Congregational Development Grant Requests

Mary Amato sends word that the deadline for the winter round of applications for Congregational Development grants is March 28. You can find details and a downloadable application here.

Farewells

We were sorry to learn that the Rev. Fred Miller, rector of All Saints’, Hershey, for the past eighteen years, has resigned to become interim rector of Christ Church in Somers Point, NJ. His last Sunday at All Saints’ will be Feb. 24.

Fr. Miller has served this Diocese well in several capacities, most prominently as chair of the search committee that selected candidates to be bishop of the Diocese when Bishop Creighton announced his intention to retire. We wish him well, and are saddened at his departure.

Worth Seeing

The award-winning film, For the Bible Tells Me So will be shown at Franklin and Marshall College’s Rochelle Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, February 7 at 7 PM. The public is invited to attend this free showing, sponsored by Saint James Episcopal Church, Lancaster Theological Seminary and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gendered and their Allies at Franklin and Marshall College. Seating is limited.

The documentary film synopsis on the producer’s website states:

“Can the love between two people ever be an abomination? Is the chasm separating gays and lesbians and Christianity too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate?

Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American families -- including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson -- we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, For the Bible Tells Me So offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.”

You can find more information here.

Diocese to Honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – January 13

St. Stephen’s Cathedral will host a Choral Evensong for the Harrisburg community to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 4pm. (This is a change in date from that previously announced.) Bishop Baxter and Dean Churchill Pinder will officiate. Everyone is invited to attend, particularly clergy, choirs, and congregations in the Harrisburg Convocation.

The preacher for the event will be the Rev. Michael Thurman, pastor of the Dexter Ave Baptist Church, in Montgomery, Alabama, where Dr. King was pastor during the early years of the civil rights movement. Rev. Thurman has written extensively about the history of the church and the pastors who guided the congregation and Dr. King’s movement.

More details will be available shortly. If you have questions, please contact either Deacon Patrick Strohl, (pstrohl@diocesecpa.org) or the Rev. Michael Collins (patrick@ststep.org).

Something Else to Pray About

In what may have been a prescient prelude to today’s assassination of Pakistani politician Benizir Bhutto, this week’s Economist carries an interesting article on international efforts to distribute Bibles and Korans. The article concludes by saying:

“…two things are certain in the battle of the books. The first is that the urge to spread the Word will spark some of the fiercest conflicts of the 21st century. The area that is being most heavily fought over—sub-Saharan Africa—is a tinder box of failed states and ethnic animosities. The second is that the Bible and the Koran will continue to exercise a dramatic influence over human events, for both good and ill. The twigs of the burning bush are still aflame with the fire of God.” You can read the entire story here.

Let us pray that we will use this fire to illuminate, not to consume, one another.

Bishop Baxter Participates in Dialogues in Democracy – January 4 on PBS

Last fall, McNeil/Lehrer Productions, which produces The News Hour with Jim Lehrer for PBS, invited Bishop Baxter to participate in their latest project, Dialogues in Democracy. The program is part of McNeil/Lehrer’s series By the People—a special project to bring the views of informed, "ordinary" citizens to a national discussion on the important issues of the day.

Bishop Baxter spent November 8-11 in Williamsburg, VA, with approximately 50 other citizens who have made unique contributions to American life and society. The final convocation, at which thoughts on the drafting of a "Declaration of Citizenship for the 21st Century" were debated, took place in Colonial Williamsburg's Capitol in the Hall of the House of Burgesses, where the founding generation produced the first comprehensive Declaration of Rights.

The one-hour broadcast program created from this event will air on Public Television’s HDTV digital stations on Friday, January 4, 2008 at 10pm. Stations carrying the program in Pennsylvania include WITF/Harrisburg, WQED/Pittsburgh, and WPSU/State College. The program will also be broadcast on Maryland Public Television.

More information on the By the People project is available here.

Blessed Christmas

Bishop Baxter's Christmas message - preached at St. Stephen's Cathedral on Christmas Eve - is available here. A blessed and merry Christmas to all.