February 2023 Edition

As I See It | The Rt. Rev. Megan Traquair

Dear Friends in Ministry,


Today finds us nearing the end of Black History Month and at the beginning of Lent. The advantage of a repeating remembrance is way our experience can get deeper and broader each time a season comes around again. For Black History Month I hear in our congregations and in the community, more stories of remarkable black men and women and all they accomplished. In the face of past and present racism the embers of courage and hope are still bright.


Lent is our particular season for fasting and repentance. I have found it to be both a challenge – extra worship and Adult Ed, and a relief. The liturgies sound out my soul as they are spoken into our lives again and again.


What they remind me of most forcibly is what it is like to live a human shaped life. (I believe that concept will grow more critical in the future).  Made in the image of God we are blessed and willful  - in short we mess up.  Our need to be forgiven is daily. Whether we meant to or not we hurt or bruise others along the way. Forgiveness is the only thing that frees us to move forward into a fresh day and fresh start. 


As Clergy, we have folks who assume we make fewer mistakes that others, and folks who assume we only make mistakes. In truth we fall about in the middle – like everyone else. But the words of scripture and our worship are deeply graven on our hearts. Their effect is to ground me - like standing barefoot on living earth. I do not get anywhere very fast barefoot but I can tell what I am standing on. That humble, humus-y ground is where God finds me again. And I am reminded that forgiveness is a living gift from Christ, that detaches us from burdens we cannot carry and re-attaches us to His own living self. Thank God for the repeating nature of our many seasons. 


This one starts us in dust and ends with a great shout of joy and hope to all people. We need it all.


Canonically Speaking | The Rev. Canon Julie Wakelee

Demystifying the Mutual Ministry Review


I’ve seen more than one person recoil at the mention of Mutual Ministry Reviews (MMRs). But did you know this conversation may be one of the most helpful tools available to you and your vestry?


Let’s break it down: 

It is NOT a clergy job performance evaluation. It’s a review of parish/mission leadership as a whole. Questions might be: How are we doing, together? Are we on the right track? Are we missing something? What could we make better?


And, it’s not a test, it’s a look back (a review) over the past year, and a chance to make sure everyone is on the same page, and that you have current and helpful mutual goals for the year ahead.


But how can it be useful to me? 

  • An MMR is facilitated by an outside person (often arranged through me, but not always) who can ensure that everyone has a fair say, and the consultant will talk with clergy and senior warden ahead of time to know if there are particular issues to highlight. 
  • If you are a Priest-in-Charge hoping to become the Rector, a current MMR is one of the required steps to make that move (plus, of course, a vote from your vestry, and a financial wellness report for the parish).
  • If you have topics you hope your vestry will hear with new ears, this is a great tool. It’s also an opportunity for you to notice what you might have overlooked from your vestry.
  • It can help you and your team get un-stuck. Or surface issues before they become problems. And celebrate the amazing work you know you are doing, but rarely have time to write down and ponder.  
  • You (all) will come out with a clearer sense of how much you are accomplishing (a lot!) and maybe even some new goals for the future. 
  • It is also a requirement in every clergy Letter of Agreement (LOA) in this diocese. 


How to make an MMR happen for you and your congregation: Please contact me!


Both Fr. Mack and I are happy to work with you, and we have a small team of folks willing to serve as consultants. I’m also happy to give some training to clergy and/or laity who are interested in being facilitators. 


If you have led an MMR for another congregation, I’d love to know if you enjoy this work. We have room on our team! 


Questions? email me or Fr. Mack: julie@norcalepiscopal.org or mack@norcalepiscopal.org


From the Missioner for Church Life

The Office of the Bishop staff are currently working on a grant writing workshop/webinar to help congregations seeking funds from diocesan, church-wide, and other sources.  We would love to share some success stories as part of the workshop, so if you have recently been successful in getting a grant, please email Mack@norcalepiscopal.org

Thank you! 

Guest Clergy Reflection

Reflecting on Black History Month

– The Rev. James Richardson


The history of African Americans has profoundly shaped all of us in this country, especially The Episcopal Church since its beginning, often in ways we don’t see — or avoid seeing.


The sad truth is, many white Americans — and white Christians in particular — have never fully faced the brutal legacy of slavery and its aftermath. 


But there is another legacy that still shapes us — the legacy of those of every race who have fought for racial justice in every generation, including ours. 


In offering this reflection at the end of Black history month, I must acknowledge that I come from a place of white privilege. 


A few weeks ago, Trinity Cathedral, along with many other Episcopal cathedrals across the country, celebrated the life of Absalom Jones, who was the first Black American ordained as a priest in The Episcopal Church. 


It felt especially poignant this year celebrating Jones’ life as one of the “Holy Men” on our Episcopal church calendar of “saints.” 


Jones was born enslaved in 1746. His owner was an Episcopalian — and, yes, Episcopalians, including bishops, owned slaves. The Episcopal church, in fact, was deeply entwined with slavery at every level; enslaved laborers built the Virginia Theological Seminary, for example.


Jones was able to secure donations from abolitionist Quakers to purchase his wife’s freedom and, eventually, his own.


He and another Black lay leader, Richard Allen, built up an integrated church in Philadelphia to the point where the church’s white leadership demanded that Blacks segregate themselves into an upper gallery. 


The Black congregation walked out and started their own church. In 1792, they voted to affiliate with the Episcopal Church, with Jones as the lay leader of the new African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. But was not until 1810 that Jones was ordained a priest.


He was a forceful orator, known for his eloquent stand against the slave trade and the emancipation of the enslaved. The real “cradle Episcopalians” are the spiritual descendants of Absalom Jones, and they would take up his cause after his death in 1818. 


Their work is still ours to complete.


The Rev. James Richardson is a priest associate at Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento, and the author of The Abolitionist’s Journal: Memories of an American Antislavery Family, about his ancestors who used their house on the Underground Railroad and founded a college for the previously enslaved in Austin, Texas.

From the Chaplain to Retired Clergy

Let it go! – A Lenten Reflection

– The Rev. Lynell Walker



I am writing this as we conclude the first Sunday in Lent. My mind has shifted from worship at Trinity Cathedral and the Great Litany to tomorrow morning’s chapel at St. Michael’s Episcopal Day School. Normally the Ash Wednesday liturgy happens while the students are in school but this year’s marking of the beginning of Lent happened while we were on Winter Break.  


It’s odd now. We’ve missed the beginning. Like many moments in ministry, I’m picking up in the middle of a story and will try to make sense of this holy season on the wrong day. I’ve spent chapel mornings this year retelling the story about my walking the ancient pilgrimage called the “Camino de Santiago” across Spain. I’m going to take my backpack in and tell them a story about learning to “lighten my load” each night before giving in to needed rest. What I thought I needed for the journey while packing in Sacramento often turned out to be a burden and unnecessary weight.  


I remember carrying five travel-size packages of toothpaste thinking I could just lighten the load and toss one out each week along the way. Great theory, but as I walked each day, bearing the weight of my travel packing decisions, I soon found myself taking an inventory of the contents of my backpack down to the last band aid.  Something must go! That night I tossed 4 extra packages of tooth paste once I realized they must surely sell dental hygiene products in Spain!  


I haven’t mastered this load-lightening gift of Lent by any means. I still have cases of books in the garage I want to read. They fall over from time to time as the crushing weight bears down on the filing boxes that were never designed for this ministry. But I am committed to doing something. Each morning I look around to see where I can make a difference – something that is just the right size. It won’t be books this year, but I know it’s coming.  I need to find a task that’s a better size while rooted in joy.


That’s going to be my message in chapel. Let’s do something this day that’s just the right size. Notice the joy that comes from saying “yes”. I know it won’t matter that we’re late.


I invite you to join us. Lent. It’s a gift.

From the Archdeacon

A Lenten Reflection 

– The Very Rev. Pam Gossard | Archdeacon

 

“Why?”

 

If one is around 5-year-olds for any length of time this question seems to crop up quite often.  When they ask why, it means they are curious and want to explore things further. I have also found that a practice that includes asking this straightforward question can be a useful one for adults on their Lenten journey.

 

Forward Movement’s Lenten meditation resource, Meeting Jesus on the Margins, Meditations on Matthew 25, presents a challenging way to think about answers to this question and to ponder a way of seeing God in the most unexpected places.  

 

Mike Kinman, at the beginning of the slim volume, notes that we need to be always asking, “Why?” and then not let our quickest answers, which are often deeply rooted in our prejudices, be our final answer.  Some of the questions he posed were:

 

When we see someone using the steps of a public library as a bed at night, we need to ask “Why?”

 

When we read a story about a transgender teenager committing suicide, we need to ask “Why?”

 

When we go into a grocery store in an impoverished neighborhood and see a fully stocked liquor shelf and no fresh produce, we need to ask “Why?”

 

When we learn that we incarcerate a higher percentage of our citizens than any nation in the world, we need to ask “Why?”


As a teacher in a recently reopened school with a high percentage of free lunch students and a rich diversity of cultures, languages, and experiences, I once found myself asking, “Why?” at the beginning of the school year. Why were so many of the children wasting food at breakfast?  Despite attempts to encourage the children to make more moderate food choices, every morning the waste baskets in the cafeteria still seemed to be overflowing with uneaten food.  The school staff came to realize that breakfast time was not so much about children with eyes bigger than their stomachs but more about children believing that this might be their only meal that day so they’d better take all their tray could hold.  The quick answer as to why were they were wasting food was to assume they did not know better or that they had no appreciation for the food put before them.  Upon reflection, the more in-depth answer had to do with the individual children’s stories and their lack of access to food.  This personal encounter with hunger began to change my initial answers to the question, “Why?” 

 

In our Lenten journey and beyond we will meet Jesus right where he tells us he will be- with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner.  

 

Why?

 

For I was hungry and you gave me food.  

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you gave me clothing.

I was sick and you took care of me.

I was in prison and you visited me.

In Memoriam

On Saturday, February 25, Bishop Megan presided at a Memorial Service for the Rev. David Paul Shewmaker, Assisting priest at Christ Church, Eureka.

Here is a link to view a Recording of the Service:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGNjon4urIk 

Prayer Requests

Prayers for healing are requested for The Revs. Anne Powell, and Brother Simeon (Lew) Powell. They were both injured in a traffic collision, and are healing slowly.


Healing Prayers are also requested for The Rev. Robert Blumenstock, associate at All Saints in Sacramento. Robert is currently in the hospital after having suffered a stroke.

Bishop's Calendar

Saturday, March 4 | Vestry Essentials CLC | Zoom

Sunday, March 5 | St. James of Jerusalem, Yuba City

March 7 – 14 | Spring House of Bishops, Alabama

Saturday, March 25 | Vestry Essentials CLC | Grace, St. Helena

Sunday, March 26 | St. Patrick's, Kenwood

Important Dates

Wed, Mar 1 | Parochial Reports, Congregation Information forms Due

Friday, March 17 | Deadline to Apply for FaithX Congregational Vitality Assessment Program. Contact Canon Julie at julie@norcalepiscopal.org or Missioner Mack at mack@norcalepiscopal.org for more information.

Saturday, April 22 | Day of Discernment

Monday, May 15 – Tuesday, May 16 | Fresh Start Retreat

Tuesday, May 16 – Thursday, May 18 | Clergy Conference

Ordination Anniversaries

The Rev. Ann Sullivan | February 1, 1999

The Rev. Canon Mary Goshert | February 2, 1980

The Rev. Megan Gartin | February 8, 2014

The Rev. Canon Anne Arthur | February 8, 2014

The Rev. Mark Allen | February 14, 1987 

The Rev. Dorothy Torrey | February 16, 2002 

The Rev. Canon Barton Kendrick | February 22, 1958

The Rev. Harold Clinehens | February 23, 1980

The Rev. Canon Tina Campbell | February 23, 1991 | Diaconal Ordination

The Rev. Canon Charles Poole | February 27, 1960

The Rev. Dr. Ray Hess | February 27, 1975

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California

Making Disciples, Raising Up Saints & Transforming Communities for Christ

www.norcalepiscopal.org

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