Church profile: St. Michael’s, Bristol

Celebrating its 300th year, St. Michael’s is a warm, welcoming and inclusive faith community in the heart of Bristol. We are a community of the young and young-at-heart, new arrivals and homegrown Rhode Islanders, those of deep abiding faith and those who are seeking and questioning. Above all, we seek to praise God and live out the Good News in our community and beyond. Building relationships and transforming community is what we are about. We invite you to join us on this amazing journey — all are welcome to the corner of Church and Hope!
St. Michael’s, 399 Hope Street, Bristol; 401-253-7717; the Rev. Michael Horvath, rector; Bishop’s visitation May 19. website
At the corner of Church and Hope in Bristol stands St. Michael’s.

Why should a congregation consider health ministry?

The current health care system in the U.S. doesn’t focus on health, too often doesn’t seem to care, and isn’t a cohesive, holistic system. Instead, it’s primarily disease-oriented, fragmented and enormously expensive. The church, on the other hand, is in the business of healing, of saving.

The mission given Christ’s disciples is to preach, teach and heal, and the church’s teaching and preaching have far exceeded her healing in this day. The church needs to be true to her calling. She has the opportunity in this modern age to use many tools to bring about healing.

Health ministry and parish nursing in a congregation do not replicate services that already exist in the community, because health ministry addresses health more than illness. The health care system and the church offer plenty of space for health professionals and laity to work together to keep people well, to empower them, to educate them, to advocate for them, to teach them and to care for them.

I will search for the lost, and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…. I will shepherd the flock with justice. Ezekiel 34:4,16

What is the theological grounding for health ministry?

Support for health ministry within the church has firm grounding. Episcopalians may not have many doctrines, but those concepts we hold dear do apply to health ministry:

Creation. God looked upon creation and said, “Behold, it is good. Behold, it is very good!” God has made all things that are, and all that are to be. And they are good – very good. God created matter — flesh and blood and bones and teeth and spleen and all the rest. And they are very good!

Incarnation. God became flesh, and chose to live in the created world. God lived in matter, and does not stand apart from flesh. In Christ, God stands in the midst of the living today. Our hands and feet are the hands and feet of Christ in the world today; our kidneys and mouths and stomachs are no less Christ’s.

Stewardship. Episcopalians understand that we are not owners, but caretakers, of the material world. Stewardship often applies to time, talent and treasure, but what about the torso? St. Paul reminds us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Are we not then to be good stewards of them? Are we not then to take good care of this flesh?

Salvation. The root of “salvation” is the Latin “salve,” which means making whole. We cannot be made whole unless we consider all parts that make us who we are. All creation is to be restored, not just the non-material parts. As Paul explains in Ephesians, all things are held together in Christ. Our bodies are sacred.

Suffering. Jesus did not escape suffering, pain and death. He entered into it. He knew on some level that God would be at work there, too. Teillhard de Chardin reminds us that bleeding is the price we pay to let God enter us deeply. Jesus embraced the shadow-side of life to show us the fullness of God, a God who does not abandon us when the sunlight can’t be seen, a God who walks with us through pain, through sickness, through dying. God is a God who suffers with us. Health ministry holds this up, as we are present with in their suffering. How does health ministry relate to spiritual healing?

Support for health ministry within the church has firm grounding. Episcopalians may not have many doctrines, but those concepts we hold dear do apply to health ministry:

Healing is central to the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was a wholistic healer; he did not see a distinction between body and spirit when he forgave and restored sight. Twenty percent of all the stories about Jesus refer to his healing; the Gospels contain some 35 references to Jesus healing. Too often we overlook them.

The miracle stories in light of twenty-first century technology can seem somewhat embarrassing. We find Jesus’ simplicity embarrassing. We fail to see that our medical tools are an aid to healing, that they help create an environment where healing can take place, but that they are not healing in and of themselves. Healing happens in the invisible workings of the body’s cells. God is at work there. All that health professionals do is help create a space for miraculous healing to happen.

Parish nursing and health ministries embrace spiritual healing, the Laying on of Hands and anointing with healing oil, just as they embrace other ways that God uses to heal. This ministry complements the work of other healing ministries in the church, including the long-established work of the Order of St. Luke. All healing is of God.

“Take heart, daughter,” Jesus said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. Matthew 9:20-22

How does health ministry differ from good pastoral care?

Health ministry incorporates good pastoral care, but takes pastoral care somewhat further by introducing knowledge of the health care system and of the workings of the human body. The following example demonstrates how health ministry stretches pastoral care:

A parishioner spoke with her priest about her 97-year-old aunt who was in a nursing home and who was not eating. The doctor had asked the parishioner for permission to insert a gastric feeding tube. The parishioner knew that her aunt did not want dramatic measures, but nonetheless felt pressured to give permission for this procedure. The priest listened well, and after discussion shared that he did not see that it was incumbent upon the parishioner to have the tube placed. It was caring and loving not to make her undergo surgery.

The parishioner called the parish nurse the next day, saying she wanted all the information she could gather when making this decision. She wondered if it were more humane to let someone die in surgery (the aunt was on oxygen, and had cardiac problems as well as malnutrition) or to let someone starve to death. As the conversation unfolded, the nurse was able to suggest that other options were available. The nurse told the parishioner about her right to ask for a case conference and agreed to accompany the parishioner to such a conference at the nursing home, attended by the dietician and the nursing staff as well.

The case conference revealed that the gastric tube was the easiest answer for the nursing home staff to deal with the aunt’s lack of interest in food, but it was not necessarily the best answer for the patient. The aunt’s dietary preferences were discussed, and the parishioner agreed to bring in some of her favorite food. The staff arranged for someone to be with the aunt during mealtime. The aunt started eating again!

Pastoral care here, offered by the parish nurse, included advocacy for the aunt and empowerment for the family.

What is parish nursing?

Parish nursing combines the knowledge and skills of nursing practice with an understanding of the spiritual and religious beliefs that underlie health. Parish nurses, with one foot in the spiritual world of the church and one foot in the physical world of medicine, minister in ways that reunite the mind, body and spirit, addressing and embracing the relationship between the visible and the invisible. The parish nurse links these spheres, translating the jargon, forging the connections and facilitating the parishioner’s more complete understanding of his or her health experience. What are the roles of a parish nurse?

The parish nurse engages in several roles. The International Parish Nurse Resource Center identifies the classic roles as follows:

  • Integrates faith and health within the parish community
  • Counsels parishioners on questions of personal health
  • Acts as a health educator
  • Acts as a referral agent
  • Coordinates volunteers
  • Develops support groups
  • Advocates for individual and community health

Jesus touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. Matthew 8:14-15

What is the difference between parish nursing and health ministry?

Actually, they fit very closely together. A parish nurse often leads a congregation in health ministry.

Health ministry is broad in scope. It focuses more on outcomes for the parishioners and on the congregation’s work of bringing health and healing in the community. Sometimes the phrase “health ministries” (plural) is used to emphasize the multiplicity of players; this ministry does not belong to any one person. Parish nursing focuses more on the nurse’s roles and on the responsibilities that individual carries.

Specifically, what does a Parish Nurse do?

The parish nurse is a nurse of the church, not simply a nurse in a church. She is not transplanted from the hospital or clinic to perform the same tasks, and she does not attempt to replicate existing services available in the community and place them in the church building. Plenty of agencies are already providing nursing care in the home – dressing changes, blood draws, monitoring intravenous feedings, and so on. Most locations also have sufficient doctors and clinics available for treatments.

Under the Nurse Practice Act (which differs somewhat from state to state) the professional nurse has several responsibilities. Parts of the traditional nurse’s responsibilities are delegated functions, tasks done under the supervision of a physician. Often these are invasive procedures requiring doctor’s orders, and they are often the first tasks people think of when they imagine a nurse at work, but these are not the tasks of a parish nurse. The parish nurse focuses specifically on other parts of the Nurse Practice Act: assessing health needs, teaching, referring to services in the community, coordinating health care, counseling regarding health-related concerns and advocating for those who need a voice. The parish nurse does not do “hands-on nursing” in the traditional health professional sense.

Carrying out a parish nurse’s responsibilities takes many forms, and the specific programming depends on the individual parish with its particular demographics, resources and energy level. The parish nurse might offer Health Risk Appraisals, teach classes on safe babysitting, take blood pressures after the Sunday worship service and maintain a resource cart with information on health and illness. She might find a speaker on “The Healing Power of Humor,” visit parishioners who are in the hospital, coordinate the Lay Eucharistic Ministers as they take the Sacrament to shut-ins, or even meet with parishioners to do exercise or Yoga. The possibilities are endless.

What makes these services different from those offered in other settings is that they are conceived of and delivered in the context of Christian faith. They are not ends unto themselves. They are not body worshipping or narcissistic. They do not come from duty or obligation, but from a deep sense of our connectedness one to the other and to Christ. What is a typical day for a parish nurse?

A parish nurse doesn’t have a “typical” day. Sundays may include taking part in the service, assisting at a healing station, leading the prayers, possibly preaching, greeting people after the service and hearing their concerns, gathering information, teaching a Sunday School class or taking communion to those in the hospital as a Lay Eucharistic Minister.

A weekday can bring almost anything. For example, a parish nurse may do the following types of things during a standard week:

  • Attend a meeting with the AIDS Service Center to plan a program to help people cope with the up-coming holiday season
  • Teach a session on menopause to a women’s group
  • Meet with a parishioner who is concerned about an aging parent
  • Meet with a discharge planner at the hospital to help facilitate a parishioner’s getting needed help at home
  • Track down a program to help children of divorce
  • Take a blood pressure for a concerned parishioner
  • Lead a grief support group along with a social worker from the parish
  • Organize and facilitate a plan to arrange a Sunday morning education series on various health concerns, perhaps using the skills of the physicians in the parish

“Parish nurse ministry creatively engages the long-standing tradition of the church to be directly involved in medical care. This association recognizes and holds together the power of faithful prayer and life with the practice of the medical arts and sciences as grace-filled means for healing and curing.” –The Right Rev. William Gregg, Bishop of Eastern Oregon

How do you know whether a church is ready for health ministries?

There is no formula for determining the readiness of a congregation for a new ministry, though here are some things to consider:

Most churches already have some aspect of health ministry already in place, be it a corps of parishioners who deliver Meals on Wheels, an intercessory prayer group, a Crisis Committee, or a Stephen Ministry program. Many churches may not have named these programs “health ministry,” though it is probably understood to be a part of health and caring. That gives something to build on. It tells where the current energy in the parish can be found. It gives a familiar place to start expanding ministry, should the church so choose.

Looking at the parish in terms of its resources and its energy is important in determining readiness. Resources don’t have to be financial. They can be interest, skill, vision or commitment. If these exist, it might be the right time to harness them into a fuller, more organized program.

Recognizing the specific health-related needs in a congregation also informs health ministry. For example, does the parish have a large aging population? Or, is the parish full of young couples with little children, stressed by the demands of career and parenting? Are there obvious unmet needs? Necessity may be the driving force for beginning a health ministry program.

“When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:38-40

 

Many thanks to Dee Wiseman, Diocesan Liaison to NEHM for the Diocese of Fond du Lac for preparing this document. DOWNLOAD Health Ministry FAQ if you want to print this article.

From Bishop Knisely in response to the 2016 elections

A Divided Community: Responding with Hope and Action

The results of the elections this week have confirmed what we already knew. Our country is deeply divided along regional, racial, gender and economic lines. The divisions are real and painful. The divisions are ending friendships and threatening family relationships. There are people in our communities and congregations who are delighted and people who are devastated. The emotions are real and raw, and their intensity is hard for some to understand. The simple, faithful response of Episcopalians across the state to pray for the president-elect will be a stumbling stone or a stepping stone for people who will be kneeling beside each other at the altar rail.

As people of faith, baptized into the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and fed at his table, there are things we can do to serve our divided communities.

We must remember our baptismal covenant in which we promise to respect the dignity of every human being. We are each made in the image of the living God–and each one of us is infinitely precious simply by virtue of that fact. We can help others to see their neighbors as the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see one another.

There can be no room in our common life for hateful or dismissive language about people who are different from us. We are all fellow servants of the same Lord and cannot allow ourselves, or anyone else, to dismiss or harm someone whom Jesus has gathered to himself. There will be opportunities for us to bear witness to this Gospel value in the coming days. I pray that God will give us the will to do what God desires.

We gather around the altar to receive the gifts of God – the broken body and the poured-out blood of Jesus; Jesus who is the innocent victim killed by government forces at the demand of a people’s religious leadership. Holding that truth before us gives us a way to listen and to serve in the midst of the whirlwind of emotions and rhetoric surrounding us.

We don’t always understand what things mean or what to do in midst of moments like this. It took many years for God’s children to fully comprehend what God was doing in the great mysteries of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. We need to pray and listen for God’s voice and God’s call to action. Even Mary, the Mother of God, needed time to ponder in her heart what the birth of Jesus meant. I do not know what God has in store for us in this moment of our nation’s history, but I have no doubt that God is in the midst of us, and that God’s purposes of justice, mercy and the healing of the nations will not be frustrated.

As the body of Christ in the world we are called to be hope and light for the world. Someone wrote this week that a divided World needs a united Church. May the Holy Spirit use us so that we become what God dreams we will be.

+Nicholas
XIII Bishop of Rhode Island
Feast of St. Martin of Tours
Armistice Day
Nov. 11, 2016

Diocesan Convention 2016: Highlights

The 226th Convention of the Diocese of Rhode Island began with Eucharist and a reception on Friday evening, Nov. 4 at St. Luke’s Church, East Greenwich, and continued with business sessions and award presentations on Saturday.

Sermon by the Rt. Rev. Jeffery Williams at Convention Eucharist

“Do we really matter anymore? What do we really do as a church?” The central theme from guest preacher the Rt. Rev. Dr. Jeffery A. Williams was a call to ensure relevance for the church in today’s world. Bishop Williams, pastor of The King’s Cathedral in Olneyville, asked listeners at the Convention Eucharist to think about “How are we benefiting others?” He asked whether in our society today we have forgotten “those people” Jesus urged his followers to love — the homeless, the hungry and others in need.

Bishop Williams cited passages from Ezekiel, Isaiah (“Share your bread with the hungry, take in the homeless”), Jeremiah and Luke (“The spirit of the Lord is upon you.” as examples of God calling us “to be critically engaged in and with the community.” He challenged the congregation to reconsider the church’s relevance and what it means today to respond to God’s call. And he outlined a four-step approach to becoming relevant:

  1. Pray and study.
  2. Listen to others and ask them to help.
  3. Find a need in OUR community — the area immediately around us.
  4. Love those Jesus died for.

Finally he cautioned listeners: “The uniqueness of the church is in Jesus. See the Gospel with a demonstration of the power of God. Our churches need to consider what those in the world would see for the presence of the church to again be relevant.”

Bishop Knisely’s address

“Our mission as a church is to effect reconciliation between God and God’s church,” said Bishop Knisely during his address to the 2016 Diocesan Convention. That address, titled “Reconciliation — An Act in Three Modes,” focused on a challenge to the people of the diocese to actively support three imperatives of reconciliation adopted by the 2015 General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Those imperatives are:

  1. Reconciliation with God — in the form of evangelism. He encouraged Convention attendees to share the good news with others. “ God wants to have a relationship with people who have been estranged,” he said.
  2. Reconciliation with our neighbors — especially in the area of racial reconciliation. He cited examples of this that included the efforts of the Center for Reconciliation; Episcopalians’ involvement with the Community Police Board; and two prison ministries that are under way in the diocese.
  3. Reconciliation with God’s creation — in the form of environmental stewardship. As a part of this, he and other bishops from New England are undertaking a “River Pilgrimage” next summer, kayaking down the Connecticut River, with periodic stops to proclaim God’s word and “convene the community’s attention” to important issues.He also urged Rhode Island Episcopalians to “be intentional in reconciling the world and spreading the Good News” in living out our Baptismal Covenant.

Bishop Knisely went on to say that he is urging these efforts because he “is worried about tensions in our society — people losing friends, not sleeping and experiencing more anxiety. We have something to share. We can tell our stories and our vision of the kingdom of God.” To be successful, he said, start by listening, to hear the anxiety and concerns, then respond — sometimes just pray — and share, beginning a conversation that can build a relationship. Finally, invite others in: “Something made church important to you at some point in your life — talk about it,” he said.

 

Award recipients

The Bishop Higgins Award

The 2016 Bishop Higgins Award was presented to William R. McClintick, former director of the Episcopal Charities Fund and a parishioner for more than 50 years at St. Luke’s, East Greenwich. The Higgins Award is presented annually to a special person for “distinguished and meritorious service on behalf of the Episcopal Charities Fund of Rhode Island.”

McClintick was appointed Director of Episcopal Charities in 1970 and led the organization to significant growth, making improvements in its work. Charities became more of a grass roots organization, the Board was strengthened as a decision-making group, and parishes became actively involved in a general, broad-based campaign. In 1972 when Bishop Belden brought a new style of leadership to the diocese, his pastoral outlook further encouraged parish participation. At the 1974 Diocesan Convention, with McClintick’s leadership, a statement of Charities Mission, Goals and Objectives was adopted.

The Bishop’s Anchor of Hope Award


 Bishop Knisely presented the 2016 Anchor of Hope award posthumously to Peggy Amatore, who served as director of the Episcopal Charities Fund for many years. Peggy’s brother, Joe, accepted the award on her behalf, which is presented to mark a special ministry to the common life of the churches that make up the diocese. “Thousands of people in Rhode Island are better off today because of Peggy’s work,” Bishop Knisely said.

Amatore joined the diocese in 1981 as assistant in the Episcopal Charities office and subsequently became its executive director. In more than 35 years of representing the Fund, she became the “face” of Charities in the diocese and community. Under Peggy ‘s leadership Episcopal Charities became a powerful force to raise funds and awareness for countless non-profits in the state and to support the outreach ministries of the diocese.

The Center for Reconciliation

Delegates approved a resolution from the Center for Reconciliation (CFR) encouraging parishes and missions of the diocese to engage in racial reconciliation work. The resolution calls on each parish and mission to implement a plan for how the congregation will undertake this work and to designate a contact person to receive and share CFR communication. It further suggests that congregations adopt the Third Sunday of Epiphany or another appropriate time to serve as a liturgical and educational focus for this work. As part of the action on the resolution, the convention affirmed resolutions adopted by the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church and the call of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry for the church to “embrace the serious work of racial reconciliation.”

Click here for the complete resolution.

The Task Force on College Chaplaincy

Dr. David Ames presented the work of the College Chaplaincy Task Force, which was appointed by the bishop in March 2016 to collect the wisdom of those within the diocese with experience in campus ministry and suggest possible future directions. They gathered information about the ministries currently occuring in our diocese and also spoke with those doing campus ministry in neighboring dioceses.

The task force also spoke with 15 counselors at the Episcopal Conference Center. They shared their views on what makes religious experiences meaningful to them. Their responses emphasized the presence of joy, the support of community, and the assurance of a faith which proclaims alternatives to futility and despair. They also stressed that congregations need to be flexible in their times and styles of worship, diverse, small enough to promote spiritual intimacy, and committed to outreach. And all agreed that the most important trait they look for in any faith community or activity is authenticity.

2017 Budget

Delegates approved the 2017 budget, including a reduction in the apportionment rate from 17 percent to 16.5 percent. That reduction is the beginning of a multiyear goal to reduce the diocesan apportionment rate to 15 percent by 2020, matching similar reductions by the national church. The national church reduction began occurring this year, which allowed the diocese to return a rebate of $540.56 to each church.

Overall, the 2017 budget anticipates revenues of $4.03 million. Key changes from 2016 include a 3 percent reduction in Congregational Development expenses and a similar increase in Youth & Family expenses. The suspension of the Jonathan Daniels House program created a favorable budget impact of $80,000. The increase in Youth & Family expenses will allow for increased staffing and facility improvements at the Episcopal Conference Center.

Notable achievements for the year include completion of a strategic plan for the camp, which earned accreditation this year from the American Camp Association. Progress continues with our Hispanic Ministry as our model continues to evolve.

Click here for the complete budget.

ELECTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS

Delegates elected clergy and lay representatives to a range of diocesan leadership positions, as well as clergy and lay deputies to the 2018 General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Additionally, the convention confirmed several appointments of leaders nominated by Bishop Knisely. All elections and appointments are in the list that follows.

ELECTED
Standing Committee
Clergy: The Rev. David Ames, All Saints Memorial, Providence, 4-year term
Lay: Mr. David P. Whitman, St. Martin’s, Providence, 4-year term, and Ms. Anela Brewster, Grace, Providence, 2-year term

Diocesan Council (all 3-year terms)
Clergy: The Rev. Bettine Bessier, St. Thomas, Alton, and The Rev. Edward Dean, St. David’s on-the-Hill
Lay: Mr. Scott Hovanec, Holy Cross, Middletown

Commission on Finance (3-year term)
The Rev. Erik Larsen, St. Columba’s, Middletown

Commission on Congregational Development (3-year terms)
Clergy: The Rev. Linda Griggs, St. Martin’s, Providence
Lay: Ms. Ann Hamm, St. Augustine’s, Kingstown

Commission on Investments (3-year terms)
Clergy; The Rev. John Higginbotham, Holy Trinity, Tiverton
Lay: Ms. Ellen Abell, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich; Mr. Austin Smith

Diocesan Treasurer (1-year term)
Mr. Robert L.G. Batchelor, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich

Secretary of Convention (1-year term)
The Rev. Kevin Lloyd, St. Matthews, Jamestown

General Convention Delegates
Clergy
The Rev. Tim Rich, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich; the Ven. Jan Grinnell, St. Augustine’s, Kingston; the Rev. Kevin Lloyd, St. Matthew’s, Jamestown; and the Rev. Patrick Greene, Sts. Matthew and Mark, Barrington
Alternates: The Rev. Sunil Chandy, Christ Church, Westerly; the Rev. Nathan Humphrey, St. John the Evangelist, Newport; the Rev. Joan Testin, Emmanuel, Cumberland; and the Rev. Erik Larsen, St. Columba’s, Middletown

Lay
The Hon. Scott Avedisian, Trinity, Cranston; Ms. Lora MacFall, St. Andrew’s, Little Compton; Mr. David Seifert, Grace, Providence; and Ms. Jane Jellison, Redeemer, Providence
Alternates: Mr. Delbert C. Glover, Redeemer, Providence; and Mr. Joel Gardner, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich

APPOINTED
Disciplinary Board (3-year terms)
Clergy: The Rev. William Locke, Trinity, North Scituate
Lay: Mr. Sidney Clifford, Grace, Providence; and Mr. Grant Hutchins

Congregational Development (3-year terms)
Clergy: The Rev. Craig Swan, St. Peter’s by the Sea, Narragansett
Lay: Mr. Joel Gardner, St. Luke’s, Trinity

Finance (3-year term, consent of Diocesan Council
Clergy: The Rev. Peter Tierney , St. James, Woonsocker

Diocesan Council (3-Year terms)
Clergy: The Rev. Nathan Humphrey – Aquidneck Deanery
Lay: Ms. Aimee Robinson, St. Luke’s, Pawtucket – Blackstone Deanery

Commission on Ministry (2 clergy, 2 lay; 3 yrs)
Clergy: The Ven. Jan Grinnell, St. Augustine’s, Kingston; and The Rev. Timothy Rich, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich

 

Lenten book discussions prompt ministry actions by members of Redeemer

by Dave Seifert

A Lenten program at The Church of the Redeemer, Providence, is turning out to be a lot more than a class—it’s also been a springboard to discipleship.

About a dozen members spent Lent—and a few weeks more—reading and talking about “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James H. Cone. The book explores the connections between the universal symbol of Christian faith and the quintessential symbol of black oppression in America.

Now that book and a study guide developed by the Center for Reconciliation (CFR), have prompted new commitments to discipleship and community-building by some Redeemer members. Note: Learn more about the study guide and how to use it — including training for group leaders — below.

“It began as a regular Lenten program,” explains the Rev. Patrick Campbell, rector. “But some folks have had a real experience of transformation.”

Campbell decided to use the CFR curriculum to start answering questions about “What can we do?” as part of ongoing efforts to connect the church more closely with its surrounding neighborhood, which spans multiple races and economic levels. Those efforts had intensified after the racial unrest that emerged in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.

“The mission of the church is to reconcile all people to God in Christ,” he noted. “So the church can do real work. But those of us who are white need to do our own work first.”

Some of the discussion participants have taken that challenge especially seriously.

For Robert Howe, who teaches American history at local colleges, the experience changed the way he thinks about race in America and, ultimately, the way he chose to structure a United States history class he’s teaching this fall.

“Reading the book, coupled with my growing awareness of continuing racism at work in American life, made me want to address the African-American experience and white society’s history specifically related to that experience,” he said. “I decided the class needed to have the conversation about race that is periodically called for in public discourse but rarely achieved.”

Howe was surprised by how deeply the book affected him “and at how much of black experience can be seen as living under, or being close to slipping into a world of, terrorism. I guess this had been building up in my awareness with the news of the last few years, but the reading and discussion really put things into an emerging picture that I’m still developing in both mind and heart. I felt God speaking through James Cone, and through our discussion, and animating me to plunge into a world of awareness and discourse that promises to be useful.”

Another Redeemer member, Toni Harrison, said the book “opened my mind and raised many questions — it made me want to know more, so I read several other books related to racism. I learned things I’d never known before.”

Harrison grew up in the 1950s having virtually no contact with black people, she said. “There was no one of a different skin color in my school at least through eighth grade, and I believe through high school,” she explained. “In college in the early 1960s, I remember just one black, and she was ‘just one of us’. So I simply had not been aware of racial repression until when my husband and I were at the Cathedral of St. John for several years prior to its closing.”

Harrison said the book worked well: “We need to be talking with each other in this sort of discourse.”

Elon Cook, CFR program manager, was happily surprised by the reaction to the book.

“In the work I do, I’m so used to seeing small, incremental changes in people that what I’m seeing at Redeemer is exciting,” she said. “I’d been studying the history of slavery and racialized violence for several years and initially didn’t think the book would impact me. It did, and now I’m happy to see I wasn’t the only one.”

Cook’s hope in developing the study guide was to help create conversations in communities around Rhode Island that “were having a difficult time connecting to black pain and black frustration about where our country is. Through the book, it felt like there was an avenue to understanding your neighbor through the suffering of Jesus — and maybe Jesus’s narrative was one that white Rhode Islanders could connect to.

“Lots of white Rhode Islanders don’t have black people in their neighborhoods or offices or schools, so maybe a different aspect of Jesus’s life would lead them in a roundabout way to connecting with people of color.”

Campbell, Howe and Harrison share Cook’s hope for broadened understanding and awareness — as well as hoping that people at other Rhode Island churches will read and discuss the book.

“I would absolutely recommend it to other churches,” Campbell said. “It’s a starting place about something we’ve been removed from. We can learn about racial oppression and have an invitation into connecting with the story.”

“I hope more minds get opened,” Harrison said. ”It offers a chance to learn the basics of talking about racism and learning some of the history many of us may not have known.”

Howe said “We need to know this. If we don’t, we don’t know our country or ourselves.”

Bring ‘The Cross and the Lynching Tree’ study program to your church
Churches and individuals throughout the diocese can download a free study guide to “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” and participate in a November event to learn more about the book and how to use it.

In addition to Redeemer, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Tiverton used the book to increase members’ awareness about racial issues. About 25 people at Holy Trinity read the book and participated in discussions during Lent 2016. Those conversations built on a presentation from James DeWolf Perry and a viewing of the film “Traces of the Trade.”

“The biggest impact in our church was with the people who took the course,” said the Rev. John Higginbotham, rector. “There was a great deal of surprise that slavery was not ‘just a Southern thing’ but involved people all over the country, including right down the road from our church.”

The study guide includes quotes from the book, conversation-starting questions, suggested prayers, links to thought-provoking songs and videos, engaging activities and a variety of resources to help participants continue to deepen their knowledge beyond the five book study sessions.

Anyone interested in learning more about being a study leader is invited to a conversation at 6:45 p.m. Nov. 16 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 40 Dearborn Street, Newport, or at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at Beneficent Church, 300 Weybosset Street, Providence.

Training for facilitators is scheduled for Jan. 18 at a location still to be determined.

These events are timed to allow churches to study the book during Lent 2017, a time of the year particularly appropriate because of the focus on Christ’s death on the cross. Contact Elon Cook, Center for Reconciliation program manager, with any questions.

SaveSave

From Bishop Knisely in response to the 2016 elections

A Divided Community: Responding with Hope and Action
The results of the elections this week have confirmed what we already knew. Our country is deeply divided along regional, racial, gender and economic lines. The divisions are real and painful. The divisions are ending friendships and threatening family relationships. There are people in our communities and congregations who are delighted and people who are devastated. The emotions are real and raw, and their intensity is hard for some to understand. The simple, faithful response of Episcopalians across the state to pray for the president-elect will be a stumbling stone or a stepping stone for people who will be kneeling beside each other at the altar rail.

As people of faith, baptized into the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and fed at his table, there are things we can do to serve our divided communities.

We must remember our baptismal covenant in which we promise to respect the dignity of every human being. We are each made in the image of the living God–and each one of us is infinitely precious simply by virtue of that fact. We can help others to see their neighbors as the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see one another.

There can be no room in our common life for hateful or dismissive language about people who are different from us. We are all fellow servants of the same Lord and cannot allow ourselves, or anyone else, to dismiss or harm someone whom Jesus has gathered to himself. There will be opportunities for us to bear witness to this Gospel value in the coming days. I pray that God will give us the will to do what God desires.

We gather around the altar to receive the gifts of God – the broken body and the poured-out blood of Jesus; Jesus who is the innocent victim killed by government forces at the demand of a people’s religious leadership. Holding that truth before us gives us a way to listen and to serve in the midst of the whirlwind of emotions and rhetoric surrounding us.

We don’t always understand what things mean or what to do in midst of moments like this. It took many years for God’s children to fully comprehend what God was doing in the great mysteries of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. We need to pray and listen for God’s voice and God’s call to action. Even Mary, the Mother of God, needed time to ponder in her heart what the birth of Jesus meant. I do not know what God has in store for us in this moment of our nation’s history, but I have no doubt that God is in the midst of us, and that God’s purposes of justice, mercy and the healing of the nations will not be frustrated.

As the body of Christ in the world we are called to be hope and light for the world. Someone wrote this week that a divided World needs a united Church. May the Holy Spirit use us so that we become what God dreams we will be.

+Nicholas
XIII Bishop of Rhode Island
Feast of St. Martin of Tours
Armistice Day
Nov. 11, 2016

Disaster Preparation: Keeping our Lamps Filled with Oil

Don’t Forget the Oil: Advice on Disaster Preparedness
–Joannie Collins, Diocesan Risk Officer

In the parable of the ten bridesmaids in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, we are reminded that it is wise to be prepared for sudden events. This is a good scriptural warrant for emergency preparation in our parishes.

As with this parable, emergency preparation teaches that rushing to prepare leads to mistakes, such as not putting gas in the car (if the power goes out, gas station pumps won’t operate), forgetting to order life-saving prescription medications, not storing enough water (that’s one gallon per person per day) or batteries (fresh batteries) for when the lamps exhaust their power supplies. The same goes for not remembering the cell phone charger for your car and not having a way to communicate with family or first responders because the phone quit.

So, what’s it got to do with parishes and missions? Suppose your parish does feel the hand of a nor’easter or hurricane. Where would you hold your services? Could you describe the stained glass windows? Do you have a video inventory of precious items? Do you have copies of important documents, such as insurance policies? How many square feet is your church? How would you communicate with your congregation? Something as simple as developing a communications plan, preparing an electronic video inventory with copies secured elsewhere and planning an alternate worship site saves time and torment.

How can churches play a key role in aiding its community during a man-made or natural disaster? The answer: By stepping up. Play an active role in mitigation and preparation. Offer itself to its community as a place of refuge, volunteer, or develop a relationship with local emergency management, and a whole lot more.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recognizes the benefit a house of worship has on community preparation, response, and recovery and Rhode Island Emergency Management recently added Essential Support Function (ESF) 17 to the State’s plan . FEMA offers free (doesn’t get better than that) courses in all facets of disaster preparation. Here are just a few from FEMA’s course catalog:

Locally, all municipalities offer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training. Check with local emergency management agencies for times and training. Click here to locate your area contact. Invite him or her to discuss ways to help or be of help. Additionally…

  • Your church building could serve as a staging area. A place for emergency responders to stage supplies to save response time.
  • Could you open your doors to offer coffee to those without power? How about allowing the public to charge their phones? Would you lend your parking lot to accommodate trailers carrying washers/dryers/showers, so residents have clean clothes or emergency generators?
  • Could meals be served to residents in your parish hall?

If you don’t feel equipped to help, the power of a dollar helps tremendously. Consider donating to Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD). This agency steps in to aid parishes impacted by disaster throughout the country. Your donations help fulfill their mission.

Need more information? Contact us.

So, don’t forget to develop your emergency plan and, for heaven’s sake, don’t forget to keep your lamps filled with oil, or as Jesus might say today, rechargeable batteries!

Diocesan News and Resources Oct 25

The latest issue of our email newsletter can be found here.  Check it out for details about diocesan convention, resources for prayer during an election season, and a story about how a book study at two of our parishes has led to new understanding and new ministry–and how more parishes can participate.