
might not have a job yet, or they might have
an active substance use challenge. That’s
okay. The housing is the first piece of it.
And the reason that works is that from the
stability of a house, all these other problems
are more manageable. It doesn’t mean
they’re easy, and sometimes you have new
problems you hadn’t anticipated, but now
they’re in a position to be able to work on
4
10
in
Southeastern Connecticut
FAMILIES
struggle to meet basic needs
@ the New London Homeless Hospitality Center
40
BEDS
and seven respite beds
for those facing health issues.
58%
served were at the shelter
less than 30 days.
67%
REPORT
2017 -
2018
MENTAL HEALTH
ISSUES
PERSONALIZED
SUPPORT
740
40%
WOMEN
54%
REPORT
SUBSTANCE
USE
people came for help
including 540 who were
admitted to the shelter.
source: New London Homeless Hospitality Center
the other things they want to change.”
ASSISTANCE IN
FINDING AFFORDABLE
PERMANENT HOUSING
7 %
are under
25
years old
47%
REPORT CHRONIC
HEALTH
PROBLEMS
Ron describes the technique of “motivational
interviewing” that they use to work with
people who some might say are “making
bad decisions.” It’s about respecting their
dignity.
“The core principle is seeing the person
you’re interviewing as the agent of their own
lives. They’re the ones who have to decide
if they’re going to change. Our experience is
telling us that by and large, people who end
up homeless kind of know what they need
to do to get out of homelessness, so our job
is to be midwives in a really interesting way,
to give birth to that change that is already
within them.
“They are the ones with agency, with their
own autonomy, and if there’s going to be
change, they have to be the authors of it.
Our job is to use this technique to help
them discover the words that can describe
the change that they want. And then once
they’re signed up for that, to help them get
the resources they need to do it.”
The other principle he and other staff
at the Center use is that of “harm
reduction.”
“This is the idea that for different
kinds of behaviors that seem selfdestructive
or harmful, abstinence
is probably not a realistic goal. But
I might be able to help a person
implement some harm reduction
strategies that would at least make
their practice less harmful.”
For example, he said, he might ask
someone with an alcohol problem
what it would be like to not have a
drink until noon. Or, someone who
uses opioids whether they could do
that in their room so they won’t fall
over in a busy street and possibly
get hit by a car. It’s not an approach
that is universally accepted.
“A lot of folks would say you’ve got
to have discipline for these people
and tell them what to do,” said Ron.
“But we’ll get nowhere if that’s our
strategy because change comes from the
heart. Our job is to help them give birth to
that.”
It requires setting aside his own expertise.
“I know a lot about many things, and I might
do things differently, and my opinion about
their behaviors might be a negative one, but
I have to set all those things aside, because
they’re the are agents of their own lives.
Change comes from their heart, and not
from mine. And that’s the place we have to
start.” ◊
17
follow me.
– Jesus
18
from the BISHOP DIOCESAN
Joining Jesus in a New Missional Age
Developing Spiritual and Financial resources
to participate in God's Mission
Ian T. Douglas — with Timothy Hodapp and Tiffany Reed
As they were going along the road, someone said to him,
“I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to
him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To
another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first
let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him,
“Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go
and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will
follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at
my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to
the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9: 57-60
In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus offers an uncompromising invitation
to those who wish to follow him. When some declare that they need to return home
and put their affairs in order first before coming along with Jesus, he challenges them
to join him without delay: “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit
for the kingdom of God.” These are not easy words to hear; they challenge us to move
beyond all that is known, all that is secure. Only by going forward with Jesus can we find
new life, new possibility, new hope in the mission of God.
Over the years, I have not shied away from pointing out that we in the church of the
West, particularly in New England, are living on the cusp of the end of Christendom. The
social, political, and economic privileges that came to the church as an institution when
we identified so closely with the established cultural powers and principalities over the
19
Developing Spiritual
Resources
LEARNING HOW TO
FOLLOW JESUS INTO THE
NEIGHBORHOOD
• Christ Church — Easton
• Christ Church Cathedral — Hartford
• Grace Church — Hartford
• L’Eglise de l’Epiphanie — Stamford
• St. John’s — Essex
• St. John’s — Vernon
• St. Monica’s — Hartford
• St. Mark’s — New Britain
• St. Peter’s — Cheshire
• Trinity — Brooklyn
• Trinity — Torrington
Developing Financial
Resources
ADDRESSING LOCAL NEEDS WITH
PARISH-BASED FUND RAISING
• Christ Church Cathedral
congregations — Hartford
• Christ Church — Bethany
• Emmanuel — Weston
• St. James' — Glastonbury
• St. Monica’s — Hartford
• Trinity — Brooklyn
last centuries are ebbing away. Today, we
Christians are moving from the center to the
margin of society, from places of privileges
to the periphery, from majority to minority
status.
I have been at pains, however, to emphasize
that the end of Christendom is not the end
of the Church as the body of Christ. Just
the opposite! As we Christians become
less identified with the social, political, and
economic elite, we are called to enter even
more deeply into the way of Jesus; or as our
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says: “The
Way of Love.” Today, more than ever, the
Church, the body of Christ, is seeing itself as
a band of disciples, followers of Jesus, sent
into the world as apostles to be about the
“loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus”
(in the words of Presiding Bishop Curry).
At our 2018 Annual Convention of the
Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT),
I invited us to move forward and claim
our baptismal vocation as disciples and
apostles in these changing times through
a renewed commitment to God’s mission
of restoration and reconciliation in Christ
Jesus. I emphasized that we are living in
a “new missional age” and in my address
described what this new age looks like. “In
this new missional age the focus for our
lives as Christians is shifting from a primary
preoccupation of church as an institution to
a new engagement of what the living God in
Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit
is up to in our daily lives and in the wider
world. We are being called to move from
an ecclesiocentric preoccupation with the
church as an institution to a missiocentric
focus on God’s action, God’s mission, in our
neighborhoods.” Indeed we are called to put
our hands to the plough, to not look back,
but rather to move forward and join Jesus in
a new missional age.
Of course the key question is: how exactly
do we in the parishes and neighborhoods
across ECCT join Jesus in this new missional
age? Thanks be to God, literally, we have
been faithfully pursuing initiatives across
ECCT in recent years that point to God’s
future for us. In 2017 and 2018, seven
parishes participated in an experiment
called Living Local: Joining God. Along
with four other dioceses in The Episcopal
Church (East Tennessee, Maine, Newark,
and Southwestern Virginia, and with
Today, more than ever, the Church,
the body of Christ, is seeing itself
as a band of disciples, followers
of Jesus, sent into the world as
apostles to be about the “loving,
liberating, life-giving way of Jesus.”
coaching by Alan Roxburgh of The Missional
Network, our seven parishes discerned
anew — through the six spiritual practices
of listening, discerning, trying on, reflecting,
and deciding — just what God is calling
them to be about in their neighborhoods.
Alongside the Living Local: Joining God
experiment, we undertook research in 2018
into what we in ECCT needed to go forward
as we live into the vision of the Taskforce
for Reimaging the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut (TREC-CT). More specifically,
with the assistance provided by Tiffany
Reed of CCS Consulting, we undertook a
Region Needs Assessment. More than 350
Episcopalians across Connecticut were
interviewed in person and over 500 online
responses were received. The conclusion of
the needs assessment was that we in ECCT
are looking for greater:
1. Connection: To facilitate greater
communication among Episcopalians
in Connecticut.
2. Collaboration: To nurture cooperation
among people, parishes, and initiatives
within and across Regions.
3. Formation: To provide training and
experiential opportunities to form
disciples and apostles in this new
missional age, and
4. Transformation: To support parishes
that are becoming more engaged in
God’s mission.
Building on the lessons learned in both
the Living Local: Joining God experiment
and the Region Needs Assessment, ECCT
launched a pilot project: Joining Jesus In a
New Missional Age. The goal of this project
is to develop both spiritual and financial
resources in our parishes and across ECCT
that we may more faithfully participate in
God’s mission. Initially proposed at our
20
Photo: Allison Gannett
Young Adult Episcopalians from the South Central Region participating in the Yale-New Haven Sacred Harp community on Easter Sunday 2019.
In this new missional age the
focus for our lives as Christians
is shifting from a primary
preoccupation of church as an
institution to a new engagement
of what the living God in Jesus
through the power of the Holy
Spirit is up to in our daily lives
and in the wider world.
Annual Convention in October 2018, our
Mission Council voted to move forward
with the project in December and covered
the costs for the pilot with income from
endowments of The Missionary Society of
the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. This
past winter, parishes had the opportunity to
hear more about Joining Jesus and how they
might participate in parish-based initiatives to
develop either new spiritual resources or new
financial resources or both.
To develop spiritual resources, the services
of Alan Roxburgh of The Missional Network
were once again engaged, and the initiative
was facilitated by Tim Hodapp, ECCT’s Canon
for Mission Collaboration. In February, an atcapacity
crowd of laity and clergy met with Al
Roxburgh for an information session to learn
about the five spiritual practices (listening,
discerning, trying on, reflecting, deciding)
that individuals, teams, and parishes as a
whole might pursue in the initiative. A second
information session was scheduled, and all
told, 130 people from 29 parishes met at The
Commons of ECCT for a meal, conversation,
and practice sessions to learn more.
ECCT then offered to provide structured,
facilitated guidance to up to one dozen
parishes for an intensive, four-module,
12-month program, to introduce and
incarnate the five spiritual practices. Eleven
parishes and the congregations of our
Cathedral signed on to participate. Based on
the learnings from Living Local: Joining God,
The Missional Network developed a more
flexible and efficient model for developing
spiritual resources in parishes based on
the newly refined framework. The focus of
the first module has been on “becoming a
people of relationship rather than outcomes,”
helping team members practice small steps
to cultivate a new awareness of what God
is up to in their neighborhoods and how the
parish is connected in their communities.
Module 2 explores how to engage in simple
listening conversations with people in their
neighborhoods as an exercise in “listening
without an agenda.” The third and fourth
21
Joining Jesus
by the NUMBERS
130
INDIVIDUALS
attended information sessions hosted
by Alan Roxburgh and Tim Hodapp to
explore Joining Jesus Raising Spiritual
Resources
74
PARISHES
met with Tiffany Reed from CCS
Fundraising to learn more about Joining
Jesus Raising Financial Resources and
15 parishes conducted rapid studies to
consider participating in a collaborative
fundraising initiative. 248 individuals
and families were interviewed as part
of these studies to gather thoughts
about their parish’s visions, plans, and
participation in a fundraising initiative
IN TOTAL
from
5
29
PARISHES
10
PARISHES +
the congregations of Christ Church
Cathedral are engaging the new
practices to develop spiritual resources
PARISHES +
the congregations of Christ Church
Cathedral are engaging parish-based
initiatives to develop new financial
resources
2
PARISHES
and our Cathedral congregations are
engaging both
10
INDIVIDUAL DONORS
have contributed to the ECCT-wide
Collaborative Projects
As of October 15
the Joining Jesus initiative
has received gifts and pledges
totaling more than
$2,986,000
FROM
256
individuals and families
The goal of the Joining Jesus
In a New Missional Age project
is to develop both spiritual and
financial resources in our parishes
and across ECCT that we may
more faithfully participate in God’s
mission.
modules, which will be undertaken in the
months of September 2019 through June
2020, engaging the spiritual exercises
more deeply as the Joining Jesus Team
members learn to “listen to the stories of
the neighborhood” [Module 3] and more
ably “discern God’s activity and movement
toward God’s future for the community”
[Module 4].
Early reports from the participating teams
is that this initiative is already yielding the
development of new spiritual resources
through the practice of encountering
their neighborhoods through God’s eyes.
Recently, the parishes and clergy gathered
at The Commons to share stories about
how this first module has progressed, learn
about the second module, and share their
stories and excitement about joining Jesus
in imaginative and new ways across our
neighborhoods in Connecticut.
Parallel to the development of spiritual
resources is a new initiative to raise financial
resources in parishes across ECCT, led
by Tiffany Reed and her team from CCS
Consulting. To begin with, Tiffany met
with 74 parishes to determine interest in
and potential for conducting a fundraising
initiative. Parish leaders learned about the
opportunity and discerned together how the
funds raised locally might be used locally,
from new ministries and capital projects
to adding personnel and funding parish
endowments. These 74 parishes also learned
how they would be invited to contribute
a portion of money raised in their parishbased
fundraising efforts to diocesan-wide
projects proposed in response to the 2018
Region Needs Assessment. The four projects
include: a venture capital fund to resource
new undertakings in each of ECCT’s six
Regions; support for new intentional
Christian communities, such as college
chaplaincies and/or young adult services
communities in each Region; funding to
assist Camp Washington’s development
as a year-round resource for discipleship
formation; and the redevelopment of the
worship space of Christ Church Cathedral
into a flexible, multi-purpose space to serve
ECCT and the arts communities in Hartford
and across Connecticut. (see sidebar, p. 23)
Each parish participating in the fund-raising
initiative chooses which of the four projects
they would like to contribute 20% of their
new money raised. In addition, I have been
in conversation with nearly a dozen individual
Episcopalians in Connecticut who might
wish to contribute directly to one or more of
the diocesan-wide projects.
Of the 74 parishes initially approached,
15 parishes conducted rapid studies to
explore volunteer capacity, goal setting,
and fundraising plans. An additional 35
parishes indicated an interest in considering
a study at a later date. Five parishes and the
congregations of our Cathedral decided to
The real blessing of Joining Jesus
in a New Missional Age is that
we in the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut are looking forward
to the future with new hope, new
energy, and a new commitment to
God’s mission — and we are doing
this together!
From left, Region Missionaries Erendira Jimenez, George
Black, and Dylan Mello recording a Coffee Hour at The
Commons podcast. Each of ECCT's Regions has a fulltime
Region Missionary to help them “catalyze, convene,
connect, and expand capabilities”.
ECCT-wide
collaborative projects
Support for Regions
with full-time Region
Missionaries and a newly
launched entrepreneurial
fund
Establish new intentional
Christian communities in
each Region
Transform Christ Church
Cathedral’s space as a site
for engaging the world
Photo: Enrendira Jimenez
engage a fundraising effort. Interestingly,
these parishes were all small- to middlesize
and would probably not have been
able to afford and/or lead a parish-based
fundraising initiative without the assistance
of ECCT and CCS Consulting. CCS continues
to provide weekly expertise and coaching
until all stages of the parish fundraising
initiatives are complete. We are moving
forward strongly with both our parish-based
initiatives and individual gift appeals, and we
are on track to be at or near our pilot goal of
$3,000,000, raised in just over six months of
work.
Clearly the Holy Spirit is blessing the efforts
of our pilot Joining Jesus in a New Missional
Age project. There is excitement across
the participating parishes as they develop
spiritual and financial resources never before
imagined. The Mission Council, at their
recent September meeting, heard moving
stories of how parishes across ECCT are
raising spiritual and financial resources
to participate more effectively in God’s
mission. And, the Mission Council agreed to
contribute resources from the endowments
of the Missionary Society of the Episcopal
Church in Connecticut to discern how
many other parishes in ECCT may want
to participate in Joining Jesus in a New
Missional Age in 2020.
Our Joining Jesus in a New Missional Age
pilot project has been a success. As exciting
as it has been to witness a dozen parishes
stepping out into their neighborhoods in new
ways and the raising of close to three million
dollars in small-to medium-sized parishes,
augmented by gifts from individuals, the real
blessing of Joining Jesus in a New Missional
Age is that we in the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut are looking forward to the future
with new hope, new energy, and a new
commitment to God’s mission — and we are
doing this together! Thanks be to God.
Deepen Camp Washington’s
capacity to serve as a
resource for Christian
formation for children,
youth, and adults
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas is Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut. The Rev. Timothy Hodapp serves as Canon for Mission Collaboration
for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. Tiffany Reed is Vice President with CCS
Fundraising, where she has spent the last six years partnering with nonprofits to help
them turn their fundraising goals into mission impact.
23
from the BISHOP SUFFRAGAN
Jesus cleanses ten lepers
Laura J. Ahrens
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.
As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out,
saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and
show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them,
when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated
himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were
not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return
and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your
way; your faith has made you well.”
NRSV, Luke 17:11-19
LESSONS IN GRATITUDE,
GROUNDED IN JESUS
Let me begin by saying Thank you.
Thank you for reading this. And
more importantly, thank you for your
faithfulness. Thank you for the ways you
seek to engage with your faith. Thank you for
being curious about spirituality. Thank you for
naming what you love about Church. Thank
you for daring to wonder what God might be
creating and inviting us to join.
Thank you for the ways you seek to share
God’s caring love. Thank you for the ways
you share kindness — kindness offered,
spoken, shared with others ...with family,
friends, neighbors... shared with those you
encounter along the way. I notice those
moments all the time. Those moments
matter. You matter. Thank you.
My passion for gratitude became even more
alive for me during our ECCT Holy Land
pilgrimage this past spring. It was there
that my awareness of gratitude found its
grounding in the biblical teachings of Jesus.
There were 31 of us that traveled to our
Holy Land, a holy group of pilgrims seeking
to know our holy God and to touch this holy
land... 31 of us prayed, wept, laughed, and
reconnected to our Lord.
There are too many stories and too many
memories to share in this small article,
but I do want to say thank you to those
who traveled with Bishop Ian and myself
and those who made the trip possible. I
am grateful for the privilege of leading this
journey with Bishop Ian, and the gift of
learning from our guide, our fellow pilgrims,
24
and the land itself. I believe all of us feel
closer to Jesus because of this opportunity
to share in his stories and to share in the
stories of those with whom we traveled.
One day we traveled to the traditional site of
the village referenced above in Luke 17:11-
19. The story of the 10 lepers... the story
of the one who returned... the one who
returned to say thank you. Thank you.
The church of this traditional site is filled
with icons. There is one very large icon of
the healing of the 10 lepers. It is not an
icon of the one who returns, it is an icon of
the healing... Jesus offering this holy gift
to the 10. In the icon, you cannot tell who
will be the one who will return. You cannot
tell which of the lepers will be the one who
thought to say “thank you,” the one who will
be the beacon of gratitude for generations
yet to come, the one who will be a beacon
of gratitude for me.
Jesus celebrates the one who returns.
He rejoices in the one who says thank
you, raising him up as an example of faith.
Thanking Jesus, we name our faith. We
recognize the one “from whom all blessings
flow.” In this story, I see Jesus celebrating
our thank-you’s... our thank-you’s to God and
also our thank-you’s to others who see us,
notice us, and are kind to us; our thank-you’s
to those who receive our gifts and those
who delight when we nurture our gifts. I see
Jesus celebrating those who say thank you
in such a way that others are encouraged to
live into the fullness of who God is calling
them to be.
Toward the end of my summer vacation in
Canada, I received a phone call notifying me
that my mother had fallen and broken her
hip. In that moment, I could feel much of
my world reorganizing itself. I felt a shifting
in priorities. I found myself grounded in two
things: Jesus and gratitude.
Grounded in Jesus. Grounded in my prayer
for guidance, for calm, for rest and for
creative energy. Going to church, being in
Christian community, worshiping the Lord,
are all practices that help me be centered in
my relationship with Jesus.
Grounded in gratitude. I am grateful for my
friend who I traveled with who prayed with
me and cared for me as I tried to care for
my mother from afar. I am grateful to the
doctors and nurses and all of those who
tended to my mother as I traveled home.
I share this story with you because I know
many of you have similar stories, caring for
a parent, spouse, or loved one. And, I know
that you are mindful of those who support
you as you support your loved one. I share
with you in your offering of thanksgiving
for those who walk with you. The gift of
kindness through the gifts of time, care,
guidance, wisdom, counsel, and support is
a gift of grace. I thank you for walking with
those you love in their journey and sharing
your kindness with them. One healed leper
returned to say “Thank you.” Thank you.
For the past few months, I have been
keeping a journal of gratitude...a journal
of “thank-you’s” for the people who I see
helping us in ECCT live into God’s mission ...
ministry that I see is grounded in Jesus and
is offering of God’s transformational love.
I witness with an ache in my heart the
divisions in this country and the anxiety
that finds its home in our churches. Our
churches are filled with faithful parishioners
who come to find rest and to make sense
of the tensions and stresses of the world. I
hear anxiety about time and money and the
future of the church when clergy, vestries
and congregations share with me their hope
to grow their churches. They love what they
have found there and they want to share it,
and they are concerned.
I see the anxiety being addressed by faithful
parishioners who are willing to go out into
their communities not only to share God’s
love, but also to collaborate with others. They
often find they receive God’s love as they
listen and learn from those they meet. I see
their lives being transformed in ways they
never imagined because they were willing
to try something new ... to risk an idea
about “going out into the neighborhood”
and find the fruit not of church growth,
but of personal growth in one’s faith and
understanding of the breadth and depth of
Jesus’ love.
Thank you to the leadership of our
congregations, the clergy and laity, who help
to create space of prayer and possibility to
live into God’s future. Thank you for those
who have had the courage to step out into
the future and listen for God with curiosity
and wonder. Thank you to those who have
dared to and helped others to go out of our
buildings, moving to joining God’s mission
and grow the Jesus Movement in the world.
It feels faithful and it reminds me that God’s
future is going to look different from our past
and our present.
I witness our Racial Healing, Justice, and
Reconciliation Ministry Network inviting us
as a diocese to do the holy work of looking
at white supremacy and examining our
own stories and places of prejudice and
blindness. We are also called to look at
the places of power imbalance and biased
judgement within our Church as well as in
our culture and our personal lives. This is holy
and hard work. Thank you to the network for
their leadership in this holy work.
I witness persons around our diocese calling
us to be more attentive to climate change
and the ways we are negatively impacting
“this fragile earth our island home.” Thank
you to those persons who are caring for
God’s creation and for awakening in many
of us an awareness of how we might live
differently as gracious stewards.
I witness how hard we are all working to
further God’s mission. This witness has
called all of us to rethink Church. We have
been asked to examine our biases and
expand our understanding of who is our
neighbor and how we partner with them. We
have been invited to care for our planet in
new ways. Our first steps into this work can
be daunting, confusing, and unfamiliar.
And I know God is alive and present in
this work. I feel God’s joy in my heart
as we reach out to make new friends
and build good bridges to possibility and
hope. God needs us with him now for the
transformational future we are being called
to share with God and with the world.
Thank you to the faithful servants of the Lord
who shepherd this holy work.
The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens is Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.
25
Seeking God in
all people
Barbara Curry
As Christians, we are taught to see God in all people and to
love each and every one of them as ourselves.
The Episcopal Church invites all to come in and worship —
regardless of whom they love. That’s a bold statement that says
we as a faith community are not going to judge the stranger in
our midst. We’re not alone: Across the United States, several
other denominations have joyously taken the stance to see God
in all people. They have proclaimed their churches as open and
affirming.
It wasn’t always like that in The Episcopal Church.
In 1974, Dr. Louis Crew (Clay) found himself wanting religion
in his life and not finding it. He and his partner, Ernest Clay,
were living in San Francisco, and they wanted something more
than the bar scene to meet other gay couples. He called Grace
Episcopal Cathedral nearby, because they were known to be
progressive, and asked if they could help him and his partner
meet other gay Episcopalians. The derisive laughter he heard
in response prompted him to start a newsletter to help gay
and lesbian members of the Episcopal Church support one
another in what was then a fairly hostile environment. He was
determined for every Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer
and Questioning (LGBTQ+) person to find the Love of God in our
Episcopal Church.
That effort has grown over the decades to what is now an
essential part of the Episcopal Church, an advocacy organization
called Integrity. Integrity gained strength and visibility and soon
after forming they were a presence at our Episcopal General
Convention, yet their voice was often dismissed.
In 1976 Integrity spearheaded a resolution at General Convention
to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians. It passed,
and a year later, the first openly gay priest was ordained in the
Episcopal Church.
In 1985, Integrity urged our General Convention to speak out
against hate crimes based on sexual orientation and to encourage
federal officials to take action against such violence.
In 1988, at General Convention in Detroit, it was the Rev. Dexter
Knight Cheney, now a retired priest in ECCT, as part of his role
at the Diocese of Michigan, who was designated the Home
Secretary for the convention. He was approached by groups from
Detroit and Ann Arbor to help organize the first Integrity Eucharist
at convention.
26
It was a time of AIDS and there
were few if any dioceses that would
consider gay or lesbian individuals
for ordination. Still, it became
important to the members of
Integrity to have their own sacred
moment at Convention. It was a
clandestine affair only publicized
by word of mouth and personal
invitations. It was staged in a hotel
conference room with elements
cobbled together quickly. In the
end about 40 people attended that
evening, about two-thirds identified
as gay or lesbian; a majority were
gay men. Several straight clergy
and lay allies also participated. In
the shadows of the Convention
activities, this group gathered to
make their prayers known.
By 1994, Episcopal Integrity
participation at General Convention
had grown and their efforts helped
pass a resolution explicitly affirming
that gay, lesbian and bisexual people could
not be refused ordination in the Episcopal
Church for that reason alone.
Nine years later, in 2003, our Episcopal
Church elected, confirmed, and consecrated
the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson.
At his consecration, he wore a bulletproof
shield under his vestments because of the
overarching violence that was threatened
against him. Through it all, Bishop Robinson
was the embodiment of Integrity.
In 2009, I was proud to be part of the
Integrity media team at the Episcopal
General Convention in Anaheim, California
and to witness the adoption of four
resolutions addressing gender identity
and transgender individuals. The Integrity
Eucharist that year was a major event. It
filled multiple ballrooms at the hotel adjacent
to the convention center, over 1,200 people
attended — it was standing room only. The
Presiding Bishop was seated in the audience,
along with Bishop James E. Curry, suffragan
of ECCT. The sermon that night was delivered
by the Rt. Reverend Barbara Harris. The
Integrity envisions a
church where people of all
sexual orientations, gender
identities, and gender
expressions are welcomed
and affirmed. That sounds so
very righteous, yet in truth, it
is far harder to achieve than
you can imagine.
celebrant was Bishop Gene Robinson. In his
dismissal, he dismissed all present saying,
“May God bless you with foolishness,
enough foolishness to believe that we can
make a difference in this world and in this
church, so that we may do what others
claim cannot be done.”
Also in 2009, a new fledgling
companion group to Integrity —
TransEpiscopal, held their own first
Eucharist at General Convention. It was
in a hotel conference room, and again
about 40 people attended.
By 2012, nearly every resolution that
Integrity endorsed was affirmed by the
both houses of Convention.
All of this from one man’s quest to
meet others in his church that were like
him. Louie Crew Clay started Episcopal
Integrity, a true grass-roots effort
to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender people into communion
with God.
Integrity envisions a church where
people of all sexual orientations,
gender identities, and gender
expressions are welcomed and affirmed. That
sounds so very righteous, yet in truth, it is far
harder to achieve than you can imagine.
Personally, I have an intense sense of pride
in my Episcopal Church. For opening their
doors, and inviting me and so many others
in to share our mutual love of God, and
willingness to serve Christ. At parish after
parish in my spiritual journey, bringing me
into women’s sacred spaces. Teaching me
not only about God in my life, but more
importantly, about my life in God. My heart
is filled with fellowship in prayers and
celebrations. My pride is filled with integrity
— not only in the organization, but also in the
moral fiber in this our Episcopal community.
◊ ◊ ◊
You can hear an interview with Rev.
Dexter Cheney in a video report from
Integrity’s 2009 media coverage of General
Convention in Anaheim at youtube.com/
watch?v=We5fiXPnYII (the interview was
shot by Barbara Curry)
Barbara Curry is an LGBTQ+ Episcopalian who currently serves on ECCT’s Finance Committee and was formerly on its Executive Council.
She is a freelance media producer and television director; provides crews and equipment for broadcast and non-broadcast video and film
productions; and serves as a media consultant. She is a trainer with True Colors, Inc., subject matter expert for the Stonewall Speakers
Bureau, and has served as producer for the annual Fantasia Fair in Provincetown, MA.
27
Encountering
Jesus in a girl
with leprosy
led to love for
a ministry on
the margins
Ranjit K. Mathews
I understand my
call to proclaim
Christ to the people
on the margins of our
city, because that
is where I believe
Christ would be.
The Cathedral Church of St. Philomena ı
Mysore in Karnataka, India.
Photo: mysore_Arshad.ka
I
experienced Jesus through a chance meeting with a young Indian
girl in the summer of 1999.
For my undergraduate degree, I enrolled in George Washington
University in Washington, D.C, and while a seeker within the
Episcopal tradition, I wanted to further explore my life in Christ at a
campus ministry.
On one particular Thursday evening in the student center, I heard
Christian music playing in a dark classroom and decided to venture
inside. I immediately saw music lyrics shown on wall through
a transparency and felt emotionally moved to join in, as it had a
catchy beat. Thus started my time with Hope Bible Study, a more
conservative, student-led group located on the campus of George
Washington University. The group served as my faith community, as
I found friends who were kind and made me feel at home. We went
to church together, hung out, and prayed together.
Throughout my journey with the group, however, I was slowly
being invited to turn away from friends who weren’t
Christian, or who went clubbing or enjoyed having
a more secular time. Some of these were people
that I deeply enjoyed spending time with. Hope
Bible Study also had some harsh things to say about
the body, and a very conservative understanding
of relationships. And so it truly felt as if I was
bifurcating myself; and came to understand which
side was quote unquote “good,” and which side was
quote unquote “bad.”
If time in college is meant to be a space that is
associated with liberty and deepening of identity, or
at least a more open understanding of one's self,
my first two years were filled with deep internal
turmoil.
THE PILGRIMAGE
That summer, in 1999, my family and I traveled to India on our onceevery-four
years trip to my ancestral land. As it happened, my father
was on the ordination track for priesthood, and I was discerning a
path of faithfulness to Christ.
During this vacation I sat down with my father on the veranda of
my grandparent’s house in Kottayam in the state of Kerala. He
looked at me — in only a way that a parent can — and asked me
a very poignant question, “Ranjit, do you believe that of all the
people who live in India who are NOT Christians, do you think God
will send them to hell?” To say that I was caught off guard would
be an understatement; but upon reflection, the question couldn’t
have come at a better time in my spiritual journey. I was ready for it,
because I was questioning what was being told to me at bible study,
as it didn’t sit well with my own experience of God.
I heard Jesus saying
that I... should join
him at the borders
of society and
proclaim the justice
of the
Realm of God.
Later, during that same trip, I had an experience that not only
answered that question for me forever, but transformed my life and
crystallized my vocation. I remember it now like it was yesterday.
My parents, sister, and I were in the bustling city of Mysore in the
southern state of Karnataka. One afternoon we decided to visit the
Cathedral Church of St. Philomena’s. We went downstairs without
shoes on, which is culturally appropriate for India. After exploring the
complicated history of the Cathedral under British rule, we decided
to come upstairs. My parents and sister went up first, and I lagged
behind.
As I made my way back up, at the second step before the top, I
saw a girl who was on a skateboard-like structure. She had leprosy.
I remember this moment vividly. It seems like we looked at each
other for some time; and then she took her hand and she touched
my foot, and then brought her hand to her mouth. In many parts of
Indian culture, when you do this, you are conveying respect. And
yet, for me, I felt like I was seeing Jesus in her saying to me that
I was beloved just who I was, for I didn’t need to
change anything about myself.
This was what it means to be beloved. Utterly
beloved. I heard Jesus saying that I, in my belovedness,
I should join him at the borders of society
and proclaim the justice of the Realm of God. I also
heard that I should join the leper girl in India and be
in solidarity with her.
This unambiguous, unconditional sense of liberation
set me free in wholeness to go and offer this radical
sharing of love to others, no matter where or who
they are in life. This experience of God liberated
me to share this sense of love, to whomever I
came across. In theology, we call it an ontological
change. But whatever it was, it was God and it has
compelled me to proclaim the love of God; and yet
I am drawn to share God’s love with those who find themselves at
the margins of society.
I feel drawn to the margins of our society, because I was met on
the margin of myself by somebody who was herself on the outskirts
of society. As a young girl with leprosy, she would have been
stigmatized within Indian culture; and yet I believe Jesus through
her helped me to see that I was beloved just as I am. Just as I am,
with my love of Hip-Hop music and friends who are not Christian.
With her gentle touch of my foot, she had recognized my inherent
beloved-ness.
As rector of St. James' here in New London, I understand my call
to proclaim Christ to the people on the margins of our city, because
that is where I believe Christ would be; not in any paternalistic
sense; but in solidarity and accompaniment. I pray that the Holy
Spirit, that She will continue to lead and guide me to share the
Realm of God.
The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews is the rector of St. James', New London. In ECCT he serves on the Mission Council and works with multiple ministry
networks including those working with combating gun violence; climate and the environment; clergy of color; immigration and immigrant children;
and racial healing, justice, and reconciliation. He chairs The Episcopal Church's Task Force on Dialogue with the South Sudanese Anglican Diaspora.
29
Following Jesus
onto the island of Hispaniola
Frankye Regis
I wanted to create a place where children could
go and forget about their misery and develop
spiritually, intellectually, and socially.
Marc-Yves Regis
Photo: Marc-Yves Regis
30
Children in Camp Hispaniola in the Dominican
Republic play a game of tug of war.
31
Photo: Marc-Yves Regis
Campers, and inset, founder Marc-Yves Regis, at this year's summer camp in the Dominican Republic.
When faced with a moral dilemma, many people in the
1990s used a phrase that was in vogue in popular culture
— “What Would Jesus Do?”
In the Gospels, Jesus set many examples for Christians to follow.
He commanded us to love our neighbor, give to the poor, feed
the hungry, and take care of the widows and children, especially
orphans. He also commanded us to follow Him.
Marc-Yves Regis, parishioner at Trinity, Collinsville, decided to follow
Jesus and start a summer camp, first in the Dominican Republican
in 2009, and a year later in his native country of Haiti. While growing
up in the island nation, he saw Haitian farmers leaving in caravans to
go work in bateyes or sugarcane plantations across the border, and
they never returned home. He always wondered what happened
to them, and as an adult, he pursued a lifelong dream to document
their peril.
Beginning in 1994, he began traveling to the Dominican Republic
each year to research, photograph, and gather enough material
to write a book about what he witnessed. He fell in love with the
people, and instead of only documenting what he saw, he spent
more time helping them with their basic needs. He began taking
clothes and money to share among farmers — eventually they
began to feel like family.
“I stopped looking at the people as subjects for a book and began
looking at them as brothers and sisters.” Marc explained.
Eventually, after many years, he finished the book, When Freedom
Comes, about the plight of Haitian braceros (farm workers), and is
looking for a publisher.
Over the years, he noticed that the children in the sugarcane
plantations did not have any toys to play with. Nor were there any
fun activities to occupy their time during the long, hot summer. As
32
a newspaper photographer in America, Marc had taken countless
pictures of children enjoying summer camp while participating in
soccer, baseball, basketball, dance, music, swimming, and arts
and crafts. So he started a summer camp at a batey school in the
Dominican Republic with 100 children that first year. It has steadily
grown.
Campers, ranging in age from three to 12, are from 17 different
sugarcane plantations. Most are children of Haitian sugar-cane
cutters who are paid by the weight of the cane, and their incomes
barely sustain them. In addition to a schedule of outdoor fun and
games, campers are provided transportation to and from camp, two
meals a day, a t-shirt, and a string bag filled with personal hygiene
items.
“I wanted to create a place where children could go and forget
about their misery and develop spiritually, intellectually and socially,’
he said.
Meanwhile in 2010, a massive earthquake struck Haiti and
devastated it. Marc desperately wanted to help and went there
with a medical mission from Connecticut. He saw many children
hanging around outside all day with nothing to do, similar to what he
witnessed in the Dominican Republic. They looked lost and bored; it
brought back memories of his childhood when he experienced the
same thing. It was at that moment he decided to start a summer
camp in Haiti and give the children an opportunity he never had. He
started the camp in an open field in the small town of Pernier, Haiti,
and invited children from the surrounding neighborhoods. Most of
their parents are street vendors who earn less than five dollars a
day.
After expanding the summer camp to both countries on the island
of Hispaniola, Marc named it Camp Hispaniola. He is the volunteer
director of the not-for-profit organization. This year, it served a record
550 children. In the Dominican Republic, 200 campers participated,
and in Haiti, where the need is greater, there were 350. There were
a total of 60 teenage counselors, 30 in each country. About 95
percent of the counselors are camp alumni.
“I want to create future young leaders for the countries,” said Marc,
discussing why he hires local teenagers from each country. “This is
the model for Camp Hispaniola.”
He also hires local cooks who go with him to purchase the food
they serve. The Haitian economy benefits because Marc buys the
majority of food and drink from local vendors, and the camp workers
spur the economy when they spend the money they earn.
“We are grateful to our cooks who prepare meals in a makeshift
kitchen for 550 children,” Marc said. “It’s a labor of love. Most of our
cooks have been working for us for the past 10 years, and some of
their children are campers or counselors. They count on the money
each year to help them buy school supplies for their children.”
Although Marc started the camp on a shoestring budget using his
own money, many people helped make the camp what it is today.
The most ardent supporters of Camp Hispaniola are Saint Ann’s,
Old Lyme; Trinity, Collinsville; Connecticut Walks for Haiti; Windsor
In 2009, 100 campers attended the
inaugural program in the Dominican
Republic. This summer, in both the
Dominican Republic and in Haiti, 550
campers — ranging in age from three to
17— participated.
House of Worship (WHOW), which is comprised of members
from that city’s faith-based institutions and includes Grace Church,
Windsor; and Friends of Camp Hispaniola.
“I wanted to give the children something to occupy themselves, to
play, eat a healthy meal and see what it is like to have fun, despite
living in a country full of misery,” Marc said. “The earthquake
devastated a country that had already been collapsing. When I look
back at my childhood growing up in Haiti, I see myself through
them. I’m not giving back, I’m sharing my blessings from the Good
Lord. Sharing the bread of life. Sharing my love with them. Listening
to their cries. Helping some of them pay for school. Anytime I go to
Haiti or the Dominican Republic, it makes me appreciate everything
I now have. God did me a favor by bringing me to the United States.
It could be me still suffering in Haiti. Despite difficulties or problems,
it’s my duty to go back year after year to share the joy and happiness
with my little brothers and sisters in Christ.”
But following Jesus is not easy.
“Among the fun and joy, there are sad moments too,” said Marc
talking about an incident that occurred at summer camp in Haiti this
year. “I watched a little girl for a couple of days. I saw her take out a
container from her backpack and fill it with the food she was served
at camp and then put it back into her backpack. Then I saw her walk
around the table looking for leftovers and eating them. I asked her
where her food was, and she said, ‘I’m saving it for my mother.’ It
broke my heart to see this child taking on adult responsibility. This
was my saddest moment at camp this year.”
For the remaining days of camp, Marc asked for her bowl each day
and filled it with food to send home to her single mother. But he still
gave the little girl her own plate of food to eat at camp.
“What would Jesus do?”
Frankye Regis co-manages a high school learning lab where
she works as a reading and writing interventionist. She is also
a freelance writer and editor.
33
Kindness
opens doors,
hearts, and
the mission
of Jesus
The Rev. Loyda E.
Morales
Karin Hamilton
The Rev. Loyda E. Morales outside of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
The Rev. Loyda E. Morales came to the
Church of the Good Shepherd as their
new rector this spring in part because
it was more financially stable than her prior
church in the Bronx. She has an innate
sense of how spiritual and material aspects
of life impact each other, how they both
need attention in life, and sometimes, need
adjustments to their balance.
As a Christian, especially a priest, she
didn’t want to put material things in front of
spiritual ones, but knew that when material
things get so overwhelming that you can’t
sleep at night — as they had for her — it’s
time for something to change. She decided
to look for a new position.
“One of the ‘pros’ for me coming here was
[the] endowment,” Loyda said. “I do have
responsibilities for the building. But I can
also dedicate more time to the spiritual life
of the congregation, which for me is the
most important part of my calling, to be
with the people and grow together and find
new ways to discern God’s call for us with
the community, as a family.” That’s been her
focus since arriving in May.
She’s been learning a lot about the church,
the diocese, and the neighborhood — with
particular empathy and understanding for
those struggling with the material and
spiritual challenges of poverty.
Loyda grew up in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico,
daughter of an Episcopal priest with cousins
active in other denominations. Her first
career was in banking. In the late 1990s she
was transferred to a bank position in New
York City and joined the Episcopal Church
of the Mediator. The bilingual, bicultural
community and its clergy further nurtured
her faith, encouraged her to attend seminary,
and later sponsored her for ordination to the
priesthood.
She was ordained by the Diocese of New
York in 2005; served as a vicar of a church
on Staten Island for a while; then took
time off to care for her mother. When her
mother was well enough again, Loyda
decided to return to work. She was called
to lead the Church of the Mediator as its
priest-in-charge in 2016. Their historic church
building, designed by Henry Vaughn and
called the “Little Cathedral of the Bronx,”
needed serious work and a diocesan
Photo: Elizabeth Parker
process to declare the church as a vulnerable
congregation became stalled.
Eventually, the declaration of the
congregation as vulnerable came through,
for which Loyda is grateful. However, by then
she had entered the search process and had
been attracted to Good Shepherd’s location,
proximity to New York, and its multi-cultural,
multi-lingual congregation. It also had an
endowment. After interviewing, they chose
her as their next rector, she accepted, and
their mutual journey started in May 2019.
Good Shepherd, also known as Iglesia
del Buen Pastor, is also a historic church.
It was built in the mid-19th century with
profits from the Colt firearms company
at the direction of Colt’s philanthropic
wife Elizabeth, a devoted Episcopalian.
“Coltsville” includes other properties from
that period and is in the process of becoming
a National Park site. A representative from
the church will have a seat on the board
of an official friends group for the planned
National Park. The church and its parish hall
are endowed from the Colt legacy.
The congregation strives to be part of the
fabric of its surrounding neighborhood. Good
34
Shepherd/Buen Pastor hosts community
festivals on its front lawn; rents building
space to other faith groups as well as
community, civic, and arts groups; hosts
Foodshare’s mobile truck twice weekly;
distributes donated clothing and furniture
in collaboration with other churches; and is
part of the revitalization committee for its
immediate neighborhood, Sheldon/Charter
Oak. Sermons, worship, music, printed
material, newsletters, and its website are all
bilingual, English and Spanish.
Loyda is ready to work with their existing
programs and help them reach out even
more.
“For so many families there is no answer;
they live day to day,” Loyda said. “As I
continue learning, I hope [we move] more in
the direction of social services.” She’d like to
see them help people find housing and jobs,
for example.
She explained that most people she’s
meeting in the community don’t feel secure
about their future and don’t have enough
income to take care of basic expenses.
“They’re worried about what will happen
to their home if they get sick, or what will
happen to their children as they grow up –
whether they’ll be able to afford college or
get an apartment, or how they will be able to
raise a family.”
She thinks one component is helping people
to identify their talent – their passion, that
which brings them joy – as a way to help
them to provide a living.
“Think out of the box, be more creative, and
that way the spirit will open up minds and
hearts so they can start trusting themselves
again, and transforming the structures that
they live in,” she said.
She advocates a creative process, merging
spiritual and material, with the congregation
as well.
“Let’s focus on ways where we can find
God, doing that gospel work, recognizing
the reality that it takes to do God’s mission
today.”
She emphasizes the importance not only of
always having faith, but also of always being
kind with each other, in that work.
“Kindness is very much needed in this
world, precisely because people don’t know
about the future,” she said. “Kindness opens
doors and allows people to start working
with each other. The mission of Jesus, to
walk and find the way, to put both together,
the spiritual and the material, to work
together to build.”
For Loyda, that work reveals God’s creation,
also.
“We also have to think of the environment.
Life depends on the Spirit, and God’s gift for
creation. We have to put those together and
be more conscientious of how our actions
affect both.”
Her prayer practices include celebrating
at the Eucharist, praying for those who
come to the altar, and working with a
spiritual director. She also listens for God in
conversations with people in the community
and to nature all around her whether on
walks or even in church.
She recalls one Sunday service when she
left time for what was supposed to be
silence, and yet, to everyone’s delight, it was
filled with the sound of birds singing.
“It’s healing, and it also brings you to reality,”
Loyda said, of her experience of being in
nature.
She knows that nature can also be harsh.
When Hurricane Hugo hit Puerto Rico in
1989, she was still living there and working
at the bank. Yet she saw the hand of God in
the storm as well, both in the way it called
people to work together before and after
the hurricane, and in the unexpected way it
scattered seeds across the island with new
greener surroundings .
“Nature spoke to us - It was like renewing
the earth,” she said.
NEW TO ECCT AND ALREADY
A LEADER
Loyda said she’s glad to be part of the
Episcopal Church in Connecticut now and
and recognizes many of the same issues as
those in New York. She’s already involved
in ECCT’s Hispanic Ministry Network and
serves on the Leadership Team for the North
Central Region.
She knew Christ Church Cathedral’s now-
Dean Miguelina Howell from earlier work
in the church and is looking forward to
working with her in Hartford to address
common concerns. She knows of some
resources for Spanish-speaking congregants,
including retreats and video-based training;
she is hoping for more, particularly for more
documents translated into Spanish.
Asked what else she might want to share
that hasn’t yet been mentioned, Loyda is
quick to name and praise the live band that
plays for the Spanish language worship
services at Good Shepherd/Buen Pastor,
although her story turns out to be as much
about how the parish has become part of her
larger family already as about music.
As described on the church’s website, the
band plays music from South America,
Central America, Mexico, the Andes, and the
Caribbean. The multicultural ministry got its
start in 2003 with support from ECCT and
a Colt bequest. Two members of the band
Sucari plus additional musicians perform
every Sunday and include a variety of Latin
American and Andean instruments.
One Sunday, the band played a well-known
song often played at Christmas in Puerto
Rico. Loyda was very moved, she said, and
told the band she wished her father, now
retired and living in Florida, could have heard
them. They told her to call him on the phone
and they’d perform again, which they did,
bringing tears of joy and gratitude to both
Loyda and her father.
If mutual ministry is one marker of a
parish’s potential for “success” in making a
difference for God in its community, this one
is off to a great start. ◊
35
La
amabilidad
abre puertas,
corazones y
la misión de
Jesús
The Rev. Loyda E.
Morales
Karin Hamilton
translated by Carolina Roberts-Santana
The Rev. Loyda E. Morales outside of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
La Reverenda Loyda E. Morales vino
a la Iglesia del Buen Pastor como su
nueva rectora esta primavera en parte
porque era más estable financieramente
que su iglesia anterior en el Bronx. Ella tiene
un sentido innato de cómo los aspectos
espirituales y materiales de la vida se
impactan entre sí, cómo ambos necesitan
atención en la vida y, a veces, necesitan
ajustes en su equilibrio.
Como cristiana, especialmente como
sacerdote, ella no quería poner las cosas
materiales por encima de las espirituales,
pero sabía que cuando las cosas materiales
se vuelven tan abrumadoras que no puedes
dormir por la noche, como había sido para
ella, es hora de que algo cambie. Ella decidió
buscar una nueva posición.
"Uno de los"beneficios"para mí al venir aquí
fue [el] legado financiero", dijo Loyda. “Tengo
responsabilidades con el edificio. Pero
también puedo dedicar más tiempo a la vida
espiritual de la congregación, que para mí
es la parte más importante de mi llamado,
estar con la gente y crecer juntos y encontrar
nuevas formas de discernir el llamado de Dios
para nosotros con la comunidad, como una
familia”. Ese ha sido su enfoque desde que
llegó en mayo.
Ella ha aprendido mucho acerca de la iglesia,
la diócesis, y el vecindario - con especial
empatía y comprensión para aquellos
que luchan con los desafíos materiales y
espirituales de la pobreza.
Loyda creció en Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, hija
de un sacerdote episcopal y primos activos
en otras denominaciones. Su primera carrera
fue en un banco. A fines de la década del
1990, fue transferida a un banco en la ciudad
de Nueva York y se unió a la Iglesia Episcopal
del Mediador. La comunidad bilingüe y
bicultural y su clero nutrieron aún más su fe,
la alentaron a asistir al seminario y luego la
patrocinaron para la ordenación al sacerdocio.
Fue ordenada por la Diócesis de Nueva
York en el 2005; sirvió como vicario de una
iglesia en Staten Island por un tiempo; Luego
se tomó un tiempo libre para cuidar a su
madre. Cuando su madre volvió a estar lo
suficientemente bien, Loyda decidió volver
a trabajar. Fue llamada para dirigir la Iglesia
del Mediador como su sacerdote a cargo
en 2016. Su edificio histórico de la iglesia,
diseñado por Henry Vaughn y llamado la
"Pequeña Catedral del Bronx", necesitaba
un serio trabajo y el proceso diocesano para
declarar a la iglesia como congregación
vulnerable se estancó.
Finalmente, la declaración de la congregación
como vulnerable se hizo realidad, por lo
que Loyda está agradecida. Sin embargo,
para entonces había entrado en el proceso
de búsqueda y se había sentido atraída
por la ubicación de Good Shepherd, su
proximidad a Nueva York y su congregación
multicultural y multilingüe. También tenía un
legado financiero. Después de la entrevista,
la eligieron como su próxima rectora, ella
aceptó, y su viaje mutuo comenzó en mayo
de 2019.
Good Shepherd, también conocido como
Iglesia el Buen Pastor, es también una iglesia
histórica. Fue construido a mediados del
siglo XIX con las ganancias de la compañía
de armas de fuego Colt bajo la dirección
de la esposa filantrópica de Colt, Elizabeth,
una devota episcopal. "Coltsville" incluye
otras propiedades de ese período y está
en proceso de convertirse en un Parque
Nacional. Un representante de la iglesia
tendrá un asiento en la junta de un grupo
oficial de amigos para el planeado Parque
Nacional. La iglesia y su salón parroquial están
dotados del legado Colt.
La congregación se esfuerza por ser parte de
la estructura de su vecindario. El Buen Pastor
/ Buen Pastor organiza festivales comunitarios
36
en su jardín delantero; alquila espacios a
otros grupos religiosos, así como grupos
comunitarios, cívicos y artísticos; aloja en las
instalaciones el camión móvil de Foodshare
dos veces por semana; distribuye ropa y
muebles donados en colaboración con otras
iglesias; y es parte del comité de revitalización
de su vecindario inmediato, Sheldon / Charter
Oak. Los sermones, la adoración, la música,
el material impreso, los boletines y su sitio
web son bilingües, en inglés y en español.
Loyda está lista para trabajar con sus
programas existentes y ayudarlos a alcanzar
aún más.
“Para tantas familias no hay respuesta;
ellos viven día a día ”, dijo Loyda. "A medida
que continúe aprendiendo, espero que
[nos movamos] más en la dirección de los
servicios sociales". Le gustaría verlos ayudar
a las personas a encontrar vivienda y empleo,
por ejemplo.
Explicó que la mayoría de las personas con las
que se reúne en la comunidad no se sienten
seguras sobre su futuro y no tienen ingresos
suficientes para cubrir los gastos básicos.
“Están preocupados por lo que sucederá
con su hogar si se enferman, o lo que les
sucederá a sus hijos a medida que crezcan,
si podrán pagar la universidad o conseguir
un apartamento, o cómo podrán formar una
familia."
Ella piensa que un componente es ayudar
a las personas a identificar su talento, su
pasión, lo que les brinda alegría, como una
forma de ayudarlos a ganarse la vida.
"Piense fuera de la caja, sea más creativo,
y de esa manera el espíritu abrirá mentes y
corazones para que puedan comenzar a confiar
nuevamente en sí mismos y transformar las
estructuras en las que viven", dijo.
Ella aboga por un proceso creativo,
fusionando lo espiritual y lo material, con la
congregación también.
"Centrémonos en las formas en que podemos
encontrar a Dios, haciendo el trabajo del
evangelio, reconociendo la realidad que se
necesita para hacer la misión de Dios hoy".
Ella enfatiza la importancia no solo de tener
siempre fe, sino también de ser siempre
amables en ese trabajo.
"La amabilidad es muy necesaria en este
mundo, precisamente porque la gente no
sabe sobre el futuro", dijo. “La amabilidad
abre puertas y permite que las personas
comiencen a trabajar entre ellas. La misión
de Jesús, caminar y encontrar el camino,
unir ambos, lo espiritual y lo material, trabajar
juntos para construir ".
Para Loyda, ese trabajo también revela la
creación de Dios.
“También tenemos que pensar en el medio
ambiente. La vida depende del Espíritu y del
don de Dios para la creación. Tenemos que
ponerlos juntos y ser más conscientes de
cómo nuestras acciones afectan a ambos ".
Sus prácticas de oración incluyen celebrar en
la Eucaristía, orar por los que vienen al altar
y trabajar con un director espiritual. También
escucha a Dios en conversaciones con
personas de la comunidad y la naturaleza a su
alrededor, ya sea en caminatas o incluso en
la iglesia.
Ella recuerda un servicio dominical cuando
dejó tiempo para lo que se suponía que era
silencio, y sin embargo, para deleite de todos,
estaba lleno del sonido de pájaros cantando.
"Es curativo, y también te lleva a la realidad",
dijo Loyda, sobre su experiencia de estar en la
naturaleza.
Ella sabe que la naturaleza también puede
ser dura. Cuando el huracán Hugo azotó a
Puerto Rico en 1989, ella todavía vivía allí y
trabajaba en el banco. Sin embargo, también
vio la mano de Dios en la tormenta, tanto
en la forma en que llamaba a las personas a
trabajar juntas antes y después del huracán,
como en la forma inesperada en que esparcía
semillas por toda la isla con un entorno más
verde.
"La naturaleza nos habló, fue como renovar la
tierra", dijo.
NUEVA EN ECCT Y YA LÍDER
Loyda dijo que está contenta de ser parte de
la Iglesia Episcopal en Connecticut ahora y
reconoce muchos de los mismos problemas
que los de Nueva York. Ella ya está involucrada
en la Red de Ministerios Hispanos de ECCT y
sirve en el Equipo de Liderazgo para la Región
Centro Norte.
Ella conocía a la ahora decana Miguelina
Howell de Christ Church Cathedral por su
trabajo anterior en la iglesia y espera trabajar
con ella en Hartford para abordar inquietudes
comunes. Ella sabe de algunos recursos para
congregantes de habla hispana, incluidos
retiros y capacitación en video; espera más,
particularmente más documentos traducidos
al español.
Cuando se le preguntó qué más podría querer
compartir que aún no se haya mencionado,
Loyda se apresura a nombrar y alabar a la
banda en vivo que toca para los servicios
de adoración en español en Good Shepherd
/ Buen Pastor, aunque su historia resulta
ser tanto sobre cómo la parroquia ya se ha
convertido en parte de su gran familia como
sobre la música.
Como se describe en la página web de la
iglesia, la banda toca música de América del
Sur, América Central, México, los Andes y el
Caribe. El ministerio multicultural comenzó
en 2003 con el apoyo de ECCT y un legado
Colt. Dos miembros de la banda Sucari
más músicos adicionales actúan todos
los domingos e incluyen una variedad de
instrumentos latinoamericanos y andinos.
Un domingo, la banda tocó una canción
muy conocida que se toca a menudo en
Navidad en Puerto Rico. Loyda dijo estar muy
conmovida, y le dijo a la banda que deseaba
que su padre, ahora retirado y viviendo en
Florida, pudiera haberlos escuchado. Le
dijeron que lo llamara por teléfono y volverían
a actuar, lo cual hicieron, trayendo lágrimas
de alegría y gratitud tanto a Loyda como a su
padre.
Si el ministerio mutuo es un marcador
del potencial de "éxito" de una parroquia
para hacer una diferencia para Dios en su
comunidad, este es un gran comienzo. ◊
37
Still learning about the Church
after seven decades
A. Bates Lyons
Karin Hamilton
You take charge of your
destiny, or your destiny
takes charge of you.
A. Bates Lyons
You can look up “A. Bates Lyons” on
LinkedIn and find out where he went
to college (Central State University,
Ohio; Columbia Business School, New York
City), that he’s an “independent management
consulting professional,” and yet because it’s
secular, nowhere do you find out that he’s
a cradle Episcopalian who got his start in an
historic church and has a history of increasing
engagement over seven decades in its
opportunities for lay leadership on the local,
diocesan, and church-wide levels.
“Get to know the church,” is the advice he
now gives out to those just joining, or even
to those long-time members who still don’t
realize the richness in the wider church.
A partial list: On the local level, Bates has
served as acolyte, choir member, worship
assistant, vestry member, budget planner,
and program volunteer at his home parish
of St. Monica’s in Hartford, where he’s
been since about 1975, even after buying a
house in Torrington, where he still lives. He’s
served as anti-racism trainer and facilitator
and as member of the Planning & Budget
Committee, Standing Committee, and
Convention Planning Team for the Episcopal
Church in Connecticut (ECCT) on the diocesan
level. He’s served on the church-wide level as
2018 General Convention deputy.
Bates was part of Taskforce for Reimagining
the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (TREC-
CT) the multi-year endeavor that revised
diocesan organization and governance to
be more missional, and he’s now part of a
team at St. Monica’s that is implementing
the spiritual and financial components of ECCT’s
Joining Jesus initiative. He loved serving as a
General Convention deputy and on one of its
legislative committees and will run again for 2021.
It all fits his approach to life: “You take charge of
your destiny, or your destiny takes charge of you,” he
explains. At nearly 75, he’s still marching forward side-byside
with God and looking forward to what’s next.
“I’ve enjoyed my time here in Connecticut, in
ECCT. I enjoy the people. That’s why I travel
25 miles to church and 27 miles to
Meriden. I enjoy what I’m doing for
ECCT. I’ll do it until I’m laid to
rest.”
Bates was born
in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and
attended their public
schools. He and his
family were members
The African Episcopal
Church of St. Thomas,
originally founded by
the Rev. Absalom
Jones, first Black
priest of The
Episcopal Church.
Once he was old
enough to serve
as an acolyte, he
did. In fact, he
served twice on
Sundays. He was
an acolyte at Low
Mass, their early
service, and sang
tenor in the choir
at High Mass,
their later service.
Since he lived
only a few blocks
from the church he
ran home between
the two services to
get breakfast instead
of staying for Sunday
School.
38
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Central
State University (then Central College) in
Ohio, majoring in business with a focus on
human resources. It was the 1960s and the
draft was still active. Instead of leaving his
destiny to the draft, he joined ROTC and
served for two years, then enlisted instead of
serving two years in the Army Reserve.
“I said if I was going to go into the Army, I
might as well go in as an officer,” he recalled.
Bates was sent off for training in medical
service and then sent to a hospital at Fort
Gordon in Georgia as their Property Book
Officer, responsible for purchasing and
maintaining supplies. He did such a great job
that when he was called up to go
to Vietnam, his commanding
officer blocked the
order. Eventually, after
the commanding
officer was called
up, Bates too
was sent to
Vietnam.
He served at
an evacuation
hospital, the
last stop before
wounded
soldiers
returned from
Vietnam.
Returning to
the States, he
was offered a
job in Virginia
but had his
eye on one
in California
instead.
When that
didn’t work
out, he chose
to let his time
run out, which
was about six
months, and
retired as a
Captain.
His work
career began
with positions
in the human
resources
departments at “all the vices,” as he
describes them: ARCO (petroleum) and
Philip Morris (big tobacco) in New York; then
Heublein (liquor distributors) in Connecticut.
Along the way, he earned an MBA from
Columbia University with a focus on human
resources behavior, married, moved to
Connecticut, and became a father to three.
Eventually Bates was recruited by the State
of Connecticut to serve as undersecretary
to the office of Policy Management, having
impressed them with his work on Philip
Morris’ programs for the community.
Governors sent Bates out to help state
agencies respond to problems and challenges
with the community, such as when the state
was rationing gas and closing hospitals.
After 17 years, Bates retired and moved into
consulting as a “leap of faith,” spurred on by
a friend who hired and trained him for her
diversity consulting business. Eventually he
took off on his own.
DISCOVERING THE EPISCOPAL
CHURCH
Bates didn’t begin his deeper engagement
with The Episcopal Church until he was an
adult, living in Connecticut. It was the late
1980s. He remembers the moment: He was
at a celebration of the Feast Day for the Rev.
Absalom Jones at Christ Church Cathedral in
Hartford.
“I was sitting up in the Cathedral, up with the
choir, and they were talking about Absalom
Jones, and Richard Allen, and St. Thomas’,”
he said. “And I thought, wait a minute, I grew
up in a historically Black church! And decided
then that it was about time I found out about
this Episcopal faith that I’ve been part of all
my life.”
So, again following his personal directive
to take control of his destiny, he joined the
diocesan Program & Budget Committee,
eventually serving as chair. He joined the
Finance Committee. Struck by a headline
he read in another Episcopal diocesan
publication, “Is there room for Blacks in The
Episcopal Church?” he talked to then-Bishop
Diocesan Andrew D. Smith about starting
anti-racism training in the diocese. With that
support, he was trained by Jayne Oasin of
The Episcopal Church, assembled and chaired
a small team in ECCT to hone the training,
and began offering programs at parishes and
for seminarians, who were required to have
the training before ordination. He was also
part of the team that put forward a resolution
for the diocesan Annual Convention in 2009,
based on a similar one from the prior General
Convention, apologizing for complicity in the
slave trade. That team later organized an effort
to start research by parishes in Connecticut
and organized a Day of Repentance at the
Cathedral.
“I thought maybe we’d get 20 people at
most, but it was packed,” he said.
Today, though he moves a bit more slowly
than in his earlier years, Bates keeps a
positive outlook on life and laughs easily.
He is long divorced, but still enjoys his roles
as father of three and grandfather of seven.
In addition to secular and church work, he’s
remained active in his fraternity, Kappa Alpha
Psi, since joining at Central. He also served
in various leadership roles on the Torrington
Board of Education for more than a decade.
Some years ago, Bates had a serious medical
issue. He said that he asked God to take him
if he’d accomplished what God had wanted
him to accomplish. When he survived, Bates
said he took it as a sign to keep going, which
he’s done.
For about the past five years he’s been
teaching workplace diversity to business
students UCONN. “I tell them first, they need
to deal with their stereotypes, and get rid
of those,” he said. “Go below the surface,
and find out who the individual is, and what
they can do. … the visual is only 10%, the
other 90% is below.” He also leads the future
managers in discussions about topics such as
workplace romance, religion in the workplace,
and the effect of undocumented immigrants.
He's also exploring his personal faith more
deeply, even beyond regular Bible study, since
St. Monica’s is engaged in ECCT’s Joining
Jesus initiative.
“The older you get, the closer you want to
get to God,” he said.
He also appreciates that the initiative focuses
on engagement with the community and
emphasizes collaboration, both of which are
consistent with how he’s lived his life.
“Get to know the church, and what’s going on
in the diocese, because we’re all a part of it.”
◊
Photo: Marc-Yves Regis
39
from ECCT
New ECCT model policies and safe church training
8th ANNUAL
SPRING TRAINING &
GATHERING
SATURDAY, APRIL 18
BERLIN HIGH SCHOOL
139 Patterson Way
Berlin, CT
Join Episcopalians
from across ECCT
for a day of
fellowship, learning,
prayer, and fun.
All are welcome, from people in
the pews to vestry members to
parish leaders and staff.
For information on all of the
workshops being offered at this
year's event visit:
episcopalct.org/spring-training
REGISTRATION OPENS
JANUARY 2020
DEEPENING CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY AND "RIGHT RELATIONSHIP"
Robin Hammeal-Urban
Deepening Christian Community and
restoring right relationship is essential
to our baptismal vocation. This includes
creating a safe church and ministries for
all of God’s people.
Early in 2019, the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut (ECCT) rolled out Universal
Training and updated Model Policies for the
protection of children, youth and vulnerable
adults. Together these initiatives support our
work to recognize our differences, power,
privilege, and vulnerability, so that we can
come together in the fullness of who God
calls us to be.
Universal Training, designed
and produced by ECCT, explores
the promises of our baptismal
covenant and the often-subtle
ways we fall short of respecting
the dignity of all.
Universal Training, designed and produced
by ECCT, explores the promises of our
baptismal covenant and the often-subtle ways
we fall short of respecting the dignity of all.
Topics include: dynamics of healthy Christian
community: vulnerability as a positive
attribute in relationships and community;
sin; forgiveness; sexual orientation and the
full range of gender identity and expression;
the #MeToo movement; gender bias; racial
microagressions, and restorative justice.
Universal Training is a narrated online program
that includes videos and consists of seven
segments. It runs for about one hour when
viewed straight through and is designed
to be divided into two or three sessions
to fit the constraints of parish schedules
and programs such as adult forums. This
also allows time for individuals and groups
to consider and reflect on the discussion
questions included at the end of each
segment.
ECCT’s new Model Policies incorporates
Universal Training as the initial component of
all ECCT’s safe church training programs.
ECCT’s Model Policies are consistent
with those used throughout The Episcopal
Church and include a new level of detail to
enhance clarity for all who minister with,
and to, vulnerable populations. Each parish
is required to have policies that contain the
same standards as ECCT’s Model Policies.
Some of the highlights of the new Model
Policies include:
• A broad definition of who is a “Vulnerable
Adult” which includes anyone ministered
to in their home and those who are
vulnerable due to crisis or dependence on
a pastoral relationship;
• Best practices for ministry visits in a
private home or residential facility;
• Best practices for hotel stays when
traveling with youth;
• Best practices for social media and
electronic communications;
• Best practices for travel, which includes a
travel administrator, medical
considerations, insurance, and planning for
international travel;
Robin Hammeal-Urban is ECCT's Canon for Mission Integrity & Training and author of
Wholeness After Betrayal: Restoring Trust in the Wake of Misconduct. She chaired The
Episcopal Church’s task force that developed the new Model Policies.
40
Taking the next steps in clergy transitions
Lee Ann Tolzmann
What is God up to in the world of clergy transitions in the Episcopal Church
in Connecticut (ECCT)?
• A chart that shows who is required
to attend safe church training and have
background checks;
• Definitions of the full range of gender
identity and expression as well as best
practices to respect the dignity of all,
including sleeping arrangements and other
aspects of communal life; and
• Clarification that each event for children,
youth, or vulnerable adults needs an
identified sponsoring entity, the governing
body of which must grant prior approval for
all off-site events. The vestry is the
governing body for any parish-sponsored
event. ECCT’s Model Policies include a
process for prior approval for all off-site
events sponsored by a region or ministry
network.
The purpose of Universal
Training and ECCT’s Model
Policies is to support our loving,
liberating, and life-giving
relationships with God, each
other and all of creation.
The purpose of Universal Training and ECCT’s
Model Policies is to support our loving,
liberating, and life-giving relationships with
God, each other and all of creation. These
resources are available to all members of
ECCT.
To access ECCT’s Universal Training please
contact Debbie Kenney at dkenney@
episcopalct.org. ECCT’s Model Policies and
safe church training schedule are available on
ECCT’s website at episcopalct.org.
A year ago, I wrote about the increasing number of parishes who have only part-time clergy
and the decreasing number of priests available for either part-time or full-time parish ministry.
Since then, these trends have continued.
Only 38% of our parishes have the capacity
to pay a full-time clergy person and 14% of
ECCT congregations have no clergy in place
because there are not enough qualified and
available to serve. The pressure to “fix”
things is very intense on leaders across the
church. Clergy are working hard, vestries are
working harder than ever, and the workload
on diocesan staff seems to be increasing
exponentially. One could argue we’re
pedaling faster and faster, only to be falling
further and further behind.
It feels like we’re wandering, with no clear
path ahead. God’s people have been in
the wilderness before,
wandering, feeling lost,
wondering if they’d ever
get out. And what our
sacred story tells us is
that sticking with God,
following Jesus, seeking
the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, is the only thing that
will get us through it. We know the ultimate
destination. All we have to do is listen to
God for the next step to take. It helps to
remember that Jesus taught us to pray for
daily bread each day, not to pray for all the
food we’ll ever need.
In the world of clergy transitions, the
traditional model is a process of gathering
information about the needs of the parish
and the desired qualities in the next rector,
advertising the details in a published profile,
interviewing a pool of candidates, and
making a choice. We have tried to move the
focus to discerning the leadership that God
needs, rather than what the parish thinks it
needs, but the process is basically the same.
For about a year, a parish is focusing on
How could a parish utilize
the occasion of a clergy
transition to grow in faith,
to grow in love, and grow in
service to God's mission?
preparing to work with their next ordained
leader, being guided by an Interim Minister.
I am now wondering if that is the best use
of a parish’s resources, particularly as, no
matter how “appealing” a parish may be,
applicant pools are decreasing drastically.
It may be time to stop trying to focus on
the long-term future (which is less and
less certain) with the goal of finding just
the “right candidate” who can help us get
there. Perhaps it would be more faithful to
simply take the next step of welcoming a
new priest, who can then immediately begin
walking with the parish, step by step, into
God’s preferred future?
We are required to work
within the existing canons
and structures of ECCT
and the Episcopal Church.
It’s not simple or easy to
make big changes, but that
does not mean we should
not try.
In the world of clergy transitions, it seems
our next step is to figure out what it means
to faithfully follow Jesus in our current
circumstances. Finding the perfect clergy
person has never been the answer, even if it
were possible. How could a parish utilize the
occasion of a clergy transition to grow in faith,
to grow in love, to grow in service to God’s
mission? I believe that we are being called to
think and pray seriously about that question.
The Rev. Lee Ann Tolzmann
serves as Canon for Mission
Leadership for the Episcopal
Church in Connecticut. She
previously served as rector of
churches in Baltimore, MD and
Riverside, CT.
41
from ECCT
ECCT’s Season of Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation: Where are we now?
Karin Hamilton
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) is now a year into a
“Season of Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation,” entered into last
October by vote of Convention... this was effectively a mandate from all of
ECCT to itself.
While it followed other resolutions from prior years, and some from prior decades, this effort
identified specific current goals with timetables. Here is the full text of the 2018 resolution:
How now do we get to
places where some think
racism was “resolved”
50 years ago? We need to
sit with each other. We
need to bring people to
understanding that this is
still painful for me
and others.
The Rev. Rowena Kemp,
priest-in-charge,
Grace Episcopal Church, Hartford
• RESOLVED, that ECCT launch a “Season of
Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation,” to
last a minimum of two years, with the initial
goals of: introducing foundational concepts,
language, and tools to help encourage and
enable congregations to begin opening hearts
and minds; recognizing the reality of white
supremacy and bias against people of color;
and awakening Episcopalians in Connecticut
to the need for concerted action to address
the ongoing injustice of the racial divide; and
• BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the second
Sunday of February be set aside as a Day of
Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation,
during which parishes are asked to begin a
conversation about the sin of racism in our
lives and in the world by hosting a forum
on racial healing, justice, and reconciliation,
utilizing video and discussion questions from
the Joint Session on Racial Reconciliation
from the 2018 General Convention of The
Episcopal Church; and
• BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that each
parish includes a simple report, which will
be submitted to the Mission Council, with
their annual Parochial Reports detailing how
they have engaged in conversation, study,
and action regarding racial healing, justice,
reconciliation, and the sin of racism; and
• BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all leaders
in clergy transition processes be trained
on the impact of white privilege and the
importance of including diverse candidates
in every search, and that parishes in clergy
transition processes report the number of
candidates of color included in their process
to the Office of the Canon for Mission
Leadership; and
• BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all
searches for ECCT staff positions include at
least two people of color, or one, if there are
fewer than four people in total, among the
final candidates interviewed.
Convention also authorized ECCT to hire a 10-hour/week Racial Justice Resource Coordinator,
through its new process of hosted conversations based on questions submitted by voting
members.
Members of an expanded Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation Ministry Network have
energetically led ECCT-wide efforts, as have several Region Missionaries and individual parish
teams. The Season began immediately after the Convention vote, though many parishes
waited until the second Sunday in February, the designated day to begin conversations in
congregations.
Please visit episcopalct.org/events/annual-convention/2019/ for the Network’s Annual
Report to Convention, which has more details.
42
Network members meet every three months
in person on Saturdays from 9 - 3. They
divide their work into six areas and those
team leaders plus the two overall Network
co-conveners hold monthly weekday evening
video meetings. (Details are online in the
Ministry Network section of the website.)
WITH LEADERSHIP FROM THE NETWORK
There is now a logo for the “Season of Racial
Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation” that can
be used by the Network, Regions, parishes,
and other groups to brand or co-brand their
efforts;
ECCT elected governing leadership bodies,
at their quarterly joint gatherings, have
held book studies, watched videos, and
held discussions, with suggested content
and discussion prompts from the Network
members;
Monthly bulletin inserts for parishes are sent
out via eNews on the last Tuesday of each
month with first-person testimonies along
with a brief list of resources and contact
info for the Network conveners; notices and
reminders are in weekly newsletters;
Workshops were offered at ECCT’s annual
“Spring Training and Gathering,” and an initial
list of trained facilitators was developed
as a “speakers’ bureau” for parishes, to
help them with programming on leading
discussions, book groups, and crafting
sermons;
Four ECCT-wide pilgrimages have been held
and one is planned for November 2019; other
events have been hosted;
Research on training opportunities for
conversation facilitators is underway, as is
research on models of reconciliation and
possibilities for advocacy;
An annotated list of resources is available
with more being added all the time.
REGIONS AND PARISHES
North and South Central Region Missionaries
teamed up to offer a three-part series,
“Sacred Healing,” over the summer, each
“I am truly inspired by how
many parishes and individuals
have embraced the Season
and lived into it in innovative,
authentic, exciting ways. They’re
so engaged. We have 30 people
who meet all day on Saturdays,
and 140 people on our email list.
When I hear what they’re doing,
it’s incredible.”
Suzy Burke, lay leader at St. John's, Essex
featuring a film followed by facilitated
discussion on race;
St. James’, New London received a UTO
grant for “Bridging the Racial Divide.” It
worked with existing anti-racism groups;
held a three-day training camp for students
to “speak their truth,” and are now following
up with support for the students’ proposed
solutions to problems and issues they
identified;
Individual parishes are forming groups, or
strengthening existing groups, that address
aspects of racism, white supremacy, and
related issues; they are also teaming up with
other churches and/or faith groups to hold
programs and conversations.
ECCT BISHOPS AND STAFF
The bishops and the HR administrator
followed the resolution mandate regarding
hiring, resulting in more people of color hired
on staff;
Mission Communications & Media staff
included related podcasts and related
interviews on the blog, kept updates on
the website, and included related updates,
events, notices, and opportunities from
ECCT and The Episcopal Church in digital
newsletters and social media posts;
Mission Leadership and Mission Integrity
& Training staff canons teamed up to
develop and offer training in “unconscious
bias” to lay leaders in parishes with clergy
transitions, in response to the resolution;
ECCT hired Kelli Ray Douglas as its Racial
Justice Resources Coordinator in late spring.
She has been in conversation with Katrina
Brown, director of the documentary, Traces
of the Trade, about customizing a training
module offered by The Episcopal Church,
Sacred Ground, for ECCT.
TO BE DONE
Work on developing and distributing a
“simple report” for each parish to report
how it has “engaged in conversation, study,
and action,” as mandated by the resolution,
has not yet been completed. As of early
September 2019 it had not been assigned
to, or taken up by, any group, network, or
ECCT staff member. The resolution sought
this report for Mission Council, due with
parochial reports (March 1).
The Rev. Rowena Kemp, priest-in-charge
at Grace Episcopal Church, Hartford and
Suzy Burke, lay leader at St. John’s, Essex,
serve as the Ministry Network co-coveners.
They’re impressed by ECCT’s response, and
are looking for more conversations, in more
places, in the future.
“I am truly inspired by how many parishes
and individuals have embraced the Season
and lived into it in innovative, authentic,
exciting ways, said Suzy. “They’re so
engaged. We have 30 people who meet all
day on Saturdays, and 140 people on our
email list. When I hear what they’re doing,
it’s incredible.”
“For me the current challenge is having
enough folks trained to be able to go
to places where conversations are not
happening and gently usher people
into those conversations, faithfully and
authentically,” Rowena said. “Yes, many
people have been in relationship and felt
part of the process. How now do we get
to places where some think racism was
“resolved” 50 years ago? We need to sit
with each other. We need to bring people to
understanding that this is still painful for me
and others.” ◊
43
ECCT STORIES
FOLLOWING WHAT GOD IS
UP TO IN CONNECTICUT
Allison Gannett, ECCT's digital
storyteller is excited to help folks
around the Episcopal Church in
Connecticut share their stories,
embrace social media and online
platforms to spread the Gospel,
and bring a little bit of God’s love
to this world.
HAVE A STORY TO TELL? Contact
Alli at episcopalct.blog/contact
44
from ECCT
The office of Mission
Communications & Media
DIGITAL ECCT NEWSLETTERS
STAY CONNECTED WITH ECCT
Stories and conversations to touch your heart, inspire your
ministry, affirm your faith, make you laugh and think! Plus
essential news and announcements sent directly to your
inbox.
BLOG
episcopalct.blog
Digital Storyteller Alli Gannett travels
around Connecticut and invites
guests to The Commons to talk
with everyday Episcopalians as well
as parish and ministry leaders and
honored guests. Weekly blog entries
are posted Monday afternoons.
Visit our website, episcopalct.org, to sign
up for ECCT newsletters. Enter your email
address and check off which newsletters
you want to receive. You can unsubscribe
and change your preferences anytime. Or
sign up by text to start with the weekly
newsletter: Text ECCT to 22828 and follow
the prompts.
Canon for Mission Communications &
Media Jasree Peralta publishes a weekly
digital newsletter with essential news
and announcements, upcoming events
and registration links, updates on ECCT
initiatives, and more. She also produces
a monthly newsletter for all clergy and
a bi-monthly newsletter for anyone
working with parish administration and
finance.
REGION NEWSLETTERS
Enter your email address at the
bottom of the home page to receive
notifications of new posts by email.
Each of ECCT’s six Region missionaries
publish a newsletter with local events,
notices, and stories.
An ECCT blog post on the Armsmear, a
place that “provides affordable independent
living for women of limited income who are
60 years of age of older.”
ANNUAL CONVENTION NEWSLETTER
Secretary of Convention the Rev. Adam
Yates publishes an Annual Convention
newsletter with updates, reminders, and
links to all the content and information
you’ll need.
PODCAST
coffeehour.org
Welcome to Coffee Hour at The Commons
— a podcast where faith meets daily
life over a cup of coffee and casual
conversations. Modeled off of the eighth
sacrament of the Church, the Coffee Hour,
your host Alli Gannett, joined by guests,
engage in a variety of topics, interviews,
and yes even discuss the occasional
sermon. Weekly podcasts are published
Fridays at noon.
Subscribe on Podbean, Spotify, Apple,
Podcast, Stitcher, or by RSS Feed.
45
EPISCOPAL
NEWS
SERVICE
Connecticut diocese engages parishes in collaboration
by replacing deaneries with Region Missionaries
Egan Millard
reprinted from Episcopal News Service
“The people and the parishes have
faithfully chosen to realize the truth
that the church and the world is
changing… and there’s only going
to be more change afoot... Let’s look
forward in faith and try on new ways
of being the body of Christ.”
Ian Douglas
The Rev. Erin Flinn (left), North Central Region missionary for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, talks to participants
during a “Wild Worship” outdoor Eucharist service on Aug. 21, 2019. Photo: The Episcopal Church in Connecticut
For many years, reorganizing church
structure and governance to be more
efficient and effective has been
suggested as a way to adapt to the societal
changes The Episcopal Church is contending
with. But the record of progress toward that
goal has been mixed, at least on a churchwide
level.
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut has
taken its own action on structural reform by
replacing its 14 deaneries — which were
seen as outdated — with six regions, each
served by a “region missionary” who fosters
collaboration and engagement in the parishes
of that region.
Two years after the first missionaries were
hired, their positions have gone from part time
to full time and the program has been hailed
as a success.
“The people and the parishes have faithfully
chosen to realize the truth that the church and
the world is changing… and there’s only going
to be more change afoot,” the Rt. Rev. Ian
Douglas, bishop of Connecticut, told Episcopal
News Service. “And instead of licking our
wounds or wallowing in loss and decline, the
people of The Episcopal Church in Connecticut
have said, ‘Let’s look forward in faith and try
on new ways of being the body of Christ.’”
The traditional deanery model — which hadn’t
been adjusted since 1984 — had become
dysfunctional, diocesan leaders said. When
asked what wasn’t working about the deanery
model, the Rev. Timothy Hodapp, canon for
mission collaboration, couldn’t help but laugh.
“We had 28 participating members in what
was then called the diocesan Executive
Council, so that was two representatives
from each of the 14 deaneries,” Hodapp said.
“And of those 14, three were actually on
the ground, active, doing a lot of really great
work. The others — it would go from doing
great work on one end to not participating at
all on the other, and then kind of middling in
between those two extremes. And so you
might have your council come together and
barely get a quorum, and the work of the
council was oftentimes rubber-stamping what
bishops and canons had already done.”
Even though it was apparent to some in
the diocese that the deaneries overall were
not adding to the life of the church or the
communities they served, it took a fresh set
of eyes to make substantive changes in the
oldest organized diocese in the United States.
Douglas, who became diocesan bishop in
2010, was the first to be elected from outside
the state since the diocese was created in
1784.
“So the Holy Spirit was up to something here
in Connecticut as far as wanting change,”
Douglas said.
“There’s been a tradition, particularly in
Connecticut, that the diocese is embodied in
the bishop and staff and diocesan structures,”
he added. “What I’ve underscored in
everything that we do is the diocese is not
the bishop and staff and council and standing
committee, etc. The diocese is the united
witness of the 160 parishes in Connecticut.”
The need for a change started to become
clear during the work of the Task Force for
Reimagining The Episcopal Church in 2013 and
2014. The task force, also known as TREC,
eventually issued a report that recommended
consolidating church governance structures.
Some the most significant recommendations,
such as a unicameral General Convention,
still have not been adopted, but TREC’s work
inspired the diocese to start its own task force
in 2014.
“The good work that was begun by the
general TREC initiative, I think, was too bold
and too far-reaching for the whole church,
which is why it really wasn’t picked up at
General Convention,” Douglas said, “whereas
46
we in Connecticut said, ‘Boy, sure makes
sense to us. Why don’t we do it?’”
The TREC report inspired the “four C’s” that
would eventually become the job description
of the region missionaries: catalyze, connect,
convene and build capability. Redrawing the
deaneries into larger regions required the
diocese to examine how each unique corner
of the state has evolved over time, which
ultimately yielded a surprisingly familiar result.
“As we devised where these lines might be,
to siphon off which chunks of villages are
going to be in a region, we went back into
the archives and we tried several different
iterations,” Hodapp explained. “But following
the trunk highways and the river valleys, etc.,
we parsed it, and it almost matched perfectly
to 1843 archdeaconries; there were six of
them. And here it was. So we returned to our
legacy in a real sense.”
Along with consolidating the deaneries
into regions and establishing the region
missionaries, the diocesan task force also
recommended abolishing all committees
and commissions that are not canonically
required. Those were replaced with “ministry
networks,” but it’s not just a change in
terminology; in keeping with the spirit of the
task force, these new groups are organized
from the bottom up, not from the top down.
If any group of Episcopalians wants to act
together on a particular issue, they can form
a ministry network and get support from the
diocese.
“There’s no application for recognition, there’s
no canonical authorization; just do it,” Douglas
said. “And if people say, ‘Well, how do we
do the work, say, in prisons? Where’s the
diocesan committee on prison ministry?’ We
say, ‘Go and do it. Organize yourself. You don’t
have to wait for us to give you authority. You
have the baptismal authority you need.’”
Two teams of about 30 people worked on the
topic over the course of two years, Hodapp
said, and when they put every committee and
commission up on a wall, they realized what
had to be done.
“What’s common to all of this?” Hodapp
said. “And why do we have it established as a
group that needs to be meeting with Robert’s
Rules of Order and taking notes when we
need to be more flexible, and we need to
network differently, and we need to be in a
world that has changed completely around
us?”
Each region gathers for a convocation at least
once a year, during which they select one
layperson and one clergy member to serve
on the diocesan Mission Council — which
replaced the Executive Council — along with a
representative from each ministry network.
The task force’s plan was adopted
enthusiastically at the 2015 diocesan
convention, and the region missionaries
were the last piece to be implemented, with
the first cohort of three priests and three
laypeople hired in 2017. Their task, Douglas
said, is not to be a stopgap to help keep
struggling churches in business, although they
do play an important role in the 67 percent of
parishes without full-time clergy. Their task is
to rethink how the churches operate in their
communities, Hodapp says.
“Who else needs to be at the table? And
that doesn’t mean just Episcopalians. But
who are our allies within this village or these
three villages? How do we really engage the
neighborhood in a meaningful way, for what it
needs for right now?” Hodapp said.
Maggie Breen, the missionary for the sparsely
populated Northeast Region, spends each
Sunday at one of the region’s 16 parishes, and
every Sunday is different.
“I have been bringing a map of the town”
in which each parish is situated, Breen told
ENS. “And I’ll indicate where the parish is in
the town, and I’ll ask people to think about
the town and tell me what things have they
noticed that break their heart and what things
have they noticed that really bring them
joy. And we map those out, and then we
brainstorm, What could we do about any of
those?”
One of Breen’s accomplishments in her region
is a lay preaching class, which had previously
been done in the Northwest Region. She
also organizes a series of “Crafting as a
Spiritual Practice” days, in which participants
– including members of other churches –
connect over their hobbies and their faith.
The North Central Region’s missionary, the
Rev. Erin Flinn, has organized a film and
conversation series on racial justice and is
working to connect wardens from different
parishes so they can feel supported and share
their experiences. She also is focusing on
enabling parishioners to start mission work on
their own.
“If you have a call, go do something,” Flinn
said. “One of the things that I think the region
[model] is great for is if you have a call to go
and do something, but you don’t want to do
it by yourself, contact me. Let me know what
you’re doing. I guarantee there’s somebody
else in the region that is doing the same
thing.”
Flinn, who was ordained to the transitional
diaconate in June, said the regional model
has been particularly beneficial to the small
parishes, helping them join forces and
accomplish more together.
“We have several small parishes that are now
collaborating in new ways,” Flinn said. “The
mentality of regions and networks has really
been a lifeline to our smaller communities that
don’t have a lot of resources and only have
half-time or quarter-time clergy.”
The region missionaries have organized
and facilitated mission trips, spiritual hikes,
communication workshops, garden projects,
paddling trips, book groups and more, and
they also serve as a liaison between parishes
and the diocese.
“I spend a lot of time trying to build
relationships,” Breen said. “I frequently act as
a sort of bridge between what’s happening at
the ground level in the parish and then what’s
happening at the diocesan house, bringing
information from [the diocese] into the
parishes, and then also bringing interesting
things are happening the parishes up to [the
diocese].”
Breen and Flinn were both in the original
cohort of missionaries who started in 2017.
After their two-year contract expired, three
continued as full-time missionaries, while
the other three chose not to stay and were
replaced by new hires.
Hodapp says the diocese has gotten queries
from other dioceses interested in their
structural reforms. He says his vision for
the future of the regions and the region
missionaries is “to be open-minded and to
see where God is going to take us. To fan
into flame what’s working, to fan into flame
experiments, trying things on, watching things
happen and fall apart, figure out what worked
and what didn’t.”
“What I’m learning,” Flinn said, “is that our
churches are actually doing more than we
realize. We just [weren’t] good at telling
each other what we’re doing… That was the
biggest discovery.” ◊
47
I am a young person of faith.
Karin Hamilton
Aroub Jaber, Eli Lasman, and Nadira Baransy were in
Connecticut this summer as part of the annual Service-
Learning Institute of Jerusalem Peacebuilders (JPB). The
three high school students, each age 15, are all citizens of Israel; two
are Palestinian.
The interfaith program was held August 4-14 at Christ Church,
New Haven and included volunteering at local agencies as well as
pre-arranged tours and meetings in New York City and elsewhere.
On August 8 the group joined the “Interfaith Service Day” in New
Haven, organized by IWagePeace, a JPB partner. It provided multiple
opportunities for the community to volunteer on projects alongside
the JPB teens.
As described on its website, jerusalempeacebuilders.org, JPB is “an
interfaith, non-profit organization with a mission to create a better
future for humanity across religions, cultures, and nationalities.
Integral to that mission is the belief that the future of Jerusalem is
the future of the world. To that end, JPB promotes transformational,
person-to-person encounters among the peoples of Jerusalem, the
United States, and the Holy Land.
“JPB’s interfaith programs focus on uniting Israelis, Palestinians, and
Americans and providing them with the opportunities, relationships,
and skills they need to become future leaders for peace in the global
community. A passion for peace drives our mission and partnerships
power our program.”
The Rev. Nicholas Porter, founder and executive director of JPB, and
former rector of Trinity, Southport, also leads programs and was in
New Haven with the teens and other JPB staff and volunteers.
“The exciting thing about the young Israeli, Palestinian, and American
teens that came to New Haven for the service learning program,” he
said, “is that they were here to grow personally; to grow as leaders;
to be agents of change at home for peace and acceptance and a
shared society. But they were also here in their own humble way to
act as a catalyst or leaven for the religious communities here in New
Haven. “Someone asked me recently, why now? Because now is the
time. It's the time in the Middle East for change. But it's also time
here in the United States as there are so many uncertainties we face.
We're becoming a multi religious, multicultural democracy and we're
proving ourselves not to be so adept at that. And these young people
have things to teach us.”
AROUB JABER
Aroub Jaber is Muslim and lives in Umm el-Fahem with her family: father, mother,
one older sister and one younger sister, and one older brother. She attends
the Orthodox Arab College-School in Haifa. Her hobbies include playing the piano, listening to music,
playing soccer, and swimming.
Q. Did you grow up in your faith and tradition? Did you have to make a decision?
A. Yes. My parents advised me and led me and told me what to do to benefit me. I chose myself but
of course I listened.
Q. What does it mean in practical terms to be Muslim?
A. There are certain rules, for example, to pray five times a day, fast in Ramadan, and for girls, to wear the
hijab. Our religion really wants peace. I am grateful and thankful for being Muslim.
Q. Can you share an example of a situation you were in where your faith guided your action?
A. Every day I want God to be with me. This is my second year here with JPB. A lot has changed and I was really worried and concerned,
but now, I’m not worried because God is beside me.
Q. What do you appreciate most about being Muslim?
A. Many things! I am happy to be Muslim. Islam means a lot to me. Our religion says we must help poor people, to give them food; to
give them a place to live; to help people as much as you can.
Q. Before you were part of JPB, did you have friends who were of other faiths?
A. Yes. My elementary school was mixed, Muslim and Christian, so I know many things about Christianity and have many Christian
friends. I have a few Jewish friends and really hope that I can get to know more Jewish people.
Q. Why did you want to get involved in this interfaith organization Jerusalem Peacebuilders?
A. I want to get to know new people, new cultures, new religions. And get more information about the religions. Also, in Palestine,
we have a conflict. I want to participate in this program to know cultures, and build bridges between two cultures, Jewish and Arab,
that will hopefully lead to peace, I know JPB talks about peace. That’s what we need back home, peace: to live in peace.
48
Photos: Marc-Yves Regis
NADIRA BARANSY Nadira Baransy is Christian and lives in the village of Reineh with her family:
father, mother, and two younger brothers. She attends the Almotran School
in Nazareth and has declared majors in physics and electronics. Her hobbies include playing the piano and
reading, and she reads in both Arabic and English.
Q. Did you grow up in your faith and tradition? Did you have to make a decision?
A. I grew up in it.
Q. What does it mean in practical terms to be Christian?
A. All the religions want us to live in peace with love. Not to hate any person; we have to love each other.
Q. Can you share an example of a situation you were in where your faith guided your action?
A. I ask my mother, who is like my best friend. When I have any problem, I pray for God to be with me in the problem.
Q. What do you appreciate most about being Christian?
A. I appreciate that Christianity tells us not to hate anyone because of their religion. We are all human. And also, to love our enemies.
They want us to live in peace, without violence.
Q. Before you were part of JPB, did you have friends who were of other faiths?
A. Yes of course. In our school are Muslims and Christians. Most of my friends are Muslim. The religion of my friends doesn’t matter.
What’s important is how he or she treats me.
Q. Why did you want to get involved in this interfaith organization Jerusalem Peacebuilders?
A. In our school, there are only Christian and Muslim students. So I didn’t meet lot of Jews, and thought JPB would give me the opportunity
to meet Jews — and also Americans — because I would like to learn others' opinions about the conflict, and to hear what they think.
Also so I can also meet people my age with different backgrounds and religions because I like to make different friends.
ELI LASMAN
Eli Lasman is Jewish and lives in Netanya with his family: father, mother, and older sister
who’s in the army. He attends Sharet High School in Netanya and has declared majors in
diplomacy and Arabic. His hobbies include reading and he enjoys history, geography, and politics.
Q. Did you grow up in your faith and tradition? Did you have to make a decision?
A. I am Orthodox Jewish, secular, and a bit traditional. Yes, I grew up in it. I always thought about the
religion, and think this is the best for me.
Q. What does it mean in practical terms to be Jewish?
A. It depends on your secularity. For me, it means To eat Kosher, to pray at times, to accept the important rules,
to ask and know and learn more about the religion.
Q. Can you share an example of a situation you were in where your faith guided your action?
A. Today, we were at an activity, and afterwards they gave us pizza, some with meat and some without meat. The pizza with meat looked
good but I chose without meat, because my religion says we should not eat meat with dairy products. My faith guides me in a lot of
actions. There are a lot of rules — it’s a very ancient religion.
Q. What do you appreciate most about being Jewish?
A. Mostly I appreciate the rules. They are mostly about forgiveness or justice or they are ethical rules to do what God wants. Because I
believe in those values, it helps me to live them.
Q. Before you were part of JPB, did you have friends who were of other faiths?
A. I knew some, but they weren’t really friends. I only talked with them from time to time. In JPB I really met friends, like Aroub for example,
and new people from different religions. It is so nice to know people from other religions; and they’re so nice, from a human perspective.
Q. Why did you want to get involved in this interfaith organization Jerusalem Peacebuilders?
A. I wanted to develop myself and learn more about the conflict and meet new friends.
49
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