Winter 2010

RisenRhode Island’s Source for Episcopal News

Creative
Writing Contest
Art in Community at St. Martin’s
The Cathedral Close; Creating Possibility

Creation and Creativity

 RISEN

EPISCOPAL CAMP AND CONFERENCE CENTER

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The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island
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The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, Bishop of RI

Editor in Chief:
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2 RISEN / WINTER 2010
Contents
14 FEATURES
The Cathedral Close: Creating Possibility10
Bishop Wolf, Dean Krauss, and the Cathedral Close Com-
mittee have exciting plans in the works for the Cathedral
and environs, due to some seriously creative thinking.

Art in Community at St. Martin’s 14

Within a grand Biblical tradition of collectively concepted
Art, St. Martin’s parishioners all participate in the design,
production, and assembly of a large mosaic.

Downcity Hawk and the Cathedral 19

A Photo exhibit by Peter Green.

Creative Writing Contest 20

Read the winning entries: “The Windows” By Marlies Par-
ent, and “Between Here and the Monastery” by Raechel
Doughty

Trinity Ministry of the Arts 27

Acting and the dramatic arts in a parish context.

COLUMNS 12 19
Openings 4
From the Bishop
Body Building
Living the Journey Together
Scenes

NewsBriefs 10 10 20
The Cathedral Close Project
Bishop Zawo’s Visit

Episcopal Life 28
Ads & Events 34

WINTER 2010/ RISEN 3

 Openings
Peter Green www.providencefalcons.com

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

--- William Butler Yeats

4 RISEN / WINTER 2010

From
O
The Bishop
ur uncreated God is the great
Creator of the universe, form-
Openings

ing the shining stars and the depths

of the seas. It is through the Divine
breath that humanity sprung to
life, and the One who works with
the skill of the potter formed every-
thing that is. We are made in the
image of our creating God, follow-
ing the first commandment to be
fruitful and multiply, shaping the
physical world with extraordinary
vision, and bringing to life the pres-
ence of Love within our hearts and
the heart of the world. PHOTO: MARY MURPHY

playful gives way to the desire to be come offerings, placed in the

God is referred to as Architect and acceptable. After all, no one wants corporate mind, out of which
Author, the first Artist, and the one to make a fool of themselves, in something comes to birth that
whose breathtaking sense of color spite of Jesus’ injunction to be like a is more than any one person’s
no painter can exceed. child, and St. Paul’s admonition to contribution. Creative people
“I’m not a very creative person,” is a be a fool for Christ. The fear of em- can take two or more seem-
phrase I often hear. barrassment is great, and so we hide ingly unconnected ideas or
However, this is one of God’s things, put them together and
not true. Born out “I’m not most wonderful voila, a new creation!
of creativity, we are a very creative person,” treasures: cre-
is a phrase I often hear. At a time when money may
creative by nature. ativity.
be in short supply, let us cul-
Give a child a cray- Our Rhode Is- tivate the bank of ideas that
However,
on and paper. The
this is not true. land Episcopal are essential resources for our
walls, floors and churches face future.
furniture become Born out of creativity, challenges that
a canvass. Listen we are creative will only be Faith and creativity are the
to boys and girls by nature met by creative gifts we bring to the chal-
as they take their thinkers. Not all lenges we face. Not sure you
favorite stuffed ideas are equal have enough? Remember, our
animal and talk to them as if they in their practicality, but every idea creativity comes from the Di-
were “real.” They create stories and can enlighten others to add to the vine Creator, whose Word is
relationships, making amazing con- pool of ideas out of which extraor- born animates our hearts, and
nections between the tangible and dinary insights and actions emerge. whose light enlightens all our
spiritual world. Group creativity bears fruit when endeavors.
As we move toward adulthood, our everyone enjoys sharing thoughts
willingness to take risks and to be without “owning” them. Ideas be-
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 5
 Openings
BODY BUILDING
Congregational Development
By Betsy Fornal
Canon for Congregations and Clergy
A s the new year begins, this dio-
cese has twenty-two congrega-
tions in transition, that is, without
a settled priest to serve them. Only
nine of them are going to be able
to call full-time priests. Of the
other thirteen churches, some have
TRANSITIONS as of January 2010
Churches in Self-Study
• St. David’s-on-the-Hill, Cran-
ston
• St. John’s, Ashton
• St. John’s, Barrington
• All Saints’ Memorial, Provi-
dence
• Good Shepherd, Pawtucket
Churches Receiving
Names
• St. Andrew’s-by-the-Sea, Little
Compton Ascension, Wake-
field Emmanuel, Newport
Retirements/Transitions
• The Rev. Gary Lemery has retired as
• Trinity, Newport
• Grace, Providence
Recent Calls
• The Rev. Michael Coburn has
• The Rev. Alcide Barnaby has retired
6 RISEN / WINTER 2010
reached a point in their lives as a com- author of THE PRESENT FUTURE and
munity where the expense of keeping the MISSIONAL RENAISSANCE, will be
doors open requires so much of their re- our speaker. Reggie talks about what it is
sources – time, talent and treasure - that like to be the church in this new millen-
there is often little left beyond survival. nium, what is important, what is working
and what is not. He shares his passion for
How can that be? Right now in the United different ways of thinking and being the
States a great spiritual awakening is occur- church on a mission, ways that are defi-
ring. People are seek- nitely outside our com-
ing God in new and fort zone.
different ways and in A great
greater numbers than spiritual awakening In “MISSIONAL RE-
ever before. But here’s NAISSANCE” Reg-
is occurring.
the catch; for the first gie explains that “The
time in our history,
People are seeking missional church is the
this revival is occurring
God people of God partner-
OUTSIDE the church! in new and different ways ing with God in his
Just Google spiritual- and in greater numbers redemptive mission to
than ever before.
ity on your computer the world. This charac-
and see some of the terization intentionally
115,000,000 sites allows a wide range of
where the quest for God might take you. expression, as wide as God’s interaction.
Missional is not a place you arrive at but a
At CONVOCATION on Saturday, Feb- direction in which you are moving. It is a
ruary 27th, at the Providence Marriott, way of being in the world.”
you will have a chance to find out about
this new revival and what it means for us This is a day not to be missed! 
and for our churches. Reggie McNeal,
been appointed Priest-in-Charge as Rector of St. James, North Provi-
of Ascension, Cranston effective dence, as of December 31, 2009.
February 1, 2010. • The Rev. Greg Lisby has resigned
• The Rev. Timothy Burger, Asst. to from Church of the Ascension,
the Rector at Epiphany, East Provi- Cranston effective Jan 31, 2010.
dence, has been called as Rector of • The Rev. Wayne Runner has
All Saints’ Church, Glen Rock, NJ, resigned from Trinity, Cranston,
effective January 1, 2010. effective Jan. 17, 2010.
• The Rev. Mary Korte has been ap- • The Rev. Dr. Richard Bardusch
pointed Interim Rector of Church resigned as Associate Rector of
of the Transfiguration effective Grace Church and has been called
January 17, 2010. as Rector of St. Thomas Church
in Taunton, MA. effective Jan. 1,
2010.
Rector of Church of the Transfigu- • The Rev. Frederick Nestrock has
ration in Cranston as of December resigned as Priest Associate at St.
31, 2009. Paul’s in Wickford and has retired
to Michigan.

LIVING THE JOURNEY
T O G E T H E R
Notes On Christian Formation
By Mary Ann Kolakowski
Director of Christian Formation
I n July 2009, the 76th General Conven-
tion of the Episcopal Church adopted
The Charter for Life Long Christian Forma-
tion and identified the goal of seeing its
implementation in all dioceses.
The text of the Charter begins with this:
“Lifelong Christian Formation in the
Episcopal Church is lifelong growth in
the knowledge, service and love of God
as followers of Christ and is informed by
Scripture, Tradition and Reason.” It goes
on to identify the ways in which we believe
that through the Episcopal Church, God
invites, inspires and transforms all people.
Please read The Charter for Life Long
Christian Formation in its entirety. It is
printed in full in our Christian Formation
Catalog, which you can download online
at www.episcopalri.org
As I reflect on my own journey with, in,
and to Christ, I am reminded of what I
long for in my relationship with God. Ah
yes, I love the liturgy and worship! It calls
us, and forms us. We are fed and sent out
in the communal celebration of the Eu-
charist. As time goes on, I become more
and more aware of just how important that
is in my and my family’s life.
I have become cognizant of a transition in
my life, from the time when worshipping
in community was something I did every
Sunday -sometimes out of habit, some-
times out of obligation- to a time when I
realized I was not right with myself when
not worshipping in community and fed by
the body and blood of Christ in the Eu-
charist.
Eventually, I realized i had a longing for
more. Gathering in community for wor-
ship every Sunday was not enough. I had
thoughts and questions. I wanted to talk
with, debate, and wonder together with
others in the faith.
As a young Roman Catholic, I had been
through what we then called CCD classes,
a sacramental preparation for Eucharist
and Reconciliation and for Confirmation.
I was involved in our church at the time,
and even decided to attend a Roman Cath-
olic College. The gifts and fruits of that
experience have served me well over these
years. I remember fit-
ting worship into the
routine of college life
and in it, I always Christian faith
knew the presence of formation
God, God’s love for in the Episcopal Church
me and the impor- is a lifelong journey.
tance of community.
Still, I wanted even
more. I applied and
was accepted into Graduate School in
the Religious Studies Department at
Providence College. I didn’t feel a call to
ordination, but rather felt the need to be
grounded in my faith and church. I want-
ed to know why I am who I am and do
what I do.
“What will you do with that degree”, my
family and friends asked? “That’s not why
I am studying”, I replied. “I just want to
know more.”
I have always been grateful for that time in
my life. However, I realize that had I been
exposed to adult christian formation in my
parish, I may not have thought that a col-
Openings
lege degree in religious studies was
the only way to experience and fill
my desire for more.
As many of us have experienced, I
was formed in community who at
that time, saw Confirmation as the
end of study and for young people
in the Christian Faith, and which
held study for ordained persons as
necessary, but not so for lay persons.
The richness of the Episcopal
Church and our Anglican tradi-
tion offers abundant possibility for
“more”. In the Episcopal Church
adult formation, or rather lifelong
christian formation, are vital to who
we are as a church. Parishes all over
the diocese experience the fruits of
well informed and faithful disciples.
I encourage you in whatever way
you can to find those things that
feed you in your
journey with, in,
and to Christ.
If you already
know adult for-
mation’s impor-
tance and have
experienced
its fruits, of-
fer to become
involved as a Christian Formation
leader in your parish.
I invite you to read the Charter for
Lifelong Christian Formation and
talk about it in your parish. Come
to one of the designated times for
further discussion on the charter
later in April and May. Use it as a
guide in making program and plan-
ning decisions.
Our lives are different because we
are Christians! Let us always re-
member, be grateful and grow in it!

WINTER 2010/ RISEN 7
 NewsBriefs
Episcopal Charities
Honors Volunteers
National Philanthropy Day (NPD)
was held on November 24, 2009 at
the Rhode Island Convention Cen-
ter. NPD is a special day set aside
to recognize the great contributions
of philanthropy -- and those people
active in the philanthropic com-
munity -- for the enrichment of our
world. This event enables non-
profits to honor special donors and
volunteers. 600 people attended to
honor over 100 volunteers.
Episcopal Charities was in atten-
dance to honor two of our special
volunteers and friends. Congratual-
tions to Ricky Brightman and Ted
Hallenbeck for being chosen as
“Partners in Philanthropy “. They
have been long-time thoughtful and
compassionate friends to Episco-
pal Charities in all of their efforts.
Their particular interest and exper-
tise is their guidance for visiting
and evaluating agencies requesting
funds from Episcopal Charities.
Their commitment is led by their
strong vision to the Episcopal
Charities mission, their church and
their community. Thank you Ricky
and Ted for al you do!
8 RISEN / WINTER 2010
Episcopal Charities Gives Thanks
Campaign Update
The Episcopal Charities theme for 2009 was “Open The Skies To A Better Tomorrow”.
Volunteers and donors from parishes around the state did just that. Episcopal Charities
was able to give grants to 111 social service agencies who serve people in dire need.
You have “Opened he Skies” for people who face difficulties they never imagined. You
have put food on the table where, otherwise, there would be none. You have made
health services available for the elderly. You have gotten our youth off the streets
with after-school and summer programs. Safe havens have been given to the home-
less, abused women, and children. Counseling and intervention services have been
provided.
Episcopal Charities has been fortunate to be able to keep its commitments to social
service agencies for many, many years. Because this year’s campaign fell a little short of
the goal, we were forced to cut back grants to 93% of what agencies were anticipating.
This was necessary despite year-end special campaigns to past donors, a second appeal
to current donors, and a first-ever Deacons campaign. We came closer to reaching our
$500,000 goal because of these efforts.
Our work is never done. As 2009 draws to an end, many Rhode Islanders face difficul-
ties that they never imagined and there are still clouds of uncertainty hanging over the
agencies that help individuals, children, families and the elderly. Gifts to this year’s
campaign are still coming in. At the same, time we’re gearing up for our 2010 fund-
raising campaign, and the Board of Trustees is in the process of redefining our grant
review and grant making process.
If you would like to make a donation, please contact the Charities Office, 275 North
Main Street, Providence, RI 02903, 274-4500, ext. 234 for Peggy and 233 for Jack.
We asked for your help and you were there, despite these difficult times.
Thank You!
YouCan Open
the Skies to
a Better
Tomorrow!
 NewsBriefs
Scenes 1

2
AROUND THE DIOCESE
1 Bishop John Zawo of the Diocese of Ezo in
the Sudan, speaking about his country to Brown
& RISD students at S. Stephen’s on 11/17. 2
Learning Stewardship young, at our Advent
Confirmations. 12/5 3 Haitian handicrafts
for sale at our earthquake relief benefit.
1/25 4 Blowing out the 89th Birthday Candle
4 at the Clergy & Spouse Dinner Theater 1/23 3

6
AND MORE
5 Flirt, an ECC Llama gives Bish-
op Wolf a kiss when they real-
ize they share a Birthday. 11/4
6 Former Presiding Bishop Frank
Griswold ordains Michael Tuck
to the Priesthood, at S. Stephen’s
on 1/24 7 Bishop Wolf and
Confirmands at our annual Ad-
vent Confirmations, held at the
5 7 Cathedral of St. John on 12/5.

WINTER 2010/ RISEN 9

 NewsBriefs

The Cathedral Close:

Creating Possibility

I
n 1929 Saint John’s Church took an ambitious project to restore the little maintenance had taken place over
in Providence became the Cathedral and collect constituencies such the intervening years, and that Febru-
Cathedral of Saint John, and as Hallworth House and the Edwards ary the Cathedral hired a firm to find out
since that time its fortunes Homes into one entire city block of Dioc- what it would take to restore the Cathe-
have been various. Bishop esan property. Bishop Higgins also exca- dral church. To their dismay, they found
Perry’s dream of a Cathedral Close vated beneath the Cathedral to create the that there was not sufficient interest in the
which would take up several blocks meeting space of Synod Hall, and over- diocese, or even the parish itself, to realize
along North Main Street was never saw the building of the present Diocesan a plan as financially ambitious as would be
realized. House and Parish needed.
Offices. He left us Could there be a way
In Rhode Island Episcopalians by The project was shelved
the Cathedral close to save the Cathedral,
Dr. Dudley Tyng we read that by until two years ago,
1953 the fabric of North Main
as we now know it, and also to be when the Cathedral of
Street changed, leaving the Cathe-
a multi-use property better stewards St. John was added to
covering 3.5 acres, or of the resources
dral “located in a relatively blighted more than an entire the endangered list on
neighborhood. Its horse and carriage our predecessors the National Registry of
city block in one of
constituency of the last century has the most desirable
have so generously Historic places. Bishop
virtually disappeared”. At 231 years sections of down-
left us with? Wolf and Dean Krauss
old the Cathedral had seen better town Providence. then began to wonder
days. anew. Could there be a way to generate
Unfortunately, by 2003 the state of the the millions of dollars necessary to save the
Then, in 1967 Bishop Higgins Cathedral and the parish office had again Cathedral, and also to be better stewards
turned things around. He under- deteriorated. While it is not clear why, of the resources our predecessors have so
10 RISEN / WINTER 2010
generously left us with?

Dean Krauss had seen an Episcopal cathe-

erty. The building would include space
for diocesan and cathedral use, and many NewsBriefs
green features such as geothermal heating
dral in a similar stage turn its life around. and three levels of parking underneath our
In 1987, the Cathedral Christ Church in sloping gardens.
Montreal contracted with developers to
construct a 34-story retail and office tower The concept plan also includes upgrades to
on church property. The tower accommo- help Hallworth House meet the new care-
dated Diocesan offices, Cathedral meet- delivery best practices, renovations to pre-
ing spaces, and retail or office space for serve the historical integrity of our five his-
lease. The development toric Edwards Homes
eventually turned the on Benefit Street, and In the end this project is expected
church property into a brand new highly ef- to more than pay for itself, but
vibrant city block with
we can generate ficient apartments to Frank Cook and Associates have
exciting new ministry
more than 12 million better serve our low- been retained to do a small fund
opportunities, and the in total revenue income tenants. raising campaign to secure the “seed
lease payments from to retain, restore, money” needed for Phase II explo-
the developer not only and revitalize the entire Members of the Stand- rations. It is in the best interest of
helped restore the Ca- Cathedral Close. ing Committee, Di- the diocese to secure as many details
thedral, but have also ocesan Council, and as possible before involving a devel-
created an income to delegates to the 219th oper.
secure its future. Diocesan Convention have all enthusias-
tically received this plan, and we are now We are currently soliciting those
Dean Krauss and Bishop Wolf formed a ready to take the next step towards its re- who have already expressed an inter-
Cathedral Close Redevelopment Commit- alization. est in the preservation and restora-
tee to discuss the possibility of a similar en- tion of the Cathedral, and who may
deavor in Rhode Island, and together they Phase II of this project will solidify all have the means to participate before
engaged Newport Collaborative Architects necessary details before we solicit an agree- we take any further steps forward.
for an appraisal of our property’s potential. ment with a developer. We need to engage We want to be as responsible as pos-
The result is a rather exciting concept plan the services of professionals to secure engi- sible in the good use of the Cathe-
which shows we can generate more than neering reports; to investigate legal docu- dral Close. It is a very important
12 million in total revenue to retain, re- ments such as deeds; to secure appropri- resource. 
store, and revitalize the entire Cathedral ate zoning rights and permits; to develop
extensive architectural plans; and to work PHOTOS:
Close.
with the various “stakeholders” in this plan OPPOSITE: The Cathedral from N.
This concept plan would have us work including members of the diocese, resi- Main Street
with a developer to build a multi-story dents on site, the broader community, the ABOVE: Landscaping plan
building of residential units, offices, and city, the state, and historical preservation BELOW LEFT: Proposed development
retail space for lease on our diocesan prop- societies. BELOW RIGHT- existing buildings

WINTER 2010/ RISEN 11

 NewsBriefs civil war, but since then Khartoum has
fueled doubts within the international
community as to the success of the
agreement, by sponsoring the highly
publicized ethnic cleansing in the west-
ern region of Darfur, and also by back-
ing the LRA in these new violent attacks
against the people in southern Sudan.

One of the most horrific of these attacks

happened the day after Christmas in
2008 when the LRA surrounded a Ro-
man Catholic Church and slaughtered
the 123 Christians worshipping within.
In Ezo alone there are more than 40,000
people who have been forced to flee
their besieged villages to live under tarps
propped up with twigs. The LRA has de-
stroyed their crops and the local children
have not been able to go to school at all
this year.

Zawo’s message to the diocese was one

of hope, despite the dire conditions in
his own diocese where children go with-
out food and education. He encouraged
young people to remain in church and to
recognize the unique gifts God has given

Bishop Zawo’s Visit:

everyone to carry out his work.

“What a blessing for me to be here with

Hope in the midst of violence you in the United States while our peo-
ple are in distress,” said Zawo, when he
By Ruth Meteer Nov. 7 to consummate a new compan- met diocesan youth after school over a
ion diocese relationship with the Dio- pizza.
[Episcopal News Service] “We cese of Ezo. The visit was an opportunity
should not continue to be second- for Rhode Island Episcopalians to share He spoke of his people’s ability to “fo-
class citizens in our own country” in the experiences of Zawo and his fel- cus on God in the midst of misery and
is a well-known phrase to Ameri- low Sudanese, who have experienced the chaos” and of the wonderful joy and po-
cans familiar brunt of the recent vio- tential there is within people, if enough
with the 1960s lence committed by the peace can be found to nurture it.
civil rights move- “What a blessing Lord’s Resistance Army
ment, but one for me to be here (LRA), a Ugandan gue- In his visits to parishes and special events
that southern with you rilla group. across the state, Zawo spoke of the im-
Sudan Bishop in the United States portance of education, plans to improve
John Zawo of the while our people Zawo’s diocese circles Ezo’s “Schools under Trees” initiative,
Diocese of Ezo are in distress,” around the town of and the goat farm the diocese is helping
spoke frequently Ezo, in an area of Ezo set up for greater self sufficiency. He
during his recent southern Sudan that expressed Ezo’s gratitude to Rhode Is-
month-long visit to the Episcopal has been in ongoing conflict with the land for the hope its presence is giving
Diocese of Rhode Island. Islamic government in Khartoum since his people and the aid the diocese has al-
1983. In 2005, the U.S. government ready sent. He spoke with certainty that
Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf helped broker a Comprehensive Peace the LRA attacks can be quickly brought
and the diocese welcomed Zawo Agreement intended to end the 22-year to an end with the help of the interna-
12 RISEN / WINTER 2010
 “Bishop Zawo’s visit to Washington af-
forded an opportunity to share a first- NewsBriefs
hand view of the crisis in Sudan with that such a connection between
U.S. elected officials, with a particular children in the U.S. and Sudan
focus on the grave threat to peace posed would bring his people hope for
by the Lord’s Resistance Army,” said Al- the future.
exander Baumgarten,
director of the Episco- Mary Ann Kola-
pal Church’s Office of kowski, Christian
Because formation direc-
Government Relations.
“Because the issue of
the issue of the LRA’s tor for the Rhode
the LRA’s incursion
incursion Island diocese,
into southern Sudan is into southern Sudan said of the visit:
new within the last 12- is new within the last “Hearts have
18 months, it has not 12-18 months, been touched,
tional community, and he challenged his received a sufficiently it has not received our companion
listeners to urge the U.S. government high profile in inter- a sufficiently high relationship has
to act upon their stated commitment to national conversations, profile been nurtured
including those led by and strength-
achieving peace in Sudan.
the U.S. government.” ened, and seeds
In response to this call, the dioceses of for the growth of the Reign of God
Rhode Island and Virginia jointly ar- Baumgarten also noted that Zawo’s visit have been scattered all around.” 
ranged for Zawo and the Rev. James Boc- was timely, as “with many in the inter-
chino of St. John’s in Barrington, Rhode national community fearful that the To learn more visit our blog at
Island, to visit Washington, D.C., where Comprehensive Peace Agreement is on http://ezoandri.blogspot.com
they met with members of organizations the verge of collapse, the United States
PHOTOS:
such as the United States Agency for In- government is seeking a renewed com- OPPOSITE- Bp Wolf and Bp Zawo
ternational Development (USAID) and mitment to the agreement’s terms from at the Cathedral of St. John for our
the American Friends of the Episcopal all parties involved.” Advent Confirmations on12/5/09.
Church of the Sudan (AFRECS), as well TOP LEFT- Bishop Zawo Speaking
Zawo’s visit inspired children to write to Brown Students at S. Stephen’s on
as Rhode Island senators Jack Reed and letters to the children of Ezo, which he 11/17/09.
Sheldon Whitehouse, and staff in the said he would have translated and dis- BELOW- The Diocese of Ezo’s Cathe-
offices of the late Senator Edward Ken- tributed to the young people. Zawo said dral in 2008 before the LRA attacks.
nedy, of Massachusetts.

WINTER 2010/ RISEN 13

 All Whose
Hearts Are
Stirred
Art in Community
at St. Martin’s

Article and Photos by Heather Annis

 “participatory aesthetics” – the fancy
grad school term for “making art in
community.” The Biblical precedent
for this sort of activity can be found
in the Book of Exodus. While the Is-
raelites are wandering around the wil-
derness, God instructs Moses to build
a portable tabernacle for worship, the
instructions for which are delivered
in excruciating detail. A craftsman
named Bezalel is appointed to oversee
the project. In order to gather all the
necessary materials, Moses takes a free
will offering from the Israelites.

As the Scripture declares, “they came,

all whose hearts were stirred,” and
brought more than enough of the
materials necessary to complete the
“So, Heather… you project. In addition to their en-
thusiastic giving, they were imbued
really think we can do with the skills to carve wood, ham-
mer designs into bronze, set precious

T
this?” The question was he rather sheepish query stones, and to weave and embroider
marked a point of transition yarn and linen. The result: a structure
and adornments through which their
posed to me by a de- in an ambitious creative en-
deavor undertaken by members of St.
sign team member as Martin’s Church in Providence, a 27
square foot mosaic designed and built
in community. During a visit to St.
she surveyed the scene Luke’s in East Greenwich in the fall of
2008, I was struck by the large mosaic
in front of us – a work that adorns the wall of their main
lobby. As it happened, I was both
surface surrounded by a student in a Master’s program at
Andover Newton Theological School
buckets containing col- studying the intersection of theology
and the arts, and the studio manager
orful glass tiles. Over at a local glass-casting facility in East
Providence. This combination, along
with the support of our clergy, staff,
10,000 handmade tiles vestry, and congregation, would prove
to be a rich environment in which
had been fired. Now it the ideas and tasks associated with the
mosaic project could germinate and
was time to put them grow.

Our guiding principle was that of

together.
SEASON YEAR / RISEN 15
David Brookhart
Somehow referring to “the mosaic”
seems inadequate. As the product of
so many minds and hands it seems
larger than that.
Certainly it’s physically large – filling
the atrium entry to St. Martin’s.
More importantly, for me, the mosaic
looms large because it represents
both today and tomorrow for our
parish. Today we, dozens of us, of all
ages, sizes and capabilities, created
something larger than ourselves as a
gift to our church and representation
of our beliefs. The mosaic says, “here
we are (Come as you are), this is what
we believe (Grow with us in faith),
and we want to share our faith with
you who come with us and after us
(Go forth in peace)”.
The miracle of this creation is that
so many hands played a part in its
creation. So many minds can reflect
on the beauty they helped create. So
many souls can rest in the beauty of
its art and the audacity of its mes-
sage.
16 RISEN / WINTER 2010
devotion to God were proclaimed.
The success of the desert tabernacle
project – which I imagine as the first
artists’ co-op, a flurry of activity by
people of every description: young,
old, rich, poor, with a wide range of
skill levels and talents - hinged on the
contributions of the entire commu-
nity.
With this in mind, the St. Martin’s
mosaic project followed this model.
Our goal was to offer both numer-
ous opportunities to participate and
a wide variety of ways in which to
do so. Furthermore, we wished to
accomplish this task in an environ-
mentally responsible manner and with
minimal financial burden; in fact, at
no point in the process did we solicit
or accept monetary donations from
the congregation.
With the tabernacle story as
our example, a design team was
quickly assembled, of members
intentionally chosen to represent
a cross- section of the
congre- gation. There
were long- time members,
relative new- comers, teenag-
ers, and those with a variety of inter-
ests and skills. Some were known for
their artistic proficiency, while others
considered themselves “non-artists,” a
term which was quickly banned from
the team’s vocabulary.
Once formed, the team met over a
period of months to brainstorm about
the project’s design and its implemen-
tation.
We decided the basis for determining
the imagery and style of the mosaic
should be the St. Martin’s mission
statement: “Come as you are. Grow
with us in faith. Go forth in peace.”
We wanted the mosaic to visually
express this declaration of our identity
as a congregation in a fresh, relevant
way, one that is both sensitive to the
existing architecture as well as to the
needs and concerns of the commu-
nity.
Nearly all of our design team discus-
sions eventually returned to arche-
typal images of abundance and of
movement, both literal and figura-
tive. Drawing on elements from the
parable of the sower, the feeding of
the 5000, and references to the Holy

Spirit, the final design represents our
mission statement with a swirling
collection of wheat sheaves, fish, and
doves, the motion of which implies
that the faith journey is neither a
linear progression from one step to
another, nor one that takes place in
isolation. Similarly, the construction
of the mosaic would not have been
possible without the enthusiasm and
dedication of the entire congregation.
Once the design was approved and
finalized, the congregation at large
became involved in every aspect of
the mosaic’s creation. The late Peter
Quintin, proprietor of the glass
studio at which I worked, generously
donated the raw materials to make all
the tiles; these materials were post-
industrial waste and virtually unusable
for his work. He also offered the use
of his kilns, equipment, and studio
space. This enabled me to offer a
number of workshops last winter in
which parishioners learned the basics
of glass-casting and participated in the
process of making the glass tiles them-
selves. Once all the tiles were fired,
they needed to be cut and shaped to
fit a full-scale template. Numerous
church members volunteered their
time on Wednesday evenings and
Saturday mornings learning to use
glass-cutting tools and placing tiles,
which were later face-mounted with
an industrial tape, to facilitate trans-
porting the fully laid-out mosaic to
the church.
Meanwhile, those who were too
young to be playing with pointy glass
tiles were involved in a related project
of their own. Thirty-five children in
the Church School program cre-
ated “foamie” mosaics composed of
tile-sized squares, cut-outs of doves
and fish, and the words “faith” and
Jeana Whittredge
I especially loved the brainstorm-
ing session with our newly created
“design team”, and wearing various
silly hats to loosen up. Another great
day was actually making the glass
tiles in the bitter cold in the glass
studio in early February. I probably
got to know more parishioners in this
project than in any other venue at
the church. There were times when I
definitely had my doubts about our
finishing the project by late Novem-
ber of this year. Actually laying the
glass tiles down felt like the best.
The fact that so many hands were
involved and that small children can
touch it anytime they wanted was
and is priceless.
Emily Gray (age 10)
It was more fun than I thought it
would be. I felt kinda crafty when I
did it because it was kinda fun. You
got to put the actual glass down on
the board. It was also fun because
Heather was making me laugh and
we were just having some fun conver-
sations.
[When it was done] I remember that
when I looked at it I was so stunned
that it came out so beautiful that I
just stood there open-mouthed hold-
ing my sister’s hand. I couldn’t tear
my eyes away from all the beautiful
tiles.
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 17

“peace.” These colorful artworks were
displayed gallery-style on the walls of
the atrium, leading up to the finished
mosaic. As an intergenerational
endeavor, the mosaic project was a
particular success, with participants
ranging in age from three to eighty-
three.
The installation of the mosaic at St.
Martin’s took place over a period of
two weeks. Mounted with thin-set
mortar on a steel and wood frame fab-
ricated at the RISD foundry – where
I received a lesson in welding - the
twenty-seven square foot mosaic is
grouted in two colors, gray and white.
Designed, constructed, and installed
by parishioners, the aluminum-edged
frame is trimmed with oak and is
suspended by stainless steel rods
which match the lighting fixtures in
the atrium. Small pieces of mirror are
imbedded in the mosaic so persons
18 RISEN / WINTER 2010
can see themselves reflected “as they
are.” Also included are a number of
smalti (Venetian glass tiles) given to
me by Sandra Basile, the designer of
the St. Luke’s mosaic.
The mosaic was unveiled and dedi-
cated following a special liturgy at St.
Martin’s on November 21st. Like the
Biblical story of the desert tabernacle,
our creative venture is a contemporary
example of the symbiotic relationship
among art, faith, and community.
Its success is a result of participation
from a wide variety of parishioners,
from teenagers to senior citizens.
Their interest and enthusiasm has re-
sulted in a permanent display of who
we are as a faith community. And
hence the honest and unhesitating
response I offered to the parishioner
who wondered if we could “really
do this”? “Of course! Not only do I
think it, I know it”. 
The Rev. Clare
Fischer-Davies
At a time when scarcity dominates
public discourse, when our congrega-
tion is struggling with stewardship
challenges and the effects of the
sluggish economy, the mosaic helped
us find and celebrate abundance. The
metaphor of countless tiny pieces
brought together to make a beauti-
ful work of art spoke to this parish,
and helped all of us recognize that
each person has more gifts, more
resources, more to offer than anyone
of us ever dreamed. This is an ex-
traordinary accomplishment for any
congregation and we are thrilled with
the results. If St. Martin's can do this,
nothing is impossible!
Jane Langmuir
There is lots to say but I think it can be
summed up in one word. BRILLIANT!
Brilliant design, brilliant coordina-
tion, brilliant leadership, brilliant
result.
This project actually brought together
over a hundred people, channeled
their talents, and produced one Bril-
liant Mosaic. Unbelievable! In the
beginning I did not think it could hap-
pen. It did. Thank you Heather, and
everyone, for this gift.
Peter Green works as a graphic designer in downcity
Providence, and on his lunch breaks he wanders out to
photograph the raptors that live and hunt in our urban
landscape.
“If you’re walking past Kennedy Plaza and you see the
pigeons are going crazy, maybe a hawk is there... I’m
constantly surprised by the raptors that visit the city,”
he says.
Last spring, Green spotted a red-tailed hawk and fol-
lowed it to a favorite lookout; the Cathedral of St. John.

He took a fantastic series of photos there, and

after meeting with Dean Krauss, was invited to
exhibit his work in the church.
Some of these photos are shown here. The
entire collection has been published in book
form, and Green's next exhibit will be at the
Audubon Society of Rhode Island in Septem-
ber 2010.

To see more and buy Peter’s book visit:

www.downcityhawk.com
 And the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us. (John 1:14)
L iterature has always occupied a special place in my
thoughts on faith and art. Yes, humankind has been made
in the image of a Creator God, and in that image we too
have the ability to create. We can make art of all sorts, invent
impossible gadgets, and imagine the world as it should be, but I
believe it is the specific picture of God’s Word made flesh dwelling
among us that sets apart our own use of words.
If Jesus Christ is the Living Word, then what better reflection of
God’s creativity could there be than an earthly author’s own small
words coming to life in the minds of readers, and dwelling there
for a time.
It is in this spirit then, that I am proud to present the first RISEN
Magazine Creative Writing Contest. The aim of the contest is
to offer some support to writers who are called to bring words to
20 RISEN / WINTER 2010
flesh in the Image of our Creator God, and to introduce RISEN’s
22,000 readers to these inspired authors and their works.
By the November 30th Entry Deadline, RISEN had received
hundreds of submissions from all across the country. The submis-
sions were judged blind, by well established writers, and both of
this year’s judges marveled at the difficulty of their decision.
I am also pleased to announce that despite the many wonderful
entries from far off places, and our anonymous judging process,
Rhode Island Episcopalians still managed to steal the prize in
both categories! How lucky we are to have so many fine writers
here in our very small state.
If you would like to make a donation to help fund next year’s cre-
ative writing contest prizes, please email risen@episcopalri.org or call
(401)-274-4500
-Ruth Meteer, Editor in Chief
 The Winners
Poetry Prize
Raechel Doughty
“Between Here and the Monastery”
How do you see your faith and your
writing intersect?
“When People ask me to explain my religious beliefs or
my spirituality, I tend to reply “give me a few days”. I
could tell them I’m an Episcopalian, but that might not
mean much to them, and it is still not a complete answer.
In poetry, though, I’m not explaining my beliefs so much
as I’m voicing my experiences. I’m giving the reader the
same glimpses of light, the tiny pieces, through which
I’ve come to understand my own faith. It is as honest as I
know how to be.”
Raechel is currently living in North Adams MA, but grew
up here in Rhode Island at Calvary Church Pascoag. She
has been very involved with ECC, Happening and the
Taize ministry here in the Diocese of RI
Honorable Mentions:
Sondra Sula, Aurora, IL “The Things I’ve Seen”
Rebekah Sagar, Newark OH “For Whom the Lord Loves”
Lisa Levy, New Haven, CT “Revival”
The Judges
Phoebe Pettingell
Poetry
Phoebe is a literary critic specializ-
ing in poetry. She is the author and/
or editor of eight books on literature,
poetry and liturgy as well as numerous
reviews. Since 1976, she has written
the column “On Poetry” for The New
Leader. She wrote the introduction for
the Eerdmans edition of The Poems of
Rowan Williams. She has also worked
for The Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music of the Epis-
copal Church since 1995. She currently lives in Providence and
worships at S. Stephen’s.
What Phoebe looks for in a good poem: "What makes a good
poem? Samuel Taylor Coleridge called poetry "the best words in
their best order." An effective poem has a distinctive voice. It may
be rhymed or unrhymed and should have a distinct beat, whether
formal or casual. It should embody its meaning rather than talk-
ing about it. It should reflect the imagination rather than trying to
harness it to a message. It should be its own creation."
Fiction Prize
Marlies Parent
“The Windows”
How do you see your faith
and your writing intersect?
I think that my faith gives me the courage to
write, and also a frame of reference -an angle-
from which to approach the “raw material” that
life presents.
Marlies Parent is a Member of Christ Church in
Westerly Rhode Island. She and her husband are
very involved in the community there. A few years
ago they helped to found the friends of Nava-
joland mission organization, and have involved
Christ Church in the wonderful ministry through
that program.
Honorable Mention:
Jon Busch, Beverly MA “Sailing”
Steven Hobbs
Fiction
Steven recently received his M.F.A. de-
gree in creative writing from The New
School in New York City. His thesis
was a novel about failed faith healers,
family, false hope, and Food Lion gro-
cery stores converted into churches.
While at The New School, he worked
as the Mentor Coordinator for the
Prison Writing Program at PEN Amer-
ican Center. At present, Steven is a graduate student of religion
and literature at Yale University. Along with working on his own
novels and short stories, he intends to explore the ways in which
religious faith influences and informs the writing of fiction. Prior
to attending The New School, he taught high school literature
and composition and published articles for an alternative music
magazine.
What Steven Looks for in a good Short Story: "A fresh voice, a
singular vision, poetic prose. The author must possess the ability
to make new ideas feel established and established ideas feel
new."
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 21
 Winner of the 2010 RISEN Magazine Creative Writing Contest Fiction Prize

THE WINDOWS

By Marlies Parent of Christ Church, Westerly

22 RISEN / WINTER 2010
F
r Roberts, peering out from his
study adjacent to the church,
watches the old woman arrive by
taxi. He’s never seen her before.
She gets out slowly and proceeds with dig-
nified pace up the sanctuary’s front steps.
Though loaded down with two incongru-
ous pieces of luggage, a pink nylon trav-
el-bag and a flowery patterned purse, she
doesn’t resemble what he’d call a Bag Lady.
There’s an air of self-assurance about her—
she could be wealthy. Her clothes seem
ordinary enough: an olive raincoat over a
rumpled denim skirt down to her ankles,
blue socks and sturdy sneakers. Maybe it’s
her hair, a halo of white fluff, which gives
her that hint of regality. Oddly, the image
of a bride comes
to his mind.
On this April On this April afternoon
the oak-wood portals
afternoon the
oak-wood portals happen to be open;
happen to be she enters
open; she enters
as if she expected no less.
as if she expected
no less. Some
devout parishioners had recently asked
him to keep the church unlocked during
the week for silent prayer. He’d consented He stretches out his hand in greeting; she
to oblige them-- with hesitation for he
feared vandalism-- on days when Ms Page behind her.
practiced the organ. Then nobody ever
showed up. Still, he likes to keep an eye
on the doors at those times.
Fifteen minutes go by and the
woman doesn’t come out; Fr Roberts
feels compelled to investigate. Summon-
ing confidence in his black clerical shirt
and clean collar, he follows her. When
he steps into the sanctuary, Ms Page is
just playing her most accomplished Bach
Fugue. The small space is engulfed by rich
stately rhythms, the sounds blending with
that magical light from the stained glass
windows. At times like these, Fr Roberts
is proud of his little church. He hates to
admit it, but the windows were a prime
factor in accepting the call to this small
parish on the outskirts of Cincinnati. The
suburban congregation had managed—
long before his time here—to contract an
artist of some renown, who created these
magnificent explosions of color. They
were abstract in design but with recogniz-
able symbols and figures—the more one
looked the more one found. Their effect
had been called ‘breathtaking’ by experts
and regular folk alike.
The old woman sits motionless in
the second pew. She’s taken her coat
off, revealing a tweedy grey sweater, and
placed her bags neatly on the bench. She
doesn’t hear him until he stands right
behind her. He clears his throat. When
she turns to him in response her face is
covered with tears; they have meandered
flood-like down its numerous creases. Yet
as she removes her glasses she smiles at
him, and her eyes shine with what looks
like joy. She fumbles for a handkerchief in
her bag, blows her nose, and makes an at-
tempt to get up.
“Excuse me,
Father, for sitting
here so long. Are
you closing shop?”
“No, no
please. I didn’t
mean to disturb
you. Is there any-
thing I can do? Father Roberts here…”
takes it and pulls him down to the bench
“Yes, maybe you can. Do you still
hold confessions these days?”
“Certainly-- upon request. But do tell
me… are you from out of town?”
“I sure am. Took the train from Bos-
ton to Philadelphia, then the Greyhound.
I mostly slept on the bus. It’s taken me
two days to get here but...” a hint of
mischievous triumph crosses her face, “I
made it. In fact, Father, I’ll be looking for
a place to stay. Would you have a recom-
mendation? Perhaps you know of a simple
room in a quiet neighborhood? Hotel will
do for a while; I still have some means.
You see, I lived here once—belonged to
this parish about forty years ago. ”
Fr Roberts nods, listening. She re-
wards him with an angelic smile.
“Today I came to join again… if you
will have me?”
“What brings you back, Madam, after
so long?” He doesn’t know what to make
of her. She takes a deep noisy breath and
motions around with her chin. Her eyes
fix a spot across the pews.
“The windows.”
“Ah! How interesting. I too am an
admirer of good stained glass. Got lots
of mediocre products nowadays, but we
have real quality here.” Now he is pleased,
senses a common interest. Maybe she’d
work on the Arts Committee?
“You don’t understand. See that figure
over there?” She points to a modestly
framed yet naked Eve handing a red sun-
burst of apple to a reluctant Adam.
“That’s me!” She exits her pew with
surprising agility and assumes Eve’s pos-
ture, holding up the imaginary apple.
Fr Roberts tries to smile but winces.
She’s off the wall, he thinks, disappointed.
Has delusions—schizophrenia perhaps?
Before he can answer, she points to an-
other window.
“And Mary here, with the Infant—
that’s me too.” She places her pink travel-
bag on the floor, falls on one knee and
bends over it, folding her hands in prayer
just like the translucent lead-lined figure
in blue. Fr Roberts sighs, helping her up.
She might be dangerous. Should he call a
hospital?
Then she laughs, with a thousand
disarming creases in her face. “The bag is
my daughter’s, you know. It reminded me
for a moment of her as a baby. She’s got
her own children now, so does my son.
They don’t know I’m here…”
Now she didn’t sound so crazy. Still,
better be on guard. He repeats, in a more
formal tone, his question of what he can
do for her.
“I told you already. I’d appreciate
your assistance with finding a room, and
that you hear my confession. Perhaps it
will help you decide whether you’d want
me back in your fold.” There’s a hint of
sarcasm in her voice.
“You like to make an appointment?”
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 23
 She coughs; a wheezy deep-down
sound. “How about right here… if it’s
convenient. I may not have time later on.”
What does she mean by that? He looks
over his shoulder to the now silent organ.
Ms Page has left for the day.
“Oh yes I knew him. In the Biblical
sense, mind you.”
“Well, is there anything you feel the
need to confess about that?” He shifts
uncomfortably in his pew.
She pauses, lost in a memory, and
adds quietly: “He died too, my husband,
last year. We had a good life together.
That’s just my problem now-- see what I
mean? I can’t justify my life after Daniel,
given all that happened.”

“Well then…” He bows his head for
the opening prayers.
“You see I have to figure out what to
tell him when I meet up with him.”
“Tell whom?” Does she mean God?
She looks around once more, lowers
her eyes and whispers: “The man who
designed these windows.”
Fr Roberts feels a shiver run down
his spine. This was getting worse by the
minute. “Didn’t he die a long time ago?”
he mumbles. “I heard from the previous
rector that he was found… that he died
under… adverse circumstances.” Fool-
ish remark-- who dies under favorable
circumstances? He just doesn’t want to
tell the poor woman about those suicide
rumors. Suddenly he realizes the obvious.
“You knew him, perhaps?”
24 RISEN / WINTER 2010
“Oh it’s not what worries me now. Fr Roberts still doesn’t see but he’s
To be honest, I wouldn’t have wanted to intrigued. “What did happen, then?”
miss that part.” She casts a furtive glance
at him. “Although at the time it was very, “When I met Daniel, he was already
very… difficult. I loved my husband. It’s in bad shape. He drank, for one thing.
hard to commit adultery when you care His Visa had expired. He’d come to the
about how it affects your spouse, your USA on a work permit, during the build-
children. They were young then, no doubt ing boom in the Fifties, with excellent
they suffered. I wouldn’t recommend it credentials. After art school in London, he
as a lifestyle. Yet he lured me… Daniel. apprenticed in one of those old European
That wasn’t his real name. I called him studios that supplied the cathedrals. He
‘Daniel’ for a joke when I first met him; combined the ancient techniques with his
he worked on a unique vision.
window with the He’d made a
theme of Daniel- He knew a lot about these name for him-
and-the-Lions. Old Testament stories. self here. Not
The name stuck. that he cared
He identified
Seemed like a prophet himself, much about
with the char- at least to me. money—but
acter. He knew he thrived on
a lot about these Old Testament stories. people’s response to his work. It was his
Seemed like a prophet himself, at least to life, his gift to the world. Then the build-
me. I was fascinated, haunted even, by the ings stopped booming, there were no
way he lived— what he stood for. There more contracts, no business. He wanted
was much I needed to learn about myself, to go back to England but didn’t seem
to which I thought he had answers. And to ever find the extra cash. He feared,
in a way he did. He showed me who I maybe hoped, the Government would
was. He saw me…” send him back. His self-esteem eroded; he
became depressed. As he worked alone a
Fr Roberts doesn’t respond right great deal, his mind always wrestled with
away, noticing the woman is out of the big questions: where’s God; what’s
breath. It must have taken courage to morality—that sort of thing. Oh, and like
share all that. But he feels stuck on the Daniel of the Bible, he had visions.”
adultery part; the fact that it’s not what
she wanted to confess. “What kind of visions?” Fr Roberts
raises his eyebrows.
“So you were married,” he ventures
at last. “Did your husband know about “Gloomy ones, I’d say. He dreamed,
your… hmm… affair?” or hallucinated—sometimes he couldn’t
say which—about fires a lot. He saw all
“Yes and no. I made him believe that these churches go up in flames. Only the
Daniel and I were close friends, which windows would remain, stand on their
was true. He coped by developing a sense own in a desolate landscape.”
of humor. He’d say things like, ‘I wish
you’d stay away from that Lion’s Den’, “An image of the Apocalypse...”
meaning Daniel’s studio, a drafty con-
verted barn. But he knew that he couldn’t “Perhaps. Towards the end, Daniel
stop me, and he didn’t want to break up was desperate. The job in this parish,” she
our family. We had awful struggles. Yet we turns to look straight at him, “was the last
ended up better off in our marriage, with one he had. And they didn’t pay him soon
the grace of God and a lot of therapy.” enough to save him…” She chokes on her
words as if going to cry, but instead suc-
cumbs to a coughing fit.
“Why didn’t they pay him?”
“You see I was on the Arts Commit-
tee here; that’s how we met. The windows
needed to be designed; we commissioned
him. We drew up a contract to pay him
in three installments. From the first one
he bought materials. That meant a trip
to a glass factory in West Virginia, travel
expenses and all. He was so excited to
be working again! The second payment
came late. His rent was overdue, and the
heating bill… it was winter, very cold. He
didn’t eat right; he became anxious about
everything.” She adds, more to herself,
“I think it’s because people in the parish
were well off that they… just forgot.”
“Forgot?”
“They didn’t realize how crucial mon-
ey, money-on-time, can be to survival.
They didn’t mean not to pay him…”
“Why didn’t he tell them?”
“He did. He called the church secre-
tary several times. But he had his pride…
didn’t want to
show how dire
the situation was.
I tried to remind he thrived
the finance board, on people’s response
casually… didn’t to his work.
want to push the It was his life, his gift
issue. I imagined to the world
people talking
behind my back—
surely some did—
about my excessive interest in Daniel.”
“So what did you do?”
“Well I tried to keep him going, in
the way women in love do. Brought him
food, sweaters—spent a lot of time there.
Even took money from my husband’s
account once, to help pay Daniel’s rent.
I didn’t have an income of my own then.
Nowadays they’d call such a relationship
co-dependent, and rightly so. But he
didn’t drink while I was around, and he
did work. I don’t think these windows
would be here if…” she raises herself up,
smiles, “if I didn’t help.”
“You certainly supported him.”
“I loved to be involved with his
work. He consulted me on colors and de-
signs, valued my opinion. We researched
themes together. I modeled, for Eve and
Mary.”
“Ah—now I see! Well, God bless you
for that.”
“But I just don’t know if God can
bless what I did-- and if Daniel will for-
give me. He died and I lived, forty years
more of a comfortable life. Would he have
died if I hadn’t left him?”
“So you left him. Why did you?”
“My husband got transferred to the
East-coast. He worked for a life insurance
company. I don’t know if he actually put
in for the transfer-- couldn’t blame him
if he did. But I had to make a choice, the
hardest one I ever made. It didn’t feel like
a choice at all…”
“How did you do it?”
“I didn’t tell Daniel until a week
him again?”
before the move. He’d sensed for a while
that something was “Yes I will. Got my diagnosis a week
wrong. He only said, ago; lung cancer-- too late to fix.” She taps
‘Of course you must go. her chest, her face a mixture of fear and
What would I have to anticipation. “I could go anytime…”
offer you?’
“So when did you
As Fr Roberts bows again to finish
the confessional prayers, he feels—why
find out about his he can’t quite identify—a need to be
death?” forgiven.
“The rector, your “Let’s go to the office,” he suggests,
predecessor here, called me. He knew that taking her arm. “We’ll re-register you. It’s
we were, you know, friends. Somebody all computerized now, our system. Feel
from the Arts Committee had gone to free to call your children from here. And
Daniel’s place to pay the third install- I do know a place for rent…with a doctor
ment. They found him dead on the floor, nearby.” Words keep tumbling from his
the pipes frozen. Not clear whether or not mouth. “The sanctuary is open whenever
it was suicide. It could have been any- Ms Page plays the organ. Of course there’s
thing: heart attack, the alcohol, malnutri- always Sunday. And-- thank you for com-
tion… I’d say that the Lions finally got ing back.” 
him. Since he had no relatives here, they
used the money to bury him. A crowd Photos are of Marc Chagall’s Stained Glass
Windows in the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne,
attended his funeral, admirers of his art.
I didn’t. This is the first time I’ve been Metz, France. Photos are used under the cre-
ative commons licesnse and can be found at
back.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/__olga__ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlang
“Why now?” Fr Roberts asks, after a
long silence. “You mentioned… seeing
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 25
 Raechel Doughty

Between Here and the Monastery

I feel quite like myself when I’m quiet;

when I am still, I feel at home in my self.

I have experienced silence so strong it buzzes,

I have been so still that I shake.

I feel misread when I attempt

to make words represent me.

They are a third thing, I am a first thing,

and my thoughts are any number of things.

Fear is a separate kind of silence,

it is not me, not my heart.

Inaction is different; though I’ve lived there,

it is not my home, in fact

I feel quite unlike myself when I’m quiet;

when I do not stand, I feel lost in my self.

Winner of the 2010 RISEN Magazine Creative Writing Contest Poetry Prize

26 RISEN / SEASON YEAR

 Trinity Church Ministry of the Arts
a Spiritual Journey
One parish member’s story:
M
y involvement with Ministry
of the Arts at Trinity Church
began in the fall of 2007.
Paul Koumrian and Al Destin were put-
ting together the first of the Songbook
series called the “American Songbook
Goes to War”. Auditions were being
held open to the church community and
general public. I had an interest in being
a part of it but I had not been involved
in theater since high school- which was
35 years ago! I eventually worked up my
courage and called Paul, but expressed
my misgivings about not having a good
enough voice. Paul’s response was “I don’t
care if you can’t sing, just show up!”
That was the beginning of what has
become an enjoyable and fulfilling aspect
of my life. I have learned that my voice
is not the worst and I have experienced
tremendous fellowship with my fellow
performers. We presented our third show
in the Songbook series this past fall called
“The Rydell High and Bandstand Re-
union”. What a lot of fun we all had! We
have bonded as a group and genuinely en-
joy each other’s company. I have stepped
out of my comfort zone and grown as a
performer. Who would have thought I
would be impersonating Bobby Darin?
(My daughters said I was better than they
thought I was going to be!)
Some may ask what the connection be-
tween the Arts and our faith is. I believe
that theater showcases the human condi-
tion and we may walk away with new
insight as to how God works in our lives.
As for singing and dancing, it is pure fun
and that is never a bad thing in this stress-
ful world! My personal mantra is now
LSD- laughing, singing and dancing! I’m
sure Bobby Darin would be in agreement
with that!
The Trinity Ministry of the Arts has been
producing arts events since 2007 and just
in the past year has produced a season of
6 events that included performances of
“ART” by Yasmina Reza, “Love Letters”
by A. R. Gurney, several Youth Troupe
performances, a performing arts summer
camp and two “American Songbook”
shows.
“This ministry is bringing the parish and
the community together through the
arts. The passionate connection of the
liturgy and the arts is shining through. To
have passion one has to be on a spiritual
journey, and that journey will be acted
out, re-told and preserved with a hand
that performs an artistic act” said Artistic
Director Tom C. Erb.
MoA is expanding its reach to the diocese
with a tour of the “American Songbooks”
to help with the Episcopal Charities fund-
raising efforts in the spring. Father Paul
Koumrian is excited to announce that his
wish to bring the arts to the people will
be a reality. Under the direction of Tom
C. Erb and Al Deston there will be three
stops around the state for three weekends
for all to experience the Trinity American
Songbook and the spirit of the Ministry
of the Arts. Stay tuned for dates, time and
locations. 
PHOTO: Taken by Ruth Meteer on
5/14/2009 at Trinity Ministry of the Arts’
performance of American Songbook
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 27
Best of
Ecumenism provides
trickle-up effect
Rhode Island’s
closerlook
this month’s in-depth report
Source for
By Pat McCaughan
Episcopal News
WITH CHURCH BUDGETS
shrinking and issues of
inside justice, poverty and peace
looming, mission, in many
areas, is becoming the new
Presiding Bishop ecumenism.
on new ways to When membership at
tell our story Epiphany Church in Marina,
Calif., dropped from about
NEWS WORTHY: 200 to five in 1996 “because
Anglican covenant of a military base closing
sent to provinces and internal politics,” the
for consideration, Lutheran congregation col-
approval laborated with All Saints
Episcopal Church of Carmel
FAITHWORKS: on a joint ministry.
Young adults “We’ve since become the
get taste of largest social-service facili-
missionary life tator in the community,”
said the Rev. Jon Perez, vic-
ar of Epiphany Lutheran &
Episcopal Church. “We’ve
had a complete change of
who we are; we just be-
came a Jubilee center at the
end of last year.”
Similar collaborative
Courtney Dale, 24, efforts underway elsewhere
center, worked in an are ecumenical and inter-
after-school program faith, local and national,
in Grahamstown, grassroots and institu-
South Africa. tional, service-oriented and
conversational. They also
are practical given the eco-
nomic climate, said Bishop
C. Christopher Epting,
deputy to the Presiding
Bishop for ecumenical and
interreligious relations.
28 RISEN / WINTER 2010
“Why start a Lutheran
church on one corner and
an Episcopal church on the
other when you can join
forces and cooperate? We
have perspectives that are
very similar on the mis-
sion of the church, and we
should be doing more and
Church of Sweden Archbishop Anders Wejryd presents
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori with a specially
made stole bearing the Church of Sweden’s coat of arms.
more of that together,” he
said. “We’ve really come a
long way from earlier days
when we didn’t even go
into each other’s churches
and were quite suspicious
of each other; there was a
lot of ignorance and compe-
tition and fear of the other.”
Epting reflected about
the “long view” of the
modern ecumenical move-
ment, which will observe
its 100th anniversary next
year. From its beginnings
in the 1910 World Mission-
ary Conference in Edin-
burgh, Scotland, it was
temporarily derailed during
major wars, “blossomed”
with creation of numerous
church councils and expe-
rienced its “glory days” in
the 1960s, post-Vatican II.
General Convention’s
step in July toward full
communion with the Mora-
vian Church will become
official after approval by
Photo/ Matthew Davies
the Northern and Southern
Provinces of the Moravian
Church in 2010.
If adopted as expected,
the agreement will permit
the same level of shared
ministry that exists between
the Episcopal Church and
the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA).
Epting recalled the 2001
Call to Common Mission
Episcopal-ELCA agreement,
which he helped write, as
the “result of almost 40
years of conversation and
working together.”
Today, there are about 50
shared congregational, cam-
pus, social service TO PAGE B
Ecumenical
FROm PAGE A
and other ministries, said Perez of
Epiphany Church in the Diocese of
El Camino Real. Many clergy serve
both Lutheran and Episcopal congre-
gations interchangeably.
The Rev. Gary Harke of the Mora-
vian Church said the agreement’s
success would hinge on local congre-
gations learning to live into it “as if
it matters, [which] takes real effort.
The real difference [if any] will be …
as clergy become comfortable with
one another and take steps to engage
their congregations in common min-
istry that forges relationships.”
Other full-communion partners
include the: Old Catholic Churches
of Europe; Philippine Independent
Church; and Mar Thoma Syrian
Church of Malabar.
The ease with which another res-
olution sailed through General Con-
vention underscored the church’s
mission to reach out to people of all
faiths via building humanity, said
the Rev. Gwynne Guibord, Diocese
of Los Angeles ecumenical and
interreligious officer.
The resolution endorsed a theolog-
ical statement on interreligious dia-
logue and gave dioceses and parishes
“support and encouragement” for
building relationships with people of
other faiths and/or religions without
the notion of proselytizing, said Gui-
bord, also a consultant for interfaith
relations for the Episcopal Church.
“When you build humanity,
when you build relationships, you
can get on to feeding the hungry,
housing the homeless, caring for
the sick, bringing our children up
in a world where we truly see each
other as neighbors,” she said.
Engaging Christians and Jews
through the North Jersey Christian-
Muslim Project heightened her
understanding of Islam, said Sha-
heen Ahmed of Tenafly, N.J. “I had
to make sure I could answer all the
questions they asked.”
B • closerlook
“The spirit unites us,” agreed
Angie Rispoli, a parishioner at
Church of the Atonement in
Tenafly, whose participation in the
project was “enriched by experienc-
ing worship in other traditions. It
helped me to appreciate my own
tradition and … says to me how big
God is and gives expression to the
mystery of God.”
Challenges and commonalities
Bishop John White cited General
Theological Seminary Professor
Bruce Mullins’ analysis of Anglican-
Methodist relations in the United
States: “He says we’re like the two
kids in the Parent Trap movie, re-
lated to one another but grew up in
separate existences.”
White, ecumenical bishop for
the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, was heartened by Gen-
eral Convention’s adoption of a
resolution reaffirming the church’s
ongoing dialogue with the United
Methodist Church and expanding it
to involve historically black church-
es, including the AME, African
Methodist Zion and the Christian
Methodist Episcopal churches.
While acknowledging past strains
of racism, such separations are “a
must-change,” White said. “We can’t
wait. We’ve got to help change take
place … to realize we all share in
the gospel of Jesus Christ together.”
Racism must be addressed
“openly and honestly … so we
[can] move on to the next level, to
saying we have much in common,
much we can do together,” he said.
The Rev. Tom Ferguson, Epis-
copal Church associate deputy for
ecumenical and interreligious rela-
tions, agreed. “We like to talk about
ministry and sacraments and under-
standing of the Eucharist and those
classic questions that are part of our
discussion, but one of the greatest
dividing issues has been race and
racism. We need to address it.”
Some tensions exist in Episcopal-
Roman Catholic ongoing dialogues,
Photo/Church of the Atonement
Participating in the North Jersey
Christian-muslim Project were, clockwise
from left, Kala Paul, representing the
Jewish community; the Rev. Lynne Ble-
ich Weber, rector of Atonement, Tenafly;
and Shaheen Ahmed and Rukiye Koc,
representing the muslim community.
Epting said. Women’s ordination
“was a big step for us, and one they
are not prepared to take. Things
slowed down a bit after that, and
our issues wrestling with human
sexuality have contributed to it.”
Most recently, the Vatican an-
nounced that “personal ordinari-
ates” would be created for former
Anglicans wishing to enter into
full communion with the Roman
Catholic Church while “preserving
elements of the distinctive Anglican
spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”
“We have longstanding relation-
ships, through the Anglican Roman
Catholic International Commission”
and other ongoing consultations
and “are committed to conversa-
tion with one another,” Epting said.
“The official dialogue is what inter-
ests us, not sidebar conversations.”
General Convention also adopted
an agreement with the Presbyterian
Church USA, which allows Episco-
palians and Presbyterians to accept
eucharistic hospitality offered by
both churches and to share re-
sources, and another agreement that
authorizes the start of a dialogue
with the Church of Sweden.
The Rev. Pat McCaughan is cor-
respondent for Provinces VII and VIII
and the House of Bishops.
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 29
Find new ways to tell the gospel story
YOU WILL READ this as
our news coverage of the
Episcopal Church makes
a major transition from
a print-primary presence
to publishing primarily
through electronic media. This
shift has been in the works since
before the last General Convention.
Some of you will find little differ-
ence as this change works itself
through, continuing to receive a di-
ocesan and churchwide newspaper
delivered through the U.S. Postal
Service. In other cases, a diocesan
paper edition may shift to online
media and/or cease paper produc-
tion altogether.
In part, this shift recognizes the
financial and ecological burdens
of producing a monthly newspa-
per that is mailed to subscribers.
In part, this shift recognizes what
is happening all around us, as
information sharing becomes far
more rapid and immediate than
the capabilities of print media.
More and more people receive their
news electronically rather than in
the morning newspaper – though I
must admit I haven’t yet figured out
how to conveniently read an online
morning paper over breakfast!
Aside from dealing with the
changes involved in receiving
coverage in new ways, the kind of
news presented will shift to fit the
medium more appropriately. Break-
ing news will be available online.
Former printing partners (dioceses
or congregations) now have the abil-
ity to tailor their publication to a far
greater degree than the old system
allowed. A new quarterly print pub-
lication will offer more opportunity
for reflection and in-depth conversa-
tion than is possible in a daily or
even monthly publication.
This has significant connections
to evangelism – the ways in which
30 RISEN / WINTER 2010
Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori
we tell the good news of Jesus. Sim-
ilar changes are needed in the ways
in which we tell good news in our
own communities, to those who
know little or nothing of the gospel.
We can no longer think we are doing
evangelism simply by waiting for
people to come to church on Sunday
morning – that isn’t adequate in
most of the contexts in which the
Episcopal Church exists, if it ever
was. Increasing percentages of the
population around us don’t know
who we are or why we exist. We
need to find new ways of telling
the old, old story – ways that are
congruent with the joys and chal-
lenges of the people and societies
around us.
This kind of recontextualizing of
the gospel is (and has been) neces-
sary in every age, since the first
apostles. The Samaritan woman
went home from her water break
with Jesus to tell her friends and
neighbors about the person she
had just encountered (John 4). She
didn’t hang around the well wait-
ing for them to show up. She didn’t
write a tract and post it next to the
bucket. She didn’t even produce a
drama to tell the story. She went
and found her friends and told her
own story.
There is an urgent need for Epis-
copalians to learn and try new ways
of evangelism. Most of them begin
by telling our own stories or provid-
ing opportunities for others to tell
theirs. One of my favorite images of
the latter comes from Nelle Morton,
which she calls “hearing others
into speech.” 1 An intrinsic part of
our task is to provide opportunities
where others can feel safe enough
to begin to share their questions
and fears and stories about God.
Increasingly that’s being done by
going out into the community,
rather than waiting for people to
come to church.
I met a number of “relational
evangelists” when I was at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
recently. These young people are
serving one-year internships that
are primarily focused on this kind
of mission. They live in intentional
community, engage in spiritual and
vocational discernment and spend
time with people in the larger
community around them, building
relationships for transformation
through a program sponsored by
the Diocese of Massachusetts.
More can be found here:
www.episcopalchurch.org/
49662_102391_ENG_HTM.htm.
Does your congregation or your
diocese have an evangelism com-
mission? If you want to start one
and don’t quite know how, the Dio-
cese of Bethlehem (northeast Penn-
sylvania) has a well-functioning
team you might learn from (www.
diobeth.org/Ministries/Evangelism/
evangelism.html).
A collection of useful resources,
on working with those in their 20s
to advertising, can be found at
www.episcopalchurch.org/
adcollaborative_57073_ENG_HTM.
htm?menupage=56882.
As you watch this news coverage
of the Episcopal Church make its
transition, I invite and encourage
you to think about (and then act
on) ways in which your own con-
gregation or diocese can reach out
to the people around you to share
the good news you know in Jesus.
1 The Journey is Home. Beacon, 1985.
activevoice • C
faithworks
community, worship and action
A taste of missionary life
By Lynette Wilson
A MISSIONARY’S LIFE can be full
of surprises.
When Mike Young, 24, of
Abilene, Texas, signed up with the
Young Adult Services Corps (YASC)
as an Episcopal Church missionary,
the last thing he expected was to be
sent to First-World-known-for-high-
development-and-electronics Japan,
he said. But because of his interest
in sustainability and food produc-
tion, he found himself working as a
farmhand at the Asian Rural Insti-
tute, a training center for community
leaders from Southeast Asia, the
Pacific and Africa in Nasushiobara,
Japan.
“Mainly I was a farm volunteer,
but it’s a religious, ecumenical
program. We have a community of
people living together, and I was
just there as another community
member to share my life,” Young
said. “My biggest contribution as a
missionary was just being available
for people to talk to.”
Young was one of eight YASC
missionaries, each recently returned
from an overseas assignment, who
gathered at the Episcopal Church
Center in New York in early Octo-
ber for a “re-entry retreat” – a time
to share their experiences, joys and
challenges with each other.
YASC offers Episcopalians ages
21-30 an opportunity to spend a
year aboard working as mission
partners with a local church, mon-
astery, seminary or other Anglican
Communion program.
“It gives the mission partners
an opportunity to understand their
own vocation from a baptismal
sensibility and to understand who
they are in connection with the
D • faithworks
larger church and how to en-
gage in God’s mission in the
world,” said the Rev. Douglas
Fenton, a program officer
for the Episcopal Church’s
Young Adult and Campus
Ministries. “It also offers an
opportunity to do some real
internal work.”
Many challenges
From teaching English to Young Adult Service Corps missionary Audra
young adults working to earn Krislock spent a year working in the Diocese
a high school diploma in of Colombia as a translator and with children.
South Africa to working as a YASC fosters connections and
translator in Colombia; from coordi- interdependence from the start
nating an education program for or- by requiring missionaries to raise
phans in Tanzania to working with $10,000 to help cover airfare, living
at-risk girls in Honduras or main- expenses, medical insurance, a $500
taining the computer systems at a monthly stipend and other related
theological college in Africa, the costs. At first, the thought of raising
mission partners met life-changing money intimidated Audra Krislock,
challenges and tested their assump- 24, of Spokane, Wash., a recent
tions, both personal and cultural. college graduate and AmeriCorps
After graduating from Virginia volunteer. But once she broke the
Theological Seminary in Alexan- cost down to $28 a day, it became
dria, Va., Steve Day, 29, went to more manageable, she said.
work at Msalato Theological Col- “Then I realized, it’s not fundrais-
lege in Tanzania as a computer net- ing just for me, you are able to in-
work administrator. It’s a difficult clude people in this experience, and
job stateside, but even more so in that’s part of the idea of fundraising,
Tanzania, where electricity is spotty because they don’t want you to pay
and often unsafe, he said. for it yourself; they want people to
When Day wasn’t helping stu- feel like they have invested in this
dents and faculty connect to the missionary and in connecting two
Internet or replacing surge-fried communities that wouldn’t other-
equipment, he was teaching church wise be connected,” Krislock said.
history and theology and learning Krislock wrote letters to family
to depend on others in the commu- and friends asking them to sponsor
nity located 10 kilometers outside her for a day and promised to keep in
the capital Dodoma. For an Ameri- touch with them. She also spoke at
can used to independence and a couple of churches and gained the
a car, relying on the community support of her bishop and the dean at
proved challenging, he said. St. John the Evangelist in Spokane.
“It was good for me to be depen- Krislock worked for the Diocese
dent … and connect with the people of Colombia translating documents
I was working with,” he said. and with children at TO PAGE E
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 31
YASC FROm PAGE D
different Episcopal missions through-
out the country. She also worked on
programs sponsored by the Diocese
of Connecticut, a sister diocese.
‘Radical hospitality’
Witnessing churches from all
over the world successfully work
together to educate children or-
phaned by HIV/AIDS in Tanzania is
Elizabeth Boe’s greatest joy.
Boe, 26, coordinates the Carpen-
ter’s Kids program in the Diocese of
Central Tanganyika, a partnership
started by the Episcopal Diocese of
New York that has provided pri-
mary education to more than 5,000
orphans.
Boe, who will return to Tanzania
in December to complete a second
year of service, expressed the desire member of the group, served at the
to see Episcopalians practice
the kind of “radical hospital-
ity” she has witnessed in
Tanzanians.
For Young, missionary
work had a lot to do with lis-
tening. At one point, he said,
five missionaries were living
at the Asian Rural Institute,
but they weren’t missionaries
is the traditional sense.
“It wasn’t, ‘I’m going to
share the gospel with these
people.’ It’s more about shar-
ing your life,” he said. “I mike Young, 24, top left, of Texas, worked
don’t think it was a matter of as a farmhand at the Asian Rural Institute
individual effort. I think ... just in Japan. The institute trains community
being present and available to leaders from the developing world.
talk was much more impor-
tant than if I had gone to preach to
them every night or read the Bible at
them … [W]e would just sit and talk
and discuss stuff, and they would
bring up questions.”
Young’s roommates ranged from
atheist to Buddhist to “pseudo”-
Christian, he said.
One wanted to know why he
went to church every Sunday. And
he explained that it was a commu-
nity and that people came from the
32 RISEN / WINTER 2010
larger community, that he’d made
friends young and old from whom
he’d learned things.
“That was a big eye-opener for him
because he’d never really heard that,
and he was big on community build-
ing, so he thought that was wonder-
ful,” Young said. “It was the little con-
versations, the random interactions
with people who don’t necessarily
believe the same things that you do.”
A cradle Episcopalian, born in
North Carolina, Young grew up in
a family where, if they couldn’t
make the 45-minute drive to church,
they would have Morning Prayer at
home, he said. In the future, he said,
he plans to teach outdoor education.
Second chances
The Rev. Valerie Miller, 30, of
southeast Florida, the only ordained
Little Roses Ministries for homeless
girls in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Little Roses gives girls ages 6
months to 22 years old a chance to
succeed by providing a home, edu-
cation and support. Miller taught re-
ligion classes for grades one to nine.
She also presided over daily chapel
services – a challenge because they
were in Spanish, she said.
Miller said she hoped to return to
work at Little Roses someday after the
political system stabilizes. (The mili-
tary ousted President Manuel Zelaya
in June.) “I hold the girls and every-
one there in my heart,” she said.
Courtney Dale, 24, of Bowling
Green, Ky., served a year in Graha-
mstown, South Africa, where she
spent mornings teaching English to
adults working toward a high school
diploma. In the afternoon she would
catch a ride to the Mariya uMama
weThemba Monastery – an Anglican
Benedictine community of men on
the outskirts of town – to work at an
after-school program for children.
Fifteen years post-apartheid,
racial tension remains palpable,
with black and white South Africans
living in separate communities and
mostly separate lives, Dale said.
At first it was difficult, as a white
American, to find a comfortable bal-
ance, but she eventually found her
place in both communities, she said.
“I found it easier to let loose
around people who were more like
me, but I knew I needed to push
myself,” she said. “Once you push
yourself enough, it becomes easier
to feel more like yourself around
different people.”
Spiritual expression, however,
was much easier and more accept-
able in South Africa than in Ameri-
ca’s Bible Belt, where Dale grew up,
she said. Without home access to
the Internet or television, Dale at-
tended services three to four times
a week at both the Cathedral of St.
Michael and St. George in Graham-
stown and at the monastery.
“It was a lot easier and culturally
more acceptable for people to be
open about their faith,” she said. In
her experience, people in the Bible
Belt tend to cling to their personal
beliefs and reject those of others,
said Dale, who now is working in
campus ministry at Kansas State
University and is in the ordina-
tion discernment process. In South
Africa, she said, “It was much more
acceptable for me to have an open
conversation with people of different
faiths and feel completely accepted.”
faithwoks • E
Anglican covenant sent to provinces
for consideration, possible adoption
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
and Matthew Davies
ALL FOUR SECTIONS of the pro-
posed Anglican Covenant were sent
to the communion’s 38 provinces
for formal consideration on Dec. 18
after the Standing Committee of the
Anglican Communion approved a
revised version of the document’s
text.
The Standing Committee had
been presented with a revamped
section 4 of the covenant during its
Dec. 15-18 meeting in London, after
a small working group had spent
six months consulting with the
provinces about its revision.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams, in a Dec. 18 video mes-
sage, said that the covenant is not
going to solve all of the commu-
nion’s problems.
“It’s not going to be a constitution,
and it’s certainly not going to be a
penal code for punishing people who
don’t comply,” he said. “But what
it does represent is this: in recent
years in the Anglican family, we’ve
discovered that our relations with
each other as local churches have
often been strained, that we haven’t
learned to trust one another as per-
haps we should, that we really need
to build relationships, and we need to
have a sense that we are responsi-
ble to one another and responsible
for each other. In other words, what
we need is something that will help
us know where we stand together,
and help us also intensify our fel-
lowship and our trust.”
The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon,
secretary general of the Anglican
Communion, said in a Dec. 18 letter
to the communion’s primates and
moderators that the member church-
es should consider the text and
decide “on acceptance or adoption.”
F • newsworthy
Kearon said those member churches
would be expected to report to the
next Anglican Consultative Coun-
cil (ACC) meeting in 2012 “on the
progress made in the processes of
response to, and adoption of, the
covenant.” The ACC is the commu-
nion’s main policy-making body.
The Episcopal Church’s Execu-
tive Council has said that only Gen-
eral Convention, which next meets
in 2012, can formally endorse the
Anglican covenant. At its January
2009 meeting, the council predicted
that such approval could not come
until at least 2015 should endorse-
ment require changes to the Epis-
copal Church’s constitution.
Williams said in his video
message that in the next
few years he expects
there will be “quite a bit
of activity” around
the covenant.
“We hope, as I’ve
said, that many provinces
will feel able to adopt this.
We hope that many other
bodies will affirm the vision that’s
set out here, and that in the long
run this will actually help us to be-
come more of a communion – more
responsible for each other, present-
ing to the world a face of mutual
understanding, patience, charity and
gratitude for one another,” he said.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts
Schori and the Rev. Ian Douglas,
Angus Dun professor of World Chris-
tianity at Episcopal Divinity School
and bishop-elect of the are Standing
Committee members and attended
the meeting, which was held behind
closed doors at the Anglican Com-
munion Office in London. They have
not been available for comment.
The idea for an Anglican cov-
enant was first cited in the 2004
Windsor Report (paragraphs 113-
120) and has been supported by all
the instruments of communion as a
way for the Anglican Communion to
maintain unity amid differing view-
points, especially on human sexual-
ity issues and biblical interpretation.
The major changes in the final
text center on the questions of
which entities would be invited to
enter into the covenant and what to
do when a so-called “covenanting
church” acts in a way that may be
contrary to the covenant’s goals.
However, the Covenant Working
Group declined to answer the ques-
tion of the eventual status of current
communion members who choose
not to enter into the covenant.
“The working group consid-
ers that it is not appropri-
ate to address this ques-
tion within the text of the
covenant,” it said in
a commentary that
was released Dec. 18 with
the rest of the covenant
materials. “Rather, there
should be the flexibility for
the instruments of communion to
determine an appropriate response
in the evolving situation that would
accompany a process of reception
and adoption of the covenant.”
The final text makes it clear that
only members of the Anglican Com-
munion, as listed in the ACC consti-
tution’s “schedule of membership,”
are currently being invited to enter
into the covenant, according to their
provincial constitutional procedures.
The working group said that
Standing Committee “is best
placed” for arbitrating when actions
are perceived to be contrary to the
agreement’s stated goals.
The complete final covenant text
is available here http://www.angli-
cancommunion.org/commission/
covenant/final/text.cfm
WINTER 2010/ RISEN 33
 2010
Convocation Leadership
Training Day
A Day with Reggie McNeal
March 27th, 9AM – 3PM
Saturday, Feb. 27th, 9AM-3PM
The Marriott Hotel, One Orms Street, Providence The Cathedral of St.. John
(
Buffet Lunch will be served) 271 North Main Street,
Providence
Reggie McNeal is an acclaimed author and lecturer who chal-
The program is to include
lenges Christian leaders to re-think the way we live into our presentations
missions and congregational development. and workshops
to support the ministries of
His books include The Wardens, Vestry, Treasurers
Present Future (Jossey- and all Lay Leadership.
Bass, 2003), Practicing
Greatness (Jossey-Bass, Look for further information soon!
2006), and Get A Life!
(Broadman & Holman, Contact Ty Creason at
2007). His latest book, (401)274-4500 or
Ty@episcopalri.org for
Missional Renaissance: more information
Changing the Scorecard for
the Church (Jossey-Bass,

Taizé
2009) details the three
shifts that church leaders
must make to engage
the missional movement
and offers suggestions for
a different scorecard to
reflect missional ministry. Monthly Services:
The Cathedral of St.. John,
Reggie received his M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees both from The Second Sunday
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has over a de- Of every month At 4PM
cade of experience as a Church leadership development coach,
has himself served in congregational leadership for more than
twenty years, and has lectured or taught as adjunct faculty for Pilgrimage
For Young Adults:
multiple seminaries, including Fuller Theological Seminary.
May 30th - June 8th

Register online
Visit www.episcopalri.org to register. Print your ticket to
bring with you, and mail your $20 registration fee to:
The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island
275 North Main Street
Providence, RI, 02903
Contact:
Tylan Creason at (401) 274-
4500 ty@episcopalri.org
34 RISEN / WINTER 2010
 2010 Eastertide
Confirmations Episcopal Charities Fund
Saturday, May 1 of Rhode Island
10:00AM - Narragansett and West Bay 401-274-4500 x234 www.episcopalri.org
2:00PM East Bay and Aquidneck

Saturday, May 8
10:00 am - Central and Blackstone
2:00 PM - If needed, for anyone who
cannot make the other times.

All services will be at the Cathedral

of St.. John. Clergy, Presenters, and
candidates should plan to arrive
1 hour prior to the liturgy for a short
walk-through and orientation.
Additional information will be sent
out as the dates approach.

Contact Canon Tylan Creason at Ty@

episcopalri.org or 274-4500 X 242

Your
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Right
Here

email
Risen@episcopalri.org
To Find Out More WINTER 2010/ RISEN 35
EPISCOPAL CAMP AND CONFERENCE CENTER
For more info:
visit www.ECCRI.org
email us at registrar@ECCRI.org
or call ECC at 401-568-4055
Music and Arts Camp
June 27-July 3, For 8th-12th graders
Teen Camp
July 4-9, For 7th-9th graders
Older Boys Camp
July 11th-16th, For 5th and 6th graders
Older Girls Camp
July 18th-23rd, For 5th and 6th graders
Camper’s Choice Week
July 25th-August 30th, For 8th-12th graders
Younger Children Camp
August 2nd-6th, For 2nd-4th graders
Summer’s End Camp
August 8th-13th, For 7th-12th graders