Volume 22, September 28, 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.
I saw a marvelous cartoon recently that made me smile for a long time. As in any good cartoon it captured in a simple sketch drawing and in a single sentence a whole range of feelings and ever-present distracting thoughts.

The cartoon pictures a middle-aged man lying in a hospital bed in traction—bandaged from head to toe and sitting up on pillows with one leg hoisted high in the air—attentively staring wide-eyed at his wife. She, in contrast to her bound and tied husband sits energetically forward in her chair and says to him: “They say you’ll feel better next year . . . “.

That just about sums it up. Our present challenges and woes with the virus, economic uncertainties, political divisiveness and social unrest all demand our attention and patience as we are told repeatedly to look towards 2021 for the sky to brighten. “They say you’ll feel better next year . . .” 

As I look around the Diocese and hear how our churches are coping with the challenges of offering church in ways we might never have dreamed of a year ago, I am filled with hope by the inventiveness of clergy and lay leaders alike who are showing such faithfulness in preaching and witnessing to the Gospel.

I keep this introduction to the Newsletter brief in order to highlight our first article that showcases the wonderful work of one of our priests, Fr Matt Marino of Trinity Church, St Augustine. I hope you will take strength, as I did, in hearing his story and his response, with his wife Kari, to offering church in these extraordinary times. I am grateful to Dale Beaman who interviewed Matt.

Yours faithfully,


Douglas Dupree
On the Porch with the Padre
A Leadership Success Story of Innovation
Article by Dale Beaman, MPH, PCC, Executive Coach & Leadership Development Expert

The leadership challenges of the pandemic have magnified new opportunities to creatively reach people in difficult times. It is not about changing the vision, mission or values which provide a solid foundation for the church. It is about finding new strategies to be relevant and engage people in the Christian faith. 

The Bishop’s Institute wants to share one of the many leadership success stories during the pandemic that inspires hope and innovative ideas. Our intention is to open doors to learn from each other and invite collaboration as we build the Kingdom of God together.

In this article, we interviewed The Rev. Matt Marino, the Rector of Trinity Parish in St. Augustine. You will learn about one of the innovative ways that Matt has continued to reach people during these trying months of the pandemic, as well as some of his leadership insights that he gained over the years working in Young Life and as an ordained minister.

The Rev. Matt Marino, the Rector of Trinity Parish in St. Augustine finds a new approach to reach people during the pandemic
Monday mornings, you will find the Padre and his wife, Kari, on Facebook Live. They have co-created an entertaining and meaningful faith—based approach that offers encouragement and helps people stay connected to what is important.

 
On the Porch with the Padre is a distinct innovation. Each episode, only 5 minutes long, brings a positive Christian message that weaves in humor and hope. “We take faith seriously but not ourselves” says Matt.
The Marino’s put care and thought into each episode where they offer a question for the day with a song to make the Christian message stick. They keep it informal, fast and light while addressing real issues people are grappling with during the most challenging times. “Making it very human and relevant to the times has built a following” says, Fr. Matt. It also has an appeal to friends who are not Christians. 

“We never expected it to have a long shelf life, but we keep going and people are responding. In fact, we can’t stop because we have up to 1200 followers for any one episode” said Fr. Matt.

Other surprises from the “Porch” included receiving a $5000 donation from one viewer and a retired couple who decided to move from Gainesville to join Trinity because they enjoyed the online experience.
Fr. Matt began serving at Trinity just 10 months before the pandemic hit in March 2020. Being relatively new, one of the leadership challenges during the pandemic was to find ways to have a presence and build relationships with his congregation and the community. “We wanted to find a way to be visible so people could see their pastor in a time where we couldn’t be together” says Fr. Matt. 

Once the pandemic hit, Fr. Matt and his staff took on the mantra “let’s not waste a good pandemic and let’s get as much good out of it as we can."


St Michael and All Angels
(September 29th)

O EVERLASTING God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order; Mercifully grant that, as thy holy Angels always do thee service in heaven, so, by thy appointment, they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
September Quiz
Dr. Dupree has asked that I consider making the quiz this month reflective of the times in which we find ourselves. There is clearly a time of reassessment afoot, especially in our relationships. The prophets screamed of the inequities we now discuss, and yet they have persisted for thousands of years.
 
To the extent that they have been addressed at all, it has often been the witness of the Church that has rung true. The names of William Wilberforce, and Martin Luther King and a host of other saints come to mind easily.
 
 Interestingly, our little corner of the world has had some claim in this spiritual evolution, the bending of the arch of history towards justice, in King’s words. This is particularly unusual as the State of Florida was a small and obscure place, smallest and poorest in the South, save for Arkansas until after WW II. Three of our contributions are reflected in the quiz questions below:
 
1) The first African-American Bishop in the Episcopal Church was raised up in which city in the Diocese of Florida?
 
 A) Jacksonville
 B) Tallahassee
 C) Fernandina Beach
 D) Gainesville

 2) The first Native American to be ordained in the Episcopal Church was raised up out of which congregation in the Diocese of Florida?
 
 A) St. John’s-Tallahassee
 B) Trinity Parish-St. Augustine
 C) St. Cyprian’s-St. Augustine
 D) Holy Trinity-Gainesville

 3) Jacksonville’s first female architect designed a large Episcopal Church in what year?
 
 A) 1955
 B) 1887
 C) 1920
 D) 1903

Outreach Ministries at St Luke's Church, Live Oak:
Sharing Our Story
‘ for I was hungry and you gave me food . . . I was sick and you took care of me’
(Matthew 25)

St Luke’s Episcopal Church, Live Oak has a vibrant outreach ministry consisting primarily in two programs: the Food Pantry and Shepherd’s Hands Free Health Clinic. Both programs started in 2016 and well over four years later both are growing and going strong.

St Luke’s has been blessed with good leadership supporting these programs. Fr George Hinchliffe has stepped down in the last year and Canon Don Woodrum is currently priest-in-charge as St Luke’s searches for a new rector.

St Luke’s Deacon, the Rev. Lydia Bush has kindly shared with us news of the St Luke’s outreach ministries in this article.

When was the Food Pantry started and how did it develop?

Lydia: In 2016, the St. Luke’s Food Pantry grew from a few boxes of food in the copy room to a room totally dedicated to a revived food pantry ministry. With a handful of volunteers headed by Jim Weaver as committee chair, they built shelves and a provided a donated refrigerator, our capacity for food expanded to meet the growing needs of our very poor rural population. 

Approximately one fourth of the 44,000 residents of Suwannee County are at least 200% below poverty level. These are both working and jobless people who are on the margins of society needing food to make it through to the end of a paycheck period or when their groceries run out. Where this ministry increased from serving approximately 25 families a month to over 150 families every month in four years, it was through the Grace of God and the generosity of our St. Luke’s parishioners that this food ministry has continued. Four times a year, we have Food Pantry Sunday for our parishioners to donate food items. The rest of the food is purchased from the giving hearts of our parishioners.

Two years ago, as food costs were beginning to soar and our food distribution was as well, Jasmine Burns, our administrative assistant contacted Catholic Charities to determine if we could partner with them. That connection increased our food supplies to include not only canned and dry goods but also fresh vegetables and fruits, meat (beef, chicken and fish) as well as juice, eggs, milk and other dairy products. The cost for these items were budget friendly and delivered to our door. 

The Food Pantry has also been a great help in that every Shepherd’s Hands patient receives a bag of food along with meat and fresh vegetables and fruits. Many of our patients are not working steadily to allow them many of the healthier option items they receive from the food pantry.   

When was Shepherd’s Hands started and how has it grown?

Lydia: Shepherd’s Hands-Free Health Clinic began in 2016 at St. Luke’s, with funds donated by The Diocese of Florida. Those start-up funds purchased a small travel trailer and the transportable medical equipment and supplies. In the last four years we have served hundreds of patients by adding two additional locations, St. Mary’s/Madison-2017 and St. James/Lake City- 2018.

Shepherd’s Hands serves people who are medically needed - without health insurance and are 200% below poverty level. They are served by an all volunteers staff including our medical professionals. Our mission continues to be God’s hands and feet by serving His people who are in the margins of our world in the Suwannee Valley area.

 How has the initial statewide shutdown in the Spring 2020 and then the gradual re-opening since late May/early June had an impact on the Food Pantry and Shepherd’s Hands?

Lydia: A large majority of our parishioners/volunteers are in the Covid compromised category. To counteract their exposure, volunteers limit their time to activities that do not include contact with the public. We also decreased our food distribution to two days a week for half days instead of when our church office is open for business. People who need groceries now are handed the food through a window (an idea from our bookkeeper, Lynn Lee) in the parish hall with fresh veggies and fruits on tables outside for their selection. Direct contact is at a minimal and masks, social distancing and hand sanitizing is practiced.

Shepherd’s Hands totally shut down all locations for three of the six months. During this time, our volunteers contacted current patients regarding their prescriptions and health needs. We are just beginning to realize through this time that tele- medicine could definitely be an advantage for us to reach our most vulnerable patients both during Covid and after.

Motes and Beams and Ember Days
Four times a year in the Church Calendar the Church sets aside a period of three days, namely Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for fasting to pray for candidates for Holy Orders and the clergy. There is a set of Ember Days in September following the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14) and prior to the Feast of St Michael and All Angels (September 29).

The Propers (Collect, Epistle and Gospel) for Ember Days have changed over the years. In one early set of Ember Day propers the Gospel was taken from St Matthew 7.1-6:

Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged, condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven, i.e. our behaviour to others is meant to be a reflection of the way God, in Christ Jesus, has treated us.

Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch? And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

As appropriate to Embertide, this Gospel about ‘motes and beams’ was selected as advice for pastors and teachers about their attitudes towards those committed to their charge. The clergy are to be kind and merciful and forgiving as ministers of Christ’s church. They are warned not to ignore in themselves the very faults and failings which they must not be too quick to find in others.

The frailty and veniality of the clergy has been well satirized throughout the history of literature from Chaucer to Dante to our own contemporary authors.

A few years ago, following the Pentecost Embertide, I attended the service of the consecration of a bishop---of a friend of mine. The preacher at that service told an amusing story about the frailty of clerical nature. You might enjoy it--- it applies to ordained and non-ordained ministers as well:

It is the story about a long-serving priest, a rector of a parish church, who died in his old age and awoke in Purgatory, on a staircase pointing heaven-ward. St Peter was there guarding the stairs, and he admitted the newly deceased priest by giving him a box of candles and a box of matches. He told him in making his ascent, he must pause and light a candle on every step for each sin in his life he would ask the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness for.

So he began his ascent, stepping upwards slowly and scrupulously, As he went, suddenly he saw someone else on the stairs, moving past him swiftly, hastening downstairs again. It was his Bishop, who had died not long before he did. ‘And Bishop’, ‘he asked’, what are you doing?’ to which the Bishop replied, somewhat out of breath, ‘I’ve run out and have got to go back to the start and fetch another box of candles!’
A Tale of Two Churches:
Christ Church, Cedar Key and Christ Church, Ponte Vedra
What do these two churches in our Diocese---one in the Gulf of Mexico and the other on the First Coast of Florida--- share in common in addition to having the same name and their locations in sunny coastal communities sometimes subject to hurricanes?

They share an architect. In the last century the Diocese of Florida commissioned the artist, architect and native Floridian Wellington Wilson Cummer II (1912-205) to design church buildings for this pair of churches.

Today one church is quite small – Cedar Key—(although in the late 19th century Cedar Key was a growing, prosperous city) and the other is still growing and is one of the largest Episcopal churches across the country—Ponte Vedra. Both are characterized by strong clergy and lay leadership.

I thought it might be interesting to ask a leading lay leader from each Christ Church to share with us how their church has met the challenge of the last six months. Karen Voyles from Cedar Key is a recent graduate of the Bishop’s Institute’s Licensed Lay Ministry course. Catherine Montgomery is the Director of Children’s Formation and Family Ministries at CCPV.

Karen Voyles, CC, Cedar Key:

 Despite the uncertainties the pandemic wrought and although we just met our new Vicar, we have been able to maintain our ASA. This is the result of a concerted effort by the Mission Board and the congregation to be in touch with one another. . . Also, we began to focus on planning for the future and finding ways we can bless our community in this season. 

Catherine Montgomery, CC, Ponte Vedra:

Our staff has shown tremendous commitment, creativity, and flexibility in finding new and imaginative ways to keep our parishioners connected to one another and God. We have become comfortable with experimenting and adapting as we discern what serves our community best, keeping the safety of our community as our top priority. Catherine Montgomery, CC, Ponte Vedra
Profile of a Vicar, Scholar, Peacemaker:
The Rev. Lester (Les) Brian Singleton
2019 saw the retirement of the Rev. Les Singleton as Vicar of the Church of the Mediator, Micanopy after serving thirty-seven years in the small Alachua County town south of Gainesville. In today’s peripatetic environment of ministry, his longevity is a testimony to old fashioned faithfulness and loyalty to a church and a congregation. But it was always more than that. Les has contributed greatly to the wider ministry and life of the Diocese of Florida.

I first met Les five years ago when I attended for the first time an inter-denominational clergy gathering at Camp Merrywood. He was warm and welcoming and I soon learned he is always one of the first to befriend his fellow clergy and newcomers to a group. I have watched him work the same welcoming spirit and hospitality towards lay men and women in various gatherings around the Diocese.

Three things have particularly impressed me about the ministry Les has exercised. I was first drawn to him watching him in a classroom at Camp Weed where he was teaching a small group of candidates for the vocational diaconate in our Diocese. He taught them the required module in Holy Scripture, covering over several sessions the Old and New Testament theology and history. He sat at a table behind a huge pile of books and in the course of his lecture or talk he worked his way through the stack—recommending this author for this question and that author for another. We were all impressed that he had digested all of these books related to the Scriptures--- some old and some very new. It bespoke a life time of reading and devotion to Biblical studies.

The second opportunity I had to appreciate the ministry of this good priest was also an occasion where I saw him at work as a teacher. Les taught the scripture module for the Licensed Lay Ministry course conducted by the Bishop’s Institute in 2019. He interacted wonderfully with the students and actually ended up mentoring several of them interested in further study. He is a great encourager of those eager to learn.

The third opportunity to appreciate this good priest involves attention to interfaith work. On arrival in the Diocese, I asked someone who is an accomplished seminary teacher of interfaith studies if anyone in the Diocese of Florida was actively engaged in interfaith dialogue and work. She replied, “Yes, indeed, Les Singleton of Micanopy”. “Micanopy?” “Yes, indeed”.

Les was later to tell me about his involvement in interfaith dialogue. He told me:

In 2010, I was very offended by Terry Jones, a Christian minister who thought it was a good idea to burn Qur'ans. I got the friends of the Micanopy Library in 2011 to sponsor "Three Looks at Three Holy Books" with a rabbi covering Tanakh in January, I did the Bible in February, and an imam did the Qur'an in March. All of this was written up in the April 2011 issue of the Ocala Magazine. 

Then I began the practice of on September 11, or a Sunday closest, just before the peace, to have three religious leaders speak for peace. We had Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Quaker and Unitarian/Universalist . . . "Peace Sunday" became our best attended service of the year, exceeding Christmas and Easter. The service raised our profile in the community.

Les was also concurrently Vicar of St Barnabas, Willsdon (1998-2018) and of Holy Communion, Hawthorne (1998-2018). Over these years he began interested in knowing more about the predominantly African-American churches in the community. This led to the establishment of a pattern of worship sharing on an annual basis. As Les tells it:

After I had heard a presentation by Mother Davette Turk at a diocesan convention, say twenty-five years ago, I began an annual worship swap with a nearby African American church. On a Sunday in July, we would not hold a service at our own church, and go worship with Ward Chapel A.M.E. Church (in later years, Paradise Community Church, Inc.) and then in August, that congregation would come and worship with us.

While I am glad we did this interracial exchange, I wish we had been more intentional about finding additional ways we could get to know each other and each other's concerns.