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Anglican Communion,
reflected Feb. 7 that “We cannot easily be
partners with strangers.” She suggests “three
appropriate attitudes” for the approaching
Lenten season, including: “This year, we
might all constructively pray for greater
awareness and understanding of the strangers
around us, particularly those strangers whom
we are not yet ready or able to call friends.” |
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 Take a moment
for prayer and reflection while
online this Lent. Beginning on Sunday, Feb.
25, the diocesan Web site (www.diomass.org) will
feature an audio prayer for each week in
Lent. The “Five Lenten Prayers,” used with
permission generously granted by their
author, the Rev. Jennifer Phillips, are taken
from Gleanings: Essays on Expansive
Language
with Prayers for Various Occasions (Church
Publishing Inc., 2001). Voice recording is
graciously offered by Christine Jugueta.If you find
yourself in downtown Boston on a
Thursday in Lent, take part in the
Cathedral
Church of St.
Paul’s “Lenten Fire” preaching series,
which begins March 1. The12:15 p.m. services
are simple—hymns, prayers and Gospel-fired
guest preachers—and conversation over lunch
follows each.
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 There was a spirit of
reunion and celebration
among the 120 parishioners and supporters at
All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Attleboro on
Sunday, Feb. 4, as the pews were nearly
filled with former and longtime parishioners,
children clutching stuffed animals, young
adults and visitors from neighboring
Episcopal parishes.Many of them had not
worshiped there for
years and were returning to begin
reestablishing their parish after a break
with the Episcopal Church by a group of
fellow parishioners led by the former rector.
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The Diocese of Massachusetts’ vision
statement says:
“We will advocate publicly and powerfully as
individuals, as congregations and as a
diocese—for just peace, the healing of
creation and economic development that
respects the diversities and seeks the health
of global cultures, communities and
ecosystems.”
There are at least three opportunities to do
this next month:
 Be a lobbyist for a day. Join
Bishop Tom
Shaw and fellow Episcopalians for Episcopal
City Mission’s annual Lobby Day on Tuesday,
March 27, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Cathedral
Church of St. Paul (138 Tremont Street) in
Boston and the State House. Participants
will share stories and hear from community
advocates and policymakers on affordable
health care and immigration issues, and many
will use the occasion to meet with their
legislators. All are welcome; no advocacy
experience is necessary. Check Episcopal City Mission’s Web
site for details or call interim public
policy director Elizabeth Green at
617/482-4826, ext. 224.
Bishop Bud
Cederholm invites others to join him and the
individuals, families and teams who will be
walking and witnessing for public awareness
of global warming as part of the March 16-24
Northampton to Boston Interfaith Walk for
Climate Rescue. It is sponsored by Religious
Witness for the Earth. Participants can join
the walk for an hour, an afternoon, a weekend
or the whole nine days. Bishop Bud will do
the Cambridge to Boston leg on March 24, and
then take part in the walk’s culminating
interfaith service at 2 p.m. at Old South
Church in Copley Square, Boston, and a rally.
Get more information and sign up by March 5
at www.climatewalk.org.In a sermon given at Trinity Church in
Concord on Jan. 28, the Rev. Timothy E.
Crellin, Vicar of St. Stephen’s Church in
Boston, tells of being humbled and inspired
by the April 1967 preaching of the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. on why King had made
ending the war in Vietnam a primary goal.
Crellin makes the connection between current
inner-city violence and the violence used “to
solve problems in the global political arena”
today. Listen to the sermon at trinityconcord.org/sermons.shtml.
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Students from Massachusetts Episcopal
campus
ministries whose mission work in Kenya was
featured in last month’s E-news
got a front-page
feature in the Feb. 8 edition of “The
Heights,” Boston College’s student newspaper.
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While some of us dream of summer, others are
actively at work on it.
The B-SAFE (Bishop’s Summer Academic, Fun
and
Enrichment) program will help keep more than
300 kids healthy and safe in Boston this
summer at four sites, including St. Stephen’s
Church in Boston’s South End and St. Mary’s
Church and the Epiphany School in
Dorchester.
Partner churches are needed to provide
lunches and help organize field trips. The
program runs from June 25 to Aug. 3.; partner
churches make a one-week commitment.
Contact
Liz Steinhauser at St. Stephen’s Church to
learn more: 617/262-9070 or
lizsteinh@netzero.net.
 Planning is
underway
for the
summer camp
season at the Barbara C. Harris Camp and
Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H.
Brochures will be in the mail to churches in
the next couple of weeks and posted at
www.bchcenter.org.
Additionally, families
looking for a fun and creative spiritual
getaway should set aside June 20-24 for
diocesan Family Camp with Bishop Bud
Cederholm. Family Camp information will be
available from Amy Cook in the diocesan
Resource Center (acook@diomass.org or
617/482-4826, ext. 645). |
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Author Nora Gallagher preaches at
the Cathedral Church of St.
Paul (138 Tremont Street) in Boston on
Feb. 25 at 10 a.m.
“From Fear to Grace: Welcome to the
Promised
Land,” the annual conference for New England
Episcopalians on stewardship, evangelism and
congregational development, takes place
March
16-18 in Westborough. Sign up early because
the
conference usually sells out.
A Lenten supper and study program for
adults
and children takes place on Monday evenings
in Lent, beginning Feb. 26, at Grace Church in
Norwood.
Other opportunities for Lenten reflection
include: the Charles River Deanery’s
Lenten
Quiet Day on Saturday, March 3 at Christ
Church in Needham, led by the Rev. Mpho A.
Tutu (contact the Rev. Karen Coleman at
Christ Church, 781/444-1469); a Lenten
Day of
Prayer on Saturday, March 3 at St. Margaret’s Convent
in
Roxbury; a “Centering Prayer” workshop on
Saturday, March 10 at the monastery of
the
Society of St. John the
Evangelist
in Cambridge; and a retreat, “Living
Prayerfully,” led by the Rev. Dr. Margaret
Guenther, on Saturday, March 24 at the
Bethany House of Prayer in Arlington.
Bethany House (bethanyretreats@verizon.net
or
781/648-2433) also offers a Lenten Quiet
Day
on Saturday, Feb. 24 and a Refreshment Day
on
Tuesday, March 6.
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Spread the word! Forward E-News to your fellow
parishioners, family, friends and seekers and
let them
know they can sign up for future issues at: www.diomass.org/elist.shtml.
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
email:
enews@diomass.org
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