Category Archives: Church

The final 5 hour long

Bishop Candidate presentation was this afternoon. The election for the 3rd
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino
Real (ECR) is on Saturday, 16 June. I think this week’s discernment process
has been moving and fascinating for all involved. Two of the candidates
mentioned this in their final statements. One said that ours was the 25th meeting
she had this week but that the time had gone so quickly, it was a wonderful
experience, a gift for which she was grateful. Another said that the process had
been a moment of grace in her life, exciting, challenging and a wonderful experience.

At each of the four meetings I have attended (16 hours in all), I learned
something new about the 5 candidates. There was great variety in their level of
inspiration and energy from session to session. The
All Saints’ (Palo Alto) lay delegates and
clergy attended at least one meeting each and most went to several. Eight of us
had dinner tonight after the final presentation to discuss our thoughts and evaluations.

I already wrote some of my impressions in my

9 June blog. What I have heard and seen in addition today:

1. 
   The Reverend Paige Blair “Effervescent Paige”
   
   Ministry themes include reaching the unreached, and listening
   
   
   God doesn’t want us to waste any of our gifts
   
   
   Mind, body, spirit
   
   
   Spoke of holding a
   “U2charist” (communion service with
   U2 music) expecting 400 attendees and getting
   800 instead (raised $4100)
   
   
   MDGs and Matthew 25:
   “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ ‘…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”
   
   
   Sees the ECR diocese as ready to live into its potential
   
   
   I am older than I look. I am tougher than I look
   
2. 
   The Reverend David Breuer “Hometown David”
   
   Technological eptitude
   
   
   Being intentional, authentic
   
   
   Church is at the center of life, not its circumference
   
   
   Reciprocal authority of the Bishop comes from the community of the baptized
   
   
   Fixing deferred maintenance
   
   
   Moses as a model for leadership: look ahead to a place of new
   self-definition and knowledge of God’s purpose for us
   
   
   Transparent church walls
   
   
   MDGs,
   SMUM – Make a society where it is easier to be good
   
   
   ECR is in a place of balance, of health as a result of the work of its
   clergy and people
   
3. 
   The Venerable Mary Gray-Reeves “Venerable Mary”
   
   A priest’s sacramental goal is to bless and feed
   
   
   Experiencing God’s grace, loving the unloveable
   
   
   The reconciling presence of Christ is bigger than our conflict, hold on
   to our faith in that, not onto our rightness or wrongness
   
   
   Enters the text of the Bible through the Gospels and through Jesus, her
   savior and saving grace
   
4. 
   The Reverend Gale Davis Morris “Grandma Gale”
   
   No final decision alone, out of community context, reach a decision
   we can all live with
   
   
   Sad that Bishops are becoming only good administrators, not pastors
   
   
   Trust, authenticity, mutual respect in diocescan relationships
   
   
   Come for the food, stay for the company
   
   
   MDGs are a worthy and
   faithful endeavour
   
   
   Believes in the resurrection of the diocese of ECR
   
5. 
   The Reverend John Palarine “Quiet John”
   
   In the diverse center of the church, committed to bringing everyone
   into the conversation
   
   
   Reconciler
   
   
   People feel heard, values are not compromised
   
   
   Deal with difficult issues with clergy, not just “Kumbaya” and cupcakes
   
   
   Build churches through spirituality, sharing each other’s journeys
   
   
   3 phases for a youth program: create vision, raise up adult leaders,
   youth-lead youth ministry
   

Last night, All Saints’ Episcopal Church
held its first Saturday evening Worship Gathering. I was in the group
that designed the event (see my

5 June 2007 blog for more). I think it went very well. 20 people came
to read the Bible, discuss, sing, and pray together. Susan lead the service.
My daughter Jessica lead the singing. Laura and John prepared a simple
meal of two soups (fresh pea, and tomato), french bread, salad, and brownies.
Laura sold the brownies to raise money for this month’s Youth Mission Trip. She
wanted fifty cents each for them and hoped for $8 total but we had a little
auction instead and raised $46.

Over dinner, we discussed the

Bishop Candidates since three of us had already been to several of the
walkabout meetings this week. The last Bishop candidate presentation is
tonight and many of those present at the Worship Gathering plan to attend.
The Bishop election is on 16 June.
Our next Worship Gathering will be on 30 June and I am the leader for it.
I hope it goes as well as the first did.

This week, my husband and I have joined hundreds of other lay and clergy
members of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino
Real (ECR) attending presentations and coffee hours with the five candidates
for ECR’s 3rd Bishop. I
started writing about this in my
6 June 2007
blog.

I have so far been to a coffee hour and two 5-hour presentations with the
candidates. All of them are very impressive priests and, as the

Search Committee told us, all are capable of being a good Bishop. Our
task is to understand through listening, discussion, and prayer which of the
five is the Bishop called by the Holy Spirit to lead our diocese. The
diocesan convention to elect our Bishop is a week from today, on 16 June.

It is not my intention to influence other convention delegates in their
considerations or decisions. Each of us needs to reach our own decision on
how to vote. Nor do I need to reproduce the excellent material about the candidates
already available on ECR’s
Episcopal Search and Transition web pages. However, the experience of
listening to five extraordinary and different spiritual leaders answering very
hard questions at length is unique to my experience. This blog entry is to
share some of my thoughts and understanding so far in this process.

Some of the questions which have been asked are personal (whether the
candidate tithes, what their spouse thinks about being married to a Bishop),
others are church-political (gay marriage and clergy, giving communion to the unbaptized), and others are exploratory (what is your passion? how would
you and the diocese have to change? why is Bishop the best job for you and
why are you the best person to be Bishop?).

Some of what I have heard and seen so far:

1. The Reverend Paige Blair
   
   quick big grin of joy, 3 ear rings, sits but rarely holds still
   
   
   Passionate about sharing the Good News
   
   
   What is essential and where can we play?
   
   
   All are welcome at God’s table
   
   
   Begin by listening and learning
   
   
   World mission – living into the truth of our Baptism
   
2. The Reverend David Breuer
   
   paces, figits, gleeful grin, never sits
   
   
   Templates and lists, administration and finance
   
   
   Evangelical moment
   
   
   Living in ambiguity, living as an Episcopalian, generous orthodoxy
   
   
   Collaborative, mutually accountable servant-ministry
   
   
   Pursuit of excellence, revitalization
   
   
   Ministry of money
   
3. The Venerable Mary Gray-Reeves
   
   sideways smile of sharing, elegant, rarely sits
   
   
   Passionate about great leadership
   
   
   Sharing power
   
   
   The Gospel commands the spiritual discipline to love people we don’t like
   
   
   Transformation: affirmation and correction
   
   
   Speaks Spanish well and fluently
   
   
   The stewardship of compassion
   
4. The Reverend Gale Davis Morris
   
   looks into each person’s eyes, artistic clothes, centered
   
   
   Passionate about the Episcopal Church
   
   
   Always includes babysitting and food
   
   
   The altar is God’s table, not an Episcopal table, all are welcome there
   
   
   We learn best from stories
   
   
   The stewardship of creation
   
   
   God created everyone and said “It is good”. God loves us and each of
   us is worth loving.
5. The Reverend John Palarine
   
   small shy smile, sits quietly
   
   
   Never base your self esteem on the whim of a 14 year old
   
   
   “And I give thanks to God for that” ends most statements
   
   
   Celtic hospitality, hospitality of the heart
   
   
   Youth-lead youth ministry
   
   
   Unity does not mean agreement
   

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.
</p

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.