Volume 19, June 22nd, 2020
From the Rector
The Bishop’s Institute for Ministry and Leadership was established in 2015 in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida to provide opportunities to develop lay and clergy leadership in the Diocese; to prepare candidates for ordination to the vocational diaconate and the local priesthood; to prepare candidates for licensed lay ministries and to be a focus for the continuing education for laity and clergy alike.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. . . And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. . .  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. From Acts 2, the Epistle appointed for the Day of Pentecost.

Pentecost Sunday was especially moving (if not physically touching) this year as the day many of our churches around the Diocese re-opened after months of participating in services via social media.

The epistle from Acts always reminds me of the story told of a young Welsh girl in service to a prosperous London family. Every Sunday morning the family would walk to their local church within striking distance of their town house. Meanwhile, the Welsh housemaid would rise early and navigate public transport to attend a Welsh language service across town several miles away. One Sunday the father of the family remarked to the young girl, “You make that long journey across town to go to church. You ought to just walk to church with us. We would love for you to join us.” The housemaid thanked him but said she preferred the Welsh language service. To which the father replied with a smile, half-joking, “You know God does not necessarily speak Welsh”. To which she replied, “Well, sir, He speaks in Welsh to me”.

We all hear the Lord speak to heart and imagination in our own tongue. May we never take for granted the availability of Holy Scripture lovingly translated so we can read and meditate on the word of God in our own language. Words written and spoken are precious to a people who proclaim the Good News of the Word made flesh.

I read something at the start of this month about language and worship that caught my attention unaware and I keep thinking about it even now. It was not earth shattering nor will it make me a better or more effective minister. But it did challenge me to think afresh about what we are taught about others (including our forefathers and mothers) and what we in turn teach as accepted and obvious facts.

It involves the research of a young historian called Helen Gittos. She is interested in the history of the church and its rituals in the Middle Ages --- particularly in the language of liturgy. Of her research and a book in progress, Dr Gittos writes:

It is often said that Latin was the language of the liturgy in western Europe in the medieval period. This view is so prevalent that when vernacular prayers are found it tends to be assumed they were for private devotions. But vernacular languages were used in certain liturgical contexts from the early Middle Ages right through the period. Focusing on England but drawing on continental parallels, I shall sketch out the current state of our knowledge and talk about the consequences this has for re-imagining the liturgical past.

I look forward to what she teaches us about the use of English in pre-Reformation liturgy. Dr Gittos also points out that what we may think about the participation of the laity in pre-Reformation worship (i.e. as practically non-existent) has been ripe for revision as well (see Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400-c 1580 , Yale University Press, 1992).

May our mind be refreshed and renewed by the light of the Holy Spirit and our heart and will strengthened for service by the same Spirit this Pentecost.

Douglas Dupree
The Reality of Division, the Hope for Unity
A photo of the interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, taken by Thomas Frazer, director of Camp Weed and Cerveny Conference Center, during the February 2020 Bishop’s Institute pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

In the church of the Holy Sepulchre one has been at the core of one’s religion. It is all there, with its human faults and superhuman triumphs, and one fully realizes this, perhaps for the first time, that Christianity did not strike its first root at Rome or Canterbury or Maynooth, but here in the Levant where everything is inextricably mixed and nothing is assimilated .....

Our Lord was born into a fiercely divided civilization and so it has remained. But
our hope must always be for unity, and as long as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre remains a single building, however subdivided, it forms a memorial to that essential Hope.

Evelyn Waugh, Essays, Articles and Review s
Feed the Hungry, Clothe the Needy and Heal the Sick
News from the Community Health Outreach on the campus of St Peter’s Church, Jacksonville
CHO's medical assistant and Spanish translator Marielena Godoy-Rodriguez and dental
assistant Ginna Gomez share a chat between patient visits.

Meredith Smith, Executive Director of Community Health Outreach, in answer to a series of questions, provides a valuable testimony to how one important Jacksonville charity has continued to minister during these disruptive and challenging months.

  • How did CHO respond to the general shutdown of our community in response to COVID?

Meredith: CHO staff didn't hesitate staying open amid COVID shutdowns. We have been a designated emergency and disaster relief site and are a health care facility, so we remained open and operating as an essential business throughout the crisis. We were one of only a handful of food pantries that were able to continue distributing food via drive-thru, so our staff took on picking up food from extra donation sites. Our dental clinic switched to emergency care only, and our medical clinic resumed patient visits via telehealth (phone or video calls).

  • Where did the shutdowns most acutely affect the work of CHOJax?

Meredith: Our baby supply store dealt with the most change by switching to drive-thru services only. The challenging part was that we couldn't distribute clothing items or baby equipment by car. We focused instead on primary needs of diapers and baby food. One in every three American families experiences diaper need. We distributed 40,000 diapers in April and May and hundreds of containers of baby formula and baby food this way. To give a benchmark that was twice our cumulative total of diapers given away last year.

  • How has the shutdown affected the volume of your work in the different areas you cover?

Meredith: Because of lay-offs and food scarcity, our food assistance program has seen numbers increase from 500 families per week to 600-700. Last Saturday Congressman John Rutherford helped distribute food at a Farm Share-sponsored "Truck to Trunk" event that served 605 families, 1,500 people. Our dental clinic saw increased demand for emergency services. We helped many people stay out of hospital emergency rooms due to abscesses and infections. 

  • How has the shutdown and your response to it had an impact on your volunteers? Did you lose some of them? Did you have to recruit more?

Meredith: Out of precaution for our volunteers and staff we dismissed several people who were at increased risk for complications with coronavirus. Our dedicated workers were frustrated that they weren't allowed to serve, which indicates how much they were missed! Everyone who has the privilege to see God at work on our campus loves serving here. We continue to permit only small groups of volunteers back with proper precautions. Even our drive-thru services which are all outdoors are operating with fewer than ten volunteers and staff. 

  • How may we support the ministry of Community Health Outreach?

Meredith: We are always grateful for your contributions through prayer, spreading the word about our work and ministry, and donations. The need for our services is expanding, and the offer of relief and hope amid a time of uncertainty is tangibly needed for all. We will continue to be an example of ecumenical service to our local community while building relationships that heal mind, body, soul, and spirit. It is what we were founded to do as an Episcopal ministry in 1988, and it is what we will continue to do until the need is gone. 

Virginia Pillsbury, Assistant Director of CHO has provided this link if you would like to
support the work of CHO Jacksonville:

https://chojax.networkforgood.com/projects/85841-every-day-giving-for-cho
June Quiz
This month, Canon Allison DeFoor's quiz topics are drawn from a forthcoming book that will profile thirty-eight of the oldest surviving Episcopal board-and batten churches in Florida. Titled Spires in the Sun: The Episcopal Gothic Carpenter Churches of Florida, the book is written by Jonathan Rich and features the photographs of Phil Eschbach.


1. What famous American Gothic Revival architect designed both Trinity Church, on Wall Street in Manhattan, and St. Mark's Church in Palatka?

a. Alexander Jackson Davis
b. Richard Upjohn
c. Ralph Adams Cram
d. Frank Wills

2. What Florida church holds the greatest concentration of stained glass works by leading Tiffany Studios artisan David Maitland Armstrong and his talented daughters, Helen and Margaret Armstrong?

a. St. Barnabas, Deland
b. St. John's Cathedral, Jacksonville
c. Grace Church, Port Orange
d. St. Margaret's, Hibernia

3. While construction of this church was suspended in 1878, the rector's wife, who had just died of malaria, was buried in a grave underneath the area planned for the chancel.

a. St. Margaret's, Hibernia
b. St. Paul's, Federal Point
c. Grace Church, Orange Park
d. Church of the Holy Comforter, Crescent City

4. To raise funds for the church's stained- glass windows, the congregation of this church painted alligator eggs with Florida scenes and sold them to steamboat-era tourists.

a. All Saints, Enterprise
b. St. Paul's, Federal Point
c. St. Mary's, Green Cove Springs
d. Emmanuel, Welaka

5. Second Bishop of Florida John Freeman Young raised the funds for this church in a single week in a community hailed as the new "Saratoga of the South"; The church was designed by an architect who created buildings at Yale and was constructed by a contractor who built the Breakers and other famous hotels for Henry Flagler.

a. St. Mary's, Milton
b. Grace, Ocala
c. Christ Church, Monticello
d. St. Mary's, Green Cove Springs

6. A number of Florida's Episcopal Carpenter Gothic churches had small, rectangular, hinged panels set near the floor on each side of the nave. These were opened during services:

a. for possible use as fire escapes
b. for the enjoyment of views
c. so fidgety children could be released outside without disturbing the service
d. for ventilation

Leadership Corner
The Art of Gathering
Conversations that Change Hearts
Book review by Dale Beaman, MPH, PCC, Executive Coach and Leadership Development Expert and a member of our Diocesan family
The Covid-19 pandemic and social unrest in the world continues to weigh heavy on our hearts and minds. Who would have imagined that we would need to ask, do I need to wear a mask in public? How do I safely grocery shop? What is Zoom? And now, we find ourselves faced with the heart-wrenching unjust death of George Floyd which has ignited a call for the end of racism in America and around the world.

The hope of change can begin by holding purposeful conversations so that we can better understand ourselves and others. Leading these types of engaging conversations in our church and the community helps shift the way we think, how we feel and what we do. Real change comes through seeing through a new lens that enables us to change our minds and hearts.

A timely and valuable resource to help leaders create connection and hold meaningful conversations is the acclaimed book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters, by Priya Parker. Parker works across the globe to help individuals and organizations create transformative gatherings (virtually and in-person while six feet apart). Gatherings — which she defines as the conscious bringing together of people for a reason — are an essential human activity. The reasons we gather are as varied as we are, says Parker. “We gather to solve problems we can’t solve on our own. We gather to celebrate, to mourn, and to mark transitions. We gather to make decisions. We gather because we need one another. We gather to show strength.”
This book inspires me because it is a brilliant guide that teaches us how to keep conversations real, look inward and make connection. She emphasizes that having a clear purpose is critical to these sessions and talks. Parker’s intentional advice about how to spark your gathering provides fundamentals that will help leaders, hosts and anyone who wants to organize purpose-driven, memorable collective
experiences.

Creating safe spaces for brave conversations can build community, mutuality, and justice. All in
the spirit of making it a better world now and for generations to come.

Reflections:
  • Who do you want to bring together virtually or in-person (six feet apart) to have a meaningful conversation that can create change?

  • What would be the purpose of the conversation? What is the outcome you want to result from the conversation? (new attitude, belief, behavior, or movement?)

  • What could be the greatest impact of this conversation?

“Gathering matters because it is through each other that we figure out what we believe.“ - Priya Parker
June Book Review
Owene Courtney reviews:
My Sour-Sweet Days: George Herbert and the Journey of the Soul, by Mark Oakley
As a high school English teacher, one of my greatest challenges was to teach teenagers how to understand poetry and enjoy it. It was not an easy task, but with a positive attitude, a bit of humor and a few skills I often succeeded at least to the point where the students understood the poem and occasionally even had ah-ha moments!

Mark Oakley has done more than just succeed at this task with his book My Sour-Sweet Days; his reflections on forty of George Herbert’s poems clarify and open up Herbert’s writing as only a thoughtful author like Oakley would do. In his preface, he states his intention of trying to “entice readers to do their own reading of the poems and to encounter this most extraordinary author.” And not only that, he intentionally keeps each reflection “at such a length that a busy life might just about find the time to get through one a day.” And if that isn’t thoughtful enough, Oakley goes on to say, “George Herbert is worth getting to know for anyone interested in humanity’s inner being, the benefits of honesty, the mystery and love of God and what can be
made of religion in a world of projections.”

All that said, you might ask if you don’t already know, who is George Herbert? Certainly he is well known to many of you, but for those who don’t know of him (and you are the ones I hope to interest in this book and his poetry,) Herbert was a 17th century metaphysical poet and priest. A little younger than his colleague John Donne, like Donne, Herbert used a literary device called metaphysical conceits. Conceits are extended metaphors which are often carried throughout a poem, and they are metaphysical because they are far stretched, “beyond natural” as the word is translated.

Herbert’s life, Oakley suggests, is well worth studying, as is his use of literary skills like the one mentioned above, but Oakley’s main objective in his reflections is to reveal how Herbert’s poems are all about God and deeply in tune with the human heart. “I think that one of Herbert’s lasting influences on me is his insistence that God is the loving friend of human beings and not some distant, overbearing tyrant,” says Oakley.

And so I introduce you to just a few of Herbert’s poems and the lovely reflections Oakley has offered the reader. As W. H. Auden said about Herbert, “I think that any reader will conclude that George Herbert must have been an exceptionally good man and exceptionally nice as well.”