Bishop Steve Lane answers questions about Holy Conversations

Bishop Steve sat down with Canon Heidi Shott this week to answer questions about the Holy Conversations process that each congregation in Maine has been asked to engage in.

He answered questions like, “Why are we doing this, anyway?”

Do you have a question you’d like to have the Bishop answer on video? Please post it in the comments or email him at slane@episcopalmaine.org.

If you would like to have a copy of the video to share with your congregation off-line, please contact Heidi at hshott@episcopalmaine.org or 772.1953 x126.

Prayers for the people of Boston today at noon at St. Luke’s Cathedral

At noon today Bishop Steve Lane and Dean Ben Shambaugh will ring bells and offer prayers for the people of Boston and the surrounding communities at St. Luke’s Cathedral at 143 State Street in Portland.

Join them in person or in spirit.

Six New Initiative Fund grants awarded by Diocesan Council

The New Initiative Fund  grant program marked its third year as Diocesan Council met on February 23 at St. Martin’s in Palmyra. With a total of $35,000 to allocate and nearly twice that in requests from nine congregations, members of Council took seriously the hard decisions they were asked to make by studying the 99 pages of application materials prior to the meeting.

Each applicant was asked to demonstrate how their proposal to support a new or expanded ministry would conform to the Seven Criteria for Mission, approved by Diocesan Convention in October 2011.

At the end of the granting session, Council members approved six grants that ranged from $500 to $9,000. A seventh grant was tentatively approved pending additional information from the supporting congregation.

2013 New Initiative Fund awardees:

St. Margaret’s, Belfast – $9,000 – ENCOUNTERS

This ecumenical faith development program based on role-playing was developed in 2012 for Belfast area youth in grades 6 – 12. It draws in young people from several local churches as well as the un-churched.  Together with lay and clergy adult leaders, they meet on equal ground to explore the word of the Lord in today’s culture. Funding from this grant will allow for the development of a manual and training resources so that the program can be replicated in other communities in Maine and beyond.

St. Thomas’, Camden – $2,500 – Health and Wellness Ministry

This ministry will partner with local congregations to encourage whole person health through integration of mind, body and spirit, to increase self-knowledge, personal responsibility, and to foster interdependence among God’s people.
Combining ancient traditions of the Christian community and the knowledge and tools of modern health care, health ministry offers the community a living witness of the healing activity of God through the local congregation.

Christ Church, Eastport – $2,300 – Journey to the Center

This ministry will encourage and deepen contemplative spiritual practice by offering the community and other churches a traveling labyrinth and labyrinth finger sets. Additionally, the labyrinth can become a part of community festivals, retreats, quiet days, and as a part of Kids’ Club, an ecumenical Christian Education program. Within a Christian context, the labyrinth can be a way to teach scripture memorization, walking meditation, prayer, and an openness to the spirit of God. For those outside of a faith tradition, the labyrinth may encourage spiritual yearning and development.

Church of the Good Shepherd, Rangeley – $500 – Day of Remembrance

At a Day of Remembrance, scheduled for the summer of 2013,  Good Shepherd will collaborate with area churches and health care professionals to offer a public venue where the universal issues of death and dying in our culture are honored and to offer prayers of grief and thanksgiving for those who have died in the past two years.

St. John Baptist, Thomaston – $6,850 – Hospitality House – A Project of the Knox Homeless Coalition

St. John’s is involved with other churches in the region to restore, and revitalize the only homeless shelter in a three county area, which closed in November 2012. This is collaborative effort between the social service agencies and faith communities to house and address the needs of those in transition and without homes, particularly victims of domestic violence.

St. Bartholomew’s, Yarmouth (in partnership with St. Matthew’s, Hallowell) – $8,500 – Lectionary-based Curriculum

This project will build and implement a lectionary-based curriculum at St. Bart’s that will be shared collaboratively with St. Matthew’s with the goal of creating a three year curriculum that has been tested and is then shared with other congregations in the diocese. The curriculum would be supported by the creators who would then act as consultants for parishes implementing the curriculum in the future.

Congratulations!

To learn more about any of the proposals, contact Canon Heidi Shott at 772.1953 x126 or hshott@episcopalmaine.org.

Got Ministry? Apply for a New Initiative Grant

A total of $35,000 is available for New Initiative Grants in 2013. Each congregation and organization in the Diocese of Maine is eligible to apply for funding to support new ministries or expanding existing ministries in new directions. Applications will be evaluated on the how closely they meet the Seven Criteria for Mission, approved at Diocesan Convention in 2011.

The deadline for applications is 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 6. Diocesan Council will make grant recommendations at its February 23 meeting (snow date: March 2). Awards will be announced by March 5. Click here for guidelines and an online application form.

Transition ministry update from Canon Vicki Wiederkehr

Here’s an update on Maine congregations in transition from Vicki Wiederkehr, Canon for Formation and Transition Ministry:

Aroostook Cluster (St. Luke’s, Caribou; St. Paul’s, Fort Fairfield; Advent, Limestone; St. Anne’s, Mars Hill; St. John’s, Presque Isle): The Rev. Kevin Kinsey will be ordained priest and the Aroostook Cluster congregations will celebrate their new ministry with Kevin on Saturday, January 26, at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s, Fort Fairfield.

St. Michael’s, Auburn: The Rev. Jim Low, Transition Priest in Charge

St. Mark’s, Augusta:  Supply clergy during transition

Christ Church, Biddeford:  At rest until the annual Diocesan Convention in October 2013. It will focus and transform its Jubilee ministry, Seeds of Hope Neighborhood Center, by forming new partnerships and continuing to serve all in need. Read more here.

St. Paul’s, Brunswick: The Rev. Ann Broomell, Transition Priest in Charge.  Discernment Committee conducting interviews.

St. Anne’s, Calais: The Rev. Jennifer Reece, called as Priest in Charge effective December 6, 2012.

St. Dunstan’s, Ellsworth:  The Rev. Christopher Chornyak resigned effective January 1, 2013.  Transition Priest in Charge to be announced.

St. Mary’s, Falmouth: The Rev. Nate Ferrell called as Rector effective November 1, 2012.

Christ Church, Gardiner: The Rev. George Lambert, Priest in Charge

Church of Our Father, Hulls Cove:  The Rev. Chuck Bradshaw resigned effective January 1, 2013.  Transition Priest in Charge to be announced.

St. Andrew’s, Millinocket:  The Rev. Lev Sherman, Priest in Charge.  Celebration of New Ministry on April 21.
St. Mary’s and St. Jude’s, Northeast Harbor:  The Rev. Patricia Robertson has announced that she will retire on May 31, 2013.  Vestry will call for Transition Priest in Charge.

Christ Church, Norway: The Rev. Elizabeth Miller, Transition Priest in Charge.  Congregational profile near completion.

St. Martin’s, Palmyra: Supply clergy during transition

St. Peter’s, Rockland:  Transition Priest in Charge has been called.  Awaiting finalized Letter of Agreement

All Saints’, Skowhegan: Supply clergy during transition

St. Thomas’, Winn:  The Rev. Lev Sherman, Priest in Charge.  Celebration of New Ministry on April 21.

St. Andrew’s, Winthrop: Supply clergy during transition

St. Philip’s, Wiscasset:  The Rev. Heather Blais, Assistant Priest has accepted a call to the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.   Priest in Charge has been called.  Awaiting finalized Letter of Agreement.

Diocese of Maine in 2013: Focus on people living in poverty

At diocesan convention in October, a resolution brought forth by 12 deacons and priests, the congregations of Piscataquis County, and Diocesan Council, and subsequently passed by clergy and lay delegates, states the following:

“Resolved, that the 193rd Convention of the Diocese of Maine call upon all of its constituent committees, commissions, institutions, and congregations, to include as part of every meeting in calendar year 2013, no matter what the purpose, the following agenda item: ‘How will what we are doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?’“

To assist with this prayerful practice in the new year, the Bishop Steve Lane’s office has mailed to each congregation (and soon to each committee chair) a stack of cards to use at each gathering.  The card offers an opening prayer, two questions to guide discussion, and a closing prayer. Download a sample of the card (two per sheet) here.

Click here to read the Rev. Chick Carroll’s blog post – and the lively discussion in the comments – on the origins of the resolution.

A pastoral letter on same sex marriage from Bishop Lane

November 8, 2012

Bishop Lane writes:

“On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, citizens of the State of Maine took the momentous step of voting to include same sex couples among those who may apply for civil marriage licenses. For many this decision was the achievement of long delayed justice for an oppressed minority and an appropriate extension of the rights and responsibilities of marriage to all citizens. For others the vote represented a fundamental change in long held beliefs brought about by the profound cultural shifts taking place in our country. As your Bishop, I rejoice in the greater inclusion of all our members in the full life of our communities. I also recognize and grieve the deep pain which significant change can cause. To each one of you, I offer my continuing affection and support.”

Read it all here.

Download a pdf version here.

Talking about poverty in Maine

by the Rev. Chick Carroll (with help with his fellow sponsors of Resolution #9)

At this year’s Diocesan Convention, delegates will be asked to vote on Resolution 9. This resolution says that for 12 months, for the calendar year 2013, every meeting of a commission or committee within the Diocese and within every congregation will have as part of its agenda the following agenda item:

“How will what we are doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?”

This Resolution 9 implements a similar resolution passed at General Convention this past summer. Now, resolutions, identical to our Resolution 9, which will implement what was passed at General Convention are being put before diocesan conventions this fall throughout the Episcopal church.

This is not a resolution to end poverty! In fact, it is not even about poverty per se. It is about people–people who live in poverty. This is about people, not about a concept. There is a huge difference between thinking about the concept of poverty, which can sound awfully political or coldly abstract, and thinking about people who live every day in poverty. Jesus was poor, a poor man oppressed in a world of Roman power. Jesus spoke as a poor man, to the poor, about their lives, about being poor, and about what awaited them in the Kingdom. It is the people who live in poverty, as Jesus and the multitudes did and still do, that are the object of the question we are to ask at every meeting. We often forget  that Jesus was a person who was poor. And this Resolution 9 is how we relate, as a church and as individuals, to people who are poor, as he was.

Some of us may be unaware of just how many people in Maine live in poverty. Federal guidelines say that living at the poverty level in Maine, for a family of 4, is living at an income of less than approximately $23,000 per year. Imagine trying to raise a family on that!  Yet, one out of eight people in Maine is in that predicament. One out of every six people we meet lives with insecurity about getting enough to eat. It is much worse for children. One out of every four children under the age of six live in poverty, and half of all school children quality for subsidized school lunches! The brutal truth is that a person getting paid $11.00 an hour 52 weeks a year is still in poverty. And at minimum wage, it requires working 60 hours a week just to achieve the federal poverty level.

Some of us live in communities where we don’t encounter many people living in poverty. Others of us, though, live in places where the poverty rate is worse than the state average–far worse. The reality, of course, is that even at incomes somewhat above the official poverty level, people can still be very poor.  Regardless of where we live, we meet people every day living in poverty- in the shops and stores we buy from, the schools our children attend, the companies we work for, and in our own parishes as well.

Resolution 9 will, at first, create inconvenience. It may make us uncomfortable to ask the question about our impact on people living in poverty. We may argue that asking such a question will be futile, or will take up too much time. Imagine, at every meeting within the Diocese and within every congregation, we will during 2013 ask the question: How does what we are doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?”

For some committees, the answer may be “not very much.” Perhaps then someone might ask “and why not?’ No doubt, some of us may get tired of asking the question at every meeting. Yet, we may also come closer to understanding how we, as church and as individuals affect or relate to people living materially poor lives. We may also learn more about what Christ asks of us. In fact, we may discover that asking this question for a year changes our church, our congregation, and ourselves. Some of  may begin to understand the Gospel in ways we have not been able to before.

Is there anything on our agendas more important than taking a few minutes to discover what our impact is upon our sisters and brothers in Christ, including those people who live, as Jesus did, in a condition of being poor and without power in our world?

This week around the Diocese

Visit the “Praying around the Diocese“ page to learn more about two year-round congregations and three summer chapels.

This week check out (and pray for): St. Saviour’s, Bar Harbor; St. Bart’s, Yarmouth; St. George’s, Tenants Harbor; All Saints, Southport; and St. Cuthbert’s, MacMahon Island.

A Maine Benedicite

Rediscovered in the Summer 2009 edition of The Northeast when looking for something else:

The Rev. John Rafter, rector of St. Thomas, Camden, composed this canticle or benedicite for the opening of the Maine State Senate on June 2, 2009.

So lovely and wonderful.  Thank you, John.

O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord;
Praise him and magnify him forever.

Brilliant-lighted day and dark, enfolding night;
Running sap and clinging mud;
Summer sky and autumn leaf;
Bless ye the Lord.

Island of granite and meadow of grass;
Flooding river and shimmering lake;
Berry-covered mountain and organic farm;
Bless ye the Lord.

Crying loon and scolding crow;
Diving hawk and wheeling gull;
Majestic moose and Belted Galloway;
Bless ye the Lord.

Mill-town and city and unemployed worker;
Wilderness and village and summer hiker;
Resident of Mexico and China and Peru;
Bless ye the Lord.

Merchant and tourist;
Artist and laborer;
Lobsterman and student;
Bless ye the Lord.

Newly-arrived immigrant and native-born Mainer;
Writer of laws and worker for justice;
All people in all places;
Bless ye the Lord.

O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord;
Praise him and magnify him forever.