Category Archives: Church

My family and I attend All Saints’ Episcopal Church
in downtown Palo Alto, part of the
Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR), now in the process of electing its 3rd
Bishop. There are at least
8 meetings with all of the 5 candidates for ECR Bishop this week, with the electing
convention to be held on 16 June. The walkabout meetings will be held in five
cities, with over 200 miles between the southernmost and northernmost
locations. I am a convention delegate from All Saints’ and
my husband is an alternate so John and I are are attending four of the meetings.

ECR includes the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey and San
Luis Obispo. The youngest diocese in California, it was formed in 1980 by the
separation from the Diocese of California (“DioCal” is based in San Francisco at
Grace Cathedral). ECR’s Trinity Cathedral
was built in 1863 and is the oldest church building in San Jose. ECR comprises
approximately the middle third of the California coast, an area about 50
miles wide and 250 miles long. El Camino Real is named, not for a city or state,
but after the Spanish colonial road from Mexico City to Oregon: The King’s Highway.
See the Diocesan
Profile for more (23 pages, PDF format).

ECR has spent three years of diocese-wide meetings and reorganization and prayer
preparing for its 3rd Bishop (since the first two ECR Bishops were not great
successes). To see
all of the materials about the 5 candidates presented for our consideration by
the Search Committee, check out ECR’s
Episcopal Search and Transition web pages.
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The
“Rules of Order in the Convention” for 16 June specify: “All electronic
communication devices and equipment, other than those used by the Convention
Committee for purposes of managing the Convention, shall be prohibited on the floor,
and access to the floor shall be limited to voting members of the Convention and
certified Convention staff.” I will not be able to blog from the convention
(as I did in

October 2006); however, I can write before and after.

I am part of a group at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in
downtown Palo Alto
(555 Waverley St., Palo Alto, CA) which is exploring additional ways to worship. We are using a
book called Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations
by Dan Kimball (Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties, 2004, ISBN-10: 0310256445,
ISBN-13: 978-0310256441). Please join us!
Our first experimental gatherings will be:

• Saturday, June 9
  
  5pm Gathering
  
  
  5:45pm Fellowship Meal
  
  
  Join us for the first of two informal worship and fellowship
  gatherings. June 9th will be a quiet, meditative,
  
  Taize style gathering in the Fireplace Room – about 30-40
  minutes, followed by a simple dinner in the Parish Hall. (Dinner is free!)
  
• Saturday, June 30
  
  5pm Gathering
  
  
  5:45pm Fellowship Meal
  
  
  Join us for the second of two informal worship and fellowship
  June 30th will be an energetic and joyful gathering – about 30-40 minutes,
  followed by a simple dinner. (Dinner is free!) We begin worship in the chapel.
  

Here is more information on this month’s church events (Movie Night, Yoga, Garden
Gala, Organ Concert, Worship Gatherings, Youth Mission Trip, Pew Players Satire):

June Events Flyer (1 page, PDF format)

This busy week in my church life started on Sunday with preparations for
the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper and races. My daughter will be in college
next year so she wanted to manage the event once more before she goes. John
and Jessica made pancake batter early and left it in a 5 gallon bucket in
the church kitchen refrigerator. (Of course, it expanded out of the bucket and
made a mess but the pancakes made with the remaining batter tasted very good.)

Jessica then organized more than a dozen cooks, servers, and cleaners to put
on the annual celebration held on the day before the start of Lent. I wrote about
the 500+ year history of

Pancake Races in my blog before. This year’s event was also fun and a success.
We asked people to donate what they thought the simple dinner was worth and
collected over $241- to go toward the Youth Group’s Mission Trip to work on
cleaning up New Orleans.

Thursday, I attended the first meeting of the
Diocese of El Camino Real 2008 budget committee. Saturday, I ran the
meeting for the Department of Intercultural Evangelism and Mission (DIEM) of which I am the Convener. DIEM is changing
its name and structure over this next year into the Department of Missions. So,
in addition to planning our department’s 2008 budget submission to support the
13 Central Coast missions, we also set up an additional meeting to work out
the details of our new charter.

I think all is prepared for my working from India in the next few weeks. It
will be interesting getting email on these local church activities while working
in such a different place.

The annual ECR diocesan convention
ended early: all resolutions were passed, withdrawn, or rejected, all
positions were elected (one after three ballots), the 2007 budget
approved without amendment, our structure and funding models chosen for
the future. Three Bishop’s Crosses were distributed honoring
extraordinary leadership and contribution to the diocese.

There were three services of celebration and thanksgiving:
at the start, before lunch, and at the closing. Ours may be the
only Episcopal diocese in which services are routinely held in three
languages: Spanish, English, and Philipino. Prayers, bible readings,
and even hymns alternate between languages. Ours may also be the
only diocese in which the Bishop sings calypso songs at the convention
to call it to order. Of course, we sang right back.

In fact, the singing is one of the pleasures of annual convention
here on California’s central coast.
There are so many good voices and trained singers among the
clergy and lay delegates that when we sing a hymn to pass the time
while ballots are being counted, it comes out in harmony. Unpracticed
but fine harmony among 250 people is a delight to hear.

ECR is so much more positive and effective during the last two years
when we have been honestly assessing our own progress and potential.
As Bishop Romero said, our wine may be sour but it is our wine:
we need to drink it together and get on with our work. With our
new diocesan structure, we can build a shared ministry and prepare
to welcome our third bishop next summer.

Bishop Romero has a favorite saying “despacio por que precisa” which he
translates as “take your time, our business is urgent”. He says this
when we are in the heat of discussion, urging us both to make the best
decision we can, and to make time for the thought and prayer needed.

The ECR annual convention just
considered Resolution E – Bishop Search Process:

Resolved, That the 26th Annual Meeting of the Convention of the Diocese
of El Camino Real requests the Search Committee for the Third Bishop
of El Camino Real and the Electing Convention give equal consideration
to all qualified candidates without regard to their sexual orientation
in compliance with Title III.1.2 of the national Canons.

This complex issue of inclusiveness has been tearing at the worldwide
Anglican Communion for years. Trying to find a balanced way
between many passionate points of view held by devout Christians
around the world requires all of our best efforts and prayers plus the
guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Before we voted, Bishop Romero asked the convention to stop, pray, and
think. He asked us to consider not just our diocese here on California’s
central coast but also the Anglican Communion worldwide. Come Holy Spirit,
Come. The resolution passed overwhelmingly.