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New mailing address:
Post Office Box 3674
Arlington, VA 22203
703-807-1862
office@ees1862.org
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Summaries of Recent Grants
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Work Site:
La Iglesia de La
Transfiguración, Changinola Jail, and the Indigenous Community of Puente
Blanco all in and around Changinola, Panama - In my preaching, teaching,
catechetical shaping and prison evangelism in the banana fields and prison
of Changinola, Panama I became even more deeply aware of how my priesthood
is a calling to support others in their own call to uphold the lifelong- and
life-transforming vows of baptism. This is a holistic mission for me in that
I hope to always strive to pastorally sensitive ministry, affected by the
movements of the Holy Spirit with the community. It was an extraordinarily
diverse community in which I was worshipping and through a faith shared by
the men, women and children of the parish, we found our rhythm worshipping
with indigenous, Afro-Antillean and Latino peoples in Spanish and English
together. In song, dance and prayer the community taught me even as I led
the worship, not in spite of the abject poverty and suffering surrounding
us, but in the midst of it.
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Work Site:
Missioner Report from
Our Little Roses, - It has been quite a summer here in Honduras.
Even though we are very much here there has been a surreal element to all of
this. The culture itself has been very much different than what I expected.
So too is mission or at least my limited exposure to it. What strikes me
most deeply is that regardless as to whether we can bring any lasting
benefit or not, we needed to come and experience this. Regardless, if
American Christians can bring any benefit to the world or not, they need to
leave America to see the world more fully. If only, to begin to “see” more
clearly. If only, to begin to see ourselves more clearly.
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Work Site:
St. Timothy’s Episcopal
Church in Mountain View California - In
Fall 2004, my home parish, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Mountain View
California (www.sttims.org)
held an Invitation Sunday in order to encourage parishioners to
invite their friends to Church. The parish utilized traditional ways to get
the word out about this evangelism effort through announcements at the
service and in the weekly bulletin. In addition, each parishioner received a
letter in the mail from the Rector along with several St. Timothy’s business
card encouraging parishioners to invite their friends to Sunday worship.
While a few (less than five) parishioners took the initiative to invite
friends to Invitation Sunday, the appeal mostly fell on deaf ears.
In discussing why Invitation Sunday went virtually unnoticed, the Rector and
the Evangelism Coordinator indicated that they did not do enough formation
building around the ministry of evangelism. They believe that
parishioners simply are not comfortable asking their friends to Church.
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Work Site:
St. Philip’s
Theological College, Maseno, Kenya - From Thursday, June 9 to Saturday,
July 2, 2005, I taught Anglican Spirituality at St. Philip’s Theological
College in Maseno, Kenya. Though the class was the way in which I could make
some of a contribution in my three-plus week stay there, I learned far more
than I taught.
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Work Site:
College of the
Transfiguration in Grahamstown, South Africa - As I write this report, I
realize how difficult it is to anticipate the outcomes of an experience in a
place and culture that is entirely new. Robert Burns’ famous words are apt:
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
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Work site:
Bluegrass Gospel for an
Alaskan Village - Episcopal Evangelical Education Society funding
allowed five—not four students to attend the Fairbanks Bearfoot Bluegrass
Music Camp in Fairbanks. And another student
paid his own way. Four—not three Athabaskan musicians/adults/chaperones
checked out the camp and gave their suggestions. Bill Stevens, Walter
Newman, Lester Erhart, and Tom Hyslop also played and entertained at a St.
Matthew’s Church potlatch which was attended by 125 people, including many
elders. Ken and Sheryle Charlie cooked the dinner, featuring 4 Copper River
Red Salmon and 3 moose roasts donated by the Mickelson family. The cooks
also prepared their special Athabaskan Cajun shrimp/sausage dish, rice,
peas, and apple and cherry cobblers. Bearfoot Bluegrass attended and the
jamming afterwards included Bishop Mark McDonald and his daughter Brenna;
Pete Bowers, Fairbanks Camp Coordinator and his son Ryan; and Tom Hyslop of
Tanana and his son Raymond. One of the elders told me I reminded her of the
“old-time missionaries.”
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