March 15, 2022
In this edition of ENews:
  • Bishop Breaks Bread with Belfry
  • Good News Gardens Gathering to feature the Rev. Pamela Dolan
  • Calling all quilters – Convention Quilt Project needs your help!
  • Meet our partner in Disaster Resilience
  • Registration for Growing Conference and WordFest are still open!
Around the Diocese
Bishop Breaks Bread with Belfry
On Thursday, March 10, Bishop Megan joined The Rev. Portia Hopkins and students from The Belfry for a lenten supper and fellowship. The Belfry is a joint Lutheran/Episcopal Campus Ministry at UC Davis. The program is founded on the Episcopal Service Corps’ tenets of intentional Christian community, simple living, service of others, solidarity with the poor,
promoting justice, spiritual awareness, and vocational discernment.
Join us for a chat with the Rev. Pamela Dolan about her new book, Contemplative Gardening. This book encourages green thumbs to make a connection between tending to the earth and tending to their own souls, between creation care and community growth. From her own checkered history as a gardener, killing houseplants and avoiding yard work to her becoming an avid grower, Pamela shows transformation can happen. Her own turning point came when she began a church vegetable garden as part of an effort to revitalize a small parish and help it heal from years of division and conflict. Join us to hear more and ask your questions of the author!

Click here to register.
Quilt Sewing Days are Scheduled
The quilt blocks for the Diocesan quilt are ready to be sewn together. Quilt Project Coordinator Beth Carlson has scheduled two days for those who would like to participate in this upcoming part of the project. The dates are Monday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 22, from 10 am to 2 pm both days. The location is the conference room at St. John's in Chico, 2341 Floral Avenue, Chico CA. Members of other congregations who wish to sew, assist in the process or want to observe are welcome. Bring your own lunch and drinks and join us. If you plan to come, please contact Beth at 530-345-8142. 
The Diocesan Quilt blocks are pinned together - ready to be sewn!
Office of the Bishop
Save the Date
Day of Discernment
Saturday, May 7

Are you interested in becoming a priest, deacon or a professed member of a holy order?
Registration is now live! Visit: https://form.jotform.com/220656380441149
Celebrate the abundance of our Diocese!

Growing: Faith, Food, Community
Saturday, April 2
9:30 am - 3:00 pm
St. Martin's Church, Davis
$25.00 | In Person Only
Limited Space
https://form.jotform.com/220465127986160
Disaster Resilience
Meet Larry Masterman,
our Partner in Disaster Resilience Training
Mark Dibelka | Missioner for Disaster Resilience
This week, I'd like to introduce a valuable partner in our effort to increase disaster resilience within our diocese.

Larry Masterman and I became friends in the late 1970s when we met in Mt. Shasta building model airplanes together. Since then, Larry (who grew up in the Episcopal Church) has gone on to do some amazing things with his life, and is a perfect fit as a resource to help all of us be better ready to face disasters that come our way.

As a 17-year old, Larry became interested in emergency services in 1974, working as a search and rescue volunteer during five days of regional flooding in Central Washington. He has served in emergency services continually since 1978.

He served as a San Francisco paramedic and watch commander for 12 years, running some 12,000 calls. As watch commander, Larry was responsible for managing the emergency medical response for all complex incidents. In his last month on the job there, he responded to a high-rise fire and managed the City’s medical response to the Loma Prieta earthquake. 

After managing a rural paramedic service for 4 years, Larry joined an 11-county regional EMS agency, ultimately becoming Regional Disaster Medical and Health Specialist, coordinating field EMS, hospital, and public health emergency medical preparedness and response to disasters. This position took on new importance after the 2001 9/11 attacks and the anthrax attacks of the following month. Read More
From the Wider Church
Episcopal delegates to UN women’s conference poised to begin their work
BY MELODIE WOERMAN | Episcopal News Service | Posted Mar 11, 2022

The Episcopal delegation to this year’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, kicked off their work on March 10 on Zoom. The group of seven women and one man come from dioceses across the United States, as well as the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, and represent Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

The 66th meeting of the UNCSW will take place March 14–25 in a hybrid format, after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 gathering and prompted the 2021 meeting to move online. The presiding bishop’s delegation will participate virtually, observing official UNCSW meetings and advocating for priorities outlined in Curry’s written statement to the UNCSW. They are also encouraged to write about their experiences and share them across the church.

In his statement, Curry said The Episcopal Church urges member states, United Nation entities and civil society to:
  • Address the climate emergency and implement gender mainstreaming across climate, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs.
  • Prioritize responses and protection for women and girls marginalized by environmental racism.
  • Accelerate women’s and girls’ empowerment and gender equality and eradicate violence against women and girls.

Each year the UNCSW has a theme, focusing on issues affecting women and girls around the world. This year’s theme is achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs.

This topic offers an opportunity for “a cross-cutting, intersectional examination, through a gender lens, of some of the world’s most critical concerns,” said Lynnaia Main, The Episcopal Church representative to the United Nations.
During online introductions, delegates each gave brief remarks, describing their background and what prompted them to apply to be part of the presiding bishop’s delegation.

Read the full article here.
Lay preachers bring everyday perspectives to Episcopal pulpits as dioceses test foundation’s training curriculum

BY DAVID PAULSEN | Episcopal News Service
Posted Mar 10, 2022
If you attend Episcopal worship services and assume the preacher always wears a clerical collar, consider lending your ear to Salem Saloom on a Sunday morning. As a lay preacher in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, he might broaden your expectations.
Saloom, 74, is licensed by the diocese and typically preaches once a month at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Brewton, Alabama, where he has worshipped since 1979. Although he never attended a seminary, Saloom completed a lay preaching course through the diocese’s School for Ministry and now is participating in the two-year test phase of a churchwide curriculum developed by the Episcopal Preaching Foundation.

The experience has been “really enlightening,” Saloom told Episcopal News Service. To him, writing and delivering a sermon means “trying to find the way to make the Gospel come alive, and preach so that the listeners in the congregation can see how alive the Gospel is in their daily lives.”
As an increasing number of Episcopal congregations forego full-time clergy and lay members take on more parish responsibilities, some dioceses are encouraging lay people to bring their voices to the pulpit. “Dioceses are recognizing the value of lay preaching,” said the Rev. Charles Cesaretti, president of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, though he noted the phenomenon has old roots. “Lay preaching has always been in the church. It starts in the book of Acts, so it’s in our DNA.”

Read the full article here.
WordFest!
Saturday, April 23
9:00 am - 2:30 pm
$10 | On Zoom
Support for Ukraine
Episcopal Relief and Development is deeply engaged in addressing the humanitarian needs of Ukraine. Bishop Megan has directed a significant donation from the Bishop’s Discretionary Fund for this humanitarian crisis. Give by clicking on this link: Episcopal Relief and Development. 
From Trinity Cathedral
Holy Joy, Holy Rest
A Women’s Retreat Sponsored by Trinity Cathedral
May 20-22, 2022
Mercy Center | Auburn
All women in the diocese are welcome
RSVP by April 4, 2022
Register with debit/credit card HERE.
You can also send checks to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 2620 Capitol Ave., Sacramento, CA 95816 - please mark them as Women’s Retreat reservation.
Please contact susan_hotchkiss1@hotmail.com if you have any questions.
Spiritual Formation
March 20 – The Third Sunday in Lent
Luke 13:1-9

A quick reading of this passage leaves the impression that there is not much in common between the first paragraph and the second. The discussion of Pilate’s slaughter of the Galileans and of the fall of the tower of Siloam seems to have little have little in common with the Parable of the unfruitful fig tree. But closer inspection reveals that both sections emphasize that God is merciful and patient in dealing with us.

God withholds judgment, leaving time for us to repent. The recitation of disasters in the first part leads not to an attempt to fix blame (cf. John 9:2) but in a call to repentance. Similarly, the fig tree, which should have produced good fruit after three years, is not cut down. The gardener pleads for another year for the tree to be fruitful.

In the parable where the fig tree refers to the leaders of God’s people, Jesus’ humorous line (literally throw manure on it!) doubtless received a laugh from the common folk. The point is that though the tree is fruitless, God will wait and go to great lengths to turn the religious leaders and others in Israel from their unrepentant ways. The lavish and extravagant mercy of God will be a major theme in the parables in this central section of Luke’s gospel, especially the Gospel reading for next Sunday: Luke 15. 

– The Rev. Peter Rodgers
Commission for Intercultural Ministries
Refugee Resettlement Update
Click here for the latest news on Refugee Resettlement Efforts in our diocese.
Job Opportunities around the Diocese
St. Clement’s | Rancho Cordova is seeking a 3/4 time Priest-in-Charge.
See the position description here.
All Saints | Sacramento is looking for a part-time Office/Administrative Assistant. Read the job posting here.
St. Patrick's | Kenwood is seeking an Organist/Pianist. Click here for more information.
St. Paul's | Sacramento is seeking a Music Director. 
Read the job announcement here.
Bishop's Ranch | Healdsburg, is hiring the following positions for Summer 2022: Lead Ranch Hand | Ranch Hand | Camp Counselors | Volunteer Counselors | Apply Now!
Diocesan Commissions | Committees | Ministries
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