Weekend on Wednesday
Episcopal News Service. October 13, 2004 [101304-1-A]
Coming up Friday, October 15, 2004...
BERKELEY, California - The Inaugural St. Margaret's Lecture, featuring author Nora Gallagher, will be held on Friday, Oct. 15, at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, California. The lecture is the first in a periodic series supporting the St. Margaret's Chair for Women and Ministry. Gallagher will speak on "Practicing Resurrection," which is also the title of her most recent book.
In Practicing Resurrection, Gallagher writes: "The life of faith was amorphous, ephemeral, a glimpse, a moment. Trusting it was like my early swimming lessons in learning how to float." Author Annie Dillard found the work, "A stunning book about faith and the writing life...that gradually and unexpectedly turns into a love story." Gallagher's memoirs share her reflections on life, ministry, and spiritual journeys.
She is the author of two memoirs, Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith (1998) and Practicing Resurrection: A Memoir of Work, Doubt, Discernment and Moments of Grace (2003). She has reported for Time and Life magazines, and her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Village Voice, Mother Jones, and the Utne Reader. A member of Trinity Episcopal Church, Gallagher lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, the novelist, Vincent Stanley.
Registration for the lecture at CDSP will begin at 11:00 a.m., on Friday, Oct. 15, with lunch at 11:30 a.m., followed by the lecture and a book signing by Gallagher. The cost for lunch is $15 per person, and space is limited. The public is asked to make reservations early by contacting Sabeth Fitzgibbons (sabeth@cdsp.edu), 510.204.0740.
The St. Margaret's lecture series at CDSP is sponsored by Every Voice Network, publishers of the new via media curriculum.
Coming up Saturday, October 16, 2004...
WHITEMARSH, Pennsylvania - St. Thomas' Church, Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, will begin its Fall 2004 conference program on Saturday, Oct. 16, with "A Bible for the New Millennium" from 9 a.m. - noon. The conference will be held in the MacColl Auditorium in the Parish Hall; $15.
In 2000, the Benedictine monks of Saint John's Abbey in Minnesota commissioned Donald Jackson, scribe to the Queen of England, to create the first hand-written and illuminated Bible in nearly 500 years. An eight-year project, the Saint John's Bible employs the quill pens and vellum of inspiring beauty. Fr. Eric Hollas, OSB, a monk of Saint John's Abbey and Senior Associate for Arts and Cultural Affairs at Saint John's University in Collegeville, will review how this unique Bible is being made; and through facsimile pages and slides he will survey the art that has already won a place on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine and merited an hour-long documentary by BBC Television.
Coming up Sunday, October 17, 2004...
LOS ANGELES - The Bishop's Commission on HIV/AIDS Ministries invites all church members and guests to the Annual Diocesan AIDS Mass, to be held Sunday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. at Church of the Advent, Los Angeles. Bishop Suffragan Chester Talton will celebrate and the Rev. Vanessa McKenzie will preach. The service will honor those persons who have died from AIDS, those persons living with HIV/AIDS, and their friends and family members.
October is AIDS Awareness Month for the Episcopal Church in the United States, and the Bishop's Commission will ask all Episcopalians to remember in their prayers those persons affected by HIV/AIDS:
"Merciful God, we remember before You all who are sick this day, and especially all persons living with HIV. Give them courage to live with their disease. Help them to face and overcome their fears. Be with them when they are alone or rejected. Comfort them when they are discouraged. And touch them with your healing Spirit, that they might find and possess eternal life. All this we ask through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."
Church of the Advent is located at 4976 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, 90016. Further information: Jack Plimpton, Office of Episcopal AIDS Ministries, 213.251.8474, ext.16, or jplimpton@projectnewhope.org.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Washington National Cathedral will honor the State of Missouri Sunday, Oct. 17. The Missouri Congressional delegation, the governor and other state elected officials, and religious leaders have been invited to participate in the service. The Rev. Gary Braun, director of the Catholic Student Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, will be the guest preacher. Bishop Barry Howe of West Missouri will celebrate. One participant will carry the Missouri state flag, which will lead the procession to open the service, and the flag will remain on the chancel steps in the Cathedral for the following week. The Cathedral encourages acolytes and young people from Missouri churches and houses of worship to bring their banners and join the opening procession, and we invite other individuals to represent Missouri as bearers of the gifts to the poor and the communion elements. Missourians will enjoy seating in a reserved section (by prior arrangement), a reception immediately following, and special tours highlighting the ways that Missouri is represented in the Cathedral.
Washington National Cathedral, Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues Northwest (Mount St. Alban), Washington, D.C., 20016; 202.537.6200; http://www.cathedral.org/. Next Sunday, Oct. 24: State Day prayers will remember Vermont.
ANGLICAN COMMUNION - Following the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, this Sunday (20 Pentecost) will give thanks for the Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA. The Anglican Cycle of Prayer can be accessed online at: www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/main.cfm.