MCN Online Edition
Fall 2010 |
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Global Ministry | |
 The Maryland Church News issue on Global Ministry contains 32 pages of features, diocesan news and department updates, clergy and people news, and events being held throughout the diocese. Our biggest issue ever, the magazine was expanded from its usual 24 pages to 32 pages to accommodate the wealth of articles submitted by churches and organizations, telling the stories of their global missions and ministries.
Even with the additional pages, there was still not enough space for all the good news. MCN Online contains these additional feature articles and news from around the diocese. From Africa to Honduras, global ministries are thriving in the Diocese of Maryland. In Around the Diocese Online, read about the Union of Black Episcopalians' chapter award; how St. Mark's Church, Lappans, kept its youth busy this summer; St. Mary's Outreach Center's connection to the Methodist Church is Matthews, N.C.; Cursillo Maryland's upcoming Ultreya; and much more.
Download the print edition of the Fall 2010 Maryland Church News in Adobe PDF format |
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Global Missions
Four churches and their stories |
In His Hands in Other Lands (MCN, fall 2010, pp. 15 and 30), the global ministries of four churches, The Church of the Redeemer, Baltimore; St. Andrew's Church, Pasadena; St. John's Church, Frostburg; and St. Martin's in-the-Field, Severna Park, were highlighted. Read those stories here in their entirety.
Messy Glory of People Connecting
Redeemer's Medical Mission to Honduras
By Teto and Patty McLean
 In the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch that devastated Honduras 11 years ago, The Church of the Redeemer parishioner and physician Bill McConnell organized a medical mission to bring badly needed medical services to Atima, a remote village.The mission has returned every year since. For one week in June, Atima's elementary school is transformed into a clinic and compound for the mission team. This year's team included more than 20 medical providers, 16 teenagers and chaperones, translators, handymen, and Redeemer's rector, the Rev. Paul Tunkle, the mission's spiritual guide.
Read more...
The Pocket Change of 30 People
Global Ministry in Sudan, St. Andrew's Church, Pasadena
By Elyzabeth Marcussen
The world is vast. But with the Internet and 24-hour news cycles, we are closer than ever to people thousands of miles away. That has succeeded in making us aware of the wonderful and unique brothers and sisters God has created for this planet. The disconnection created by distance melts away.
Read more...
Helping More Ghanaian Students
Global Ministry in the Mountains, St. John's Church, Frostburg
 By the Rev. Ruth A. Goldbloom
During the season of Lent 2010, the parishioners of St. John's, Frostburg, heeded the admonitions of The Litany of Repentance from the Ash Wednesday liturgy: "We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us." The parish responded to a challenge to reach beyond personal "token" acts of self-denial, such as eliminating a favorite "comfort food" from their menus or giving up a favorite pastime, to undertake a special, deliberate act of mission.
Read more...
A 25 Year Partnership
Ministry in Haiti, St. Martins-in-the-Field, Severna Park
By Dan Tootle
La Resurrection School is located in the mountain city of Gros Morne, Haiti, which is about 85 miles north of the capital city of Port au Prince. The nearest large city to Gros Morne is the city of Gonaives, which is located on the coast of the Gulf of Haiti. Gros Morne has a population of more than 90,000 people and is surrounded by several small villages that rely upon Gros Morne as their market town and center of government in the Artibonite region of Haiti.
Read more...
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Developing Healthcare in Rural Honduras
By Patrick Ercole | |
 Atíma, located in the remote mountains of northwestern Honduras, is home to thousands of the world's most impoverished people. Two hours by winding, dirt roads to the nearest city and six hours from the metropolis of San Pedro Sula, Atíma is isolated from much of the world.
Backbreaking work on nearby coffee plantations provides meager income. Mothers maintain dilapidated adobe homes and prepare food throughout the day. Children often assist their parents, failing to attend their poorly-equipped school as a result. As if conditions in Atíma were not already bleak, Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998 killing 14,600 Hondurans and causing $6.2 billion in damage.
Read the entire story
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The Honduras Experience
Compiled by Sally Joyner Giffin, rector and mission leader at Harriett Chapel, Cactoctin Parish, Thurmont |
Youth from The Diocese of Maryland participated in several mission trips this summer. Under the direction of the Rev. Wes Wubbenhorst, the mission teams went to Appalachia and three sites in Honduras.
With the help of their churches, this group of youth missioners, who went to Villanueva, Honduras, in late June, donated school supplies, clothes, Bibles, books, hygiene items, Christian education materials and money to help support La Epiphania Episcopal Church and School as well as donating supplies to a daycare for impoverished and homeless children.
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Global Mission
About the Marka Refugee Camp in Jordan | |
The Marka Refugee Camp was referenced in Quietly Making a Difference (MCN, fall 2010, p. 10), about the Middle East pilgrims visit to the Theodore Schneller School for Boys in Marka, Amman, Jordan.
The Marka Refugee Camp is one of six emergency camps erected in 1968 to shelter 15,000 Palestinian refugees and displaced persons who left the West Bank and Gaza as the result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Located seven miles northeast of Amman, it is known locally as Hittin (and was first known as Schneller) and houses 45,000 United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) registered refugees and over 17,500 displaced persons.
Read more about the Marka Refugee Camp
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Making God Smile
By the Rev. Ellen Hurwitz | |
 "Making God Smile" is the unofficial motto of ministry that has developed between the Church of the Transfiguration, Braddock Heights, and the Ugandan village of Nyakishenyi over the last four years. Nyakishenyi (pronounced Na-Ching) is the home village of the Rev. Canon Jovahn Turyamureeba, a friend of Transfiguration's rector, the Rev. Henry Sabetti, while they were both students at Virginia Theological Seminary.
Read the entire story
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New Wine and New Wineskins as Global Ministry
By Sherrill Pantle | |
When we look at the cultures and the nations of our world, we know that this is the direction we want to go, but feel dwarfed by the immensity of the challenge. We may wonder if it truly is the case that "you can't get there from here," as someone from Maine is reputed to have drawled.
And maybe we can't...unless we change the way we live and especially how we think. Unless we learn, as Christ reminds us, to make new wine and put it into new wineskins. Mind-set determines actions to a large degree.
Read the entire story |
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International Awareness at St. James' Lafayette Square
By Alison Robinson | |
Following an unforgettable and enlightening inaugural International Sunday on Oct. 25, 2009, the St. James' International Awareness Committee was moved to action. Committee member Verna Jackson reflected on the day with the following, "there was a kind of euphoria, a desire to give, to participate, to celebrate culture; you might say that the genuine sense of hospitality was so strong, that there was a filling of each other's cups to the brim, a sense of "my cup runneth over."
Read the entire story
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Global Mission: World Religions and Peace
By the Rev. David W. Cammack | |
A major mission for Christians, especially in today's dangerous world, must be a global mission that combines peace and interfaith initiatives (politics and religion). This combination is the specific endeavor of United Religions Initiative.
I attend many area interfaith peace-promoting meetings, in order to spread the URI causes, since religion and violence are so often tragically connected today. I keep in touch with about 15 groups, some interfaith, some peace promoting, but none connect the two except URI.
Become part of both interfaith and peace development group channels. Please consider contributing to URI to enable its work and receive its mailings.
URI started as an idea in 1995 when celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco. Since its inception, URI has engaged more than 1 million people in 72 countries by creating and catalyzing grassroots interfaith leadership to overcome distrust and hostility and to work together.
URI officially incorporated in 2000. The Baltimore chapter was also established in 2000. Meetings are held bimonthly, led by college philosophy teacher Edwin Hostetter (Methodist), who is also a member of the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council, which has recently made interfaith concerns a special emphasis. For more information or to donate online visit uri.org
Contact the Rev. David Cammack, retired, about local URI activities at 410-552-9475. |
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Global Mission Survey | |
The Diocesan Global Mission Task Force is seeking information about your global ministry. Please complete this survey and return it to Ms. Izzy Winn, volunteer coordinator for the Diocesan Global Mission Task Force, 421 Alan-A-Dale Hill, Sherwood, MD 21405. The information collected on the survey will help the task force develop resources and coordinate ministry efforts in the diocese.
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10% is Enough
By the Rev. Madeleine Beard |
 Last year in Annapolis a bill, supported by METRO IAF (Industrial Areas Foundation) and the Diocese of Maryland, was introduced to require the state comptroller to move Maryland's money from the large national banks (Bank of America, Citi Bank, JP Morgan Chase for example) to Maryland community banks or other financial institutions. Why? Because local financial institutions are more receptive to the needs of their customers, offering lower interest rates.
METRO IAF, a network of 17 IAF organizations from both sides of the Atlantic, are working together to encourage state and local governments, unions and churches to move their money from the large banks in an effort to make lending affordable and honest. In the diocese there are two members, BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) and PATH (People Acting Together in Howard).
Read the entire story
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Fanning the Flame: A Day of Discernment
By Dick Mitchell |
The Maryland Episcopal Cursillo community will have an extended Ultreya and conference at the Bishop Claggett Center Saturday, Oct. 9, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The past year has been an unusual one for the Cursillo community, as a scarcity of candidates led to the postponement of the spring weekend and the departure of several senior members brought about a change in leadership.
Read the entire story
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Episcopal Diversity: Is it varied enough?
By Frank P. L. Somerville | |
Prolific urban sociologist Pedro A. Noguero has concluded persuasively that "diversity is our future, and not a passing fad."
Whether in shaping the national electorate, or planning social welfare and public education, or devising library reading lists or theater and concert programs, new additions to the melting pot that is America are a continuous fact of life and not to be dismissed or neglected. Welcome or not, as Dr. Noguero teaches, it only makes sense to accept the fact of our diversity and explore every means possible "to reap benefits from our pluralism."
Read the entire story
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Around the Diocese
Youth and Seniors Celebrate at St. Mary's Outreach Center, Youth Workcamp at St. Mark's, Lappans, UBE recognizes Maryland Chapter, UTO works for Homeless in Frederick County, New Beginnings and Cherished Traditions at Grace and St. Peter's School | |
Youth and Seniors Celebrate Ministry at St. Mary's Outreach Center
By Fran Brown, Friend of SMOC
"I think the picnic you organized...may have been the best event you've ever done. That's because the Lord looks with favor on the young and the elderly being together." So wrote Sue, one of the senior citizens who participated in a cookout at St. Mary's Outreach Center in Hampden prepared by the volunteer youth from United Methodist Church, Matthews, N.C., as part of their week-long mission trip to Baltimore.
Groups of 10 youths, out of 110, spread out in various ministries throughout Baltimore, worked on a variety of projects at SMOC during the week of June 20, beginning with games and a Gentlemen's Luncheon cooked by the youth on Father's Day.. During the week they assisted seniors with handyman work and grocery shopping, hosted an ice cream social, painted several rooms, and cleaned the undercroft and the grounds. Over several shifts these 10th-12th graders, supervised by their chaperones and other volunteers, replaced a ceiling in the center's great hall.
The picnic on the last day of the mission trip was both a celebration with youth and seniors and a farewell for Greg Little, the Methodist missioner who has been helping Sandy Simmons, the director of St. Mary's Outreach Center, for the past two years. "What a blessing. The kids were so full of joy and enthusiasm to be with us," Sue concluded.
Youth Workcamp at St. Mark's Church, Lappans
Submitted by the Rev. Anne Weatherholt
 Thirteen youths and three adults from St. Mark's Church, Lappans, spent a week of their summer vacation helping others. This is the sixth year that youths from St. Mark's have attended a work camp sponsored by Group Workcamps of Loveland, Colo. This year the St. Mark's team is in Worton, Md., on the Eastern Shore. In previous years they have gone to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan.
During the week the volunteers repaired the homes of low income, handicapped and elderly persons. They painted, cleaned up yards, built porches and ramps and performed other tasks as needed while meeting with the residents and enjoying fellowship in the evenings. Altogether, approximately 300 youths attended the work camp in Worton, staying in a local high school.
St. Mark's youths have already signed up for Workcamp 2011 and will begin fundraising with a dinner and auction Sept. 18. For more information about the St. Mark's youth program visit www.stmarkslappans.org. Visit Group Workcamps at www.groupworkcamps.org.
Union of Black Episcopalians
Maryland Chapter Wins National Award
By Reba Bullock
 The Union of Black Episcopalians held its 42nd National Annual Conference in Charleston, S.C., June 28-July 2. Representatives came from the U.S. and England to attend what was considered one of the most successful conferences in recent years.
The Maryland Chapter received the Outstanding Chapter Award, 2009-10 during the banquet. Reba Bullock, president, accepted it for the chapter. Bishop Sutton attended and participated in the opening Eucharist and other activities at the conference. Leatrice Curtis of Baltimore also attended. Maryland received this honor because of its outstanding leadership in the Mid-Atlantic region and for its ability to carry out the mission and ideals of UBE.
Some of the activities the chapter was recognized for in its award-winning year included:
- Hosting the annual Absalom Jones celebration.
- Hosting the 41st National Annual UBE Conference in Silver Spring, June, 2009.
- Partnering with St. James' Parish, Monkton, to sponsor "Kitchen Table Stories" to promote understanding and diversity.
- Hosting UBE's Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in April, 2009.
- Mentoring the Anglican Episcopal Club members at Morgan State University.
- Supporting the George Freeman Bragg Scholarship fundraising event.
- Ensuring chapter members' participation and membership on diocesan commissions and committees.
For further information about UBE, contact Reba Bullock, 410-467-3950 or REBABULLOCK@comcast.net.
UTO Helps Homeless Frederick Families
By Barbara English Bonadie
The United Thank Offering co-coordinators for the diocese have announced that the grant request submitted to the UTO by the diocese for 2010 has been funded. A check for $20,000 has been received for Advocates for Homeless Families in Frederick. This organization was established in 1988 as an outreach program of All Saints' Church, Frederick.
These funds will be used to hire an educational consultant who will develop a Life Skills Workshop Curriculum. In support of this project, Bishop Sutton said, "The Diocese of Maryland, in its strategic vision plan beginning this year, has established the goal of supporting ministries that increase educational opportunities for the poorest citizens in our state."
As of June 20, the co-coordinators have received $5,333.61 for future United Thank Offering grants. This figure includes donations at Diocesan Convention and the spring Ingathering, as well as several individual donations sent directly to co-coordinators. It does not include any donations sent directly to Diocesan headquarters.
The spring Ingathering was held at the Church of St. Katherine of Alexandria, Baltimore, May 26, with the Rev. Canon Scott Slater, canon to the ordinary, as celebrant.
The fall Ingathering is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 27, at St. James' Church, Parkton. UTO collection boxes will be accepted at the service.
Contact UTO/Maryland co-coordinators Dottie Arthur, reparthur@earthlink.net, St. James', Parkton; or Barbara English Bonadie, lrowb@verizon.net, Holy Cross-St. Philip's Church, Cumberland, for more information or to make a donation. Visit the partnership page of www.episcopalchurch.org for more on UTO.
The Wilkes School at Grace and Saint Peter's:
New Beginnings, Cherished Traditions
Since the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year, Grace and Saint Peter's School is now known as The Wilkes School at Grace and Saint Peter's, opening a new and exciting chapter in the institution's rich history of educating young children.
Founded in 1946 by the Rev. Rex B. and Berniece Wilkes, the school has long been dedicated to the intellectual, social, aesthetic and ethical development of each child. Today, The Wilkes School preserves its cherished ties to the Episcopal tradition, but with a 21st century focus:
- Core subjects in grades 2-5 will be taught by subject specialists
- Interdisciplinary thematic units will be designed to spark student engagement, guide inquiry, and help students make meaningful connections
- Special subjects - art, music, science, foreign language, and world religions - will enrich the core curriculum
The Wilkes School remains committed to the core values of its heritage, to racial and social diversity, and to maintaining small classes in an intimate and nurturing environment.
The Wilkes School at Grace and St. Peter's, located in the heart of Mt. Vernon, is the most diverse, dynamic and joyful place to learn in Baltimore. Nearby cultural institutions - including the Walters Art Museum, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Eubie Blake Cultural Center - are extensions of The Wilkes School classrooms and inspire students' study and appreciation of classical heritage and civic pride.
Wilkes - Walters - Wick
The Wilkes School will celebrate the launch of its innovative and distinctive programs, its new name, and its 64 year legacy of serving diverse Baltimore families on Friday, Oct. 22, at the Walters Arts Museum. The Wilkes۰Walters۰Wick festivities - including a wine reception, a silent auction, and a preview of the new Walter Wick exhibit - will take place from 6-8:30 p.m. and will be open to the public. Fraser Smith, WYPR senior news analyst, is the honorary co-chair. Individual tickets are $30 each; $50 for couples.
For more information about The Wilkes School at Grace and Saint Peters, please contact Sandra Shull, head of school, sshull@graceandstpetersschool.org, or visit online at www.WilkesSchool.org. For additional details about the Wilkes٠Walters٠Wick celebration please contact Ann Koch, event chair, akoch@jhu.edu. |
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