Present in fair and flood

As the flood waters ravaged Luzerne County and other parts of northeastern Pennsylvania, the County Fair went on as planned. The Episcopal Churches of the Luzerne County, which still ministering to people in the flooded areas and contending with the possible threats against their own churches, still maintained their planned presence at the Fair.

Here is the account written by Janine Ungvarsky of Trinity, West Pittston and Co-Chair of 2011 Project Presence:

In the spirit of our diocesan mission to “tell what you have seen and heard,” I’d like to share some of the things seen and heard as the Luzerne County Episcopal Churches joined forces once again for Project: Presence at the 2011 Luzerne County Fair.

The fair opened Wednesday with pounding rain that kept away the crowds and sent us all home early. Thursday was even worse as flooding threatened a large section of the county and closed the fair. I didn’t have much hope for Project: Presence as I evacuated my West Pittston apartment Thursday afternoon at 1:30, with the Susquehanna River already swollen to within two blocks of Trinity.

I have to admit I was surprised when I checked the fair web site that evening and learned the fair was going to be opened on Friday “in response to numerous requests.” This made some sense, considering that the fairgrounds are located in an area not subject to river flooding and easily accessible via the Cross Valley Expressway for many of the other areas where evacuees sought higher ground. Though I had doubts about the turnout, I decided I would open the booth and invite volunteers who could safely do so to join me.

That first evening, I was handing a helium balloon to a little boy when I noticed a tear in his mother’s eye. The little guy was laughing big belly laughs as the balloon bobbed over his head in response to every move of his hand, and his mom said she was just so happy to see him relaxed and not crying or fussing for the first time all day. She confided that they were forced to evacuate their home in Harding, one of the areas hit hard by the flooding, and were staying in a relative’s home crowded with other family members also fleeing the flood. This young mother said she needed to get her rambunctious toddler out of the cramped quarters and to think about something besides what the flood was doing to her home. She talked and I listened, until her son decided he needed to be on the move again, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that mom and child were both giggling over the way the balloon bounced off her shoulder as they headed away.

Versions of that woman’s situation were repeated over and over again as people who hoped the levee would hold and those who already knew their homes had been devastated visited our booth.

There was the woman whose family was forced to evacuate their Kingston home. She brought her two tween-aged kids to the fair to stave off worry about her husband and older son, who went to West Pittston to help friends and were trapped on the home’s second floor by flood waters. She knew they were safe but said, “We just can’t sit in the house watching the endless flood coverage and worrying anymore.” Then there was the man who said he decided to come and watch some of the fair’s live entertainment while he waited for the evacuation order to be lifted because he knew gutting and repairing his flooded home would take up most of his free time for months to come.

Some of the most interesting moments came as people were talking to those of us from Trinity wearing red polo shirts embroidered with the Episcopal shield and the words “Trinity Episcopal Church West Pittston.” Many read the shirts and were surprised that we were there. “You’re from West Pittston,” one woman said on Friday at the height of the flooding, “And you’re here to talk to us and give all this stuff away? I’d be too worried to think about anyone else if it was me.” Others made similar comments, providing wonderful opportunities for us to share the reason for our hope and bear witness to the strength to be found in a life of faith.

Yes, we gave out almost 1,000 balloons in three days—about twice the number given out over the five days of the 2010 fair—along with hundreds of “Jesus Loves Me” kazoos that raised a joyful noise throughout the fairgrounds. We handed out loads of candy and shared information on the services and outreaches at our parishes. But I think the most significant thing we did in that flood-shortened fair was to bring some small respite to those fairgoers wearied by fear and stress by being there with open hearts to listen, comfort and share a prayer.

Our goal was simple: to be a presence at the fair, to let people know that the Episcopal Church welcomes them and is there for them. It may seem strange to go forward with that goal in the midst of a natural disaster, especially one that hit so close to home for many of us, but what better way for us to make our point than to be there in the midst of sorrow, loss and fear, sharing our reason for hope? Thanks to the efforts of my co-chair, Matt Stretanski, as well as Father John and Sandy Major, Debra and Larry Kellerman, Shane and Annie Sonday and Charlie Warwick as well as all the volunteers from Prince of Peace, St. Stephen’s, Grace Kingston, St. Clement’s & St. Peter’s and Trinity who were able to make it to the fair, I believe we accomplished our goal. Please join me in praying that those that we touched with our presence will find the peace and joy that comes from spending time in the presence of our God.

Community presence is a powerful tool to communicate the Gospel. Their presence at the fair was a spiritual ark to people who needed signs of hope in a difficult and uncertain time. They remained faithful to presence and proclamation when no one would have blamed them for staying home. Their presence at the fair opened up opportunities for grace. These congregations demonstrated how Christ changes lives and God is tangibly present even in the midst of trouble.

Amazing what a balloon can do!

Why I don't go to church

Central Christian Church of Las Vegas, Nevada put this video out on YouTube.



This effort does a good job addressing probably the top 7 or 8 reasons most often heard from people who are spiritual, and perhaps leaning towards church attendance but who don’t go. The ones who are positively disposed to the idea, but perhaps haven't made that first step.

It does not address the resistance of those who have been spiritually abused. Neither does it deal with those who have questions or serious obstacles to belief itself. But you can't do everything at once, even in this medium.

Maybe that can be the topic of the next video or two?

St. Simon the Cyrenian goes knocking on doors

Members of The Church of St. Simon the Cyrenian in New Rochelle, New York, spread out into the local neighborhood, ringing doorbells and invited people to church. Interim Pastor, the Rev. Canon Titus Presler describes on his blog how it came about and what happened on their first outing:

On Tuesday, June 22, four members of the Evangelism Team of the Church of St. Simon the Cyrenian visited about 70 homes in the immediate neighborhood of the parish in the first installment of what is planned to be a regular door-to-door outreach.

Such outreach is not exactly common among Episcopal parishes, so people often ask, “Well, what do you say when you go door-to-door?” Each pair of visitors asked residents this particular question, “Is there something you would like us to pray for in church at St. Simon’s this Sunday?” People were home at about 20 of the residences. Seventeen prayer requests were received, and these will be offered up in this coming Sunday’s liturgy. Each of the responsive households will receive a follow-up letter from the parish.

Team members went with an invitational card, and with a copy of the previous week’s bulletin. These were given to respondents and left in the mailboxes of those not home. The visitors were three members of the parish’s Men’s Fellowship – Ardon Michaels, Herman Harvey, Cuthbert Barker – and myself as the interim pastor. We split into two pairs and moved down on opposites sides of each street, ringing doorbells as we went. Team members plan to share from their experience during this Sunday’s announcements.

In only several instances were those who answered the door unwelcoming. Responses from others ranged from mild interest to real appreciation to theological discussion. Among the highlights:

• One person came out of her home and sat on the front stoop to engage a team with lengthy and cordial conversation.

• One person said he was a Muslim and therefore not particularly interested in conversation, but he thanked us for visiting and referred us to two apartments upstairs that we might otherwise have missed.

• Several people expressed appreciation that we were going door to door and noted that they were not used to seeing that. One person said that she had never seen a pastor visiting the houses on her street and that she was reassured by the sight.

• Of the 17 responding households, probably about a dozen already had a church that they regularly attended. We told them that we rejoiced in that. We certainly were not urging any changes in membership. With other households we were quite frank in inviting them to visit St. Simon’s.

• People had prayer requests You that they wanted to share. Some of them were very general like “world peace” or “family.” Other prayer requests were a good deal more specific.

• We were struck by how far many people travel to go to church. New Rochelle is a city of about 75,000 people located northeast of New York City, about a half hour away by train. Some respondents traveled to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Bronxville or Times Square to get to church.

The team met on the previous Saturday for an orientation session that I conducted. The group took as its biblical foundation Jesus words to his disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Mark 1:17). I defined mission as ministry in the dimension of difference, an understanding that I have been working on for some time and which is developed fairly fully in my forthcoming book, Going Global with God: Reconciling Mission in a World of Difference. I defined evangelism as telling our story in the light of God story.

The evangelistic outreach of visiting homes in the neighborhood was related to St. Simon’s mission statement, which highlights an aspiration that the parish be a beacon for the community. I noted that St. Simon’s has a strong internal community but that last winter’s Vestry retreats had raised the question whether the parish was effective in having an impact on the wider community of New Rochelle and the neighboring towns.

The open-ended question – “Is there something you would like us to pray for in church this Sunday?” – is designed to catalyze conversation that has both the vertical dimension of relationship with God and the horizontal dimension of community care. It is a question that seeks to serve. It does not pry into people’s theological persuasion, nor is it aimed at buttressing church membership.

Evangelism is one aspect of the broader mission that the parish is organizing and which includes outreach to local colleges and service to major communities of need in the local area. For instance, last week a group of leaders from the parish met with the assistant to the city manager of New Rochelle in order to seek assistance in discerning how a congregation like St. Simon’s can best serve the wider community.

There are some aspects of this project that are worth noting:

• motivation--The basis of the project was grounded in the congregation's understanding of mission and their role in the community as a "beacon for the community." Note how the parish undertook mission projects which involved going to city and civic leaders and listening to how the parish might serve the community more and in projects of direct outreach.
  
• listening--I was intrigued by the question asked by the visiting teams to people who answered their doors, "“Is there something you would like us to pray for in church at St. Simon’s this Sunday?” Clearly, the visitors are telling people about St. Simon's and certainly their hope is that some people would come to their church. But the content of their opening question asks what St. Simon's can do for the person, and it is framed in terms of what St. Simon's does best. It is also a question that requires the inquirer to stop and listen to whatever comes next. So to do this successfully, the visitors must be ready to accept whatever response they get and must go with an accepting attitude, rather than wanting to change a person's mind on the spot.
• story--I think a project like this is consistent with the work we in the Diocese of Bethlehem has been doing around evangelism, not only because the congregation chose a pro-active approach, but mainly because the approach St. Simon's chose is grounded both in mission and in the spiritual vitality of the congregation. Previously, the parish took their Palm Sunday procession which had previously been restricted to the church and parking lot out into the streets of their city. Folks who take part in the effort, must be aware of their own spiritual story, but also have the maturity and confidence to listen first, pray when needed, and the confidence to accept gracefully whatever response comes along.

This project shows how evangelism is grounded in the mission and spiritual vitality of a congregation.

When sport is a religion, can religion learn from sport?

Rabbi Jonathan Romain writes in the Guardian about the connections between being apart of a faith community and being a sports fan. He watched as his fellow countrymen were wrapped up in the European Champions League last week (when Manchester United played Barcelona in Rome) and reflected on both the similarities and on how faith communities can tap some of the same enthusiasm.

"In some ways." Romain says, "it is facile to compare football to faith: the former is 400 years old, limited to a rectangular pitch and lasts 90 minutes a week, whereas the latter stretches across the millennia, permeates all aspects of life and is 24/7."

Still there a interesting parallels: both have their rituals, both have their special clothing, both have their important festivals and revolve around a calendar and both are seasonal.

There are similar highs and lows: the build-up of expectation as an important match looms or as you get ready for a festival. But then your emotions can go dramatically either way: a win, especially against the odds, leads to an almost indescribable exuberance; so too at a service when you have a really good experience and emerge with a bounce in your step. The opposite can also be the case: a desperately boring game or a disastrous loss can send you home enveloped in a black cloud, rather like a service which you feel does nothing for you and from which you walk out a stranger to God.

Perhaps most amazing of all at matches is the singing, with many who are totally unmusical, not to mention shy and monosyllabic, leaping to their feet and singing their throats dry in front of thousands.

He asks clergy and congregations with empty pews to think about the following: "how to transfer the passion and commitment of those attending football matches to those at services."

A clue lies in a moment of inspiration experienced by my history teacher at school. He was at a football match after a frustrating week of trying to drum dates of battles and monarchs into children's heads, with little success. He was astounded to hear two pupils from his class sitting in the row behind rattling off facts and figures about team performances, individual players and the number of goals they had scored last season. "Ah," he thought, "so they are capable of remembering! All I have to do is enthuse them enough so that they remember what I want them to remember."

The task of those who care about faith is similar: to make religious life so vibrant as to make others want to join in. We can start by learning from football fans and doing three things:

First, greeting others who are sitting around you, even those you hardly know, and not letting them go away unnoticed at the end, but chatting away, asking if they thought today was a victory or a flop, if the minister was on form or not. It is the presence or absence of human camaraderie that determines whether people come back next week or not.

Second, by joining in the prayers and songs even if you do not feel like it at first, because getting stuck in helps create a sense of involvement, which then engulfs others too, so that you end up feeling that you are on the inside and not looking on from afar.

Third, in between attendances, reading up on the facts, mastering the customs, laws and history, so that next time you come you feel part of the team spirit - that you not only matter as much as everyone else, but that without you they are not fully complete.

Read the rest here.

Scranton: Seasons of Love

Seasons of Love is a ministry at Church of the Good Shepherd in Scranton. Here is a slide show.

They like Jesus, but not the church

At St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Allentown:

They Like Jesus, But Not the Church

Culture's Objection to Christianity

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

1900 Pennsylvania Avenue, Allentown

Tuesday evenings March 3,9.16,23,30 April 7

6:30-7 Soup and Salad Supper

7-8 Program

Admission: Free

This six session DVD based curriculum features Dan Kimball who is author of The Emerging Church and They Like Jesus but Not the Church. He is also pastor of the Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California which is a missional church planted for engaging the post-Christian culture. He has served on the boards of Outreach Magazine and Youth Worker Journal.

The six sessions have the following topics

1) The Danger of the Christian Bubble

2) Is the Church Negative, Judgmental and Political?

3) Does the Church Restrict and Oppress Women?

4) Is the Church Homophobic?

5) Do Christians Arrogantly Think All Other Religions Are Wrong?

6) Are Christians Fundamentalists Who Take the Whole Bible Literally?

Discussion follows the viewing of the 20 minute "launch" DVD presentation by Pastor Kimball.

All are invited!