"Our World, Our Future" campaign invites youth into community service during COVID-19 and beyond
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Laminated paper hearts made by the youth of the Parish of St. John the Evangelist in Hingham stand on the church's lawn as a sign of support for healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Courtesy photo
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Changing the world is a daunting task, but young people across the diocese are being invited to step up in a time of great need to help do just that, one community at a time.
As the COVID-19 pandemic began, diocesan youth missioner the Rev. H. Mark Smith found himself in video meetings with youth workers at a diocesan as well as national level, discussing youth ministry in the time of COVID-19 and the common desire to move youth from mourning what they are losing into action and ways to feel like they’re making a contribution to their communities.
“It’s, number one, to encourage and help organize some efforts to offer relief in places that urgently need it right now,” Smith said. “Second is to give young people--who like all of us are feeling pretty powerless--a way to feel useful and powerful. That then gives us an opportunity to raise up to the rest of the diocese the reality of our young people as partners in ministry today, not some sort of special-needs population that needs to be taken care of.”
The new campaign is designed to help organize youth groups, individual young people and others to support outreach efforts according to their abilities and interests, all while maintaining recommended physical distancing protocols and current public health policies.
As part of this campaign, the Office of Youth Ministry developed an
online catalog of service opportunities across the diocese, categorized in four broad areas of ministry: Feeding and Gifting; Companionship; Fundraising; and Advocacy.
Early examples include youth at the
Parish of St. John the Evangelist in Hingham making cards and writing letters for sick parishioners and for neighbors at the senior living facility nearby, and planting a "garden of hearts" on the church lawn to show support for healthcare workers.
St. John's Church in Westwood has used the launch of the "Our World, Our Future" campaign to form a three-parish collaboration with
Epiphany Parish in Walpole and First Parish of Westwood (UCC). The youth from all three are making sandwiches and providing other food for Ecclesia Ministries and its "common cathedral"--an outdoor congregation serving the homeless community on Boston Common.
Smith emphasized that the "Our World, Our Future" outreach campaign aligns with diocesan mission strategy for building relationships across the diocese, engaging the world in new ways and--in its promotion of youth leadership and youth organizing--re-envisioning congregations. Smith said that as terrible as this pandemic is, it has given many an opportunity to see more clearly than ever that what you do as an individual can have a huge impact on other people.
“My understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ is to be an active agent in rebuilding the realm of God on Earth as it is in heaven, and so taking action is an important part of that,” Smith said. “It is very clear now that yes, we are all connected whether we like it or not. What you do has an impact on me. The virus is having negative impacts on us, but we can have positive impacts on each other.”
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Massachusetts Episcopal churches prepare to regather--
but not before July 1
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The four-phase
Massachusetts reopening plan announced by Governor Charlie Baker on May 18 permits restricted regathering at houses of worship right away, but Episcopal churches in Massachusetts will not be resuming in-person public worship or gatherings until at least July 1—a directive issued by the bishops of both Massachusetts Episcopal dioceses earlier this month.
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That directive remains in effect until further notice, despite allowances in the governor’s plan, which is focused on balancing the reopening of the state economy with public safety concerns amidst the still-active COVID-19 pandemic.
“While we regret this ongoing necessity, we know it is the safe and loving course of action,” Bishop Alan M. Gates and Bishop Gayle E. Harris of the Diocese of Massachusetts said in a
May 12 announcement that their restriction on in-person public worship and gatherings is extended until July 1.
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“We are profoundly grateful for the dedication and creativity with which congregations are responding to provide alternative, virtual opportunities for worship and fellowship, as well as continued ministry to the most vulnerable in our communities,” the bishops said, encouraging congregations to continue in their innovative and faithful efforts.
Anticipating that eventual and phased resumption of in-person public worship and church activities will be complicated and require careful preparation, the three bishops of the two Massachusetts Episcopal dioceses have jointly issued a detailed set of guidelines--"
A Journey By Stages"--and they are urging congregational leaders to start discussing now what safe regathering will entail in their local contexts.
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Diocese of Massachusetts COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund remains open to receive contributions
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The Diocese of Massachusetts COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund remains open to receive contributions at
www.diomass.org/give-now, and is helping to meet urgent needs and congregational sustainability during this time.
With deep gratitude for all the ways that individuals and congregations are responding to COVID-19, Bishop Alan M. Gates urges everyone to continue to financially support their local congregations and to give generously to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund: “Our diocesan support to the neediest among us is crucial. Each of us, individually and communally, faces challenge and sacrifice in this crisis. For some, this hardship is potentially devastating. It is in those places especially that we must care for one another. We have affirmed repeatedly that we are stronger together than we are separately. Now may we manifest that strength!”
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This summer's camp programs suspended at BCH Center
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A view from the outdoor chapel at the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H.
Courtesy photo via Facebook
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This year’s summer camp programs at the
Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H., have been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The center’s executive director, John Koch, and board president, the Rev. Natasha Stewart, announced the suspension on May 13.
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“In making this very difficult decision, we consulted with other New England summer camps as well as the State of New Hampshire, the American Camp Association and the national Episcopal Camp and Conference Center Association. Ultimately, we realized that the health and safety of our campers, staff and volunteers needed to be our priority and the decision was made to suspend programming,” they said in an e-mail announcement.
Families with registered campers may choose to have their paid fees fully refunded or applied to next year’s camp season. They can also designate those payments as a donation to support the center’s operations.
In their announcement, Koch and Stewart asked for prayers for campers and staff, as well as for the financial health of the camp and conference center. It has been closed since mid-March and, with the decision to cancel summer camp this year, will be facing at least five months with no income. Some staff members have been furloughed, and others are working reduced hours.
The center has set up a COVID-19 Operating Fund, and it is open to receive online gifts
here.
“These may be tough times, but we continue to have confidence in our future,” Koch and Stewart said in their announcement. “The Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center community is resilient and strong. With lots of prayer and lots of creativity, we will get through. We are already looking forward to summer 2021!”
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"FUEL" partners form food supply chain for children and families during pandemic school closures
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In 2017, when members of the
Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill heard stories of school nurses and counselors keeping non-perishable food items in the trunks of their cars for kids who didn’t get enough food on the weekends, they decided to partner with the
Centre Street Food Pantry in Newton to form a program called FUEL that would provide weekend food for students who rely on free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches at school during the week.
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Three hundred backpacks filled with food for children and families in need, lined up at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill.
Courtesy photo
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As of the fall of 2019, FUEL had partnered with Newton public schools,
St. Stephen's Youth Programs (SSYP) at St. Stephen’s Church in Boston and the
Epiphany School in Dorchester--providing roughly 30-35 backpacks filled with non-perishable food and snacks each week to each partner to distribute to children in need. Members of the Church of the Redeemer who wished to volunteer to help with the program were invited to help shop for and sort large quantities of food, pack the bags of food and contribute financially as they were able.
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This year, when schools in Massachusetts closed for the remainder of the school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Church of the Redeemer called around to see what it could do to continue to help, and found that many of its school partners offered to deliver bags of food to the children and their families who need them, now more than ever.
The challenge now was that many stores limited the purchase of items to two per person, so no longer could they purchase the needed non-perishables in bulk, as had been their practice. What they needed was a community of individuals who could help purchase or order online the items two at a time--and so the church has been asking its members to do just that, as they are able.
“The idea that the food logistical infrastructure has been completely upended is going to require us as a community of faith to respond to it in ways that are so local, and so direct, because it’s all we’re going to have capacity for,” said the Rev. Mike Dangelo, the rector of the Church of the Redeemer, in an interview. “I’m part of a privileged parish. We have been given so much, and to be able to do this with people who have a deep desire and hope to make a difference in the world in Christ’s name has been a Godsend, thanks to a remarkable group of lay people who have made this a commitment.”
Read more here.
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"They always answer the call":
Two priests in the news for
s
pecial roles on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis
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Among the COVID-19 responders in the news are two Episcopal priests with special roles on the front lines of the crisis.
The Belmont Journal “News Now” featured a video interview with the Rev. Paul Minor, on April 27. He is co-rector of
All Saints' Church in Belmont and senior chaplain in the Massachusetts National Guard—the military reserve that the governor activates to respond in times of natural disaster or civil emergency. The first in the nation—founded in 1636—the Massachusetts National Guard has been called to a wide spectrum of critical tasks during the current pandemic, Minor explains, ranging from meal distribution and erecting field hospitals to direct medical care and testing, as well as warehousing and transport of personal protective equipment.
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The Rev. Paul Minor
Screenshot from interview
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“I’m in awe of these folks doing wonderful missions all over the place,” he said. “The call comes and people respond."
Watch the full interview here.
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The Rev. Katie Rimer
Courtesy photo
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Hospital and nursing home chaplains have been working around the clock, often in circumstances they never imagined, as the death toll from COVID-19 rises. The Rev. Katie Rimer, the director of spiritual care and education at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, was among the chaplains featured in a May 4 WBUR radio segment on hospital chaplains.
She describes being called upon to respond to a critically ill Jewish patient by reading to him, from the door, the traditional prayer for the sick, the Mi Shebeirach, with her hand on the window glass. "I do hope that we did well for this man and his family and for the many, many others who are in this experience that is most unusual and most extraordinary," she said.
Listen to the full segment here.
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St. Luke’s-San Lucas is part of citywide response in COVID-19 “hot spot” Chelsea: Every Wednesday, trucks from the Chelsea Department of Public Works pull up to
St. Luke’s-San Lucas Church filled with food. When they do, Monica Elias Orellana and her team of 10 volunteers stand ready. “We’re waiting for them,” Elias recently told Episcopal News Service.
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Since the week of March 23, when the 25-year-old Chelsea resident stepped in as the church’s volunteer coordinator, public works trucks have carried food from the Greater Boston Food Bank to St. Luke’s-San Lucas in the predominantly Hispanic community it serves. Her first week, the church received 6,000 pounds of groceries, Elias said. By the first Wednesday in May, that had grown to 17,000 pounds, propelled by the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Chelsea. “It’s just increasing week by week,” Elias said.
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A volunteer brings a pallet of cabbages into the church on May 13.
Photo: Egan Millard/Episcopal News Service
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UBE urges black Episcopalians to complete U.S. Census and register to vote: The
Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE) has joined the Episcopal Church and other faith and advocacy groups in encouraging communities of color to participate in the 2020 U.S. Census and register to vote, actions that have a direct impact on the distribution of federal funds and democratic representation in government. The topic was one in a series of “Talk 2 Talk” webinars that the UBE offers every third Sunday of the month.
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Join “Love God, Love Neighbor: Episcopal Month of Action” webinar series in June: The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations and Episcopal Migration Ministries will offer a series of three webinars throughout June for learning and advocacy with and on behalf of immigrants, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, refugees and asylum seekers. Participants may choose to attend one or more of the webinars, to be offered on June 9, 16 and 23, 3:30-5 p.m.
Registration is required here.
For information on joining others in this work in the Diocese of Massachusetts, contact the Rev. Canon Dr. Jean Baptiste Ntagengwa, Canon for Immigration and Multicultural Ministries, at
jbntagengwa@diomass.org or 617-482-4826, ext. 400.
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New Province I coordinator named: Emily Keniston has been named the new coordinator for Province I, according to an April 27 announcement from the province’s Executive Committee. Province I comprises the seven Episcopal dioceses of New England.
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Keniston is a member of St. Ann's Church in Windham, Maine. She has been actively involved in faith formation for a decade, and most recently served in mission in Tunisia, North Africa. Keniston founded Faith Formation Connect, an online formation coaching program for Province I and served as chairperson of the Maine Christian Education Collaborative. She holds a certificate in Lifelong Christian Formation (jointly awarded by Forma and Virginia Theological Seminary), and degrees in communication, international studies and education from the University of Southern Maine. She and her family live in Portland.
Keniston’s new work will involve connecting people who are doing similar work within the province and across the church, and inspiring collaboration and creativity in the stewardship of resources. She begins in June.
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Emily Keniston
Courtesy photo
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Ordination of deacons, June 5 & 6, via Zoom and webcast: The diocesan community’s prayers and virtual presence are invited for the upcoming ordination of deacons, which, because of current public health circumstances, will be taking place in a new way this year, over the course of Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6.
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The Liturgy of the Word portion of the ordination service will be conducted as an online gathering via Zoom on Friday,
June 5 at 7 p.m.
The examination and laying on of hands for the nine ordinands will take place as separate events at the
Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston throughout the following day, Saturday, June 6, with in-person involvement of the primary participants only, to accommodate physical distancing protocols.
There will be a live webcast of Saturday’s proceedings so that family members, friends, sponsors and the wider diocesan community can join online. The schedule is posted at
www.diomass.org/event/ordination-deacons-2020, where links for joining the gatherings online also will be posted.
An offering will be collected for the Diocese of Massachusetts COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, to which gifts can be made online via
www.diomass.org/give-now, with a dedication note indicating thanksgiving for the ordination of a particular individual or all the ordinands.
Prayers are invited for the ordinands as they prepare (sponsoring congregation or community in parentheses):
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All are invited to join the discussion group, the latest in a series inspired by diocesan mission strategy themes of reimagining congregations, building relationships and engaging the world.
E-mail Martha Gardner, Missioner for Networking and Formation, at
mgardner@diomass.org to receive the Zoom link.
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RIP Diane D’Souza: Former
Mission Institute director Diane D’Souza died on May 9, at home in Milton and in the company of her family. She had been in treatment for brain cancer for a year and a half.
Read her obituary here.
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Diane D'Souza
Courtesy photo
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The Mission Institute began as a collaboration between the Diocese of Massachusetts,
Episcopal City Mission and Episcopal Divinity School and was first envisioned as a think tank and resource hub to equip clergy and lay leaders for innovative ministry. Under D’Souza’s six-year founding directorship, it evolved to focus its mission on racial justice work with organizations and congregations. It has since become an independent organization.
“Diane touched so many of our lives,” the Mission Institute’s board said in a May 15 statement. “A person with a profound capacity to care and love for those around her, she was a guiding light for many of us in the work of racial and social justice. Through her we learned to care for one another with fierce compassion and attention to equity. Even in death her example and legacy prevail, and we hold her in our hearts as we continue the work of the Mission Institute.”
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Falmouth Enterprise:
Let's all be ministers of engagement: The Rev. Nell Fields from the Waquoit Congregational Church and the Rev. Will Mebane from
St. Barnabas's Church are featured in a May 15 column by Troy Clarkson, who writes: "When asked when and how things might go back to the way they were before, Rev. Will simply but poignantly offered that he hopes they don’t. With all of the anger, hate and hurt that defined much of our [pre-pandemic] interactions, he offered a loving admonishment to put our 'hearts in quarantine' and reflect on what a better Falmouth future might be—not financially, but humanely.
Read more here.
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Monadnock Ledger-Transcript:
Retreat centers open doors to doctors and first responders for quarantine: Coming home at the end of the day is not necessarily a comfort if there’s a risk of exposing a family or household member to COVID-19. That’s where family physician Dr. Dayna Ferguson found himself, working in the emergency room at Monadnock Community Hospital a couple weeks ago. In a turn of events befitting the strangeness of the times, he is now sleeping in a studio normally reserved for the world’s most promising writers at Peterborough’s MacDowell Colony.
“I have four children and my oldest daughter was really sick in January,” he said, with necrotizing pneumonia and other complications. She’d been badly sick before, and Ferguson suspected she could be immunocompromised, and therefore more vulnerable to COVID-19. Luckily for him, the MacDowell Colony and the
Barbara C. Harris Center in Greenfield have both offered their facilities as emergency housing for medical professionals, in order to protect families like Ferguson’s.
Read more here.
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May 21
: Youth Ministry Online Gathering, 3:30pm
May 21
: Diocesan Council Meeting via Zoom, 6:00pm
May 24
: CANCELED: Bishop Gates visits Christ Church in Cambridge
May 26
: Greta Thunberg Book Group, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, via Zoom, 6:00pm
May 27
: Online Budget Hearing, 7:00pm
May 28
: Children's Formation Online Gathering, 3:30pm
May 30
: CANCELED: Confirmation - Neponset & South Shore Deaneries
May 30
: POSTPONED: Regional Wardens Day
May 31
: CANCELED: Bishop Harris visits St. John the Evangelist in Hingham
May 31
: CANCELED: Bishop Gates visits St. Mark's Church in Southborough
Jun 4
: Youth Ministry Online Gathering, 3:30pm
Jun 5 & 6
: Ordination of Deacons via Zoom and live webcast
Jun 7
: CANCELED: Bishop Harris visits St. Andrew's Church in Ayer
Jun 9
: CANCELED: Episcopal City Mission Annual Celebration, Boston University George Sherman Union
Jun 10
: Mission Strategy Online Book Group: "Joining God, Remaking Church, and Changing the World," 7:00pm
Jun 11
: Children's Formation Online Gathering, 3:30pm
Jun 13
: CANCELED: Confirmation - Merrimack Valley and Concord River Deaneries
Jun 13
: CANCELED: Confirmation - Mt. Hope-Buzzards Bay Deanery
Jun 14
: CANCELED: Bishop Harris visits St. Paul's Church in North Andover
Jun 18
: Youth Ministry Online Gathering, 3:30pm
Jun 18
: Diocesan Council Meeting via Zoom, 6:00pm
Jun 27
: CANCELED: Confirmation - Boston Harbor Deanery
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