Northwest Ohio's Episcopal churches to re-open as early as May 31

From Ohio-

Local Episcopal churches may re-open as early as May 31, Bishop Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio announced on Wednesday. The date opens the second phase of a detailed plan to return to in-person worship, which the diocese suspended in mid-March.

Each parish and individual should consider their own circumstances in deciding when to return to worship, the bishop wrote in a letter to the diocese that covers northwest Ohio. It need not be on May 31. Before a church re-opens, congregations are asked to submit plans on how they will safely do so.
Worship guidelines released by the diocese this week call for worshipers and worship leaders to wear masks; for the suspension of any singing and of any physical contact in passing the peace or offertory; and for only the celebrant to receive the consecrated elements in Holy Communion. 

Worshipers should maintain six feet between households, and facilities should be cleaned thoroughly, among other suggestions and requirements included in the guidelines.

More here-

https://www.toledoblade.com/news/religion/2020/05/21/northwest-ohio-s-episcopal-churches-to-re-open-as-early-as-may-31/stories/20200521138

Why they called Cleveland ‘Station Hope’

From Ohio-

In Cleveland, it wasn’t just homes that served as stops or stations. Saint John Episcopal Church on Church Street served as a beacon of hope and a stop on the underground railroad.

“When I walked into this church for the first time you can feel, as we were talking, you can feel something very special here,” says Raymond Bobgan of the Cleveland Public Theater.

Each year, the Theater puts on Station Hope at the church. ”At Station Hope, hundreds of artists perform simultaneously in this sanctuary, in the parish hall, outside, everyone is performing together,” says Bobgan. “Thousands of people come here for this one day, to not just celebrate the incredible bravery of the freedom seekers, but to look at where we are at today, but the journey we still have to go. That journey toward the North Star.”

During the time of the Underground Railroad, Station Hope meant the slaves were so close to freedom. 

More here-

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/black-history-month/why-they-called-cleveland-station-hope

Ordination ceremony will be a first for St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish

From Ohio-

The Reverend Rachel Harrison of St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish in Mount Vernon is like many young professionals. She graduated into the Recession and found her work life unfulfilling. She then went back to graduate school and lived for three years in Austin, Texas. Several months ago, she got a job offer in Mount Vernon, Ohio that was too good to pass up: On Friday, she’ll become the first female Episcopal priest ordained in Mount Vernon.

Harrison’s journey across the country and the Christian faith has brought her to Mount Vernon, where, in line with Philander Chase, she brings a modern pioneering spirit to her ministry. 

Chase did not found St. Paul’s. Even so, the church is intimately connected to Chase and the Episcopal movement that also created Kenyon. The church, originally known as Union Church, has been around since 1825. According to Historian and Keeper of Kenyoniana Thomas Stamp ’73, the first rector of the church was William Sparrow, who was also Kenyon’s first professor. 

More here-

https://kenyoncollegian.com/news/2019/12/first-female-episcopal-priest-in-knox-county-to-be-ordained/?fbclid=IwAR3gl4TY-kAC2-yt17hifeSdK0xjufeDaGSGfBG8swDVQjq0QecmWdtSh9k

Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori speaks about women in leadership

From Ohio-

On Nov. 11, Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori of the United States Episcopal Church spoke in front of an audience of students and faculty. The event, which was the latest in the year-long Women at Kenyon celebration, took place in the Gund Gallery Community Foundation theater. Following an introduction by Priest-in-charge of Harcourt Parish and College Chaplain Rachel Kessler ’04, Jefferts Schori took the stage to deliver a speech about women, power, and the fight to be recognized.

Jefferts Schori had particular insight into the struggles women in positions of power face: when she was elected as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in 2006, she was the first woman ever to serve as primate in the worldwide Episcopal communion. During her tenure, she shepherded the Episcopal church through a number of changes, one of which was the acceptance of LGBTQ+ members into the church. Prior to her time as bishop, Jefferts Schori taught subjects such as fishery, religious studies and philosophy at Oregon State University, where she holds a Ph.D. in oceanography. 

More here-

https://kenyoncollegian.com/news/2019/11/rev-katharine-jefferts-schori-speaks-about-women-in-leadership/

Former Youngstown church, ‘heart’ of north side neighborhood torn down

From Ohio (with video)-

The heart of a once-thriving North Side neighborhood in Youngstown was demolished Thursday.
 
The former Saint Augustine Episcopal Church on Parmalee Avenue was built in 1921, but the congregation got its start years before — in 1907. 

The building was labeled a historical site in 2008 by the Ohio Historical Society because it was the oldest African American congregation still in its original building in Youngstown. 

The nearly century-old building was a staple on Youngstown’s North Side.

Church members watched it fall Thursday afternoon while they shared their memories.
“Life moves on, yeah. So I guess we gotta move with it,” said member Donna Wynn. 

Wynn and Mary Ruth Hallacre stood as the former Saint Augustine Episcopal Church came down in a pile of rubble. The two best friends called it the end of an era. 

More here-

https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/former-youngstown-church-heart-of-north-side-neighborhood-torn-down/

Church reaches out to 300 families

From Ohio-

Christmas will be a littler brighter for 300 families thanks to the efforts of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

A long line of people were waiting outside the church doors at 5 p.m. when the Christmas dinner supplies distribution began on Friday evening.

“It is very overwhelming. I am very excited and happy,” said Michelle Pruchasky of Ashtabula as she walked from table to table as volunteers put different parts of a Christmas dinner in her bag.

Julie Clayman, director of the church’s food pantry, said church members start talking to Giant Eagle about bulk buying opportunities that reduce the cost of the meals.

“It is something we start working on in October,” she said. “Today it is a stuffed pork, side dish of green beans, pie and dinner roles and a gravy mix.”

More here-

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/church-reaches-out-to-families/article_aac58cdc-37cc-53b2-9414-4c8081b84109.html

Church uses stories to foster racial harmony

From Ohio-

Race and reconciliation aren’t new areas of concern for the Episcopal Church, but they have attracted considerable attention in recent years under Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, whom non-Episcopalians might recall from his sermon at the springtime wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Windsor, England.

Installed as the head of the church in 2015, Bishop Curry is the first black bishop to serve the predominantly white Episcopal Church. The denomination is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is rooted in the Church of England. In part reflecting a history of evangelization through colonization, the Anglican Communion today counts a membership that’s heavily African.

More here-

https://www.toledoblade.com/news/religion/2018/10/20/saint-pauls-episcopal-church-childrens-storytelling-day-fosters-racial-harmony/stories/20181020005?abnpageversion=evoke

Episcopal diocese plans to repurpose 'high-tech' barns housing chickens

From Ohio-

The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio is seeking potential partners in efforts to eventually repurpose the high-tech chicken barns on the Wakeman Township property it recently purchased.

“Last week, thanks to the designated gifts of a group of generous donors, the diocese was able to purchase a 90-acre property across (Ohio) 60 from Bellwether Farm,” said the Rev. Mark Hollingsworth Jr., the bishop of the diocese, in a prepared statement released Monday.

The diocese purchased the property at 4550 Ohio 60, Wakeman, from Wakeman Township resident Byron Dalton for $3.45 million. According to documentation from the Huron County Auditor’s Office, the market value for the land is $572,730 and the buildings are worth $784,670. Dalton declined to be interviewed.

“Some of you will remember that this tract of land includes six high-tech barns in which currently are (housing) close to 80,000 chickens. This purchase allows us to repurpose the barns for educational and resource-conserving food production, as well as other uses, relieving Bellwether, our neighbors and the village of Wakeman of the environmental impact of the current poultry operation,” Hollingsworth said.

More here-

http://www.norwalkreflector.com/Real-Estate/2018/10/02/Episcopal-diocese-plans-to-repurpose-high-tech-barns-housing-chickens.html?ci=stream&lp=1&p=1

Gambier seminarian later tried for heresy

From Ohio-

Long before Bexley Hall was a part of Kenyon College, the building was the site of an Episcopal seminary school founded in parallel by the college's founder, Bishop Philander Chase.

For many years, before the organization broke off from Kenyon and relocated elsewhere, it served as a training ground for ministers for the Episcopal Church, and many of its students went on to prominent lives in the church across the United States.

But there was one student the seminary school probably later wanted to forget. William Montgomery Brown became briefly infamous in the 1920s, when he become the only person in modern church history to be put on trial for heresy.

More here-

http://www.knoxpages.com/history/gambier-seminarian-later-tried-for-heresy/article_61e3e380-1ce6-563a-85f9-f4a893be0abd.html

On living with dementia - a call for hope and urgency: Tracey Lind (Opinion)

From Cleveland-

On Election Day 2016, I was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD). This early onset dementia brought my career as dean of Cleveland's Trinity Cathedral to an abrupt and unexpected end. Like millions around the globe, I now live with a neurological condition that is not fully understood, and for which there is limited treatment but no cure.

Dementia, per se, is not a disease, but rather, an umbrella covering a broad category of symptoms. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting 5.7 million Americans of all ages.

Dementia is in my DNA. My mother, maternal grandfather and two aunts all died with it. I watched my mother and others hide their dementia, ashamed and embarrassed, as if it were a weakness, a punishment, or even a sin. I liken dementia to cancer in the 1960s or AIDS in the 1980s - spoken of in hushed voices with an undercurrent of blaming the victim. If only she had eaten less red meat and more green vegetables; if only he had done a crossword puzzle every morning; if only she had practiced yoga or meditation for the past 10 years; and so on. No wonder people with dementia want to hide it.

More here-

https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/09/on_living_with_dementia_-_a_ca.html

Church helps provide 350 families with food for Christmas

From Ohio-

 People started lining up more than an hour and a half before the doors to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church opened at 5:30 p.m. Friday to provide 350 families with food for Christmas.

“We have prepared a meal that will feed six individuals,” church food bank coordinator Julie Clayman said as volunteers prepared for the onslaught of people.

With the event now in its third year, organizers have fine-tuned the distribution.

“This is very organized,” said Judy Davis as she wondered through the food selection area.

Davis said she appreciates the generosity and kindness of the food pantry workers that help people make ends meet every month.

More here-

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/church-helps-provide-families-with-food-for-christmas/article_402e8179-9725-530e-a753-34db5526690d.html

Episcopal Diocese of Ohio celebrates bicentennial, holds 201st convention

From Ohio-

 For the Most Rev. Michael Curry, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the years ahead could mark a "new Reformation" for Episcopalians.

"This is a diocese and this is a bishop... for whom their leadership is helping the Episcopalian church broadly to begin to understand anew our witness to the gospel of Jesus in our time," he said.

The Episcopalian Church is governed by two bodies, the House of Bishops, and the House of Deputies, which is made up of appointed clergy members and lay leaders from each diocese.

Both Curry, the leader of the House of Bishops, and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, traveled to Cleveland for the 201st convention of the Diocese of Ohio, this weekend. 

More here-

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/11/top_officials_in_episcopal_chu.html

Christmas on Sunday causes a predicament for some pastors

From Ohio- (Really?)

Christmas creates a predicament for pastors when it falls on a Sunday, as it does this year. While some church members want to come together to celebrate the birth of Christ, others want to stay home with their families and reflect on the holiday in a quieter way. With that in mind, church leaders must decide whether to cancel Christmas Sunday services, but for many local pastors, the decision was easy.

“The board and I talked about it, but we all came to the conclusion pretty quickly. We’re having a service on Christmas,” said Pastor Candy Seaman, of Clyde Christian Church. “I totally understand if families with little kids choose not to come.”

Clyde Christian Church will host a Christmas Eve candlelight service and a Christmas morning service, so Seaman will be up late on Christmas Eve and then up early to deliver a message on Christmas.

“It will be wonderful,” she said.

More here-

http://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/local/2016/12/14/christmas-sunday-causes-predicament-some-pastors/95417514/

The War on Christmas: Notes from a conscientious objector: the Rev. Robert Winter (Opinion)

From Cleveland-

"Yes, Virginia, there is a 'War on Christmas'."

The battle is over controlling the narrative. And Christians are too often fighting on the wrong side.

The problem is manifestly not that we have "secularized" the birth of Christ. That's a complete red-and-green herring. Jesus himself already did that--his birth celebrates the invasion of human life in all its messy, secular (that is, temporal) splendor by the eternal power and love of God. That, and not cards, carols and candy canes, is the central meaning of Christmas. "Secularize" it? Impossible. God has already secularized it for us.

More here-

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/12/the_war_on_christmas_notes_fro.html

Thank you, Very Rev. Tracey Lind: Cheer of the Day: editorial

From Cleveland-

CHEERS . . . to the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral, the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, who is stepping down from her post Jan. 29 after 17 years at the helm. Lind has disclosed to her congregation and the public that she was recently diagnosed with Frontotemporal Degeneration, a progressive disorder of the brain that was making it increasingly difficult for her to do her job.

More here-

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/12/thank_you_to_very_rev_tracey_l.html

Faith-based community plays critical role in helping feed our valley

From Ohio-

Only 13 of the 148 food pantries it is affiliated with the Second Harvest Food Bank in Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana counties are not located at a church.

At Christ Episcopal Church in Warren, about 40 members of the church give their time to pack bags of food so kids at Warren's three inner city elementary schools won't go hungry.

In the past 8 years the Episcopal Diocese has given $10,000 in grants to pay for that food. Volunteers raised more in donations through fundraiser "Taste of the Valley" to help fund this effort.

Volunteers at the church rotate one week out of every five weeks. They drive to the church to pack the food for the elementary school students no matter how bad the weather gets.

"We've been here when it's been blizzard conditions outside,"said volunteer Anne Martin. "You just can't let the kids go hungry."

"We receive our order of food from Second Harvest Food Bank and we pack it in bags on Thursdays," explains Lindsay Day. "The schools pick up the bags of food on Fridays, and the kids take it home at the end of the day for the weekend."

More here-

http://www.wfmj.com/story/33770098/faith-based-community-plays-critical-role-in-helping-feed-our-valley

The Very Rev. Tracey Lind Dean, Trinity Cathedral

From Cleveland-

A stained glass sign that hangs outside Tracey Lind's office at Trinity Cathedral simply reads, "The Dean." The Very Rev. Lind, however, isn't your ordinary dean, and Trinity Cathedral isn't your average church. Rather, Lind acts more like a community liaison, and, since her arrival at Trinity in 2000, the church has been so much more than a place for services.

For example, in 2014, Trinity started hosting rock and pop concerts, all with Lind's blessing.

"We're working with [the local promoter] Elevation on a project called Cathedral Concerts and the idea is to find the intersection between sacred space and popular music," she says one afternoon from her spacious office that looks out on Prospect Avenue. "The world is changing and the fastest changing demographic among Americans is called 'nones,' people with no affiliation. The concerts for us are a way to introduce people to our sacred space and allow them to experience the holy on their own terms. Some people experience the divine in contemporary music and in traditional rock 'n' roll and jazz and bluegrass and Americana."

More here-

http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/the-very-rev-tracey-lind/Content?oid=4942014

Churches shouldn’t be stuck in past, author says

From Columbus-

The media struggle to label Rachel Held Evans.

She is either an evangelical Christian or an evangelical-turned-progressive Christian, or, as one newspaper put it, “a feisty biblical feminist.”

“All of the above,” she replied when I ran those descriptions by her.

“These days, everybody wants to assign you a label to know if you’re in their group or not, so they’ll know whether to love you or hate you.”

Evans, a 33-year-old author who will speak on Friday in Columbus, grew up evangelical but breaks with the tradition on many social issues and goes to an Episcopal church.
More here-

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2015/04/14/1-churches-shouldnt-be-stuck-in-past-author-says.html

4 favorite Ohio haunts from Cleveland's 'Haunted Housewife' Theresa Argie

From Ohio-

An unexpected ghost resides at Brownella Cottage, the former home of Episcopal Bishop William Montgomery Brown. Brown was a charismatic and controversial figure whose outspoken views on politics and religion made him the target of heresy trial in 1925. Brown made no bones about his support of communism and was considered a traitor by many in his own congregation. He was the only man since the Reformation to be brought up on heresy charges. Bishop Brown was deposed and stripped of his title, at least in the Episcopal church. He somehow survived the storm of controversy that followed his personal and religious life and retired peacefully with his wife and mother-in-law at Brownella Cottage. Many in the community supported the bishop, even if they didn't share his unpopular beliefs.

More here-

http://www.cleveland.com/haunted/2014/09/4_favorite_ohio_haunts_from_cl.html

St. Paul's Episcopal Church names interim rector

From Cleveland-

St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights has named an internationally known priest as its interim rector during the search for a permanent rector.

The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis, recently retired from Calvary Church in Pittsburgh, will assume his duties Aug. 3.

St. Paul's former rector, the Rev. Alan M. Gates, ended his tenure June 1 after he was elected Bishop of Massachusetts in April.

Lewis, a native of Brooklyn, New York, holds a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Birmingham in Britain, and has distinguished himself as a scholar and an author.

More here-

http://www.cleveland.com/religion/index.ssf/2014/06/st_pauls_episcopal_church_name.html