This year the series will focus on practicing the presence of God.  He welcomes your comments.

The text version may be found here.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ashes-to-Go signs at Trinity, Portland, are ready for deployment.

The practice of taking the ashes to those who may not choose to or remember to attend an Ash Wednesday service in a church started in the Diocese of Missouri. (This morning’s USA Today has this story.)

This year it has spread to more than 70 Episcopal congregations in 18 states, including Portland. Ashes-to-God will be offered at Monument Square and Post Office Park from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and again from 3:30 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.

The Rev. Larry Weeks, rector of Trinity Church and priest-in-charge at St. Peter’s, both in Portland, read about the practice in 2011 and said to himself, “We should do this in Portland next year!’”

Weeks continued, “It’s time we venture outside our church walls to offer hope and forgiveness and healing to people who may still have a spiritual hunger but aren’t so sure about Church.”

Others in the Portland-area clergy group have signed on to offer the imposition of ashes: the Rev. David Heald of St. Nick’s, Scarborough; the Rev. Regina Knox, diocesan urban missioner; the Rev. Shirley Bowen of Christ Church, Biddeford; the Rev. Nina Pooley of St. Bart’s, Yarmouth; and the Rev. Tim Higgins of St. Ann’s Windham.

Although reports cannot be confirmed due to privacy reasons, the press has reported that two or three students died by their own hand in the 2011 fall semester at the University of Southern Maine.

In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that at least 1,350 college students commit suicide each year, making suicide the second leading cause of death among college students after accidents. Research reports that for every completed suicide, 20 attempts have been made.

It is nationally reported by Counseling Centers that increasing numbers of students are coming to campus with significant mental health diagnoses who do not have foundational safety nets or resiliency skills. Scholars who study religion, society, and the media have commented that the increasing interest in vampires and zombies among our youth and young adults is reflecting their internal emptiness and loss of hope.

The year 2010 also found an increase of hate crimes on campuses across the country. Additionally, studies have tracked an increasing number of harassment and hate behaviors that may not quality as a crime but which negatively impact the targeted group. Sexual assault and dating/violence continue to haunt the hallways of academia, despite vigorous efforts by campus officials to interrupt the behavior.

Students of faith who are courageous enough to share that part of their identity in a classroom environment are sometimes ridiculed by faculty and other students who discount religious beliefs as superstitious and ignorant. For residential students who find themselves living beside such a mix of lifestyles and beliefs, the developmentally-appropriate exploration can sometimes have disastrous consequences. Christian and Non-Christian students of faith often try to be invisible in their religious identity due to the hostile responses that surround them.

Less traumatic but no less challenging are the realities of increasing debt for college students and the lack of guaranteed employment following graduation. The explosion of social media, when not managed responsibly, has alienated students from achieving positive, interpersonal interactive skills. Communication that comes in “bytes” is frequently more brutal than that communicated in person and gives a skewed sense of anonymity that does not exist. Casual connections can become dangerous predatory encounters.

Being a student on most college and university campuses today is fraught with hidden mines that will explode in their lives at any time and with varying degrees of impact. Additionally, fewer students entering higher education have been raised in a faith community, thus find themselves without spiritual grounding to sustain them through life’s inevitable challenges.
For those of us who grew up in the church and have come to take for granted the support system that comes from clergy and the parish community, we must try to imagine what it is like for young adults to navigate their college experiences in the climates described above. Academia has always been a critical mission field for the Church. There has never been a time more critical for college chaplaincies to exist.

Many young adults are feeling hopeless, discouraged about their future, disgusted with oppositional leadership in our country, and fearful about the safety of our environment and the planet. I work in higher education because I believe the rising adults are our best hope for the world. But we need to be there for them now, while they are working out their future. There are some cult-like organizations on campus, including religious ones, that “prey” on isolated, unconnected  students, drawing them in to unhealthy patterns and practices and alienating them from family and friends. These students frequently end up dropping out of school.

Lest you think me only a harbinger of doom, the good news is that the national research out of UCLA tells us that college students are desperately seeking meaning and desire to grow in their faith understanding. We also know that when support is provided, students grow deeper in their faith through their college years. We just need to provide them with a vehicle to do so.

I am writing to renew my offer as a resource to parishes with adjacent campuses who desire to be intentional in ministering among college students. With 30 years of experience in higher education, my offer is to help facilitate connecting with the campus, to help insure that all activities are respectful of and in compliance with college policies, and to support you in potentially building a ministry team for this purpose.

There are already such initiatives under way in the Diocese of Maine, and I would love to invite others to join in the venture. We have a team from St. Patrick’s in Brewer, and St. James in Old Town beginning work at UMaine Orono and an emerging outreach to Bowdoin College.

I also want to encourage those who have parishioners away at college to reach out to those students and their families: to be sure they know what resources are available on their campus and to remind them that they continue to be part of a loving parish community.

Encourage them to seek out a local parish and/or the Episcopal chaplaincy if present. Help them find out more about what types of religious organizations they might encounter and how to discern what is right for them. Most importantly, please let them know they are being held in prayer and love.

I would also be happy to serve as a conduit to help students connect on their campus or their communities. Please pass on my contact information and ask students’ permission to offer theirs to me. I could be in touch on a regular basis and encourage their journey. I have created a blog for college students and others interested in them. www.mainecampusministry.wordpress.com .

The old adage, “It takes a village to raise a child” can be translated into “It takes a Diocese to support our rising adults into their full, hopefully Christ-filled, lives.” One half-time Missioner based on one campus can’t do it alone. Please join me in helping students navigate the minefield of higher education. Please pray for them and me. God bless you.

shirleybowen@maine.rr.com

In other news, here are some links to stories about Maine’s people, congregations, and ministry around the web.

St. Francis must be smiling – The Kennebec Journal reports on a community pet food pantry recently launched at Christ Church, Gardiner.

Retiring military chaplain the Rev. David Sivret and other Maine veterans are honored at a recent ceremony held at St. Anne’s, Calais -  in The Bangor Daily News – on Channel 5 WABI-TV

St. Elizabeth’s Essential Pantry – a ministry of eight Episcopal congregations housed at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland was recently featured on page three of the February edition of Witness, the newsletter of  London-based Anglican Frontier Mission.

Click here for the description of the program, the seven criteria for mission, and the application form.

This is my first experience with PB&F, and I must say it’s a bit daunting. Our work will need to be accomplished in five or six days at the General Convention. We will hold three hearings on July 4, 6 and 7, and the budget will be presented to the General Convention no later than July 10. It will be a time of concentrated effort. The situation is made more complex by the proposals for reform of The Episcopal Church being brought forward from many quarters. To craft budget to support a church in the midst of dramatic and rapid change is both really exciting and very challenging.

Read his entire post here.

For more -

The mandate to PB&F
Read the Episcopal News Service story on this week’s PB&F meeting.
PB&F Membership Roster

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

St. Mark’s, Augusta:    The Rev. Stephen T. Foote, Transition Priest in Charge effective January 2012

St. Saviour’s, Bar Harbor and St. Andrew’s/St. John’s, Southwest Harbor:  Vestries currently interviewing for joint Priest in Charge

St. Columba’s, Boothbay Harbor:  The Rev. Maria Hoecker, Vicar effective January 2012

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

St. Anne’s, Calais:  The Rev. Alice Downs, Priest in Charge effective January 2012

St. Mary’s, Falmouth:  The Rev. Barb Schmitz, Transition Priest in Charge

St. Matthew’s, Hallowell:  The Rev. David Matson, Priest in Charge

Christ Church, Norway:  Vestry negotiating Letter of Agreement for Transition Priest in Charge

St. Peter’s, Portland:  The Rev. Larry Weeks serving as Priest in Charge with supply clergy currently serving.  The Rev. Weeks is also Rector at Trinity, Portland.

The Diocesan Stewardship Initiative has now been underway for nearly a year, offering consultation and resources in all aspects of stewardship: time and talent, love and compassion, effort and dedication, and funds. It is exciting to see the many creative ways that congregations inspire and celebrate offerings of prayer, presence, gifts, and service.

As we become more intentional about cross-pollination, sharing successes and challenges, the question I hear most often is, “Who else is facing this same challenge? How are they approaching it?” With that in mind, let me share some examples of the creativity that is coming to the fore as we take a fresh look at stewardship:

• A small congregation offers a successful weekday fellowship program for families with young children. Maintenance thinking used to ask, “How can we get them to come back on Sunday?” Mission thinking now asks, “How will we be a church with the congregation that is emerging?”Perhaps it will be Noonday Prayer prior to the established fellowship, or a relaxed late-afternoon service. The answer is still emerging, but the question is exciting.
• A stewardship committee stretched the Consecrating Stewards model to engage a year-round conversation around the many ways that members are in ministry together.Twice-monthly, a different ministry or committee is highlighted. During worship, a member talks for a moment about the ministry and what it has meant to his or her spiritual journey.  This both engages the community in the church’s breadth of ministry, and it makes conversations about church finance more tangible.
• In a congregation with strong seasonal membership, the rector’s weekly e-mail creates an on-going sense of community. This is part of a larger approach that includes a June Homecoming, an August annual meeting, and a Blessing on Your Way in September.Through this intentional structure of communication and celebration, seasonal members arrive already “up to speed” as a reunited body of Christ. They also have a tangible sense of their support for mission and ministry: They understand that their faithful, year-round generosity doesn’t just pay for heating oil, it provides year-round warmth for program, worship, and community presence.

If these stories resonate, if you would like to bring fresh thinking about stewardship to your congregation, consider these opportunities:

• On Saturday, February 11, St. John’s Bangor will host two stewardship workshops.

From 9:30-12:30, Money and More will explore holistic stewardship and offer some practical approaches for engaging stewardship in the congregation.

From 1:00-3:00, Organs and Boilers and Roofs, Oh My! will talk through the ins-and-outs of capital campaigns and legacy and endowment giving.

To register for either or both of these sessions, click here.

• Share resources, successes, and your own challenges or questions by subscribing to the Stewardship Listserv at mainestewards-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

• Visit my blog at www.mainestewards.com for stewardship-related reflections, many linked to the week’s lectionary readings.

• To host a regional stewardship workshop or plan for me to visit your congregation, write to me at mainestewards@yahoo.com.

From 9:30-12:30, Money and More will introduce year-round, holistic stewardship, taking a fresh look at time, talent, and treasure through the lenses of the liturgical cycle, the unique seasons of the individual congregation’s life together, and our commitment to mission and ministry in all that we do with all that we have.

From 1:00-3:00, Organs and Boilers and Roofs, Oh My! will look at the principles of capital and legacy stewardship, with practical discussion around how and when to approach what are sometimes sensitive conversations.

Our time together will include the praying of the Daily Office and a lunch break, with a simple sandwich platter and beverage provided. Participants are welcome to bring a “brown bag” supplement as well.

Ready to register, either as an individual or on behalf of a team from your congregation? Click here!

Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland on Christmas Eve 2011:

It is the universal human trait to hope for more, to seek a greater wholeness, a greater fulfillment, a greater love. Don’t ever let that go. Don’t ever surrender that hope.

Read it all here.