How Myanmar refugees saved a dying Smyrna church and inspired a movie

From Tennessee-

The true story of how refugees from Myanmar breathed new life into a floundering Episcopal church in Smyrna is being brought to the big screen.

The inspirational drama "All Saints" will star John Corbett of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Northern Exposure" as well as Cara Buono of "Stranger Things" and "Mad Men," according to Affirm Films and Provident Films, the entities behind the movie. It is inspired by what happened at All Saints' Episcopal Church about a decade ago.

More here-

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2016/10/13/how-myanmar-refugees-saved-dying-smyrna-church-and-inspired-movie/91943740/

Prayer answered! Former monk claims Tennessee's largest ever Powerball prize of $259M (and most of it is going to charity)

From Tennessee-

Roy Cockrum had once vowed to lead a life of poverty - but a winning $259million Powerball ticket has changed everything for the former Tennessee monk. 

Cockrum, 58, of Knoxville, appeared at the Tennessee Lottery headquarters in Nashville Thursday to claim Tennessee's largest ever jackpot. He plans to accept a lump sum payment of $115million.

The 58-year-old former member of an Episcopal monastic order bought the ticket at a Kroger store in Knoxville June 11.


More here-


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2679967/Tennessee-man-claims-259-million-Powerball-prize.html

Two churches with Nashville ties tackle same-sex marriage

From Tennessee-

Southern Baptists are taking up the issue of same-sex marriage twice in one year, with the denomination's top policy official calling it the No. 1 topic pastors are asking about.

Homosexual behavior is still a sin, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore says, and same-sex marriage biblically forbidden. But pastors need guidance as they face more questions from the community and from gay and lesbian church members who may have kept quiet before.

At the same time, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination, the United Methodist Church, is embroiled in a debate over the same issue. After widespread religious media coverage last month of a letter from 80 UMC pastors predicting a church schism over same-sex marriage, the denomination released a poll showing only 11 percent of Methodists surveyed believe it's the church's "most important" issue, and more than 90 percent don't want a split over it.

More here-

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2014/06/10/one-issue-two-church-tacks-sex-marriage/10267173/

Last call: Ministry reaping second-career baby boomers

From Chattanooga-

Ray Williams doesn't recommend singing country songs in bars as a prerequisite for ministry, but it worked for him.

"It led me to change my life," he says. "Everybody was saying you ought to be preaching."

The fact that he became an alcoholic and nearly died of alcohol poisoning was also a factor, Williams says.

Today, he is the pastor of One Accord Community Church, a now-thriving congregation in Red Bank that he planted in 2004. Williams, 50, is one a growing number of baby boomers who are making ministry a second career.

A decade-long study of enrollment by the Association of Theological Schools, released in 2009, indicated the fastest-growing group of seminarians were people older than 50. In 1995, according to the study, baby boomers made up 12 percent of seminarians, while today they are 20 percent. Similarly, nearly one-third of students enrolled in Minneapolis-area seminaries are baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

More here-

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2013/dec/30/last-call/

Parish provides outpost services to people living with HIV, AIDS

From Tennessee-

Happily engaged in 1999, Sheryl Brown was busy planning her wedding when she got sick. At first she thought it was nothing, a stress-related illness triggered by the rigors of wedding planning.
But when Brown sought treatment at a Florida hospital, the doctor asked if she’d like to take an HIV test. She obliged, and a positive result changed her life.

“How much time do I have to live?” was the first question Brown, now 48, asked.

In 2008, at the urging of her eldest daughter, Brown moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, a conservative community of 142,519 people, 40 miles northwest of Nashville just south of the Kentucky state line.
Before she moved, however, she investigated services, which she found through Nashville CARES, a nonprofit, community-based service organization that provides education, advocacy and support services to people affected by HIV and AIDS.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/10/30/parish-provides-outpost-services-to-people-living-with-hiv-aids/

Husbands define new roles with increase in women clergy

From Tennessee-

Quick. What do you call the husband of a rabbi?

“Lucky,” says Ross Sadoff, whose wife, Susan Tendler, is rabbi at B’nai Zion Congregation.

An investment adviser, Sadoff is one of a growing number of men who can claim the mantle of clergy husband. Only 17.5 percent of Conservative Jewish rabbis are female, according to the Conservative movement. In Protestant denominations, 10 percent of ministers are female, according to the Barna Group, a research and training firm for churches. But the number for both — and clergy spouses — is growing.

Clergy wives, traditionally, especially when almost all ministers were men, have been expected to sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, act as secretary, play the organ, lead vacation Bible school and be dutiful wives and mothers.

More here-

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2013/sep/15/husbands-define-define-new-roles-increase-wo/

Smart money bets against the apocalypse

From Tennessee-

I recently ran across a very interesting sermon posted on a blog called "Below the Surface," by the Rev. Matthew Dutton-Gillette, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo, Calif. The sermon is called "Saints, Mayans and the End." It deals with the human fascination with apocalyptic events — the end of time as we know it.

Dictionary.com defines "apocalypse" as prophetic revelation, especially concerning a cataclysm in which the forces of good triumph over the forces of evil. In the Christian tradition, the word refers to the "Revelation of John." Today, however, the term apocalypse has come to be known as any destructive event that might bring an end to the world.

Predictions of world-ending events have popped up throughout history. The big one making the rounds these days is the one surrounding the Mayan calendar, which some say ends on Dec. 21 of this year, marking the end of civilization.

Some of the remaining Mayan elders say that the end of the calendar signals a new cycle, not a catastrophe — but what do they know? Modern students of apocalyptic events blend together the predictions of Nostradamus, a 16th-century pharmacist who wrote vague predictions in Latin, the Mayan calendar and who knows what other traditions as proof positive that things are about to end.

More here-

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/nov/06/david-hunter-smart-money-bets-against-the/

Author Anne Lamott talks about faith, politics, and her new grandson

From Tennessee-

Novelist Anne Lamott has built a career of writing hilariously and movingly about her own shortcomings: she's bossy, she's anxious, she often forgets important lessons she's already learned many times. Nevertheless, she has become a kind of patron saint to millions of readers, whole categories of readers, who welcome her advice on parenting, writing, faith, and recovery from addiction. Lamott's book of writing advice, "Bird by Bird," is a bestseller. Her books on faith — "Traveling Mercies," "Plan B," and "Grace (Eventually)" — are bestsellers. Her first parenting memoir, "Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year" is, yes, a mega-bestseller.

Now Lamott is back, this time with her first grandparenting memoir, "Some Assembly Required: A Diary of My Son's First Son" (Riverhead). Written with her son Sam Lamott, who was 19 and unmarried when he learned his girlfriend was pregnant, "Some Assembly Required" is an account of the year Sam learned to be a father and Lamott learned the difficult role of a grandmother: to love recklessly and keep her mouth shut as tightly as possible.

More here-

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/sep/14/author-anne-lamott-talks-about-faith-politics/

A Compassionate Heart’s Prayer

From The Living Church-

Jena Lee Nardella, cofounder and executive director of Blood:Water Mission, offered the benediction Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, after First Lady Michelle Obama’s keynote address.

Nardella, a resident of East Nashville, is a member of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel at Vanderbilt University, which describes itself as “the Wesley/Canterbury Fellowship and a Center for Contemplative Justice.”

At age 22 in 2004, Nardella founded Blood:Water Mission (with the members of the Grammy-award winning band Jars of Clay) to address water and HIV/AIDS crises in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 700,000 people in 1,100 communities have gained access to safe water and tens of thousands living with HIV/AIDS have access to medical treatment, care and support.

Nardella recently attended the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., and participated in a gathering of faith leaders with Department of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the White House.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/compassionate-heart-prayer

Property belongs to Episcopal Church

From Tennessee-

On the Aug. 23 editorial page of The Tennessean appeared an op-ed entitled “Church could lose property” by the Rev. James M. Guill.

Father Guill correctly stated his parish church, St. Andrew’s, may lose the right to occupy 5 acres of land on Woodmont Boulevard in Nashville and that St. Andrew’s purchased the property from the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee. However, he makes misrepresentations when he accuses the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Tennessee of “confiscating” the property owned by St. Andrew’s Church, and when he states “St. Andrew’s also chose to have a relationship with the diocese. Because it is an Anglo-Catholic church, though, the relationship was never intended to be the same as other Episcopal churches.”

On Dec. 2, 1957, the property was sold by Helen Picksley Cheek to the Church of the Advent (an Episcopal church). In 1960, the Church of the Advent transferred legal title to the property to the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee. On April 26, 1966, a nonprofit corporation named “The Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of St. Andrew’s Parish” was formed. This is Father Guill’s St. Andrew’s Church.

More here-

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120830/OPINION03/308300021/Property-belongs-Episcopal-Church

Liberal churches show signs of strength in Nashville

From Nashville-

The Rev. Eric Greenwood has heard the bad news about the Episcopal Church.

Attendance is down. Money is tight.

And the church seems locked in a never-ending battle over the place of gays and lesbians in the church, with accusations that the church has become too liberal.

Greenwood, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, says his denomination has its troubles. But it is still a force for good in the world.

“Everybody gets all excited about sex in the church,” he said. “But the good work that gets done in the name of God and our lord Jesus Christ, it will take your breath away.”

Nationwide, the numbers don’t look good for the Episcopal Church and other mainline Protestant denominations, most of which tend to hold more liberal beliefs. From 2000 to 2010, most suffered double-digit percentage declines in membership, leading some to wonder if those denominations can be saved in the future.

More here-

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120820/NEWS06/308200024/Liberal-churches-show-signs-strength-Nashville

Nashville church asks state Supreme Court to judge property dispute with Episcopal diocese

From Nashville-

A Nashville church that broke away from the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee is asking the state Supreme Court to hear a dispute over who owns the church property.

St. Andrew's Parish left the diocese in 2006, joining a breakaway Anglican diocese based in Quincy, Ill.

Three years later, the Diocese of Tennessee sued to reclaim the St. Andrew's property, which it claims was held in trust by the congregation. The St. Andrew's congregation contends it owns the property outright.

After a court-ordered mediation failed, a Nashville judge ruled in favor of the diocese in 2010.

In April of this year, St. Andrew's lost an appeal at the state level.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/2e21a7feb04b4906959ae62d6356b913/TN--Episcopal-Dispute

Green Hills Church Refuses to Surrender Fight for Independence

From Tennessee-

Already estranged from its Episcopal roots, the leadership from Saint Andrews Church in Green Hills voted unanimously this weekend to continue fighting for the land and building it has called home for more than 40 years.

The land and property battle is not unlike the roughly 56 identical battles continuing, nationwide, as local congregations continue to demand independence from the Episcopal Church. But Saint Andrews's ongoing battle is a unique one, insists one of the attorneys representing Saint Andrews in its legal battles.

"We paid money for (the land), actually out of our pocket," said attorney Ben Rose. "We got a deed, free-and-clear."

But attorneys representing the other side, the Tennessee Diocese, say its counter claim is quite simple.

"It's not theirs," insisted attorney Richard Lodge, in a file interview roughly one year ago.

Despite this already lengthy debate, members of Saint Andrews simply want to appeal their case, and the more sentimental side of it, before a panel of jurors.
More here-

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/18868404/green-hills-church-refuses-to-surrender-fight-for-independence

Network of Knoxville Churches Open To Homeless

From Tennessee-

On Saturday night self described 'Jill-of-all-trades' Denesse McBayne devoted herself to her real passion-- cooking.

"We're not only feeding their bodies," says McBayne. "We're feeding their spirit."

She spent the afternoon at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd whipping up a Caribbean feast to feed the members of the Family Promise program.

For one week, four times a year, a network of 16 churches throughout the Knoxville area take turns hosting homeless families of all sizes and descriptions.

This past week it was the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd's turn. They put up four homeless families by converting church space into temporary bedrooms.

More here-

http://www.wbir.com/news/article/202013/2/Network-of-Knoxville-Churches-Open-To-Homeless

St. Thomas Episcopal Church has survived despite struggles, challenges

From Tennessee-

The St. Thomas Episcopal Church is one of the oldest congregations in Elizabethton and meets in one of the oldest churches in the city.

According to a history of the church compiled and written by former Vicar David Michael Doty in 1993, the earliest record of Episcopal church activity in Elizabethton comes from the diary of the Rev. William E. Skiles, a deacon associated with the Order of the Holy Cross in Valle Crucis, N.C. Traveling far and wide on his horse Henry, Mr. Skiles was instrumental in the founding of schools and churches throughout western North Carolina. In 1859 in a report to the Diocese of North Carolina he wrote about visiting a church in “Elizabethtown” in Tennessee.

However, Doty notes that the first documentation of Episcopal church services in Elizabethton occurs in the 1892 diary of Bishop Quintard, printed in the journal of the 1893 convention. It notes that Rev. C.F. Berry and the bishop visited the town of Elizabethton and had night services in the Presbyterian Church after having services in Johnson City.

More here-

http://www.starhq.com/2012/01/20/st-thomas-episcopal-church-has-survived-despite-struggles-challenges/

Services set for bishop Bertram Herlong

From Tennessee-

When Bertram Herlong was just a boy, the bishop of the Episcopal church in his native Florida laid his hands on him and predicted his future. “Boy, you’re going to go to seminary someday,” the wise bishop told the surprised and skeptical Mr. Herlong. The man was right. Not only did Mr. Herlong become a minister of the Episcopal church, he led Tennessee as the church’s bishop for 13 years before retiring in 2006.

Mr. Herlong died Friday evening at a local hospital after a six-year illness. He was 77.

Mr. Herlong, who lived in Nashville, led the diocese through a time of turmoil and change when Episcopalians were divided over its stances on sexuality and tradition. In 2003, the denomination accepted gay bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, stirring revulsion in the church. Mr. Herlong did not agree with the church’s decision but, unlike some church leaders nationwide, the bishop chose to remain with the church.

More here-

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111024/NEWS/310240018/Services-set-for-church-bishop-Bertram-Herlong

FAITH AND VALUES: Three Clarksville women heed their calls to ministry

From Tennessee-

Ministry in America has been dominated by men since the founding of our country.

No matter the denomination, the people in charge have been and mostly still are men. Don't think that has held back three Clarksville female ministers from impacting the lives of others.

Rev. Angela Jones, pastor of non-denominational Greenhill Church on Walker Street; Rev. Lisa Martin, Minister of Discipleship at Clarksville Cumberland Presbyterian Church on Golf Club Lane, and Rev. Dorothy Hartzog, Associate Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church on Franklin Street, do not let their gender stand in the way of being ministers.

It was 1985 when Jones mentioned to her husband that she felt the calling to serve in ministry. Her husband, the late Rev. Raliegh Jones, was pastor of the Greenhill Church at that time. As she said, "Although my husband was a traditional Baptist preacher and part of a denomination that did not accept women as preachers or pastors, he knew I was inspired and he supported me."

More here-

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20111022/NEWS01/110220315/FAITH-VALUES-Three-Clarksville-women-heed-their-calls-ministry?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

White House to honor Becca Stevens, founder of Magdalene House

From Nashville-

The Rev. Becca Stevens, founder of Nashville-based Magdalene House and Thistle Farms, will be honored by the White House on Thursday.

Stevens was named one of 15 Champions of Change by the White House’s Office of Public Engagement for her work with former prostitutes. The award is part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Stevens founded the Magdalene program in 1997. Women can live in the residential program for two years at no cost. The program takes no government funding and claims a 72 percent success rate. Thistle Farms is an enterprise where the women create and sell bath and body products to benefit Magdalene House and learn business skills.

More here-

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111017/NEWS01/310170054/White-House-honor-Becca-Stevens-founder-Magdalene-House

St. Andrews Episcopal asks for help with food drive at Alcoa Food City

From Tennessee-

St. Andrews Episcopal Church members are asking their friends, neighbors and the Blount County community to support the Community Food Connection food drive Friday through Sunday, Aug. 12-14.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, parish members will be handing out shopping lists at the Food City on Hall Road in Alcoa. Other parish members will pick up the donated food and deliver it to the Community Food Connection, at 311 Whitecrest Drive, Maryville. A third group will be on had at the food connection warehouse to sort the food items once they are delivered.

Windy Markham, St. Andrews Episcopal parish member co-coordinator, has been lining up volunteers for two weeks. The Community Food Connection served 1,073 people each month from April through July. Over the last 43 months, the number of people the Community Food Connection has helped has risen from 5,000 to 6,000 a month.

Many months, say Food Connection organizers, the group purchases $10,000 to $13,000 in groceries that are distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at their facility.

More here-

http://www.blounttoday.com/news/2011/aug/10/st-andrews-episcopal-asks-help-food-drive-alcoa-fo/

Magdalene And Thistle Farms Offer Prostitutes A Chance For Regrowth

From Huffington-

For many women on the street, prostitution was where they turned when they had no other options. But in Nashville, Tenn., there is another choice for these women -- Magdalene.

Magdalene is a private residential rehab center that takes its motto of "love heals" very seriously.

Founded in 1997 by Becca Stevens, an Episcopal priest who knows the horrors of abuse from her own childhood, Magdalene is a sanctuary for women with criminal histories of prostitution and drug addiction.

At Magdalene, women receive two years of free housing, therapy, medical care, education and employment -- everything they need to prepare them for the transition back into a community.

More here-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/magdalene-and-thistle-farms_n_854130.html