Category Archives: Church

I am a convention delegate for the Episcopal Diocese of
El Camino Real (ECR) and today is
the first day of our annual convention
here in Salinas, California. This is ECR’s first convention since
we elected our new Bishop, Mary Gray-Reeves. Bishop-Elect Mary
will be ordained next month but she is acting as President of this convention.

My husband John is an Alternate Delegate and I am a Delegate from
All Saints’ Parish in Palo Alto.
Our family is in the process of transferring
to St. Andrew’s Parish
in Saratoga, which is closer to where we live in San Jose. We are finishing
up our duties as delegates to our former parish this weekend.

There are about 250 of us at the convention today. Probably more will
join us tomorrow when they are not working. So far, we have celebrated
communion together (in both English and Spanish), passed
the revised Constitution and Canons, and passed Resolutions 1 and 2
(supporting funding for the
Millenium Development Goals and increased base
clergy pay). Bishop Ernest Shalita, from the Diocese of Muhabura, Uganda
who is visiting Calvary Parish
in Santa Cruz briefly addressed the convention and talked about his work
with education and youth. Most of today has been taken up with untangling
the parliamentary procedure of multiple amendments (friendly and unfriendly)
to resolutions. There will be more of the same tomorrow when we will
consider the budget.

Each parish delegation sits at one or two tables and chats while we are
waiting for vote counts and for amendments to be written up. It can be dry
work but the people are wonderful.

We went to the Santa Clara
Barnes and Noble tonight after work to buy books and see the
Fuego Nuevo Ballet
folklorico group dance to benefit
Santa Maria Urban Ministry. SMUM provides
basic services in the inner city of San Jose, CA: both short-term needs such as
food, clothing and transportation, and long-term transformation through education,
counseling, and after-school and seasonal programs. Tonight’s book sale and
dance benefit event will help raise money to buy and install a playground at SMUM.
Some photos from tonight:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Santa Maria Urban Ministry (SMUM) provides
basic services in the inner city of San Jose, CA: both short-term needs such as
food, clothing and transportation, and long-term transformation through education,
counseling, and after-school and seasonal programs. SMUM’s programs have continued
without interruption since 1983. SMUM serves the needs of the community
and promotes self-sufficiency.

On 11 October 2007, SMUM is partnering with
Barnes and Noble to help raise money to buy and install a
safe and age-appropriate playground for ABC Playtime. SMUM’s classroom is small
and outside activity is crucial to the growth and development of young minds
and bodies.

SMUM needs your help! It is very easy – just go to South Bay Area Barnes and Noble
book stores on October 11 and buy some books or music. A list of participating
stores is on the SMUM webpage along
with vouchers and instructions on how to place special orders.

Music and books make great Christmas gifts and this is a chance to get a jump on
your holiday shopping and also support a great cause. Tell your friends,
neighbors, co-workers, mailman, etc. Give them a voucher and ask them to shop on
that day.

Ballet Folklorico to be at the Stevens Creek (San Jose) Barnes and
Noble on 11 October. They will be dancing (3 couples) at 7pm. There will be other special presentations at the store on Stevens Creek and in Gilroy at 6:30 p.m.

SMUM was founded as an outreach ministry of the
Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real.

We took our cat Valentino to church last Sunday. It was
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church’s
annual day for blessing the animals and honoring

St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. Valentino lost his
sister, littermate, and lifelong companion

Garbo to cancer last summer, so we chose him of all of our pets
to come to church this year.

St. Andrew’s was full of dogs and cats and little creatures in portable terrariums
and stuffed animals. There were more dogs than all of the other animals, so
the music had to carry over a certain amount of territorial barking and
squabbling in the pews. The clergy and children read poems and Bible
passages about animals. Of course, we sang the hymn

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,


All things wise and wonderful:


The Lord God made them all.

We brought Tino in his cat carrier so he had a place to hide but he was calm
enough to come out for a blessing by Rev. Kate Atkinson. The service
was of course followed by a Kibble and Cake Reception.

Tino and John:

Tino and John and Paul:

Tino and John and Kate:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson

As a lifelong Episcopalian,
I know there is one sure way to quiet down a meeting, you say:
The Lord be with you. Everyone will immediately shush and reply:
And also with you. It’s like magic. You can have 300 Episcopalians
chatting in a room but as soon as someone steps to the microphone and says
The Lord be with you, the meeting starts and everyone settles down.
In non-church life, there are rough equivalents but nothing quite so effective.
I find a rousing shout of Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the meeting
will now begin! works OK but not as well.

On Saturday, my husband and I attended the 16th anniversary dinner and dance
to celebrate the founding of
Holy Child Episcopal Church, a Filipino-American mission congregation
in San Jose, CA. I found that they have an additional crowd quieting
call-and-response ritual which works very well. The Rev. Ruth Casipit-Paguio stood at
the microphone and said God is good! and the ballroom (which until
a minute before had been full of conversations and laughter) chorused back
All the time! She then reponded with All the time! and they
cheered back God is good! Then, everyone was quiet to hear what
Ruth had to say.

The Rev. Ruth Casipit-Paguio is the Vicar of Holy Child. Ruth is the first
Filipino-American woman clergy ordained in California and only the third in the
USA. I had the honor of participating in her ordination to the priesthood
a year ago. Ruth is a capable and energetic leader but also a modest person.
Having more than one crowd quieting ritual available must be of help to her.

Saturday’s dinner-dance seemed like a big success. There was a live band and
a DJ, raffles and plaques to honor notables, Bishop-elect

Mary Gray-Reeves spoke, as did Holy Child’s founding Vicar
(and the current national church Director of Ethnic Congregational Development)

Rev. Fred Vergara, as did

Joe Esteves, Mayor of Milpitas, and Holy Child Senior Warden, Angie
Dela Cruz. The food was very good, the dancing was fun (yes, Bishop
Mary can dance!), and the company was charming.

The All Saints’ Episcopal Church
Library used book sale and free lemonade stand last weekend was a
success in many dimensions. We intentionally priced the donated books low
($1/hardcover, 50 cents for paperbacks) but we still took in our
highest amount ever:

• 2007 book sale: $1225
• 2006 book sale: $1117
• 2005 book sale: $1009
• 2004 book sale: $643

$1225 represents maybe 700 people who came to browse or buy last
weekend during the annual Palo Alto Festival of the Arts. About a dozen
book browsers also asked to talk with the Rector, wanted a
church tour, or sought more information about the courtyard

labyrinth. The book sale made the church available to people in a
comfortable way. Evangelism comes hard for us
Episcopalians (who are
sometimes jokingly referred to as God’s “frozen chosen”). Talking
about books and making new friends over lemonade is easier.

I don’t know how many people came because of
the two craigslist entries
I posted but that may have helped boost sales.