Diocesan News

Diocesan Leadership Days gather like-sized churches to celebrate, learn from one another

On Saturday, April 24, and Saturday, May 1 representatives from Upper SC's congregations gathered at All Saints’, Clinton, for the first two of five Leadership Days organized under the banner of "Share the Hope" and according to church size.

Program-size congregations (average Sunday attendance 225-800) were the focus of the April 24 kick-off event, followed by pastoral congregations (50-140), who came together on May 1 to tell the story of their congregations, exchange ideas, and reflect on the road ahead.

In a series of presentations and small-group conversations, participants celebrated their congregations by sharing successful ministry initiatives related to worship, Christian formation, and outreach. They also learned of common struggles, defined growing edges, and identified resources to meet common needs. Bishop-elect Andrew Waldo served as facilitator for large-group discussion.

Bishop-elect Andrew Waldo in conversation with Leadership Day participants

Several key questions guided the day's work:

What is your mission? How are you unique? How are you known to the wider community?

What is your greatest strength? What are your new ministry endeavors? What are your joys?

What are your greatest challenges? What are your growing edges? What are your needs?

 

Vocare 5 inspires Upper SC young adults

For the weekend of April 9-11, Gravatt served as home to Vocare #5, a renewal ministry for Upper South Carolina's young adults ages 19-30.

The aim of Vocare is to concentrate closely on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. Our faith is seriously examined in a relaxed and loving three-day adventure shared with an international community of young adults. Participants strive to keep God first, find their place in his world, and look to hear Christ's calling in the heavy life decisions that young people encounter.

Visit Vocare on the diocesan website, and in the meantime check out these wonderful photos by Vocare 5 chaplain, the Rev. Bob Chiles.

York Place launches Carruthers Cottage initiative

Your gift will honor a beloved bishop and help the children of York Place.

Do not let the term “cottage” mislead you! Carruthers Cottage is a large brick structure near the Hillside Lane entrance to the York Place campus and is named for Thomas Neely Carruthers. Fondly remembered by those he confirmed, mentored, ordained and countless people he served, he was the 10th bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina from 1944 until his death in 1960.

Designed to be a residence, Carruthers Cottage has been awaiting a new use since York Place's Richardson Treatment and Evaluation Center – which includes living space – opened two years ago. The plan is for Carruthers to be converted into a spacious learning center with classrooms, media center, library, and computer lab. It will be in Carruthers that the trained staff from York School District together with trained York Place staff will work with children whose needs require that they have special attention before they can attend area public schools.

This initiative needs the support of all Episcopalians in the state of South Carolina to become a reality. Estimates indicate it will cost approximately $250,000 to complete the conversion and to outfit the learning center for use. Since this summer marks the 50th anniversary of Bishop Carruthers’s death, won’t you consider making a contribution both to honor him and to provide this vital space to children of God so deserving of the advantages the learning center will provide?

Kathy Grier at York Place (803.684.4011 X1013) would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about the Carruthers Cottage Initiative. Your tax-deductible contributions, which will be received gratefully and will be used wisely, can be sent to Ms Grier’s attention at York Place (234 Kings Mountain Street, York SC 29745). Please specify “Carruthers Cottage” on your gift.

Good news from Cange

By Jackie Williams

Artisans' Center quilt wins recognition in 2011 "Dream Rocket" competition.

The Artisans' Center at Cange, an outgrowth of our 30+-year diocesan ministry in Haiti's Central Plateau that offers employment to local seamstresses and artists, has been recognized  for its recent submission to the global "Dream Rocket" project. The project is sponsoring an international competition whose goal is to create a massive quilt that will wrap around a replica of NASA’s historic Saturn V Rocket standing in front of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Entrants were asked to submit a 2' x 2' quilt square representative of their dream for a  better future. The Artisans' Center contribution depicts a simple Haitian scene--little house, palm tree, animals--and expresses the dream "as a longing just for a normal life, away from the squalor and rubble of earthquake-ruined Port au Prince. All we ask is a simple home, a bit of shade, a pig, a donkey...."

The entry will be displayed in many sites, including here, on facebook (scroll down a bit!). The Dream Rocket quilt in its entirety will be unveiled in May 2011, in commemoration of President John F. Kennedy’s May 25, 1961, pledge to “land a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."

More great projects--bracelets, rugs, and more

At the Artisans' Center folks are busy working with Fr. Buck and Lucy Close from the Springs Mill textile family One of Lucy's projects is Haiti Awareness bracelets. These are tediously crocheted from tiny beads, black with the red & blue of the Haitian flag. They sell for $25. and they are flying out the door. Each person who finishes one gets $5.00 cash, and this is a fine incentive.

Another popular project is rugs. Dr. Don Lineback, recently retired as the chief fund raiser at Furman University, spent two weeks in Cange teaching the technique. The rugs too have been wildly popular. They sell for $50 - $75 and custom orders are joyfully taken. Do you want a butterfly underfoot? Or perhaps a Fleur de Lis? Pick a color choice, and it will happen.

The Center continues hand embroidery, and the marketing strategy this year is to send a gift of a purificator to every altar guild in the diocese as a sample of the quality of the work.

Upper SC's donations of cloth, thread, yarn, sewing machines, and so on have proved invaluable. Any donations, clothing also, can be sent to Tim Wilson, Palmetto Adhesives, 112 Guess Street Greenville S.C. 29601.

Dr. Beth Kunkel of Trinity, Clemson has opened a shop of our Haiti goods in the building next to the church, Greenville Highway, Downtown Clemson. We hope all good Episcopalians will support this effort. Our goal is to have Sant Art ak Kouti (Art and Sewing Center) financially independent one of these days. Many thanks for your help.

Ecuadorian program begun by Upper SC's Cameron Graham Vivanco featured on YouTube

Education Equals Hope Scholarship Program is supported by a 2009 Upper SC MDG grant

The Education Equals Hope Scholarship Program, established in Ecuador, by missionary Cameron Graham Vivanco from Church of the Advent, Spartanburg, is the subject of a YouTube video posted by one of the program's Ecuadorian workers. The film focuses on interviews of Education Equals Hope students and parents who have benefited from the program.

In 2009 the Education Equals Hope Scholarship Program was one of the recipients of a diocesan MDG grant, a program which administers funding from the 0.7% MDG (Millennium Development Goals) line item in the diocesan Statement of Mission.

The Education Equals Hope Scholarship Fund exists to provide for the education of children in difficult and desperate situations. One hundred percent of funds donated to the program goes to the education of children in one of three Ecuadorian church communities. The scholarship program supports more than 100 children, and funds raised cover registration, tuition, uniforms, books, and supplies.

For more information about this ministry and others in Ecuador, please contact Chip Smith, csmith@ewprocess.com.

Upcoming Events

"Share the Hope": Next Diocesan Leadership Days coming up June 5, 10, 19

Don't miss this opportunity to gather with like-sized churches

Attend the day that's right for your church!

Transitional churches, June 5; Resource congregations, June 10; Family-size churches, June 19. More info about Leadership Days: www.edusc.org.

Scenes from the first Leadership Day, April 24.

"Share the Hope," a series of five diocesan leadership days organized according to church size, began April 24 at All Saints', Clinton. The April 24 event was dedicated to program-size congregations, those whose average Sunday attendance (ASA) ranges from 225 to 800. A second event, for pastoral-size congregations (50-140) was held at All Saints' on May 1.

Three more days are on tap, June 5 (transitional churches, ASA 141-224), June 10 (resource congregations, 800+), and June 19 (family-size churches, 1-50)—all to be held at All Saints', Clinton.

All clergy, elected lay leadership (wardens, vestry, and delegates), lay staff, and interested others are encouraged to attend the Leadership Day designed for their congregation.

These events offer time for worship, sharing congregational stories, listening to the stories of other faith communities, participating in interest groups around common topics, and entering into dialogue with our new bishop about the ministry we all share in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.  For planning purposes RSVP is required.

Visit www.edusc.org/Leadershipfor more information. An RSVP link is found at the bottom of each day's agenda.

Questions? Contact Sue von, 803.771.7800, ext. 13.

Midlands wine & cheese fundraiser for Haiti, May 16

The Earthquake is Over, but the Crisis is Not

Plan to join Bishop-Elect Andrew Waldo and other leaders of the Midlands Convocation for an update on the critical circumstances of our brothers and sisters in the village of Cange, where the Diocese of Upper South Carolina has had an active presence and ministry since 1980.  Please support

A Wine and Cheese Benefit

for the

 Bread and Water Campaign for Cange, Haiti

a mission of The Diocese of Upper South Carolina

Sunday, May 16, 2010, 4:00 to 6:00 PM

 Speaker:  Dr. Harry Morse

  St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields                                                Tickets $15  

5220 Clemson Avenue, Columbia                                  Available at the door

Still Hopes benefit, May 27, celebrates the Guignard Mansion

On May 27 The Guignard Society, which promotes the mission of the Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community, will sponsor "A Night at the Mansion," a benefit celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Guignard Mansion and supporting the Still Hopes Resident Assistance Fund.

The evening begins with a cocktail reception at 6 Dinner follows at 7. The cost is $75 per reservation (of which $50 is tax deductible).

Please contact the Development Office at Still Hopes (803.739.5006; kmoorman@stillhopes.org), for more information.

Ordinations June 3—All invited!

"Caring for Creation"at Mepkin Abbey, May 20

"Caring for Creation: A Forum for Religious Education Leaders" will be held May 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

This interfaith conference, sponsored by the Center for Humans and Nature, Audubon – South Carolina, and Mepkin Abbey is offered without charge to religious education leaders who wish to know more about faith-based environmental education.

Sister Paula Gonzalez, Ph.D., Sisters of Charity - Cincinnati will be the forum leader and present a keynote address: "Spirituality for the 21st Century." Since 1970, she has presented more than 1,600 programs – workshops, retreats, seminars— on various aspects of global futures. She is a dynamic leader who energizes audiences to teach others that we are participants in creation with the Eternal Creator.

Participants will also learn what South Carolina faith communities are doing to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Speakers from the SC State Energy Office, conservation groups, and places of worship will offer advice and information on making the physical place of worship less consumptive (thus reducing costs) and on ways to educate congregants to become better stewards of the Earth.

Lunch will be provided. Because of limited space registrations are required by May 10. To register, or if you have questions, please contact Dr. William Bailey at wbailey@sc.edu.

Province IV Leadership Conference at Kanuga, June 9-11

"Leadership Marks for Creating and Growing Vital Congregations," a conference sponsored by the Congregational Development and Evangelism Network of Province IV, will be held at Kanuga, June 9-11.

Speakers include, William Gregg of North Carolina. Charles Fulton, former Director of Congregational Development for TEC. Thomas Brackett, Program Officer for TEC in Church Planting and Redevelopment
Archdeacon Bryan A. Hobbs, Director of the Nehemiah Process in the Diocese of Southeast Florida; Mary MacGregor, Director of Leadership Development in the Diocese of Texas.

Workshops include "Problem Solvers"; "Strategic Vision for Hispanic/Latino Ministries"; "Setting Goals & Tracking Effectiveness"; Building a Welcoming System"; "Using Gifts and Talents of Others"; and "Peer Workshops for Large, Transitional, and Small Parishes."

Download the brochure for more information, Visit www.marksofleadership.org to register.

Christian educators at Kanuga, June 13-18

Christian educators can nurture their own well being as well as their ministry during Kanuga’s Christian Formation Conference June 13-18.

The conference has two tracks of study: Children and Youth Faith Formation, June 13-16, and Adult Faith Formation, June 15-18. Kate Gillooly, past president of the National Association for Episcopal Christian Education Directors, will give keynote addresses during both segments on the theme “Living Our Baptismal Promises: A Call to Wholeness.”

The conference features nearly 40 workshops on topics including caring for teachers, the art of pastoral care, enhancing worship for children, Christian yoga, wine tasting, faith and sexuality, godparenting, narthex evangelism, coping with grief and marketing your church led by some of the best educators in the Episcopal Church. Optional training to lead local programs in Education for Ministry, Godly Play and Journey to Adulthood will be offered, as well as daily children’s programs and recreation options for spouses.

For more information, visit www.kanuga.org or call 828.692.9136.

Dallas Benedictine Experience, June 23-27

The 13th annual multi-denominational Dallas Benedictine Experience Retreat will take place at The Catholic Conference Center in Dallas from Wednesday, June 23, to Sunday, June 27, 2010.

This retreat is presented by The Friends of St. Benedict, Washington, D.C. Participants will live at the conference center for five days, forming a temporary monastic community to experience the balanced way of life of the Rule of St. Benedict as it divides each day into private and group prayer, study, work, and leisure. Four Benedictine Offices (Lauds, Sext, Vespers, and Compline) will be sung each day in Gregorian chant. There will also be two classes each day on Benedictine spirituality.

Retreat leaders are Sister Mary Donald Corcoran, O.S.B.Cam. and Father Dwight Longenecker. 

For more information,  e-mail dallasbenedictine@yahoo.com, or call 214.339.8483.

Opportunities

Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast reports on the oil spill

From a colleague in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Volunteers are being mobilized now and are pre-cleaning the beaches. Central Gulf Coast's episcopal camp is located on Weeks Bay (Beckwith Camp and Conference Center), where efforts are being made to stop the oil from entering the estuary.

The following articles offer volunteer opportunities and news updates:

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/post_58.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=121646667846792

Prayer for the Gulf of Mexico, by the Rev. Canon Beverly Gibson, Sub-Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Mobile, adapted from the Prayer for the Conservation of Natural Resources, BCP, p. 827.

We pray today for the preservation of our natural environment, especially the Gulf of Mexico and the lands and waters it touches: Guide those who labor to contain the oil that endangers the creatures of sea and land; Strengthen those who work to protect them; Have mercy on those whose livelihoods will suffer; Forgive us for our carelessness in using the resources of nature, and give us wisdom and reverence so to manage them in the future, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi, Chapin, seeks part-time youth director

St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church is seeking an energetic person to lead its Youth Ministry.

The Church is looking for an inspiring and motivating person, who leads by example, to direct the Spiritual formation of youth through program and education, including planning and organizing, budgeting and recruiting volunteer help.

This part-time position requires approximately 20-23.5 hours per week, including some evening work and regular attendance at St. Francis of Assisi on Sunday mornings. Involvement in additional youth-centered events will be essential part of this ministry.

 Contact the church for more information, 803.345.1550/

Clergy News

Consecration info

It's available and has been updated at www.edusc.org/Consecration. Be sure to check the clergy page and the liturgical participants' page!

Persons serving in liturgical roles do not need tickets. Please email consecration@edusc.org with questions.

Parochial clergy: Please remind ticket-holders in your congregations that they must claim their seats between 9:30 and 10:15 a.m. Seating is open to the public beginning at 10:15.

"Share the Hope": Three Diocesan Leadership Days still to come

This year's Diocesan Leadership Days are organized according to church size, and two of the announced series of five--on April 24 and May 1 for program and pastoral-size congregations--have met with much success.

If you are affiliated with a transition, resource, or family-size congregation, your Leadership Days are still to come--June 5, 10, and 19 respectively. So gather your team and come "Share the hope."

Visit www.edusc.org/Leadership now for more information.  RSVP is requested and  an RSVP link is found at the bottom of each day's agenda.

Questions? Contact Sue von, 803.771.7800, ext. 13.

Mother's Day Offering, May 9

By standing resolution of Diocesan Convention, the loose offering on the second Sunday of May is designated for Still Hopes and Finlay House.

Please mail your offering, earmarked "Mother's Day," to Diocesan House, Attn. Roslyn Hook, 1115 Marion Street, Columbia, SC 29201.

Ordained Ministry Conference, May 8

For those in discernment regarding the ordination process in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, the next Ordained Ministry Conference has been set for Saturday, May 8, 2010 at Church of the Redeemer, Greenville. The conference will begin at 9:00 a.m. with Morning Prayer and conclude by noon. To register contact Deacon d’Rue Hazel at 800-889-6961 ext. 24, dhazel@edusc.org.

All individuals in the ordination process are required to attend this conference along with their sponsoring priest and a potential and/or current member of their local discernment committee. (Handbook for Discernment for Ministry and the Ordination Process, p. 19)

The fall conference will be held on Saturday, November 6, 2010, at St. David's Episcopal Church, Columbia. It will also be held from 9:00 AM to noon.
The 2011 conferences will be held on the first Saturday in May and the first Saturday in November. Locations are not yet confirmed.

Calendar

In the Moment— One Pilgrim's Attempt to Be Present

By Amy Sander Montanez, D. Min.

Blessed and blessing

Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow was a popular book on the self-help market about ten years ago. The basic tenet of the book was that if you follow your bliss, you’ll make plenty of money. It’s a provocative and seductive idea, but it just is not true. Think of all the amazing musicians, artists, actors, writers, and teachers in the world who follow their bliss and bless us with their gifts, only to live out of their cars or in crowded apartments with a number of other friends. Then there are those who can only practice their art because they are supported by a partner or benefactor. Others work a full-time job to support themselves and their bliss becomes their hobby.

The problem with the idea is that it tries to link financial success to vocational success. There are fields of work where the two may go hand in hand. Technology, medical and pharmacological research, investments, professional sports, and some entrepreneurial endeavors come to mind. But for so many, what God calls them to, what becomes their life’s work and offering, will have nothing to do with monetary success as measured by our society.

One of my best friends lives in Manhattan. Her entire professional life has been devoted to children and families who live with disabilities. Immediately after graduating from Furman University, she taught special education in the public schools. Then she started a private school for children with learning disabilities, worked as a learning disabilities consultant, was an adjunct professor at Furman, and finally went on to get her doctorate in disability studies from an Ivy League school. There she wrote a dissertation that quickly received a book offer from an educational press. She now teaches at a university with the kind of passion and dedication that is the hallmark of great professors and is the director of their childhood education program. She’s written another book and speaks all over the world on her passion, the perception and treatment of mothers of disabled children.  

Photo ©Adám Fáth / istockphoto.com

Saturday night her dissertation debuted as a play performed at The City College of New York entitled The M.O.M. Project: Mothers on Mothering: Narratives of Disability. Just as the book that followed her dissertation was not her idea, this play was not her idea. An actor/playwright/director who knew of her work and dissertation had a vision of it becoming a play. So this theatre artist followed her passion, educational theater, and turned the book into a play. After the play, a documentary filmmaker in attendance asked to interview my friend for her project, a documentary on mothers and mothering. I imagine this energy to be something like a candle-lighting where someone lights my candle and I light the next person’s candle and they light the candle next to them and pretty soon we have a room glowing with light.

My friend will never be rich. There is no big money in education, no great return for writing an awesome textbook, and certainly none for saying yes to artists who are inspired by your work and want to share it with the world. Our culture’s money structure does not value teachers, children, mothers, or artists, and certainly we do not hold those with disabilities of any kind in great regard. What I know, however, is that my friend as a person and the work to which she has given her life have been a blessing beyond words to so many people. The joy of serving a passion that you believe in cannot be measured in dollars. The path she has followed, the journey to be true to her own life’s story, has been a faithful path and it has blessed others beyond measure.

Not surprisingly, by generously blessing others with her life’s work, she is being blessed beyond measure. She feels fulfilled, there has been healing of some of her life’s wounds, she is full of joy and has a sense of having mattered in the world. She has met and befriended amazing people and her calling gets affirmed repeatedly. She is open to having her work take on new dimensions and she is “just saying yes” to letting the energy take her work where it may. I am privileged to know others, many others, who live and work in the same way. By just saying yes to what is calling them, they become ordinary saints who are changing the world. Perhaps dear reader, you are one of them!

In the moment, my friend is inspiring me. By staying faithful to my call and therefore to God’s call on my life, I can live in the knowledge that my work is a blessing and it will be blessed. Deeper still, and harder to say out loud, I can live with the confidence that because I am blessed by God first, I am a blessing to others. We were created to become living sacraments, outward and visible signs of God’s inward and spiritual grace. When we live out of that abundance, as my friend has, the blessings never end.

So don’t do what you love because the money will follow. Do what you love because that love, that desire, was planted in you at your making. And when you live out of that place, whether you live out of a car, a crowded apartment, or have the privilege of other financial support, you will be blessed and you will be a blessing. The cycle is infinite and it cannot be separated. Blessedblessingblessedblessingblessedblessing...eternally.

©2010 Amy Sander Montanez, D.Min.