January 19, 2017

Serving the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
3717 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
www.diopa.org          215-627-6434
Articles In This Issue
Quick Links to Diopa Website
Parish Events
Wellness
Safe Church Training


Deacon Robin Robb Honored at DioPA Deacon's Day

by the Ven. Dr. Pamela Nesbit

 
Sunday, January 8 th 2017, the Feast of Deaconess Harriett Bedell, was the second annual DioPA Deacons Day.   On this day our deacons send their annual letters to the bishop, gather together in fellowship and raise up the ministry of one of our own.   Last year we recognized the ministry to the homeless of Deacon Phil Geleibter, who is at St. Mark's, Frankford.    This year we raised up the ministry of The Rev. Deacon Dr. Robin Robb, who is at Christ Church, in the city of Pottstown.   Robin received the Harriet Bedell Basin, a ceramic basin and ewer which she will keep until the next DioPA Deacons' Day in 2018. 
Robin is a pioneer among deacons.   In the mid sixties she went to Church Divinity School of the Pacific to study theology.   Because she was a woman, she was not allowed to matriculate at CDSP, but was allowed to study for a Master's in Christian Education at St. Margaret's Hall.   Robin was in Berkeley during a tumultuous time in the world and the church.   She was mentored in her studies by Fr. Massey Shepherd while he was writing the ordination vows for deacons which would be part of the 1979 Prayer Book.   She ministered in Haight Ashbury with those people whose health and lives were becoming chaotic due to sex, drugs and rock & roll.   She ministered among the young African American leaders whose anger about their situation in Oakland lead them to speak to the whole country. 

Robin is a clinical social worker and a retired professor of clinical social work.   She spent years working with people suffering from every kind of abuse and neglect.   Much of that work was outside the church, and some was within it.   Robin's call to be a healing presence to marginalized people has been there her entire adult life.   As a deacon Robin serves at Christ Church, Pottstown, but her focus of ministry is to work with the local faith communities to organize a compassionate and effective response to the situation of people living in poverty and people without homes in Pottstown.   She organizes a community meal once a week, and she leads the people of Christ Church into the streets to help them learn to be present with people whose life situation is very different from theirs.   A deacon is called to lead the church into the world into compassionate ministry in Christ's name.   Robin does that, with grace and humility, every day.  




2017 Province III Youth Event


The 2017 Province III Youth Event (PYE) was January 6-8, 2017 at the Bishop Claggett Center in Adamstown, MD.  Over 100 high school and middle school youth from around our province gathered together for fun, fellowship, and worship.  The weekend was facilitated by the Rev. Randy Callendar (DioPA native).  We learned how to "uncage" our lives from the bondages of everyday normal life.  



DIOPA Deanery Calendar



Happy Epiphanytide Everyone,

Our DIOPA Deanery Calendar is fully operational and available to capture and disseminate your event information - diocesan wide! It's the place to post parish events in each deanery and can be found on
www.diopa.org at the bottom right of the home page under Calendars. It's a read-only site, with information being posted by an administrator in your deanery. Call your parish office to have your administrator post an event you want to share.



United Thank Offering Grants 2017

           
ALL PARISHES
  
 
Put gifts into the Blue Box with thanksgiving, prayer and generosity.
 
Take gifts from blessings out of the box for GRANTS extending the church's faithfulness to God's mission
 
Want to start a NEW MINISTRY???
Have an idea for a new program in your parish/community???
Have an Idea for ??? (Think outside the box)
Need start-up funding - submit a UTO Grant
click here

Due in Bishop's office - February 17, 2017
Contact Betty Berry-Holmes, UTO Coordinator ASAP if you are planning to submit a grant  eberryholmes@aol.com


 


Video Invitation to Join the Bishop's Bible Challenge!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As another part of my promise to better serve you, I am pleased to present another major initiative from the Offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. This Bible App will help us all to feel connected, provides a platform for participating in the Bishop's Bible Challenge, and perhaps most importantly is a powerful tool for you to read or hear the Word of God in 1,000 languages. With the Bible App, many now have access to the word of God in their primary language. Reading the Bible together as a diocesan community will have a life changing effect. The importance of Christian people using Holy Scripture as a foundation for daily life is hard to overstate. Who we are as the People of God flows directly from our worship, doctrine, and liturgy, which are all rooted in Scripture. To know the Bible better, is to know ourselves as the People of God better, to know our mission to the world better, and to know our faith better. We are here to help and to serve you, and this mobile app is another important step in showing the kind of innovation and emphasis that is placed on equipping our congregations to build the Kingdom of God.
The Rt. Rev. Daniel G.P. Guti érrez
XVI Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania


The Bishop's Bible Challenge leads us through the entire bible in a year's time. Not only will you find the daily reading and meditation rewarding, but you will be joining in community with hundreds, possibly thousands, of fellow Episcopalians in our diocese. While this may seem like a daunting undertaking, as the Bible tells us "Fear Not", for there are many ways to connect!
You can download The DIOPA Bible in a Year App from iTunes, Apple App Store, and Google Play. To download the mobile application, go to the "App Store" icon on your iPhones or the "Google Play" icon on your Android Phone and search for "DIOPA" or "DIOPA bible." It is a self-contained way to participate and has everything you need including a link to the registration page, the Bible readings for each day, an online link to the Bible in audible and readable forms and daily reading or listening selections that will help everyone to read the same selections each day.
 
* If you don't want to use the app, register to participate at our online registration site:  https://diopa.wufoo.com/forms/bishops-bible-challenge/
 
* If you do not use a computer or smart phone simply call the Offices of the Diocese at 215-627-6434 to register and receive a Bible Study Packet; or contact your Priest for these materials.

* Join our online Facebook group at < DIOPA Bishop's Bible Challenge>. This is where you can post your own testimonies on the readings. These responses can be written or use your phone or camera to take a picture that reflects your response to the reading. Include a brief description and post with the hash tag #wordon and #diopabbc. Check the group page or the hash tags to see what other participants are saying!

* Information and resources regarding The Bishop's Bible Challenge can be found online:  http://www.diopa.org/bishops-bible-challenge/

The important thing to know is that you are not alone in this and you cannot mess this up! If you miss a day of reading, or a week for that matter, just jump back in to the schedule because there is no wrong way to do this. If you'd rather not read, the Bible App will play the day's selections in a dramatized audio format for you to listen.

So let's come together as a diocesan family and build the Kingdom of God -praying together, worshipping together, studying together - in this the "come and see" diocese. #diopalove #diopacomeandsee #wordon #diopabbc - there are multiple ways to connect!



New Online Staff Directory


Visit our new "Staff Directory" page on the diocesan website to see photos, bios, and job descriptions 
of the current staff of the Offices of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.





DIOPA Resource Guide

  The DIOPA Resource Guide is here!
We have heard your suggestions, compiled them, and we would like to present the DIOPA Resource Guide: a directory of information about the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and how we can best serve you. We encourage you to explore the website at  http://www.dioparesourceguide.com/.
This website is designed to continue to capture information that is useful and relevant to all members of the Diocese. Please continue to submit your suggestions. Contact J.D. Lafrance at  jdlafrance@diopa.org or use our online form:  https://diopa.wufoo.com/forms/cant-find-something/.


Download our Diocesan Mobile App "DIOPAConnect"


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As part of my promise to better serve you, I am pleased to offer a major initiative from the Offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. This mobile directory app will help us all to feel connected, provides useful information about parishes, and enables us to have one more important way to stay informed about everything going on in our wonderful Diocese. We are here to help and to serve you, and this mobile app is an important step in showing the kind of innovation and emphasis that is placed on equipping our congregations to build the Kingdom of God.

The Rt. Rev. Daniel G.P. Guti érrez
XVI Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

To download the mobile application go to the "App Store" icon on your iPhones 
or the "Google Play" icon on your Android Phone  and 
search for "DIOPA" or "DIOPA mobile directory."

Let us know how DiopaConnect works for you. 
 User feedback helps us to tailor our applications to better meet your needs.


Procession of the Magi at St. John's, Concord

by the Rev. John Sorensen

Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." (Matthew, Chapter 2)

Each year at Saint John's, on the Sunday after the Epiphany, the congregation enacts the visitation of the Magi using the John Henry Hopkins Hymn 128, "Three Kings of Orient." The drama has proven to be a great antidote to the January cold that follows Christmas, and great fun at a dreary or weary time of year. A collaboration between the clergy, Jill Wikel and John Sorensen, the talented costuming skills of Sunday School Co-Director Margie Hatcher and Jessica Villante, music director, as well as parishioners willing to sing a verse of Hopkins hymn while processing in costume. It's fun for the participants, relatively easy to produce, and nice to watch. At Saint John's, it occurs just before the Sermon.

Fr. Sorensen brought the custom to Saint John's from Trinity, Plattsburgh, New York, where the Hymn's author, Rev. John Henry Hopkins, had been rector from 1872-1877. Hopkins dad had been Bishop of Vermont, and he grew up in Burlington a dozen miles across Lake Champlain from Plattsburgh. In New York, with some of Hopkins' papers in the archives of the parish and the Diocese of Vermont, Fr. Sorensen made a study project of the life and work of Fr. Hopkins and the story of this First American Christmas Carol, first written to entertain his Nephews, perhaps while music professor at General Seminary from 1855-1857, and published in Hopkins' first Hymnal in 1863.
                              
Matthew's Gospel doesn't tell us the names or numbers of the Magi, but Hopkins included them in his hymn: Gaspar, Melchior and Balthassar. The hymn specifies that the chorus be sung by congregation or choir and each verse by one of the Kings. Each year at Saint John's the number of assisting Magi grows, and their gender varies.
Of interest to the Diocese of Pennsylvania, Hopkins's carol was contemporaneous with that of Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square Rector Rev. Phillips Brooks, who penned "O Little Town of Bethlehem" about 1868. Both men were involved in bitter conflict between the Anglo Catholic and Evangelical wings of the Episcopal Church in the last quarter of the 19th century, but that is a story for another day.



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