Volume 24, December 10, 2020 |
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The Bishop’s Institute for Ministry and Leadership was established in 2015 in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida to provide opportunities to develop lay and clergy leadership in the Diocese; to prepare candidates for ordination to the vocational diaconate and the local priesthood; to prepare candidates for licensed lay ministries and to be a focus for the continuing education for laity and clergy alike. |
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Friday, after Thanksgiving Day, I went to my local YMCA in Orange Park. The first thing I noticed as I exited after my workout was a house across the road where a couple were in the front yard busy stringing Christmas lights and erecting one dimensional almost life-size snowmen and huge candles on the lawn. This was the first sign of something I noticed more and more over that weekend: people are eager for Christmas this end of 2020. More than ready—it is as if some are shouting ‘I need Christmas!’. The Christmas mystery and beauty that comes ‘in bleak midwinter’ has come early now ‘in bleak 2020’.
But first Advent. The holy season of Advent, in which we are now fully entered, is supremely a season of time, and of being aware and alert concerning time: not Eastern Standard Time, not Daylight-saving time, not the day’s closing on the New York Stock Exchange time: but our time, in light of our mortality and God’s eternity.
Advent is a time to withdraw from the illusions of the world that surround us, and that cosset us and make us immune to our mortality and the hope of our salvation. We are bid to withdraw in order to advance; in order to recollect in tranquillity and prayer the reality of our life considered in the light of God’s revelation to us.
It is therefore a time to hear the Lord speak to each one of us, and tell us, as he told his disciples when he went up to the mountain and sat down, and they followed him, away from the crowds:
…when you pray, go into your room and shut the door.
Advent is a time to shut the door: shut the door to all our distractions: to all the things that bind us to this world and rob us of the world to come.
But here, a small warning: sometimes we may find ourselves using Advent as a kind of season for self-help, or self-discovery. That may be innocent enough yet perhaps the focus is a bit off-center. The focus is on God’s revelation: on his greatness and then, only then, our life in the context of that revelation.
Evelyn Underhill, the spiritual writer of the last century has captured the center and balance of Advent beautifully. I have separated below a passage from her Advent writings---separated so to highlight it.
As we anticipate a wondrous Christmas even in the midst of this challenging year, let us continue in Advent season by looking up and out, and heeding the words of the Apostle Paul: knowing the time…the night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Yours sincerely,
Douglas Dupree
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ADVENT: The telescope and the toothbrush
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As far as the life of religion is concerned, if we always used the telescope before we used the toothbrush---looked first at the sky of stars, the great ranges of the beauty and majesty of God, and only then at our own small souls and their condition, needs, and sins---the essential work of the toothbrush would be much better done; and without that self-conscious conviction of its overwhelming importance, and the special peculiarities and requirements of our own set of teeth, which the angels must surely find amusing. “Where I left myself I found God; where I found myself, I lost God,” says Meister Eckhart. Our eyes are not in focus for His Reality, until they are out of focus for our own petty concerns.
----- Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
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An Advent Communion Anthem |
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Once he came in blessing, all our ills redressing; came in likeness lowly, Son of God most holy; bore the cross to save us, hope and freedom gave us. Still he comes within us, still his voice would win us from than e sins that hurt us; to save us, hope and freedom gave us. Still he comes within us, still his voice would win us from the sins that hurt us;
would to Truth convert us: not in torment hold us, but in love enfold us. Thus if thou canst name him, not ashamed to claim him, but wilt trust him boldly, nor dost love him coldly, he will then receive thee, heal thee, and forgive thee. One who thus endureth bright reward secureth. Come then, O Lord Jesus, from our sins release us; let us here confess thee, till in heaven we bless thee.
– Words by Jan Roh (?-1547), Gottes Sohn is kommen,1544; trans. Catherine Winkworth (1829-1878); music by Micahel Weisse.
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GIDEONS
By Douglas Dupree
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This last October I was invited as a guest to attend a Pastor Appreciation Breakfast hosted by the two local (Duval and Clay counties) Gideon Camp groups. My host was Tom Harper, a Jacksonville lawyer who is a faithful member of the Saturday Experiment, a men’s fellowship group organized by another lawyer, Doug Milne that I teach the first Saturday of every month in Doug’s law offices.
I was impressed by the large number of local clergy gathered together for a mid-week breakfast at 7.15 am at the Marriott Courtyard on Wells Road in Orange Park. Included in our number were several military chaplains. One of them had recently returned from deployment in the Middle East.
More especially, I was impressed by the presentation that told us a great deal about the work of Gideons International. I knew of the work of the Gideons firsthand from the Bibles they provided for inmates and for the Chapel when I served (part-time) as Chaplain to HM Prison, Oxford in the UK. But I had no idea of the width and depth of the Gideon International ministry across the world (see www.gideons.org).
The Gideons, founded in 1899, have taken more than 2 billion Scriptures in more than 95 languages to 200 countries, territories, and possessions across the globe. Interestingly, they don’t simply distribute Bibles, important as that ministry is in itself, but first and foremost, they are a compelling movement of lay evangelists who witness to the Gospel in local communities and in businesses, workshops and schools everywhere.
If your church might be looking for an inspirational speaker, perhaps during Lent, to encourage evangelism and outreach, you might consider inviting one of the speakers from the local Duval or Clay county Gideon Camp. Here is a personal word to readers of the Bishop’s Institute e-Newsletter from Michael Swartz, Vice President of the Jacksonville Southwest Camp. Feel free to contact him for more information (Firrsq3362@aol.com or 904-626-6320).
Michael writes:
The Jacksonville Southwest Camp of the Gideons International is made up of Christian business and professional men (excluding ordained ministers) who have received recommendations from their pastors. Our camp consists of 37 members and our wives who have joined the Auxiliary and our sole purpose is to reach men, women, and children for Jesus Christ through personal witnessing and striving side by side with local evangelical churches. Most people know us through the Bibles in hotels, which is only about 8% of the Bibles we distribute. The funds for Bibles come from members contributing, church services, Gideon Card program, and other donations.
Even in this time of reduced contact as of October we have distributed over 1200 Scriptures [locally] including 306 Personal Witnessing Testaments (one on one). We have 8 speakers who are available to present the Gideon information in local evangelical churches. We meet every Saturday morning for Bible reading, prayer for the ministry and to pray for pastors in our camp area.
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The Holiday Season is upon us, wherein we are grateful for our many blessings and mindful of our greatest Blessing, the Incarnation of our Lord. With this Blessed Season in mind, Dr. Dupree is our guest author, offering these trivia related to the music of Advent and Christmas. Thank you, Douglas.
Also, as we head into the New Year, we are mindful to ask you, the readers of this modest trivia column to please send in your questions to share with the Diocese through this column. If you have a trivia question, preferably with the answer attached to share, kindly forward to adefoor@diocesefl.org, and we will try to incorporate it in the months to come.
Merry Christmas to all, Allison+
QUESTIONS
1. Charles Wesley (1707-88) wrote how many of the following Advent-Christmas hymns: a. one; b. two; c. three or d. four:
a. Lo! He comes with clouds descending
b. On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
c. O come, all ye faithful
d. Hark! the herald-angels sing
2. Which bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida made the best-known English translation of Silent Night?
a. John Freeman Young
b. Francis Rutledge
c. Edwin Gardner Weed
d. Frank Alexander Juhan
3. Which bishop of the Episcopal Church wrote the much- loved hymn O little town of Bethlehem?
a. Henry St George Tucker
b. Arthur Lichtenberger
c. Phillips Brooks
d. James Albert Pike
4. Which beautiful contemporary (19th century) Advent hymn, often sung in procession, is based on these antiphons that were sung in medieval times at Vespers before and after the Magnificat a week or so before Christmas?:
O Radix Jesse- O Root of Jesse Isaiah 11.10
O Oriens—O Dayspring Malachi 4.2
O Clavis Davidica—O Key of David Isaiah 22.22
O Adonai—O Lord (Jehovah) Exodus 3.15
5. Which well- known English or American poet wrote these lines on Christmas:
Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes / Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated, / This bird of dawning singeth all night long; / And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, / The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, / No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, / So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.
a. John Milton
b. William Shakespeare
c. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
d. Christina Rossetti
6. Which American writer or poet wrote these lines about Christmas Day:
“I heard the bells, on Christmas Day,
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
“Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale;
Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man’s heart through half the year.”
a. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
b. Washington Irving
c. Emily Dickinson
d. Walt Whitman
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RIP
Jonathan Henry Sacks,
(March 8, 1948-November 7, 2020)
Philosopher, Theologian, sometime Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom
(1991-2013), Life Peerage and seat in the House of Lords from 2009; awarded the Canterbury Medal 2014 and the Templeton Prize 2016. Rabbi Sacks held 16 honorary degrees including the Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded him by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, in 2001.
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The Anglican Communion was distracted and divided in debate throughout the first decade of this century following the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson. The debate reached its zenith in the summer of 2008 at the Lambeth Conference, the decennial assembly of some 650 Anglican bishops from 185 countries representing 85 million members.
Dr Rowan Williams made a wise and constructive decision to invite Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to speak to the Lambeth Conference about covenant, and how the concept was applied to Judaism. Sacks told the assembled bishops:
“A covenant is a way of holding together two or many millions of individuals who may be very different indeed, but who come together to achieve together that which they could not achieve alone," Rabbi Sacks explained. "And a covenant respects the difference, and integrity of that difference, of the different parties to that covenant. …
The words of an outsider gave many the words they needed to think a little more clearly about how their household of faith might continue to live and work together. Dr. Williams is quoted as saying he thought the talk “did a great deal to give a common language to a very diverse group of Christian leaders."
One of his obituary writers identifies Sacks’ unique gift that endeared him and the 33 books he wrote to many religious teachers and preachers within Judaism and in Christianity as well:
He was prodigiously talented in two areas that only rarely come together. He had a trained and sharply honed philosophical mind, and he combined this with superb powers of storytelling and popular communication.
As for the Rector’s book picks for December I can do no better than to recommend you read something by Jonathan Sacks if you have not yet been introduced to him. Here are some that I would put at the top of the list:
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times (hardcover) September 1, 2020.
(paperback) Sep 2, 2014.
Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence (paperback), 2017.
(paperback) Feb 6, 2007.
(paperback) Aug 20, 2015.
QUOTING JONATHAN SACKS
“Most conflicts and wars have nothing to do with religion. They are about power, territory, and glory, things that are secular, even profane. But if religion can be enlisted, it will be.”
“Sometimes we have too little confidence as parents. We underestimate how much our children want to hear from us the stories that give sense and purpose to our lives, and will one day give them strength.”
“You achieve immortality not by building pyramids or statues – but by engraving your values on the hearts of your children, and they on theirs, so that our ancestors live on in us and we in our children, and so on until the end of time.”
“We are changed, not by what we receive, but by what we do.”
“Society is a conversation scored for many voices. But it is precisely in and through that conversation that we become conjoint authors of our collective future, rather than dust blown by the wind of economic forces. Conversation – respectful, engaged, reciprocal, calling forth some of our greatest powers of empathy and understanding – is the moral form of a world governed by the dignity of difference.”
“A community of faith.. cuts across boundaries. It brings together what other institutions keep apart.”
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THE BISHOP’S INSTITUTE FOR MINISTRY AND LEADERSHIP
Presents for the Episcopal Diocese of Florida
A 2021 course to prepare laypersons for the Bishop’s License for
Lay Pastoral Care Minister
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What is a Licensed Lay Pastoral Care Minister (LPCM)? Title III: Ministry
Canon 4: Of Licensed Ministries, Sec. 1 (a) allows that “a confirmed communicant in good standing or, in extraordinary circumstances, subject to guide- lines established by the Bishop, a communicant in good standing, may be licensed by the Ecclesiastical Authority to serve as Pastoral Leader”.
This course will be idea for a lay person who is already serving or plans to serve in some area of ministry in their parish or in an outreach program of their parish that involves working with others who may turn to them and ask for support. The course is designed to assist lay persons in establishing a spiritual presence; making visits in the home, hospital, facility, or hospice; companioning rather than fixing and knowing appropriate boundaries in listening and responding to others. The course is designed to familiarize the lay person with the pastoral resources of The Book of Common Prayer and to find the spiritual resources open to them in Scripture, prayer and worship.
How long is the Bishop’s License valid? Upon successful completion of the course, the person is Licensed by the Bishop for a period of 5 years and may be renewed. The license may be renewed based on the performance of the ministry by the person licensed, continuing education in the licensed area, and the endorsement of the Member of the Clergy or other leader exercising oversight of the congregation in which the person is serving.
Time frame for these courses: The LPCM course will be taught from February – December 2021 with July off.
Where and when: One class is held per month on a Saturday from 9.30 a.m. – 3p.m. (with lunch provided) at the Diocesan Office, 325 North Market Street, Jacksonville, 32202 in the Milam Room. Safety protocols (temperature check, masks and social distancing, etc) will be in effect. The Saturday dates are: February 20; March 20; April 17; May 15; June 19; August 21; September 18; October 16; November 20 and December 4.
How many modules are to be completed for the Bishop’s License? There are ten modules that includes an introduction to pastoral care and a course evaluation at completion. The BCP pastoral offices are an integral part of the course as is worship and centering prayer a regular feature of the course lessons, seminars and practicums. A link to the syllabus is found at the end of this article.
The Tutors. The course designer and lead tutor is Laura Magevney, JD, M.Div. (Vanderbilt University). Laura has advanced CPE chaplaincy training and served for more than a decade as a full time Christian education coordinator. She is a member of St Mary’s Church, Springfield and is a candidate for ordination to the priesthood.
Other tutors are drawn primarily from within the Diocese. They include the Dean, Kate Moorehead and Marsha Holmes who led pastoral care at Christ Church, Ponte Vedra for a goodly number of years.
Cost: The cost per student is $350 for the course and includes the cost of the student worksheets; handouts; additional printing; tutors’ honorariums and expenses; lunches and any other costs to the Bishop’s Institute. Limited scholarships are available. The overall fee may be made in up to four installments, i.e. with a down payment of $50 by January 25, 2021 with registration and the remainder by October 1, 2021. NB Prospective students might ask their Rector or Vicar for their respective church to sponsor them for the course or part of it.
Safeguarding. A licensed LPCM must complete and comply with the guidelines for the Safeguarding God’s People and Safeguarding God’s children programs. Contact Mrs Sue Engemann at the Diocesan Office for details.
Endorsement by the applicant’s Rector, Vicar or Priest-in-Charge is required for enrollment in the course. The endorsing clergy person affirms that the applicant is an adult in good standing in the parish and that he or she endorses the applicant for this ministry. This is necessary because the Licensed lay pastoral care minister serves under the direction and at the discretion of his or her parish clergy leader.
Application form. To receive an application please email Mrs Sue Engemann: sengemann@diocesefl.org. On completing the application form please return it to Mrs Engemann by email attachment or by mail to: Mrs. Sue Engemann, Episcopal Diocese of Florida, 325 N. Market Street, Jacksonville, Fl 32202.
Application deadline. All applications for the course should be received by Mrs Engemann by January 25, 2021 for enrollment in the course.
Further questions. If the applicant or the applicant’s clergy should have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact either Mrs Engemann (email listed above) or the Rev. Canon Douglas Dupree: ddupree@diocesefl.org or either by telephone: 904- 325- 1328.
Click here for the syllabus and a full description of the course and for the required reading list.
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