June 7, 2022 E-News

June 7, 2022

In this edition of ENews:

Bishop Megan visits St. Peter's Red Bluff
Forward with Families: Caring for the Homeless
EfM Program Graduates Nine
Latest on Resolution on Open Communion before General Convention

Around the Diocese

Bishop Megan visits St. Peter's Red Bluff on

Pentecost Sunday

Sunday, June 5 was a joyous celebration of the Feast of Pentecost at St.Peter's Red Bluff. Assisted by Priest-in-Charge Rev. Julie Wakelee, Bishop Megan preached and celebrated Eucharist, and met with the vestry and parishioners after the service. A highlight of the bishop's visit was her being named a lifetime honorary member of St.Peter's award-winning acolyte drill team! Many thanks to the folks at St.Peter's for their warm welcome.

Left: Bishop Megan with Priest-in-Charge Rev. Julie Wakelee and Acolyte Gail Locke

Top Right: Bishop Megan and Rev. Julie with (Re)Start bins assembled by parishioners at St. Peter's

Bottom Right: St. Peter's Award-Winning Acolyte Drill Team - Back row: Brad Pierce, Fred Reynolds (director), Bishop Megan (honorary member), The Rev. Maryly Adair, The Rev. Julie Wakelee.

Front row: Luke Johnson (holding the church’s parade trophy), Penny Johnson.

Forward with Families: Caring for the Homeless at the Center at St. Matthew’s

by CeeCee Coleman, Chair of the Center Committee and Senior Warden of the Mission at St. Matthew’s

At St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, I have attended weddings, funerals, baby showers, and birthday parties—life events bringing families together. In the grand scheme, these may not seem that significant, but to the individuals and their families, these events are incredibly important. And sometimes, to make them happen, St. Matthew’s becomes host. We host when our neighbors living unsheltered in the Arden Arcade community need a safe place to put on a special occasion for their family, housed or not. We recognize that lacking a home doesn’t mean you must lose out on life’s important moments.

Nor does lacking a home mean that you can’t be safe and warm. Partnering with Sacramento Steps Forward and CarmichaelHART (Homeless Assistance Resource Team), St. Matthew’s welcomed people experiencing homelessness by hosting rotating winter shelters, giving 30-100 adults a safe and warm place to eat and sleep. And when we say eat, we mean eat. St. Matthew’s ensures folks don’t leave hungry. When we host a shelter dinner, we give every guest a bag with leftovers for the night and breakfast for the morning. We believe in River City Food Bank’s philosophy that “No one should be hungry.” So, we stuff the bags and spread the word that River City Food Bank at the Center at St. Matthew’s is available to everyone experiencing food insecurity.

The outreach work of St. Matthew’s doesn’t stop at our property line. We actively seek out folks living unsheltered and ensure they know they have family looking out for them. We visit encampments to offer prayer, Eucharistic visitation, and candlelight vigils. With donations from friends across the diocese, we pass out snack packs, hygiene kits, and gift cards. The responses of “Thank You” and often “God Bless You” let us know that we have made strides to better the lives of our family living unsheltered.

Three and a half years ago, the Center at St. Matthew’s decided to do more. Working with local government officials, nonprofits, and other religious organizations, the Center led a grassroots effort to create Arden Arcade HART (Homeless Assistance Resource Team). We hosted the large founding meeting in January 2019 at St. Matthew’s. The Center’s Executive Director, Jim Schaal, chaired the initial meetings and served as the acting Secretary and Treasurer until other leaders stepped up to these roles. I was elected President of Arden Arcade HART in April 2019, and I work as a Homeless Navigator with Sacramento Self-Help Housing.

Arden Arcade HART's mission is to provide resources to assist community members experiencing homelessness. We provide food, hygiene supplies, warm clothing, referrals to homeless services, and a welcoming community. We find our lost sons and daughters and rebuild relationships with them.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, these outreach efforts became more vital than ever. When local restaurants and businesses closed their lobbies, our unsheltered family members no longer had a place to eat, wash their hands, or get warm. Since January 2021, Arden Arcade HART has organized eight local faith communities to participate in a meal distribution program. Here at St. Matthew’s, the the Rev. Babs Haggenjos, vocational Deacon of the Mission at St. Matthew’s, has coordinated the Phoenix Chapter of the Daughters of the King with several other DOK chapters to prepare and deliver meals with Arden Arcade HART.

I am proud to be one of the founding members of the Center at St. Matthew’s and to support these efforts to help our Arden Arcade family, including those experiencing homelessness. My family and I give financially and volunteer our time to help the Center at St. Matthew’s. We hope you will too.

How To Donate

We invite you to join us in the Center at St. Matthew’s Forward with Families giving campaign in May and June 2022. Thanks to a generous matching gift from the Rev. Mary Claugus, your donations to the Center will be doubled up to the matching gift amount of $25,000.

To donate online, please visit the diocesan website’s online giving portal at:

norcalepiscopal.org/give/ Click on the red “Give” button and select “The Center at St. Matthew’s” from the drop-down menu. You may enter “in honor of” or “in memory of” your loved ones in the “optional memo” field.

To donate by check, please make your check payable to “Episcopal Diocese of Northern California” and write “Center at St. Matthew’s” in the memo line. You may enclose a note in honor or in memory of your loved ones. Please mail your check directly to the Center at:

The Center at St. Matthew’s

2300 Edison Avenue

Sacramento, CA 95821-1714

EfM Program Graduates Nine

Congratulations to the 2022 Education for Ministry (EfM) graduates! Pictured here with Bishop Megan are six of the nine graduates from four parishes who were acknowledged during the June 3rd service at the cathedral. Several parishes around the diocese host the 4-year EfM exploration of tradition and faith program.

For more information about EfM, joining a group, or starting a group at your church or on Zoom please contact Barbara Phillips-Barrett at bpb@napanet.net.

Office of the Bishop

Best Skills, Best Churches Announces

2022/2023 Program

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

This exciting program is designed to meet the professional needs of leaders of nonprofit and public organizations. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will receive a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation.

Click here for the schedule and additional information.

Click here to register.

Mission for Disaster Resilience

Know Your Evacuation Zone

By Mark G. Dibelka | Missioner for Disaster Resilience

For those who have thought about disaster preparedness, one of the first considerations regarding the safety of yourself and family is to know your evacuation zone. While the authorities do their absolute best to care for the safety and well-being of the citizens, unfortunately the quickest way to share information is not always the easiest way for the common person to understand.

When evacuation information is given, it is frequently provided as an evacuation zone that may not be easily remembered. It is only after the information has been processed through the media that useful landmarks may be given. Because of the need to move quickly, having a reminder in time of stress would be helpful.

Posting your evacuation zone, in large letters and numbers, in a place that is easily seen (such as the back of your front door) and carrying it in your wallet/purse/fanny pack will be of great help when bad things start to happen.

If you do not already know your evacuation zone, the website community.zonehaven.com will help you find your zone in most counties.

If your county has not registered with Zonehaven, please call your county office of emergency services and ask their assistance in finding your zone.

Once you know your evacuation zone, please be ready to evacuate when the authorities announce it could be happening. Leaving early, instead of waiting for the evacuation order, reduces the chance of forgetting something, being caught in traffic, or blocking the way for emergency responders.

Remember, we love you and value you. Evacuate early and let your contact people know where you are and that you are OK.

Peace,

Mark

General Convention News

Theologians’ statement on open Communion reignites debate among Episcopalians ahead of General Convention

By Egan Millard and David Paulsen [Episcopal News Service]

Posted Jun 3, 2022

The wine stands on a large credence table behind the altar in the worship space in July 2018 for the closing Holy Eucharist at the 79th General Convention in the Austin, Texas, Convention Center. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service.

Editor’s Note: On June 5, an Episcopal group of lay and clergy leaders, a majority of them from the Diocese of Northern California and other dioceses in California, released a statement defending Resolution C028 in response to the statement a week earlier from 22 seminary theologians. The latest statement can be read here.

The long-simmering debate over the topic of open Communion – allowing anyone to receive the Eucharist, regardless of whether they have been baptized – has reignited among Episcopalians in recent days, particularly on social media.

The practice, though restricted by the church’s canons, is common in many Episcopal churches. A newly proposed General Convention resolution seeking to repeal the canon in question, coupled with a statement from 22 seminary theologians expressing concern about its implications, has sparked arguments for and against such a change.

“I’m not surprised by the passion, because it cuts deeply into how we understand God and what the church is about,” Fond du Lac Bishop Matthew Gunter, who also serves as bishop provisional of Eau Claire, told Episcopal News Service. Gunter is the secretary of the General Convention bishops’ committee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music. “There are people on both sides who feel pretty strongly about that. So trying to listen to one another is also something we need to do.”

The resolution proposed by the Diocese of Northern California, C028, received a hearing on May 3 and is currently before the bishops’ and deputies’ committees on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music, which will meet again on June 27 to hear testimony for or against it one final time before the 80th General Convention, July 8-11 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The 22 theologians did not testify at the May 3 hearing but submitted their joint statement May 31 to the committee chairs. The statement asserts that the link between the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist is crucial and that it should not be portrayed as “exclusive or inhospitable,” as it has been described by some who favor repealing the canon that restricts the Eucharist to baptized people.

The Rev. Robert MacSwain, the professor of theology at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, who wrote the statement, told ENS in an email that “while C028 (and its accompanying explanation) was the initiating cause, the main impetus was a more pervasive sense that The Episcopal Church needs to do a better job of clarifying and communicating its understanding of Baptism and Eucharist and their intimate relationship.”

Read The Full Article Here

Updated legislative committee schedule

The schedule for General Convention online legislative meetings has been extended through June. New meetings are being added regularly, so anyone wishing to observe or testify should check the calendar. Registration must be submitted at least two business days prior to a hearing.

Meetings scheduled for this week include:

Governance & Structure: June 8, 2 p.m. ET – open hearing. View resolutions.
Social Justice & United States Policy: June 8, 7:30 p.m. ET – open hearing. View resolutions.
Ministry: June 8, 8 p.m. ET – open hearing. View resolutions.
Racial Justice & Reconciliation: June 9, 7:30 p.m. ET - committee deliberation only, no testimony.
Environmental Stewardship & Care of Creation: June 11, 4 p.m. ET – open hearing. View resolutions.

En Espanol

From the Wider Church

Seminarian Financial Aid

The Diocese of California offers financial aid for postulants pursuing theological education at an approved seminary. Financial aid is available for students from the Diocese of California and, from designated funds, the Diocese of Northern California, the Diocese of San Joaquin, and the Diocese of El Camino Real. Specific eligibility requirements differ from fund to fund.

Apply by June 10, 2022 at https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/73r1pOe60790

For additional questions, contact the vocations officer, Dr. Travis Stevens, at vocations@diocal.org.

From the Episcopal Foundation

$100,000

Foundation Grant Fund –

Now Accepting Applications for 2022!

The Episcopal Foundation of Northern California has joyfully committed to continue our $100,000 Foundation Grant program available to churches and missions throughout our Diocese in 2022.

The deadline to submit an application is July 1, 2022. Grants will be awarded in the month of August.

Click here or visit the EFNC page on our website to find out more, and to download an application!

Spiritual Formation

Explorations in the Gospel of John

June 12: Trinity Sunday, John 16:12-15

When I was first ordained, I found it difficult to preach on Trinity Sunday.

It seemed that what might be said had already been said. Every thought or illustration I tried seemed either trite, uninteresting or inadequate. Over the years two things have served to change all that and have made Trinity Sunday an exciting time to preach for me. The first was the gradual awareness that, as in our Gospel reading today (or in the Epistle reading, Romans 5:1-5) so many passages in the New Testament brought together the persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Or one thinks of 2 Corinthians 13:13, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. I studied passages like 1 Peter 1:1, where all three persons are mentioned. And there are many others. It is true that the word Trinity is not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament. That would have to wait for Tertullian in the early third century. But as theologian J.I. Packer has observed, “everywhere in the New Testament the word Trinity is clamoring to be said.”

But another, even more thrilling feature of the New Testament and early Christian witness to the Trinity came to me when I read and reviewed the book by Matthew Bates, The Birth of the Trinity. Oxford University Press, 2015. Bates makes a careful study of those Old Testament passages in which the earliest Christian interpreters overheard a divine conversation between the persons of the Trinity. They heard such a conversation in Psalm 2:7, I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” The early Christians asked, who is saying what to whom?

And when was it said? And this led them to a deepened understanding of the relationship of the Father and the Son, from the dawn of time. They heard the divine conversation in Psalm 110:1 – the most frequently cited Old Testament text in the New Testament. They heard the cry of the Son to the Father in Psalm 22. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Indeed, they heard the Lord’s witness concerning his death and Resurrection, his humiliation and exaltation throughout the whole Psalm And the early Christian perception of all three persons of the Trinity can be detected through a careful study of 2 Corinthians 4:13: But just as we have the same Spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture – “I believed and so I spoke” – we also believe and so we speak. As Bates wrote, “The Christ speaks to God the Father via a script authored by the Spirit.” Paul and we ourselves are invited to hear and become part of the divine conversation between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is at least part of what Jesus meant when he said of the Holy Spirit, He will take what is mine and will declare it to you.”

– The Rev. Peter Rodgers

Commission for Intercultural Ministries

LGBTQ+ Welcome and Ministry Conversation

Saturday, June 25 | 9:00am - 10:30am

The diocesan Commission for Intercultural Ministries invites you to join us for a planning and dreaming conversation about how we can support churches in our diocese in being welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community, and to dream what ministry opportunities there may be.

Join us on zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83777220021

For more information contact Miriam Casey, Co-Chair Commission for Intercultural Ministries at norcalcim@gmail.com.

Diocese’s Refugee Resettlement Ministry Lovingly Welcomes Refugee Families to Northern California

For the past 10 months churches and individuals have been actively engaged in efforts to resettle refugees in their new communities. The Refugee Resettlement team is so grateful for the many folks who have donated money, food, furniture, winter welcome kits, warm blankets, go to work kits, and their time and talents to embrace these new neighbors.

There is much more work to be done. Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing war and violence and waiting to begin their new lives here. You can help. Please contact the Refugee Team to find out how. Email Bob Wohlsen, Volunteer and Donor Coordinator - bob.wohlsen@gmail.com

Click here to read more