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Begging Bowls: Opening Ourselves to the Present of Jesus' Presence
December 12, 2020
10:00am - 12:00pm
If in the midst of Advent, you would like a "time out" - a time of refreshment and renewal, or if you would like to be more aware of Jesus' presence in your life, Trinity Church on Capitol Square invites you to Advent Quiet Morning.
EVENT GUIDE
The Rev. Margaret A. (Peg) Thomas, Ph.D. will be the guide for the Advent Quiet Day. A retired priest from the Diocese of Maine and former counseling psychologist, Peg first experienced quiet days while on retreat at the Society of Saint Margaret's, in Massachusetts. The retreats were 2-3 days set aside to be in quiet, to be present and open to God, to God's renewing and nourishing one's soul. Peg has led quiet days and retreats for congregations in Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and for deacons in formation in the Diocese of Maine.
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Rotary offers Sustainable City seminars |
Cincinnati Rotary Club's Sustainable City Seminar starts Dec. 1, 7:30 pm on Zoom. The goal of this series is to encourage people in Cincinnati to take heart and take action on the climate crisis by spotlighting the high-impact work already underway in our region. Our first topic is Cincinnati’s breakthroughs, Rotary’s resolve. Oliver Kroner, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Cincinnati, will illustrate why Cincinnati is winning national recognition for its bold goals and rapid progress in making our energy, transportation, solid waste, and food systems more sustainable, resilient, and equitable. Becoming Beloved Community leadership team member Ariel Miller, reporter for Rotary International’s Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group, will outline the kinds of initiatives that Rotary is encouraging to mitigate climate change’s harm to health, food security, local economies, and peace. Sign up at office@cincinnatirotary.org.
Dr. Chip Carson, a Vestry member of Church of the Advent, will speak Jan. 5. This free series is a community service organized by Cincinnati Rotary’s Environmental Issues Task Force. Invite your colleagues, friends, and young people from grade 7 and up! Each seminar will include a 30-minute presentation and time for questions. We also plan to record the seminars for people who would like to watch them later. See the full flyer here.
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Episcopal Relief & Development year-end match challenge |
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Episcopal Relief & Development launched the organization’s annual Year-End Match Challenge on November 5. Thanks to a generous group of donors, all donations to the agency between now and December 31 will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $765,000.
“As Episcopal Relief & Development has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, we have remained fully committed to our ongoing development efforts,” said Robert W. Radtke, President & CEO, Episcopal Relief & Development. “This matching opportunity comes at a moment when it is deeply needed and I am immensely grateful to the generous donors who have offered it.”
The Year-End Match Challenge will benefit the organization’s Global Needs Fund, strengthening key programs in three priority areas: women, children and climate. Donations will enable work around the world with local partners, helping communities overcome poverty, hunger, disaster and disease. Matched gifts will also help as Episcopal Relief & Development continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with financial and technical support in the United States and around the world.
Contributions made to Episcopal Relief & Development before the end of the year are eligible for matching, including contributions online, over the phone, by mail or through Gifts for Life, the organization’s alternative giving catalog. Gifts of stock or from an IRA are also included in the Year-End Match Challenge.
“By giving a gift this holiday season, together we are honoring the hopes and dreams of children, women and families and strengthening the communities where they live, ” said Betsy Deisroth, Vice-President, Advancement, Episcopal Relief & Development. “I urge you to take advantage of this Year-End Match Challenge by making a generous gift to Episcopal Relief & Development.”
Between November 5 and December 31, eligible contributions up to $765,000 will be matched. Donate online at episcopalrelief.org/match, or call 855.312.4325. Gifts can also be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.
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Province V Leadership Coaching Project |
Get connected with a coach through the Province's newest initiative.
Province V of the Episcopal Church invites lay and clergy leaders to connect with a leadership coach. Leaders often struggle with how to create work/life balance, how to handle conflict, engage vestry members, or pursue a particular initiative A coach can help by being a sounding board, helping the leader achieve their dreams and their potential. “Christian coaching is a focused, Christ-centered relationship that cultivates a person’s sustained growth and action” (Linda Miller and Chad Hall).
Coaching is not mentoring, training, counseling, or spiritual direction. Rather, a coaching relationship recognizes each person's individual gifts, helps identify their goals, and through self-discovery, guides and provides accountability through a process to expand possibilities for the coachee's life and ministry. Coaches are available to individuals, small groups (cohorts of a few people who meet together), or teams (such as Vestries or committees).
Full details, including a list of available coaches, are available on the Province V website at https://www.provincev.org/lcp.html. If you work in a rural area (population fewer than 20,000), you may qualify for free or discounted rates.
Questions can be addressed to Heather Barta, Coordinator of Province V
989.413.3229
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Talk 2 Talk, an offering of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE), is a forty-five-minute video teleconferencing event plus Q&A that promises to inform, equip and inspire.
Presentations happen every third Sunday, 4 to 5 p.m. EST. You can view video recordings of past Talk 2 Talk sessions for your enjoyment and edification at https://www.ube.org/.
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November 15, 2020 offering: Asset Mapping - A New Road To Tackling Injustice
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Community advocates secure Episcopal Church grant to help students connect with school |
John Nolan shares how community advocates from St. Barnabas, Montgomery, have obtained a $5,000 Becoming Beloved Community Grant from The Episcopal Church to make it possible for students in Cincinnati’s West End to electronically connect with schools for remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic. |
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Discerning a call to ordained ministry? |
Are you discerning a call to ordained ministry? In the past, the first engagement with the Commission on Ministry (CoM) for someone exploring a call to ordained ministry has been the Explorers’ Retreat, held at the end of January. This year, because of the pandemic, the CoM has restructured the Explorers’ Retreat, dividing it into two parts, both conducted via Zoom.
The first part is a two-hour informational session scheduled for Saturday, December 12, from 10 a.m. to noon. The second part – with more focus on discernment – will be the weekend of January 29-30, with a two-and-a-half hour session on Friday evening and a four-hour session Saturday morning.
The session on Dec 12 will cover the practical information you need to know about the process we use in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. It will also tell Explorers what they need to prepare and submit for the Explorers’ Retreat in January. Because of the informational nature of this session, there are no prerequisites to participate, but please register in advance so we can send you the Zoom link and associated information. This meeting is appropriate for the Explorers’ priests and the Explorers’ spouses to attend, in addition to the Explorers.
The Jan 29-30 session will run from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. This session is limited to Explorers who have submitted an application to attend, including a Faith Story and their priest’s endorsement. Explorers will be sent a Zoom link after their application has been accepted. Note that the Dec 12 session is a prerequisite for the Explorers’ Retreat. If you are unable to attend the Dec 12 session, please contact Sherri Martin or Spencer Pugh to discuss alternative arrangements.
There is no charge for either event. Registrations for both sessions can be found on the Diocesan website, here and here. If you have questions or need more information, contact Sherri Martin, Assistant to the Canons, at smartin@diosohio.org or Spencer Pugh, Chair of the Commission on Ministry, at spencerpugh@twc.com.
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Dismantling Racism: Anti-racism training Dec. 12 |
One way that the Diocese of Southern Ohio addresses the racism within us and around us is through anti-racism training, called Dismantling Racism. The training is required of diocesan leaders, including members of commissions and committees, church staff, and vestry members. The next session will be held on Saturday, December 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Training is a two step process:
- Before registering for the workshop, view one of the videos in the Racial Justice section on the DSO Learning Site https://dsolearning.org/courses-list/#racialjustice. You will be asked for feedback on the video on your registration form.
- Register for the next Zoom training on Saturday, Dec 12 at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsduyopjgiHtLMoO3aaQ_qX21EO6cVmepz. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
There is no cost for the Zoom training. Questions? Contact Debby Stokes-Wayne at dstokes1@live.com. |
Be Still and Know: Young Adult Virtual Retreat Dec 17-18 |
Join us for 2020's Young Adult Virtual Retreat, Be Still and Know. Take a deep breath and escape the chaos of 2020 as we provide an array of opportunities to reconnect with yourself and God.
If you register at the link below by December 4, a care package to enhance the retreat will be shipped to you. Registrations received after Dec 4 will receive their care package after the retreat has ended.
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Advent Retreat Day at TSC |
Saturday, Dec 5, 12 to 5 p.m.
The lectionary texts for the second Sunday of Advent give us glimpses of how God uses the edge to pull us toward discoveries of a peace that is not of our own making. The edge is often the starting place of God’s unexpected shalom. This shalom is a gift which God awakens in order that the hidden wholeness and desire of Holy Love may find its way into our lived experience in often subtle yet profound ways.
This retreat will invite participants to consider the edge places and times of their own experience and the holy surprise that often lies hidden in such space. A blend of word, music, imagery, and much silence will be the gift that is shared so that the edge may be welcomed and even savored.
The retreat will be led by the Rev. David Long-Higgins, UCC Conference convener and current President of the Ohio Council of Churches.
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Becoming Beloved Community |
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Gun rights bills advance in Ohio Legislature’s Lame Duck session, endanger peaceful protest |
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SB 317, the bill that would permit school districts to arm teachers and staff with no safety training, was passed by the Ohio Senate last week and has now been introduced in the Ohio House.
The House Criminal Justice Committee may hold hearings as soon as Nov. 30 on HB 784, which would extend the right to use lethal force in self-defense during public protests. The bill includes a provision that would allow a person who “reasonably believes” he is “in danger of bodily harm” is “justified in using or threatening to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to escape.”
This bill would provide a legal defense for actions like Kyle Rittenhouse’s killing two protesters in Kenosha, WI or James Alex Field’s using his car as a battering ram against peaceful protesters in Charlottesville in 2017, killing Heather Heyer and wounding 19 other people. In our current polarized environment, such a law could encourage violence against protesters, particularly those defending Black lives. The bill also includes a number of new legal hazards for peaceful protesters.
Due to a flood of letters from concerned Ohio citizens, a hearing on HB 248, the omnibus bill that included Stand Your Ground and lowering the age of eligibility for concealed-carry to 18, was cancelled the week of Nov. 17, but this bill could resume its march next week. Other bills including Stand Your Ground provisions are HB 381 and SB 383.
Please call your State Representative and Senator immediately to express your views on Stand Your Ground and Arming Untrained Teachers. Here’s how to find out who represents you:
As of this writing, hearings on these bills are not yet posted for the week of Nov. 30. The best way to keep track is to go to Ohio Moms Demand Action’s links, which are continually updated and tell you how to submit testimony:
~ Ariel Miller, advocacy volunteer, Becoming Beloved Community Leadership Team
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Follow the latest news and events related to The Episcopal Church's work on Becoming Beloved Community here in our diocese at http://dsobeloved.org.
Click here to subscribe to the Becoming Beloved Community newsletter
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Connecting with our cathedral |
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Music Live at Lunch
Music Live at Lunch, Christ Church Cathedral's weekly concert series, will feature these upcoming performances listed below. Currently these free concerts are being live streamed via Facebook on Tuesdays at 12:10 p.m.
Dec 1: Coro Volante: In the Deep Winter – Medieval and Modern Carols
Dec 8: Cantata Chamber Ensemble: Bach cantatas
Dec 15: Buffalo Ridge Jazz Band
Dec 22: Cathedral Choir with Elizabeth Motter (harp): Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols
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An Advent Procession with Lessons and Carols
Sunday, November 29, 5 p.m.
Music to include: Let My Prayer Come Up as the Incense – Hallock; The Great "O Antiphons" – Mode 2 plainchant and Hallock; The Doctrine of Wisdom – Mathias; O Come, Divine Messiah – arr. Helvey; Virga Jesse – Juneau; Hosanna filio David – Luis de Victoria; Infinite Light – arr. Halley; Rorate caeli – Guerrero; There Is No Rose – Joubert.
This service is being live streamed only.
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*In Response to COVID-19
All programming is subject to change due to pandemic-related restrictions. Whenever possible, we will offer services and concerts via live stream if in-person gatherings are not permitted. Please check the cathedral website (cincinnaticathedral.com) for updates throughout the season.
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Christ Church Cathedral is located at 318 E 4th Street in downtown Cincinnati. For more information, news and events, visit cincinnaticathedral.com. |
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Want to stay up to date with everything that is happening at Christ Church Cathedral? Check out the Weekly GPS, an e-newsletter sent out every Friday that includes all the upcoming (virtual) offerings at the cathedral. |
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