Tag Archives: teaching

May 4, 2021 · 1:47 pm

In Memory of Daniel Vega Martinez (1969-2021)

Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, collage, from Peggy Bryan
Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, collage, from the Rev. Peggy Bryan

On Sunday, a group of family and friends gathered to remember Daniel Vega Martinez (1969-2021). Daniel or “Big O” was a beloved member of our Stepping Stones reentry community, and had been in my class at Elmwood county jail. The Rev. Peggy Bryan, who leads the Stepping Stones community with Jack Fanning, wrote this tribute and account of Daniel’s death.

“Sadly, we said goodbye yesterday to Daniel Martinez, one of the first men I met at Elmwood and who, in reentry, was my teacher about the authentic challenges faced by living on the streets. Daniel was handed a tough life and the demons of addiction and shame finally tracked him down. Sunday he was found in flames in the cab of the truck he was living in. He was transported to VMC’s Burn Unit but his injuries were deemed unsurvivable so yesterday I offered final prayers as his wife, children and sisters circled him with love…Expressions of condolences and love are pouring in from those incarcerated and those outside who knew, loved and respect Daniel, ‘Big O’, as a man of God and a real St. Paul when leading behind bars, in prison or jail. The cause of the fire is unknown—accident, suicide, homicide…Please keep everyone in your prayers, those who call him father, brother, husband, mentor, friend and teacher are spread far and wide. As plans for a service are known, I’ll let you know. My heart is broken, this has been beyond brutal, but it helps knowing Daniel finally rests In God’s perfect peace.”

Fifty of Daniel’s friends and family got together in the San Jose parking lot to honor his life and lay flowers at the burn site where he was fatally injured.

Rest eternal grant to him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him

  • Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, melted fence 2 May 2021
    Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, melted fence 2 May 2021
  • Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, memorial flowers 2 May 2021
    Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, memorial flowers 2 May 2021
  • Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, with family, from Peggy Bryan
    Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, with family, from Peggy Bryan
  • Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, at beach, by Peggy Bryan
    Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, at beach, by Peggy Bryan
  • Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, with Kathy and Peggy, from Peggy Bryan
    Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, with Kathy and Peggy, from Peggy Bryan
  • Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, sunset, from Peggy Bryan
    Daniel Vega Martinez 1969-2021, sunset, from Peggy Bryan

30 May 2021 Update: Daniel’s Memorial Service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

  • Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
    Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
  • Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
    Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
  • Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
    Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
  • Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
    Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
  • Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
    Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
  • Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
    Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021
Daniel Martinez memorial, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 30 May 2021

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September 15, 2020 · 2:09 pm

Help with Zoom

EfM Education for Ministry at St Andrews Episcopal Church, Sep 2020
EfM at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, California

Education for Ministry is holding an online training this week for its mentors, trainers, and other seminar leaders, many of whom are starting their annual terms this month. We have over 165 already signed up!

Cynthia C. Hargis, Diocesan Relations and EfM Online Coordinator, University of the South – School of Theology – Education for Ministry, asked Cheri Winter (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of Colorado), and me (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of El Camino Real) to give this session on how to use Zoom for EfM seminars. Our training materials are linked here, both for those who will attend the session and for others who may find them helpful:

We welcome any additional suggestions you may offer. Here are questions and answers from the live chat during the event – the start to an FAQ: Questions from Zoom Practices for EfM, 18 Sep 2020

The recording of the event is on Zoom Practices for EfM 9-18-20. All of the material from the event is also linked to EfM – Resources for Mentors – Webinar: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors.

To learn more about EfM, watch this two minute video: https://vimeo.com/450619912

We opened with this prayer, by the Rev. Aaron Klinefelter of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church (Cupertino, California):

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2019-2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Updated 24 Sep 2020

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June 29, 2020 · 11:24 am

Wear the Mask – We Are Strong Together

Wear the Mask by Paul Sizer, June 2002, sizer_wear_the_mask_2020-736x1024

I try to offer congratulations to friends and family for the life events they so generously share on social media. I am glad to be even a small part of their busy and interesting lives. However, I am having increasing difficulty saying something positive when I see wedding and party pictures where no one is wearing a mask. It is so fundamentally disrespectful in these pandemic times. Forgive me if I cannot celebrate your endangering others. There is so little we can do to stop Covid-19 but masks work. Lead by example: wear the mask. We are strong together.

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Image Copyright 2020 by Sizer Design + Illustration. – Free Download Available.

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June 16, 2020 · 11:53 am

Reading _The Plague_

In 2012, we had a mouse infestation in our home, one of the potential downsides of pet birds. I was thinking of this when our book club read The Plague by Albert Camus  (in which the bubonic plague starts with rats). Plague and pestilence books have been popular during the Coronavirus pandemic, with book recommendations lists being widely published. We read sections of Camus’ 1947 book in last semester’s “God and Suffering” class at GTU‘s Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (DSPT). Ironically, The Plague was part of the reading list for the class before Covid-19 came upon us. It seems to me that in the months since the pandemic started, we have slowly become like the people of Camus’ town of Oran in Algeria who, “in the very heart of the epidemic… maintained a saving indifference, which one was tempted to take for composure.”

The Plague‘s narrator ends with qualified optimism,

He “…resolved to compile this chronicle, so that he should not be one of those who hold their peace but should bear witness in favor of those plague-stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.

None the less, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of a final victory. It could be only the record of what had had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.”

While our community has become less focused on the pandemic and has turned to other matters, I pray that we continue to honor and support the heroic doctors and health workers who are still fighting Covid-19.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson.

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June 14, 2020 · 2:29 pm

Process for Online Video Services

Since 2014, my husband John Plocher has been running the Video Ministry for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, CA. What started out needing a few hours a week using spare equipment has grown vastly since the Covid-19 pandemic took over our lives this year. John now routinely spends 12 or more hours a week creating and editing videos of music and worship services using sophisticated software and hardware. (Some of which were paid for by a 2018 St. Andrew’s Opportunity Fund grant.) John has been mentoring Youth Group members for over a year to develop their technical skills and extend the Video Ministry. In the hope that recruiting and training even more helpers will reduce his own load, John has written these process documents.

Online Worship Services and Music

John has developed a chat and video best practices exchange group – contact me if you want to join. He publishes stand-alone videos of the classical and folk service music on  Saint Andrew’s Sings. Go there to hear “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” the “Navy Hymn,” a folk Taizé “Jesus Remember Me,” “Rest in the Lord,” “Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise,” “We’ll Meet Again,” and other favorites. Or, hear the music as part of the weekly worship service videos. (More in my blog post New Music for Quarantine Times.)

I have been helping John by reviewing videos during development, finding memes for the end, and providing photos for preludes and postludes:

John Plocher, St Andrews Video Ministry January 2020

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Images Copyright 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

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June 8, 2020 · 3:15 pm

Poems by Mohja Kahf

I recommend to you the poems of Dr. Mohja Kahf, whom you may know as the author of “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears.” Poet and scholar Mohja Kahf was born in Damascus, Syria. Her family moved to the United States in 1971, and Kahf grew up in the Midwest. She earned a PhD in comparative literature from Rutgers University. Her remarkable poetry books are:

We read Kahf’s poem “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet…” every term in the weekly classes I lead in Santa Clara County jail. It is one of the most popular selections in our Transforming Literature of the Bible course at Elmwood Jail. We read the poem to complement the story of Joseph in Egypt, as part of a discussion on being a bridge between cultures (Genesis 37-50). Volunteer jail chaplains are locked out now because of the Covid-19 quarantine but I look forward to returning. I miss my students!

In Hagar Poems, I found this one which seems very appropriate for the conversations our country is having now:

“Most Wanted”
by Mohja Kahf

Warning: God has slipped the noose.
We must confirm the worst
of our righteous fears –
God has escaped the mosque,
the synagogue, the church
where we’ve locked up God for years.

God is on the loose.

Henceforth beware:
You may find God in heathen beauty.
You may stumble upon God unaware.
Take appropriate measures:
You may have to behave
as if each human being
could reflect God’s face.

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Image Copyright 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

 

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May 26, 2020 · 1:45 pm

Congratulations on EfM Graduation, Joel Martinez!

EfM Education for Ministry seminar online 30 March2020EfM Class Meeting Online, April 2020

Since we could not honor Joel Martinez in-person while under COVID-19 quarantine, we celebrated online. Congratulations to Joel Martinez for his graduation after four years of study from Education for Ministry – so proud of him! In addition to taking the regular EfM program, Joel was my Co-Mentor for three years at Elmwood Jail. To do this work, he became an accredited EfM Mentor and volunteer for the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy. Joel took Year-1 at our home church (with me and my Co-Mentor, Karen LeBlanc), Year-2 and Year-3 in jail while serving as a volunteer chaplain with me as his Mentor, and Year-4 back at our home church (with Karen and me as Mentors).

2017 Bishop Mary, Peggy Bryan, Joel Martinez, Katy Dickinson at Elmwood Jail 2017 Elmwood Jail: Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, Rev. Peggy Bryan, Joel and Katy

As his EfM Administrative Mentor, I would usually make this presentation in front of the whole congregation of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church but thanks to technology and my geek husband, John Plocher, we were able to celebrate together in a video segment during the regular weekly service. John even created this stand-alone video.

Contact me if you want to learn more about the EfM class that starts in September. More about EfM in the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. Our 2019-2020 EfM class held its closing session last night but we are taking signups for the seminar that starts in September 2020. We will meet in person or online as appropriate. More about EfM:

Education for Ministry (EfM) is a program of the University of the South – School of Theology, a unique four-year distance learning certificate program in theological education based upon small-group study and practice. Since its founding in 1975, this international program has assisted more than 100,000 participants in discovering and nurturing their call to Christian service. EfM helps the faithful encounter the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition and bring it into conversation with their experiences of the world as they study, worship, and engage in theological reflection together.

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Images Copyright 2017 – 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

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