[Dan] Messier knows that as a mainline denomination pastor he faces a dwindling audience.

A report last week said the number of Episcopalians in the United States dropped below 2 million for the first time in decades ”” down 16 percent in the past 10 years. There were 3.5 million members in the mid-1960s.

Some within the church blame the declines on disagreements over the authority of Scripture and the person of Jesus Christ, and the church’s stance on hot-button social issues.

“I think the challenge is changing with the times,” Messier said. “It appears to me that a lot of the churches that are benefitting are places that are non-structural and more open.”

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The Vision of the Church of the Good Shepherd is to exist for those who are not yet members and to be known for”¦

*World-changing Children
*Strong Families
*Confident Leaders
*Biblical Preaching
*Spirit-filled Worship

Our Core Values are the principles we are unwilling to sacrifice in the achievement of the Vision.

* Centered on the Cross of Jesus Christ,
* Centered on Community
* Centered on Mission and Ministry to Others

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Bishop Jefferts Schori, it is time for you to come out of your cocoon of silence on this topic, as well. The entire Episcopal Church (USA) deserves the truth as to why you regarded a Catholic priest with such a prior record — known to you after being “warned” by his Abbot — as morally fit for reception as a priest into your own Diocese.

Particularly, your Church deserves to know how you reconciled the version of the facts which Father Parry admits he gave you, which was incomplete and admitted only one prior offense in 1987, with the version you heard from his Abbot — and then decided to receive him despite his lies to you.

More particularly, we need to have your own word on the record as to whether or not you received and read the psychological report on Father Parry which Abbot Polan had in his possession and which ended, as Abbot Polan apparently admitted he told you, with a conclusion to the effect that Bede Parry had a propensity to offend again. (This is the same report which the lawsuit filed by one of Fr. Parry’s adolescent victims alleges was sent to you for your information, even though Bishop Edwards of Nevada now denies that it is in the files he has on Fr. Parry.)

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Patrick J Marker wrote to Abbot Gregory Polan here including this:

*** During our first telephone conversation, on Monday, April 25, 2011, you shared the following information:

1) You heard something about Bede’s 1981 misconduct at St. John’s “at the time of the incident”.

2) You were aware of an incident involving Bede Parry with a member of the abbey’s choir in the summer of 1987.

3) Bede Parry was sent to New Mexico soon after the 1987 incident.

4) When Bede Parry tried to enter another monastery, he took psychological tests that showed a “proclivity toward sexual misconduct with minors.”

5) You called Parry’s boss at an ambulance company and a woman bishop with the Episcopal Church with the information.

6) You identified the woman bishop as Katharine Jefferts Schori.

7) You told Katharine Jefferts Schori not only about the allegations [plural] against Bede, but also of Bede’s attempt to join another monastery, the psychological testing and his “proclivity”.

8 ) That Katharine Jefferts Schori, despite your revelations, “allowed him to continue to work.”

Read it all carefully.

In another political aftershock from the summer’s rare East Coast earthquake, a bid by the mayor of Washington to secure federal aid for the damaged Washington National Cathedral is drawing criticism from those who say it runs counter to separation of church and state.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray is seeking $15 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairs to the cathedral, which was seriously damaged in the 5.8 temblor Aug. 23.

But Joseph L. Conn, director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, blogged on the organization’s website, “Asking the taxpayers to pick up the tab sets a very bad precedent and jeopardizes a critically important edifice that protects us all: the wall of separation between church and state.”

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Ask the parishioners of Grace Episcopal Church about disappointment and they will tell you how it was turned on its head. They will tell you about small gestures and generous spirits. They will share a legend in the making, a story to be told generations from now, to grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

They will tell you about the day the Earth cracked, a building closed and the people of the church were forced to find sanctuary elsewhere, how a great disappointment turned into a reward that transcended church walls and breached religious and racial ideologies.

The Rev. Canon J. Michael A. Wright, rector of Grace, took note of the symbolism. “Our walls are in need of repair, and what we’ve discovered is that other walls have come down.”

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Quietly released this week with no notice–a catastrophic ASA decline over the last five years of 16%.

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Walkabout 2010: Seeing Jesus with Bishop Mark Lawrence from Your Cathedral on Vimeo.

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Regardless of theological allegiances, ideological positions and ecclesiological affiliations, a lack of justice is a lack of justice and unacceptable in the Church that professes to live in obedience to a just God. Anyone who is seeking justice needs to speak up on behalf of justice and the victims of injustice wherever it is found.

Today it is the Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Lawrence. It is relatively easy to predict the population which will be targeted next. The only question is, when will it be you?

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When the Rev. Richard A. Ginnever first arrived at Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia in 2001, the history of its “Old Brick” church building ”” which dates to 1809 and was consecrated in 1811 ”” was immediately on his mind.

He wondered what he and the parish could do to show “a gratefulness to those who came before us and a hopefulness for those who come after,” he said.

Two years later, during his 2003 annual address to parishioners, he spoke of restoring the building in preparation for the 200th anniversary of its consecration, in 2011, he said….

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The Washington National Cathedral will need “tens of millions of dollars” over “numerous years” to repair extensive damage to the nation’s second-largest church following an Aug. 23 earthquake, church officials said Tuesday (Oct. 4).

The landmark church requires $25 million “just to get to June 2012, for the first phase of work and to resume worship and programming. We know it will ultimately be much more,” says Richard Weinberg, a spokesman for the cathedral.

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The wife of ousted Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Dean Philip C. Linder has filed suit against the cathedral and the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina, claiming she was victimized by both when her husband was suspended abruptly in July 2010 and forced to resign from the historic downtown congregation.

Ellen Cooper Linder alleges in the civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Richland County that Bishop W. Andrew Waldo intentionally inflicted emotional distress and defamed her when Waldo, at the behest of the vestry, set in motion the series of events that led to her husband’s resignation.

Ellen Linder, who lost her part-time position as parish nurse and her standing in the 4,400-member congregation, seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. Mount Pleasant attorney Larry Richter is representing her.

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A Charlottesville Episcopal church is taking steps toward recognizing same-sex unions.

“It is another step along the road that this church has had in opening its doors to people. Particularly people on the margins,” said Rector James Richardson.

St. Paul’s Memorial Church sits right across University Avenue from the UVA Rotunda. And after months of deliberation, it’s decided to stand up to officially recognize same-sex relationships.

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A letter from the Cathedral Vestry begins as follows:

For several years the Cathedral has been having difficulty meeting the expenses of our beautiful buildings. Declining membership and an inability to attract new members and pledges in sufficient numbers has added to the financial uncertainty.

The Cathedral has been on the verge of closing several times over the last five years as it has used up its reserves. During that period, several committees and working groups from the Cathedral and Diocese have looked at options and ideas for bringing in additional funds. The Cathedral has also reduced expenses dramatically in an effort to balance its budget.

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We however, because of selfishness, have turned away from the Father, desiring only our own will, when we want it, no matter how much it may hurt others or the creation. This is called sin, and it is a rejection of the love of God. God in His love allows us to be as selfish as we wish, but not in His presence. When we sin, we turn our backs on God, and separate ourselves from Him. That sin also separates us from becoming part of the purpose of God for this universe, thus making our lives pointless and short. We live now in such a world — evil in part, pleasant in part, but pointless — it is a prison of our own making.

But God has never stopped loving us. Using His Spirit, he inspired men and women around the world to reach for Him, for Meaning, for Understanding — and this has resulted in world religions — every culture has produced its own religion based on its partial understanding of God. Of all these religions, the one that understood the best about God was Judaism; so He worked with their prophets, priests, and leaders to grow that understanding, until a point was reached that would allow God to reach out to us, to come to us, and to be understood. At that point in time, God entered our world, the world of humanity, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, took our flesh and was born among us — we called Him Jesus.

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One of the formative experiences of my journey with Jesus Christ, was living in an intentional community from 1974-1978 at Koinonia Farm in Americus Georgia. While we lived there, Habitat for Humanity was born at Koinonia. This experience profoundly shaped my understanding of God and our purpose in the world.

I learned we are created for community to be in communion and with each other to share our deepest longings for the Holy One and to pass the love and mystery of Christ along to others.

We are created to belong and we cannot belong by ourselves.

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(The speaker is senior VP & General Manager at the Church Insurance Company). Watch it all.

A victim of the struggling economy, the congregation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Paw Paw, will gather Sunday, Sept. 25, for one last service from their church at 201 W. Michigan Ave.

The sermon, ‘”The Celebration of Promise,” will focus on all the good things that have happened in this building,”‘ said The Very Rev. Rebecca Crise, who has served as St Mark’s Church Rector for the past four years.

Just over six years ago, the congregation gathered to consecrate the site. Now, they prepare to leave the building.

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One of the most important things a parent can do is BLESS the children. The Blessing is a powerful way to change a person’s life.

In the TV series “Coming Home”, the producers create exciting and very emotional homecoming scenarios when a soldier comes home from Iraq or Afghanistan. My favorite reunion happened when a senior in high school, a star football player, was about to announce his choice of which college he would attend; it is called “Signing Night.” His greatest fan was his father who is deployed to Afghanistan. His father appeared in the videos of his high school football career. You can hear his father yelling as his son scores a touchdown, “That’s my boy! That’s my boy!” On this evening, the son does not know his father Army Sgt Jerry Rutledge has returned home from Afghanisgtan a week early in order to be with his son on Signing Night. As the young man says, “I have decided to go to the US Naval Academy”, his father comes from behind the curtain and yells, “That’s my boy!” The father and son hug each other. That room full of big football players and families cheered, and some eyes begin to “sweat.” (There is no crying in football.)

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On September 24, 2011, from 9:00 am until 4:30 pm, Trinity Episcopal Church in Natchez, Mississippi will host a full day of free lectures entitled “No More Silence at Second Creek: Slave Resistance and the Onset of the Civil War.”

This symposium, co-sponsored by The Diocese of Mississippi, helps commemorate the 150th anniversary of a violent and little understood local episode: the planning of a slave uprising on the Second Creek plantations southeast of Natchez, and the vigilante trial and hangings of 40 enslaved people that followed.

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Jews and Muslims worshiping on Friday also addressed the national tragedy.

Temple Emanu-el Rabbi Jonathan Miller’s sermon was written to connect the 9/11 anniversary to Jewish traditions of mourning and to tell the Birmingham, Ala., congregation why acts of evil might be forgiven but never forgotten (www.ourtemple.org).

“If we want to destroy the evil, we have to live into our better selves and make sure these terrorists, like the terrorists before them, have no place in the things that are holy to us,” Miller said.

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When Americans are asked what Sept. 10, 2001, was like, many call that Monday “normal” or “ordinary.”

“Just a normal summer day,” one man said.

That all changed on Sept. 11.

Nine individuals told All Things Considered where they were on Sept. 10. They talked about some of their serendipitous experiences, near misses or devastating turn of events of that day ”” the day before America was interrupted.

Be prepared–extraordinarily powerful. Listen to it all (almost 13 minutes). Please note if you do not have audio capacity a link is available to the transcript via the link provided here–KSH.

In some of the darkest moments of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center ten years ago, Nathan Brockman saw Christian hope embodied at the parish of Trinity Wall Street.

“One of the more remarkable things I’ve seen is how immediately people’s faith came into play. Right after the first tower came down, the South Tower, you can imagine the proximity ”” it got very dark, it got very loud, you could feel the church shaking,” said Brockman, Trinity Wall Street’s director of communications and editor of Trinity News. “There was a congregation gathered there, seeking comfort, solace. Once the cascade stopped, Stewart Hoke, who was a priest here at the time, stood up before the congregation and he recited the Beatitudes. It was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever encountered. That was the response of faith. It wasn’t the reaction to run, it wasn’t the reaction to react violently, or panic. It was very meaningful.”

Later, during the months of cleanup, people continued to help each other. “What I remember was the frozen zone. There was an area literally behind a chain-link fence for a number of months after the attack and if you weren’t certified personnel you weren’t to go beyond that perimeter,” Brockman said. “For a while the Trinity congregation worshiped at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. It was a very generous act of theirs. Trinity’s offices during that time were relocated uptown.”

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Two high-profile memorial services for September 11 have drawn protests from faith leaders and religious organizations who have objected that an event plans de-emphasize the role that Christians played in the aftermath of the attacks.

President Obama will attend an event at the Washington National Cathedral on the evening of September 11 where he will deliver remarks at what appears to be a more secular service but is expected to include some form of benediction.

A 9/11 interfaith prayer vigil at the Cathedral earlier in the day will include Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III, Bishop of Washington John Bryson Chane, Rabbi Bruce Lustig, Washington Hebrew Congregation, Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche of Tibet, Buddhist nun and incarnate lama, Dr. D.C. Rao, a representative of the Hindu and Jain faiths and Imam Mohamed Magid.

Read it all and follow the links.

A crane has collapsed at the National Cathedral, falling in two different buildings on the grounds and crushing several vehicles.

The 500-foot crane, erected after a 5.8 earthquake damaged the cathedral, partially fell on Herb Cottage, which houses the cathedral gift shop.

The gift shop was temporarily closed following last month’s temblor.

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The sanctuary of Grace Episcopal Church, a historic downtown parish, is off limits for at least a few weeks because of damage caused by the Aug. 23 Virginia earthquake and its aftershocks.

An electronic sensor in the west clerestory wall “showed significant movement” over a seven-hour period on Friday. Technically, five different wythes of brick inside the wall were “delaminating,” or separating from one another, according to Craig Bennett of 4SE Structural Engineers, the firm overseeing the church’s ongoing “Saving Grace” building reinforcement program.

Additional electronic sensors recorded slight movement on two occasions since, church officials said.

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Standing in the nave of the Cathedral, Alonso, the head stonemason, watches as crews begin attaching the nets to the 100-foot vaulted ceiling. He jingles the chips in his hand ”” the same hands that 20 years ago helped put the final touches on the gothic-style cathedral.

“It’s heartbreaking to me, because I know what went into building this building. When I look at a piece of stone, I can tell you what that stone went through, from [when] it was designed by the architect, sculpted, carved [and] laid in place by the stonemason,” Alonso says. “This is a handmade building.”

Construction on the Episcopal cathedral began in 1907, after Congress granted a charter, and it took 83 years to finish.

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Two numbers are forever etched
Into our hearts this day.
Lord, 9/11 marks us still
As wounded and dismayed.
The number nine,
perfection’s sign
That points us to above.
To One who hears our every cry
And answers, then, with love.

Eleven, Lord, a sign of loss,
Betrayal and betrayed;
Revealing sin, the lies and hate,
That scar us day by day.
As towers fall, as terror strikes
We feel our cross of pain.
As heroes rush,
your healing brings
A gift from Easter’s reign.

Ten years have passed
and now we mark
The depths of that dark day,
As we draw closer to the One
Who promises the way
To move beyond
our brokenness,
Of days like 9/11;
To build twin towers
of peace and love
And make earth more
like heaven.

J.M.A. Wright+ 2011
Tune: Kingsfold, arr. Vaughan Williams

–The Rev. Michael Wright is rector, Grace Church, Charleston, S.C.; those of you doing services this week or weekend I commend this to you for your consideration