Tag Archives: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves was at St. Andrew’s in Saratoga, California, last night in a town hall style discussion about the recent General Convention.  The Episcopal church’s General Convention meets every three years and is organized in two houses: the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. Bishop Mary told us of her experiences in the House of Bishops and many of our lay and clergy delegates to the House of Deputies spoke as well.  The 77th General Convention met July 5–12, 2012, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

We started yesterday with a BarBQ dinner in the courtyard under the huge oak and then moved into the church for a two hour discussion. The meeting of over a hundred was hosted by the Santa Clara Valley Deanery, an organization of the parishes in the upper third of the Diocese of El Camino Real on the central coast of California.

After opening with prayer, we heard about many of the topics discussed in the USA-wide convention, from many points of view. Some of the highlights for me:

• Bishop Mary’s response to Jay Akasie’s dramatic and highly-critical article “What Ails the Episcopalians: Its numbers and coffers shrinking, the church votes for pet funerals but offers little to the traditional faithful” in the 12 July 2012 Wall Street Journal. (She said she ate no fancy steak dinners and heard of none, and did not see how they could happen on the travel budget allowed.)
• Serious discussion of reorganizing the church as an institution so as to serve the people better and make more effective use of church money.
• Consideration of the requirements for communion. See more on this: “Baptism before communion is still church’s norm: Convention debate shows practice doesn’t always follow canons”.
• Approval for use of the rite “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant” to bless same-sex couples who are in lifelong, faithful monogamous, committed relationships. See more on this: “Blessing rite authorized for provisional use from First Advent: Liturgy still ‘work in progress,’ convention calls for continued comment”.  Our ECR diocese’s 2010 “Report
 of 
the Diocese 
of 
El 
Camino
 Real
 Task 
Force
 on 
the
 Theology 
of 
Marriage” was part of this discussion.
• Consideration on how to reduce barriers to diverse participation in church leadership and governance. (I was reminded to look at current postings on the Chicks in Pointy Hats blog about women bishops.)
• Discussion of the several resolutions on how to reduce poverty and to help the homeless.

Overall, it was a fascinating and instructive meeting.

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

Sacred Threads gave a presentation during this morning’s service at our home church of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal (Saratoga, CA). Sacred Threads is a group of women and men who stitch intricate embroidery in service to the church. St. Andrew’s was founded in 1957 and over the years, groups like Sacred Threads have created kneelers and seat coverings to honor and brighten the sanctuary. Today, Sacred Threads donated a set of six portable kneelers designed to coordinate with those which already ring the altar rail. Each new kneeler was created to honor someone, including the three Rectors who have lead the church since it was founded: The Rev. Ray Strasburger, Rev. Ernest Cockrell, and Rev. Channing Smith. Ernest Cockrell was himself one of the Sacred Threads group and proudly told me that he stitched two of the kneelers.  In her presentation, Carolyn Wilson said that the six kneelers required over half a million stitches to complete.

Photos by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2012