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The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24
The Record is an official publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. Our mission is to celebrate, educate, and create community within our diocese. EDITOR: Anna Stania PUBLISHER: The Rt. Rev. Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr. The Record is published by the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 4800 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201. Address changes may be emailed to TheRecord@edomi.org. Image permissions and copyright: Cover: Mechelle Sieglitz-Castelli, inside cover: Mechelle Sieglitz-Castelli, p. 1: Mechelle Sieglitz-Castelli and Gabby Burton, p. 2: fredericofoto, p. 3: asife, p. 4-11: Mechelle Sieglitz-Castelli, p. 12-15 Gabby Burton p. 16-17: macor
CONTENTS Winter 2019
03 04 The Bishop’s Address
Annual Fundraising Appeal Anna Stania, Director of Communications
The Rt. Rev. Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr.
1 0 Election Results Filling Up Fridays 12 20 Diocesan Resolutions
From the 184th Convention of the Diocese of Michigan
Gabby Burton, Co-Director Friday Fill-Up!, Trinity, Belleville
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From the 184th Convention of the Diocese of Michigan
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Abide in God and Bear Much Fruit The 185th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan The Rt. Rev. Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr., 10th Bishop of Michigan October 26, 2019 Several years ago, our youngest daughter, Amber, had occasion to ask for our assistance as she sought to parent two growing boys and discover what call had been placed on her life. With lots of conversation and negotiation, it was decided that Amber and the boys would come to live with us in our home. I’m not certain that Karlah and I really knew what we were getting ourselves into, but we wanted to be true to the declaration we had made to both children that we would always be there for them. So, we rearranged furniture, bought and assembled more furniture (can you say IKEA?), made space in closets, stored stuff in the basement, stocked the pantry, stocked the refrigerator, and made ready for three additional humans to dwell in our midst for what turned out to be a longer-than-expected time frame. What I can say about our time under one roof is that it was an education. One thing I certainly learned is that “living with” and “abiding in” are very different ideas. This is particularly true when you come to understand that the former—“living with”—involves a simple sharing of space and the latter. “Abiding in” involves mutual connection, dependence, and stability. Don’t get 04 | The Record
me wrong, we love our children and our grandchildren, and we are fully accepting of the reality that living separately allows our love for one another to abide deep within our hearts!
The theme of this year’s convention, and thus the underpinning for this address/sermon/whatever it is, is “Abide in God and bear much fruit.” I suspect that from my just-shared personal experience, you are probably well on the road to understanding the idea that abiding in God is a bit more than just inviting the One who creates, redeems, and sustains to come share a little space in our homes for a while. The abiding that is our focus at this convention and must continue to be our focus, if we wish to be the body of Christ here in southeast Michigan, is one that is grounded in mission. Our abiding in God is about going out to the world around us in Jesus’ name; it is about the world discovering through our witness the power of Jesus to heal and to save. The abiding we are here to embrace is active, enduring, and the foundation for bearing much fruit to the glory of God. The abiding we are here to hold on to is about the transformational presence of Jesus in and for our lives.
And the first step in all this is to be connected to the vine! As Jesus said in today’s gospel, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.” We are not the vine, but we need to be connected to it or, in the language of the wine producers, grafted onto the vine.
Now, as every preacher knows, there is such a thing as taking a metaphor too far. As I was preparing for today, I was headed down that “too far” road when I decided to look up exactly how grapevines are grafted. It’s really fascinating stuff if you’re actually planning to cultivate grapes and have the best-producing vines. However, the technicality of it all just went a bit too far when I was presented with the concept of the graft union of the scion and the rootstock. But I did learn something: grafting is a process that requires patience, and it is a process that brings together living cells for the purpose of producing more and better fruit. Hmmm … My friends, in the living waters of baptism and through divine patience which we call grace, we have been grafted onto the living vine, which is Jesus Christ, for the purpose of being fruit bearers for God! An amazing part of this grafting/connecting thing is that through it we abide in God (we connect on, depend on, and find stability in God) and God abides in us (connecting, transforming, nurturing, and remaining steadfast in us). In so connecting we derive our life and our power from the vine and without the vine we can do nothing. In the words of one preacher I read: “The branch is dependent on the vine, but the vine is not dependent on the branch … Without the vine, the branch is useless, lifeless, powerless. Sap flows from the vine to the branch, supplying it with water, minerals, and nutrients that make it grow … We are completely dependent upon Jesus for everything that counts as spiritual fruit. Apart from him, we can do nothing.” - Brian G. Hedges How do we stay connected to this life-giving vine? By embracing, nurturing, persisting in, and succumbing to the love that is offered by and is God! “Abide in my love.” This love must be all consuming and at the very center of who we are and what we do. For apart from this love we can do nothing, and that means we certainly cannot bear fruit to the glory of God. This is so much more than an invitation to spend a week in the guest room. This is a life-changing, life-enhancing, joy-producing reality. It is our call as followers of Jesus.
For nearly 20 years, I have sojourned here among you. One of my greatest joys has been to visit regularly with each of our worshipping communities. I have experienced the breadth and depth of your expression of faith through worship and fellowship. Whether you have been a member of a vestry or bishop’s committee or were a faithful listener when I have made presentations to larger groups in your community, you have heard me attempt to direct you toward the source of our being and our life as disciples of Jesus. From north to south and east to west; in small and large congregations; in meetings with campus chaplaincies, council, trustees and the Standing Committee; in Total Ministry gatherings and in staff meetings, I have asked once or perhaps a dozen times: “Why are you here?” and “Who would miss you if you were gone?” Throughout the years, I have challenged you to wrestle with these questions as faith communities and as individuals. I have not offered you any easy answers, but I have let you know that my staff and I are here to help you live into the answers that you come to embrace. Today, I want to give you some hints toward discerning your response to these questions. We are here, as followers of Jesus, to continue his work and to bear much fruit to the glory of God. We are here to keep Jesus’ commandment to love. To love God, to love one another (and that means all of God’s creation), and to love self. For loving is part of the process of bearing fruit, and it is part of the process of remaining connected to/grafted into God’s love. We are here not simply as servants, but as friends of Jesus, called to share the message of God’s love, forgiveness, and saving power as we seek to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” And if this is the foundation from which we witness to the world, then it is a needy, hurting, and divided world that would surely miss us if we weren’t here to respond to the call God has put on our lives. So now you are probably wondering … really, Bishop? The world? What world can we affect? Our world includes our urban centers of southeast Michigan, like Mount Clemens, Pontiac, Detroit, Monroe, Adrian, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Warren, Sterling Heights, and Howell, to name a few. Our world includes villages and townships like Milford, Lake Orion, Brooklyn, Redford, Canton, Romeo, Pittsfield, and Hamburg,
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among others. Our world also includes our siblings throughout the Episcopal Church. Our world includes the siblings across the Anglican Communion. And our world includes Christians of other traditions as well as people of other faiths and those with no faith tradition. If we are truly grafted into Jesus the vine, then our relationship to Jesus has transformed us from servants to partners with him in the ministry of the gospel. As partners, we are ambassadors for Christ, for we have been given the mind of Christ and share in the task of bearing much fruit to God’s glory. Of course the world would miss us if we were gone—but only if we are fully connected to, dependent upon, and steadfast in our active call to abide in God. Just as Jesus abides in the love of God the Creator, he calls us to abide in the love that he has already made part of his relationship with us: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” And, abiding in love means living each and every day in that love with full willingness to go out and share that love with others. At this point in the life of the Diocese of Michigan, I can say that there is good news. There is much fruit coming forth from our abiding in God. There is God’s love being shared in and to our world. Around the diocese we are
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partnering with social service agencies to assist foster children and the homeless. There are food banks, food distribution sites, and other food outreach ministries to those in need. We are supporting refugees and making ourselves available as places of sanctuary. Community gardens are flourishing. Self-help programs continue to find a home in our buildings. Our diocese can boast an adult day center, a corner shower laundry for use by the homeless, tutoring programs, resale shops, advocacy ministries, shelter and housing ministries, and nursing home ministries (including two very fine institutions that are very much part of our diocesan household: Canterbury on the Lake and St. Anne’s Mead), and we can be proud of a multifaceted outreach on the island of Hispaniola where both Haiti and the Dominican Republic benefit from the Jesus-centered love of this diocesan community. And yet, before we get too proud of ourselves, let me assure you that there is still much love work to do! There is still evidence that we are too easily distracted. There is still room for the vinegrower to engage in some strategic pruning so that we may produce much better fruit. My experience has been not just in this diocese but across the church. No matter how amazing the church, the process, or the people, we find ways to be distracted
from the issue at hand. Now I may step on some toes here, but that’s never stopped me before. I am still disappointed from time to time when major issues of the day find their way into a conversation and the first thing people ask me is, “So what is the diocese doing about…?” You fill in the blank. Just recently, someone asked me “What is the diocese doing about gun violence?” Every time statistics are published about membership or attendance numbers in the Episcopal Church, someone asks me, “Bishop, what are you doing to bring more people to our church?” Or, better yet: “Bishop, what are you doing to attract more young people to our church?” Not too long ago, someone asked me if any more congregations were going to close and then added: “What are you doing, Bishop, to make sure no other churches have to close their doors?” First of all, I’ll tell you what I am doing. I continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ—the Jesus I know, love, and worship—and I continue praying that folks will hear the Word and act faithfully upon it. And I will also tell you that the answer to all of those previous questions really starts with another question: “What are you willing to do?” What are you willing to do to put an end to gun violence? What are you willing to do to support
immigrants and refugees? What are you doing to stem the tide of racism and white supremacy? What are you willing to do to invite and welcome all people into your worship community? What are you willing to do to build community, rather than allowing it to deteriorate and become irrelevant? And when we disagree, what are you willing to do to continue to be accepting of all people of faith, especially the ones with whom you disagree? I cannot abide in God’s love for you; you must do that. The entity known as the Diocese of Michigan cannot evangelize for you; you must do that. The institution of the church cannot wave her collective arm and suddenly make the world an accepting multicultural home for all people. You must participate in helping to change the culture that incites hatred and division. You must participate in witnessing to a love that is more powerful than the distractions of a suspicious world. You must continue to abide in and depend on God, while God, the author of love, works on the human heart. As much as you or I might desire it, we’re not all going to agree 100 percent of the time. But, in love, we can agree to disagree and embrace that which unites us rather than focus on and be distracted by that which makes us different. All of this requires your input, your participation
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in the work of Jesus, your steadfastness in the love of God that abides in you.
drag us off message. Together, we have done some good work, and together we have more love work to do.
This abiding-in-Christ’s-love thing is not passive! As I tell congregations during a service of Renewal of Ministry and the welcoming of a priest, we are not in this to sit back in an easy chair, put our feet up, and wait for the priest or the bishop or even God to do everything. We are full participants in God’s mission, and lacking full participation, we are useless branches that wither and are gathered and thrown into the fire. That is not what I want for you, for us. That is not what God calls us into or what God wants for us. Being useless withered branches is not part of abiding in God’s love and finding complete joy in Christ.
A new page is turning in the history of the life and times of the Diocese of Michigan. With new leadership comes new opportunities and, yes, new challenges. Each new opportunity and each new challenge presents us with a moment of discerning whether we desire to invite God to simply spend the weekend in the guest room, or whether we desire to welcome and surrender to God’s abiding, enduring, transforming love and presence. Apart from God—apart from the vine—we can do nothing. Even connected to the vine, we must be prepared for pruning by the vinegrower so that we can produce more and better fruit!
We have love work to do. We must continue to engage in conversation on matters of diversity, inclusion, and equity. We must continue to engage our understanding of stewardship—individually and collectively. We must challenge ourselves to step outside the comfort of our worship spaces and be more attentive to the needs of the world around us. We must always find our voice and be prepared to speak out on behalf of the voiceless in matters of justice. We must seek to abide in Christ’s love and not give in to the inevitable distractions that seek to
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As I contemplate all of this, I am struck that one of the greatest challenges that each of us faces can be an overwhelming sense that all that is asked of us, all this abiding in God’s love, all this enduring/total submission to God, is just too much. Where am I in all this? What about me? Sometimes I just want to shout, “But I’m not Jesus! I can’t do it!” I said this in October 1999, right after I was elected. But you know what? There’s good news here, too. We don’t have to be Jesus!
William Temple, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 to 1944 once said: It’s no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like his. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like his.
So, before I close, I have a challenge for you (you’re getting a challenge and a gift): As you go forth into all your tomorrows, be united to Jesus. Keep the words of Jesus in your hearts and minds. Let the words of Jesus renew and revive you. Rely on Jesus, let the words of Jesus shape and sanctify you, and let the love of Jesus fill and form you. Remain steadfast in Jesus. Finally, my dear friends, may you always abide in God and bear much fruit. Amen.
So, this is my 20th and last convention with you! Thank you for the enormous and humbling privilege to be your bishop. Thank you for teaching me what it is to be a bishop. Thank you for allowing Karlah and me to be part of your lives in all the wonderful moments God has given us. Thank you for sharing your Jesus love with us. You have been a blessing to both of us, and we will miss you.
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185TH 185TH DIOCESAN DIOCESAN CONVEN CONVEN Cathedral CathedralChapter Chapter Lay: Lay:
Cameron CameronWalker Walker– –St.St.John’s, John’s,Detroit Detroit
Commission Commissionon onMinistry Ministry Clergy: Clergy:The TheRev. Rev.Andrea AndreaMorrow Morrow– –St.St.Stephen’s, Stephen’s, Wyandotte Wyandotte Lay: Lay: Ms. Ms.Elaine ElaineBelz Belz– –The TheCathedral CathedralChurch ChurchofofSt.St.Paul, Paul,Detroit Detroit
Disciplinary DisciplinaryBoard Board Clergy: Clergy:The TheRev. Rev.Susan SusanCarter Carter– –St.St.Paul’s, Paul’s,Lansing Lansing Lay: Lay: Ms. Ms.Carol CarolLatimer Latimer– –Spirit SpiritofofGrace, Grace, West WestBloomfield Bloomfield
Standing StandingCommittee Committee Clergy: Clergy:The TheRev. Rev.Anthony AnthonyEstes Estes– –Trinity, Trinity,Detroit Detroit Lay: Lay: Ms. Ms.Helen HelenSantiz Santiz– –Christ ChristChurch, Church,Grosse GrossePointe Pointe
Trustees Trustees Clergy: Clergy:The TheRev. Rev.Andrea AndreaMorrow Morrow– –St.St.Stephen’s, Stephen’s, Wyandotte Wyandotte Lay: Lay: Mr. Mr.Louis LouisJ. J.Clark Clark– –AllAllSaints’, Saints’,Detroit Detroit Mr. Mr. Tom TomForbes Forbes– –St.St.George’s, George’s,Milford Milford Ms. Ms.Stephanie StephanieRose Rose– –Christ ChristChurch ChurchCranbrook, Cranbrook,Bloomfield BloomfieldHills Hills
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ENTION NTION ELECTION ELECTION RESULTS RESULTS Deputies DeputiestotoGeneral GeneralConvention Convention Clergy Clergy Deputies: Deputies: The The Rev. Rev. Deon Deon Johnson Johnson – St. – St. Paul’s, Paul’s, Brighton Brighton The The Rev. Rev. Phil Phil Dinwiddie Dinwiddie – St. – St. James, James, Grosse Grosse IleIle The The Rev. Rev. Beth Beth Taylor Taylor – St. – St. John’s, John’s, Royal Royal Oak Oak The The Rev. Rev. Anthony Anthony Estes Estes – Trinity, – Trinity, Detroit Detroit Clergy Clergy Alternates: Alternates: The The Rev. Rev. Judith Judith Schellhammer Schellhammer – St. – St. Michael Michael & All & All Angels, Angels, Cambridge Cambridge Junction Junction The The Rev. Rev. Paul Paul Castelli Castelli – St. – St. George’s, George’s, Milford Milford The The Rev. Rev. Susan Susan Anslow-Williams Anslow-Williams – Diocesan-wide – Diocesan-wide supply supply The The Rev. Rev. Maryjane Maryjane Peck Peck – St. – St. Clare’s, Clare’s, Ann Ann Arbor Arbor Lay Lay Deputies Deputies Mr.Mr. Eric Eric Travis Travis – Trinity-in-the-Woods, – Trinity-in-the-Woods, Farmington Farmington Hills Hills Ms.Ms. Felicity Felicity Thompson Thompson – St. – St. Andrew, Andrew, Ann Ann Arbor Arbor Mr.Mr. Cedric Cedric Flounory Flounory – St. – St. Clement’s, Clement’s, Inkster Inkster Mr.Mr. Jerry Jerry L Hardy L Hardy – The – The Cathedral Cathedral Church Church of of St.St. Paul, Paul, Detroit Detroit Lay Lay Alternates Alternates Mr.Mr. Stephen Stephen J. Ott J. Ott – The – The Cathedral Cathedral Church Church of of St.St. Paul, Paul, Detroit Detroit Ms.Ms. Lizzie Lizzie Anderson Anderson Kostin Kostin – St. – St. John’s, John’s, Royal Royal Oak Oak Ms.Ms. Carol Carol Latimer Latimer – Spirit – Spirit of of Grace, Grace, West West Bloomfield Bloomfield
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F I L L I N G U P F R I DAY S BY GA B BY B U RTO N TRINITY CHURCH, BELLEVILE
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The congregation at Trinity Episcopal Church in Belleville, Michigan, wants to share good news with our extended family of brothers and sisters throughout the diocese! One of Trinity’s outreach ministries, the Friday Fill-Up! project, is gaining momentum and gathering the hearts of community members and congregants alike. This ministry, which started in February 2018, provides food kits to local children in the Van Buren School District’s elementary schools each weekend. The team at Trinity originally started out by contacting school social workers in the district to offer assistance in paying off individual students’ lunch debt. We learned that a local business was already taking care of the school lunch debt, but through talking with school leadership about how we might otherwise be able to help, we discovered a much bigger problem. A very high percentage of students at the schools we serve qualify for free school meals, but they are at desperately high risk of heading home to a weekend of bare cupboards. As a registered nurse who specializes in psychiatric health, and a mother to a five-year-old child, this realization hit me and the rest of the team at Trinity hard. The heartache we felt for these families was powerful, and this crisis was impossible to reconcile with what one might wish to describe as a fair, just, and loving world. To be honest, the outreach team who started this ministry was overwhelmed at the beginning. How could a group of moms and grandmothers, with zero experience in running a nonprofit, actually help solve a problem like this? Well, we prayed, and then we just started. There is an old farming adage: “When you don’t know what to do, do the work in front of you.” The blank powerlessness we felt upon discovering how huge the need is in our neighborhood gave way, thanks to God, to the momentum of hope through action. We did grocery store field trips to bargain hunt, budgeted $6 weekly for each child, and drew up menus with nutritional analysis. Then we dropped off the kits at the school and simply started feeding kids. We’ve been going strong ever since. Each kit contains at least six full meals, fruit and veggie cups, and three to four snacks. All efforts are made to ensure each kit contains shelf-stable food that is nutritionally balanced, kid-friendly, and accessible for children with minimal adult assistance.
Trinity started out providing prov this ministry service at Rawsonville Elementary with just 20 kits per weekend. As school leadership in the district has identified further emergency need, the Fr Friday Fill-Up! team prayerfully considered the resourc resources of time, talent, and treasure that Trinity has to offer towards helping solve this devastating problem. As a congregation, Trinity embraced this outreach ministry from the beginning and has made the choice to accept the calling to grow the program. The ultimate ggoal is to end food insecurity for all children in the distri district. As of now, the Friday Fill-Up! program is providing w weekend food kits to 112 children in three district schools schools: Rawsonville, Tyler, and Edgemont Elementary SSchools. When the school year ends in June 2020, appr approximately 30,000 meals and 15,000 snacks will have been donated. Friends, that is a lot of macaroni and che cheese and instant oatmeal! The process of putting together the food kits has evolved, just as the min ministry itself has. Trinity started out by providing the fo food in a simple drawstring backpack for the kids tto take home, but as many backpacks went missing missing, it was no longer practical. Now, the team has swit switched to tri-ply recycled plastic grocery store bags—giv bags—giving these bags a new life by bringing food home to children. Donating bags is a very easy way for our congr congregation to contribute to the project, and more bags are always appreciated. Every other Wednesday morn morning, a team of volunteers brings the food upstairs from the storage area in Trinity’s (blessedly!) must-free bbasement into the parish hall. To make the assembly of tthe kits as seamless as possible, volunteers then count aand sort the menu items into two assembly lines, eac each containing a week’s worth of food. On those Wedne Wednesday evenings, another set of volunteers arrives to pa pack up and tie the food kits themselves. The 224 ba bags are stored at the church overnight. On Thursday morning, the kits are delivered to the schools by yet aanother set of volunteers. Depending on the scho school’s schedule, the bags of food stud go home with the students on Thursday or Friday afternoon. Children enrolled in the program are selected by school leadership: social worke workers, teachers, support staff, and the principal. To protec protect the privacy of the students, the enrolled kids remain an anonymous to all except staff at the schools. Although tthe schools that Friday Fill-Up! serves have many challe challenges, some of the most hopeful
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news to share is that the school leadership in all three schools is phenomenal. Teachers, staff, and administrators genuinely and deeply care about the well-being of their students, and it shows in many ways. Staff has welcomed the team onto campus to provide this service, trusting Trinity’s ministry workers to be consistently reliable. Staff members have also shown up to volunteer at Trinity to assemble and deliver bags. As one staff member put it, “It is such an immense relief as an educator to be able to offer a service like Friday Fill-Up! to students who I know are suffering. It helps their concentration, anxiety, mood, and classroom performance. Thank you.” God’s abundance is great indeed, and the growth and health of this ministry provides living, breathing, loving proof. In opening our hearts to this call, other hearts have been opened as well. Local community groups—such as the Belleville Lions, Rotary, and Kiwanis clubs as well as parent-teacher organization groups, the Belleville Independent newspaper, Boy and Girl Scout troops, and Canton Newcomers and Neighbors—have joined this ministry with financial donations, product drives, transportation support, press, and hundreds of volunteer hours. One of the things the Friday Fill-Up! team is proudest of is how the broader community has committed to supporting and sustaining this project. These various groups frequent Trinity’s campus to dedicate themselves to the service of nourishing God’s children. The involvement of our physical neighbors has not only distributed the workload of the ministry, it has given ownership of the mission itself to the community, and that is a beautiful thing. While it is true that the community volunteers Trinity welcomes are not necessarily regular church attendees in any particular faith tradition, something called them to serve with Friday Fill-Up!. Some pull or yearning led them to Trinity’s doorstep to ask how they could help. To the Trinity team, we feel that pull is the quiet voice of God inviting people to simply come and see. If people find their own way to follow that yearning to serve others, one just never knows what spiritual doors may open. In these polarizing and divisive times, all of us hunger for fellowship and the divine grounding a common cause can bring. Everyone can agree wholeheartedly on this common cause: it is unacceptable for God’s little ones to go hungry over the weekend, and everyone can find their way into participating in the solution.
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This calling Trinity is blessed to have received—to feed others in His name—has meant so much to the faith journeys of the members of the congregation. Many Christians with active, developing faith lives see service to others as an opportunity to do the Lord’s work on Earth, and those Trinitarians out in Belleville are an action-based group of Episcopalians indeed. The Friday Fill-Up! team is reminded as we pray for this ministry of the following verse: Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:15-17 As the Friday Fill-Up! team strives a to listen to and follow God’s will for us, as Christians and as individuals and leaders in the formation of our identities as a faith-centered people, we go back to this scripture again and again. Our ideas surrounding what God means to us are not stagnant, nor are they dead. They are illuminated from within by this call to action offered to us as a roadmap of service through James. Many members of the core team of service volunteers feel closest to God through the gift of being able to perform the ritual of tactile service to others. That means, although it might seem mundane, that each act of placing a can of tuna fish or jar of peanut butter into a food kit brings us closer to our faith. By the very action of organizing and delivering the food kits for the children to receive, the volunteers are fulfilling their Baptismal Covenant to ”strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.” While we sometimes think of justice, peace, and dignity as highly exalted and removed subjects, far from the base physical needs of human beings, they can be looked at from a different perspective. Esteemed American psychologist Abraham H. Maslow theorized that human beings progress developmentally along what he termed as a “hierarchy of needs,” starting at the bottom of the pyramid with basic physiological needs, progressing upward to safety, followed by love and belonging, then self-esteem, and finally to self-actualization—or the desire to become the most
that one can be. If a person is struggling consistently with the first step in the pyramid of needs, and is unable to satisfy basic physiological requirements, there is, according to Maslow, little opportunity to progress up the pyramid. Let’s imagine a small child, perhaps seven or eight years old, sitting in a second-grade classroom on a Thursday afternoon and knowing that she has only one more day of guaranteed food at school before she may be without any nutrition from 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon until 8 a.m. Monday morning. That little girl will not only know intellectually that she will be hungry, she will experience the pain of the anticipation of feeling it in her body. Can we honestly think of her as being able to concentrate on those end-of-the-week lessons, let alone imagine her ability to move up Maslow’s pyramid towards self-actualization, or to become the best that she can be? No, her physiological needs must take priority, of course. She needs to be fed with warm soup, big boxes of fortified cereals, and pasta with sauce before she will be able to attain true self-actualization via being fed with the ultimate gift of understanding God’s love for her. To physically feed this child of God and alleviate the trauma of dread she lives with is to lay the groundwork of opening a spiritual door for her. She knows in a tangible way even a second grader can understand, that someone out there cares for her, shops for her, delivers food for her, and keeps her safe from hunger. Someone loves her. And the fact, of course, is that a lot of people love her. God loves her. There is love in the world, and
kindness and hope. She is not alone. Every time the Friday Fill-Up! team meets with volunteers to pack up and tie the food kits, we pray, “Lord, please bless this food to the bodies of the children we serve. Please let them know they are valued, respected, and loved by their community and by God. Let them know they are loved deeply.” What is next for Trinity’s Friday Fill-Up! ministry? The team has budgeted to supply up to 120 children with food kits for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year, raising funds through various channels: diocesan grants, Trinity’s Strawberry Festival fundraising profits, individual and parish contributions, and community partners such as the local civic organizations who have adopted Friday Fill-Up! as a cause they believe in and wish to support. Moving forward, the Friday Fill-Up! ministry wants to offer other groups free access to all the information and knowledge they have gleaned through this process. The leadership team at Trinity is happy and honored to have been asked to speak to other congregations and groups about how and why this ministry came to be, and to offer help in establishing their own projects. Trinity knows it cannot solve the problem of childhood food insecurity by itself, of course, but perhaps other groups out there, upon hearing about the loaves-and-fishes miracle of Friday Fill-Up!, will hear that quiet voice, that pull towards service, and pick up the phone to ask, “How can I help?”
You can volunteer by contacting Gabby Burton at gbtracy9@gmail.com
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CONVENTION RESOLUTION #1 CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE, REFUGEES AND IMMIGRATION Resolved, that acting from our Christian faith and conscience the 185th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan urge that all persons, parishes, deaneries and diocesan leadership join to protect the human rights, legal rights, physical safety and dignity of all persons who, seeking asylum, fleeing persecution, and attempting to immigrate to the United States of America, are caught in the current (21st century) border and immigration process; continuing now and until the issues can be resolved fairly in accordance with international and domestic laws providing protection, and be it further Resolved, that the 185th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan urge that all persons, parishes, deaneries and diocesan leadership actively oppose the indefinite detention of families and children in for-profit or other facilities that deny essential protections to fellow human beings, especially children and families, harmed by current border and immigration policies and be it further Resolved, that as inhumane and unlawful governmental border practices and policies escalate and result in grave harm to vulnerable people, the 185th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan urge that all persons, congregations, deaneries and diocesan leadership work for the safety and security of our immigrant neighbors, by actively connecting with The Episcopal Church, other Episcopal dioceses, our local and national communities, institutions, coalitions and groups supporting immigrant rights, and together educate, advocate, organize and take direct action where appropriate in each situation to mitigate the root causes of migration and to create a humane and just immigration system and policies, and be it further Resolved, that such actions might include learning about the situation at the borders; taking actions to accompany undocumented immigrants; supporting ministries that welcome immigrants and help them; defending access to asylum, including communicating with elected officials, government agencies and fellow citizens about the nature of and need for asylum; sharing information in our communities so that people know their rights; and praying The Migrant Circle of Prayer for people in detention facilities; donating to Dioceses and border ministries, working for and electing officials who will create a just path to citizenship and end cruel practices toward all persons, establishing just and humane treatment for each person.
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RESOLUTIONS RESOLULTION #2 CARE OF CREATION: CARBON TAX Resolved, that the 185th Convention of the Diocese of Michigan urges congregations to seek information in order to more fully understand ways to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stabilize our climate and sustain life on earth; and be it further Resolved, that Episcopalians in the Diocese of Michigan urge lawmakers and local officials to commit to public policy which may include a Carbon Fee and Dividend model or other way to calculate and mitigate greenhouse gas and carbon-based fossil fuel emissions to prevent further irreversible climate change; and be it further Resolved, that the Diocese of Michigan urges that Episcopalians seek collaboration in study and action with other congregations and community groups regarding ways to work to prevent further irreversible climate change, as well as meeting and communicating with their elected representatives, and be it further Resolved, that in implementing any such policies, the 185th Convention of the Diocese of Michigan urges that Episcopalians advocate for appropriate measures to reduce the economic impacts on poor people and people of modest income, which means might include use of a trust fund paid for with carbon fees and distributed to the poorest people first.
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The Record
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The Rev. Sarah Condon May 19, 2020, 4-6pm, and 7-9pm St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brighton The Rev. Sarah Condon is the Campus Missioner for Rice University. Sarah is a writer and speaker for Mockingbird Ministries and cohosts the Mockingcast, a ministry that connects the Christian faith with realities of ever yday life in fresh ways. She is the author of Churchy: The Real-Life Adventures of a Wife, Mom & Priest.
Save The Date!
EPIPHANIES SPEAKER SERIES
The Rev.Dr Dr.David David Lose The Rev. Lose March 2020- 4-6pm, - 4-6pm, and 7-9pm March 3,3,2020 and 7-9pm Cathedral Church Church of of St. St.Paul, Paul,Detroit Detroit
The Rev. Dr. David J. Lose serves as senior pastor of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. He is the author of Preaching at the Crossroads: How the World - and Our Preaching - Is Changing and many more. He speaks widely in the US and abroad on preaching, Christian faith in a postmodern world, and biblical interpretation.
Pilgrimage to Ireland with The Bishop April 23 - May 2, 2019
Rev.toSarah Condon The Diocese of Michigan is planning aThe pilgrimage Ireland in 2019 with Bishop Gibbs The Rev. Sarah Condon May 19, 2020, 4-6pm, and 7-9pm and The Rev. Dr. Susan Carter. Price: $3498.00 person, basedand on double occupancy May 19,per 2020, 4-6pm, 7-9pm St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brighton round trip from Detroit. Limited number of singleEpiscopal rooms available at supplement St. Paul’s Church, Brightonof $400. Single room must be paid for at time of deposit. Price includes round trip air, hotels, The Rev. Sarah is the Campus Missioner transfers, sightseeing in private air conditioned coach,Condon porterage of one suitcase in and for Riceentrance University. is asites writer andmeals speaker out of hotels, sightseeing as per itinerary, fees Sarah to those listed, as for Mockingbird Ministries and cohosts the Mockingcast, a mentioned in itinerary, VAT taxes and service charges. ministry that connects the Christian faith with realities of ever yday life in fresh ways. She is the author of For more information, contact: sucarter@msu.edu or 517-599-0380 Churchy: The Real-Life Adventures of a Wife, Mom & Priest.
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