Standing with my fellow Episcopal Church leaders in upholding the truth of our core symbols

From California-

As a priest, I am called to serve as a guardian and custodian of religious symbols, such as the Cross, the Bible and the Church. I am also called to interpret and help others interpret these symbols in ways that remain faithful to our sacred texts and traditions. Symbols are tangible realities that render present transcendent mysteries. For instance, the Cross renders present the transcendent mystery of God’s self-giving love. For this reason, I adore the symbol of the Cross: I wear it around my neck, I sign my body with it, I sign my name with it (Daniel +), and I even ascended 60 feet high in a rickety basket crane to install and bless our new steeple cross back in September. At the same time, I have realized that true fidelity to the Cross sometimes means abstaining from displaying it. Since the message of the Cross is love, I am called to be extra sensitive to the ways in which the Cross has been used sacrilegiously to justify and reinforce violence and hatred, especially towards my Jewish siblings. Throughout far too much of Church history, the Cross has been thrust upon Jewish people like a sword to the neck, as Christians have demanded their conversion upon threat of death. Not only is this is a misuse of the Cross, it is perhaps the most egregious form of blasphemy because it utilizes a religious symbol to engage in the very behavior that the symbol condemns.

More here-

https://www.times-standard.com/2020/06/07/standing-with-my-fellow-episcopal-church-leaders-in-upholding-the-truth-of-our-core-symbols/

WOW!: ‘YES IN GOD’S BACKYARD’ TO USE CHURCH LAND FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING

From Northern California-

In Northern California, St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek would like to open its affordable housing complex in December or January.

It’s called St Paul’s Commons and will be a mixed-use development with community spaces operated by St Paul’s Episcopal Church. It’s also where the non-profit Trinity Center will have a physical space to serve people who are homeless.

The project will include 45 affordable apartments. The church leased its land to Berkeley-based developer Resources for Community Development, which used a property management company to perform background checks, call references and conduct interviews for apartment applications.

The development is taking over a single-family home where Trinity Center provided services to the homeless. Rev Krista Fregoso said they were already assisting people who were homeless and later thought, “What if we became a part of the solution, too?”

To Fregoso, “This is just one part of how we live out our faith. We hope to be a model for other faith communities who might see their property in a different way.”

More here-

https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/columns/wow/13931-wow-yes-in-god-s-backyard-to-use-church-land-for-affordable-housing

Diocese of Northern California notified of successful canonical consent process

From The Episcopal Church-

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California has received notification from Presiding Bishop and Primate Michael B. Curry and registrar of General Convention, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, that Bishop-Elect Megan Traquair has received the required majority of consents in the canonical consent process detailed in Canon III.11.3.

In giving consent to her ordination and consecration, Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction attest to knowing of “no impediment on account of which” Bishop-Elect Traquair ought not to be ordained as bishop, and that her election was conducted in accordance with the Canons.

More here-

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/diocese-northern-california-notified-successful-canonical-consent-process?fbclid=IwAR35EtemC3Gt4r6HCKH1MdWoau6IqvQrv1iUaPTb5jEDxpicF_dwMGU5g1Y

Episcopal Diocese of Northern California Elects First Female Bishop

From Northern California-

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California has its first female bishop.

The vote happened today at the Special Electing Convention at Faith Episcopal Church, Cameron Park.

The Reverend Canon Megan M. Traquair was selected from the first slate to ever include female candidates in the diocese of Northern California.

Rev. Canon Megan is currently Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Arizona. Her husband Philip is a pediatrician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. e Church and a majority of the Standing Committees of the dioceses, the consecration is scheduled for June 29, 2019, at the Mondavi Center in Davis.

More here-

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2019/02/09/episcopal-diocese-of-northern-california-elects-first-female-bishop/

Episcopalians offer help in the face of danger as wildfires rage through Northern California

From ACNS and ENS-

Episcopalians in Northern California continue to monitor the growing wildfires in their neighbourhoods while finding ways to help their communities deal with the ongoing and expanding disaster. The Revd Jim Richardson, priest-in-charge at Church of the Incarnation in hard-hit Santa Rosa, told Episcopal News Service yesterday (Thursday) that he knows of parishioners, including those with health care experience, who are volunteering at Red Cross shelters. Other Episcopalians, he said, are donating their services elsewhere and offering material help.

The Revd Daniel Green, rector of St John’s Episcopal Church in Petaluma and dean of the Petaluma deanery, was working a phone bank, Richardson said, set up to connect evacuees with services.

Some evacuees had been sleeping at Incarnation since the fires broke out, but the city issued a voluntary evacuation order on Wednesday night (11 October). Richardson said the fires had gotten “way too close so we got everybody out, made sure they had places to go and left.”

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/10/episcopalians-offer-help-in-the-face-of-danger-as-wildfires-rage-through-northern-california.aspx

Priest finds ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ at Burning Man

From Sacramento-

The Very Rev. Brian Baker of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento, Calif., has always traveled outside the box, promoting interfaith conversations with the Dalai Lama, motorcycling through Indian reservations and leading the fight for marriage equality.

Last summer, his daughter, Laura, offered him a fresh test of faith: She invited him to spend a week in the broiling Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada, enduring five-hour dust storms to join the 70,000 people who had left behind cellphones, capitalism and judgments for Burning Man, the festival of “radical self-expression” that will be held this year from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5.

“When my amazing hippie, dreadlocked, tattooed, ‘I’m more of a Buddhist,’ 22-year-old daughter asked me,” Baker said, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse – especially since the 53-year-old Episcopal priest had always wanted to experience what’s been described as a slice of utopia.
Read more here:

http://www.centredaily.com/news/nation-world/national/article94492812.html#storylink=cpy