Huston received her Master of Divinity from Seminary of the Southwest in Austin in 2010. She has worked as a hospital chaplain and as Interim Coordinator of Adult Christian Formation at Austin’s Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.

“We’re thrilled to have Mary Ann at St. Mark’s,” said the Rev. Patrick J. Miller, rector of the parish. “She brings us exceptional capabilities. She’ll work with parishioners in the Welcome Ministry, overseeing welcome events and working with the lay committee to develop an overall strategy of welcome, inclusion, and involvement in the parish. In addition, she’ll oversee adult formation, including Sunday classes and possible mid-week offerings.”

Read it all and the church website is there.

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If, as followers claim, Christianity is a story of victory, today’s service at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd offers a pretty resounding amen.

Tucked into the far northwestern corner of Highland County, the tiny church is celebrating its 20th anniversary, marking two decades of determined stewardship and refusal to acknowledge the grim facts of life for mainstream religion today.

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The Rt. Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano, Bishop of Long Island, ordained melton, who has served the parish as a Deacon since May 1.

“It is a profound blessing to me to serve at Christ Church. Here, I have discovered a faithful community of people who love and care for each other and their neighbors, and who deeply love God,” said Melton.

Parishioners shared his enthusiasm and hope for the future. “We are all so excited about our new Priest-in-Charge, Fr. Melton, who is full of energy and new ideas. Since coming here in May, we have grown in many ways. We are looking forward to growth and renewal in the coming years under his leadership.” said Co-Churchwarden Marilyn Adamo.

Read it all and the parish website is there.

St. Pierre’s Episcopal Church, near Bayou Pierre in Gautier, has a colorful history. Built in 1921, the church was the brain child of the Rev. Theodore DuBose Bratton, who served as the third bishop of Mississippi.

Bratton had a summer home near Oldfields in Gautier.

In 1921, Gautier was a simple railroad community with no church. St. Pierre’s became a community project as more and more people jumped on the bandwagon to help get the fledgling church built. Rev. John Chipman, vicar of St. John’s in Pascagoula, drew up the plans, and his son carved the date on the cornerstone, Nov. 12, 1921.

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In its passion to pursue a progressive theological paradigm embracing cultural sensitivity (inclusiveness) and intellectual freedom, TEC cast aside fundamental Christian doctrines, professing, among other things:

* Jesus was not born of a virgin, was not God incarnate, and his resurrection is questionable at best;

* Man needs enlightenment, not salvation; we are to reconcile ourselves with one another, not with God;

* Scripture is not authoritative nor the revealed word of God, but rather metaphorical.

Simply put, Anglicans left TEC because of their faithfulness to the fundamental and historical Christian foundation that the Holy Scriptures are the final authority of its faith.

The tragic fallout of this split is multifaceted. A lady I have known and worshipped with for 30 years approached me, saying homosexuals were not welcome at St. Paul’s. I was taken aback by her misconception. I reminded her that on every Sunday, the priest who is celebrating Holy Communion invites “all baptized Christians as being welcome here at the Lord’s table.” Not blessing same sex unions is an unrelated issue.

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St. Aidan’s used to be looked down upon. Just 10 years ago it was in danger of having its doors shut for good, and now it’s being lauded as an example of what’s possible.

“We proved that we could do it,” Wheeler said. “The bishop kept our doors open, and we are thriving now.”

That focus on volunteering and service has grown from seeds planted by Sifers almost nine years ago. Now, service is the cornerstone of the St. Aidan’s community.

Read it all. For those interested, a graph of some of the statistics for this parish over the last decade may be found there.

Former U.S. Senator Harry Byrd, Jr. was buried on Saturday in Winchester Virginia after a brief funeral at Christ Episcopal Church, with which the Byrd dynasty was long associated. Presiding at the funeral was his former colleague retired U.S. Senator John Danforth, an ordained Episcopal clergyman who also presided at President Reagan’s funeral….

At the funeral at Christ Episcopal, Danforth, who said Byrd invited him to conduct his funeral several years ago, hailed Byrd for his “cheerfulness and civility.” The old Episcopal elite is largely fading from the scene, as that denomination becomes marginal, and its historic ethos, once rooted in Virginia’s socially stratified agrarian Tidewater, is mostly forgotten in the modern world of suburbs and megachurches.

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Officials at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Laramie are pleased to announce that they have named the Rev. Canon Stephen Askew of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Tennessee to serve as their dean. Askew will be joining the cathedral on Oct. 1, and will be seated as the dean on Oct. 11. Askew is replacing the previous dean, the Very Rev. Marilyn Engstrom, who retired on July 31, 2012.

According to Taimi Kuiva, senior warden at St. Matthew’s, the cathedral’s selection of Askew was received with excitement and hope at the church.

“The St. Matthew’s community is very excited to have Father Stephen joining us. Stephen shares our commitment to outreach and ministry beyond our four walls. Like the cathedral, Stephen truly embraces our theology of welcoming all at God’s table, which is not only important to St. Matthew’s but to Laramie as well. We look forward to the years ahead as our community and Stephen grow into the image that God has called us to be,” Kuiva said.

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Rising healthcare costs for needed items such as shower chairs and grab bars gave parishioners at Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bay Minette the impetus to begin a new outreach ministry.

Offered as an idea at a church retreat held this past spring, the plan has developed into an active ministry with shower chairs, grab bars and commode chairs delivered and more shower chairs, commode chairs and grab bars purchased and ready for delivery.

“After a lifetime spent working hard, raising a family and contributing to their community, many of these people now face multiple health problems and mounting healthcare costs,” said Ryan Gillikin, Immanuel vestry member and coordinator of this ministry. “While Medicare and insurance cover many of these costs, there are certain things like shower chairs and grab bars that are no longer covered. These items can increase a person’s independence, improve quality of life and decrease fall risk.”

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Few dioceses, only 12% of the full sample, report that any congregation they started within the last five years is now self-supporting, although another 16% expect that they will have at least one new start independent within three years. On the other extreme, nearly a fourth (23%) of the dioceses responding report that they have at least one new start they do not anticipate will be self-supporting within even ten years. Three dioceses describe a congregation established within the last five years that has already been closed. Given this diversity in projections of financial independence, it is further understandable why dioceses are going the renting route in addition to or instead of buying much property.

Read it all. Readers may also be interested to note that according to TEC’s own statistics the number of parishes has gone from 7,055 in 2007 to 6,736 in 2011.

The speakers are Anthony Chiffolo, author and publisher, and Rayner “Rusty” Hesse, a chef and Episcopal priest. They are coauthors of “Cooking with the Bible: Recipes for Biblical Meals” and, most recently, “Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels.”

“Food connects us to one another,” Chiffolo says. “Since biblical times, the Judeo-Christian lifestyle has centered on meals. Extending hospitality to both friends and strangers was a divine command, and an invitation to dine was sacred.” Hesse adds, “The Judeo-Christian Bible is peppered with stories of meals; these range from simple meals put together quickly in order to feed a few unexpected guests to elaborate feasts carefully prepared to please dozens of partygoers for many days. In the Middle East, eating was not and is not for daily sustenance alone – it is a way of life.”

The book, which was the product of three years of research into what people actually ate in the times recounted in the Bible, provides more than modern adaptations or interpretations of biblical fare; it is as well a discovery of the daily lives of the peoples who inhabited the crossroads of civilization and a lesson about the exchange of foods across vast distances, from Egypt in the west to Persia in the east.

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Washington police arrested a 58-year-old woman after two chapels in the Washington National Cathedral were defaced with green paint Monday afternoon.

The arrest follows similar vandalism Friday to the Lincoln Memorial and a statue near the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. Police are testing paint samples to determine whether the three incidents are connected.

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As a portion of my work involves finding strategies to build up the congregations in our own Diocese, my recent trip to Okatie begs the question, “What can we learn from the Church in the face of Adversity?”

I submit that there are several lessons that we can learn from such churches, and if we can find a way to incorporate those lessons into our own congregations, we stand to grow at an unprecedented rate. Some of the lessons we all know but have not found a way to embody. Some of these lessons are what I like to refer to as “blinding glimpses of the obvious,” and some of these lessons will be new to many of us.

We worship God, not buildings. The people of the Episcopal Church in Okatie came from an historic building in which their families had worshipped for generations. As painful as it was for them to leave that building, they quickly realized in a visceral and personal way that the Church truly is comprised of the people. As comforting and meaningful as their historic home had been to them, they learned that it was in the liturgy (performed anywhere) and in the act of being joined together in the Holy Sacrament, and in the bond of fellowship that is often sealed in crisis that the true Church exists.
The laity is the highest order of the Church. There is no question that strong and competent clergy leadership can effect great change in a congregation.

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With financing in place and zoning approval obtained, work is underway to transform a vacant Germantown church into a private school.

Developer Ken Weinstein has purchased the former St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Harvey Street, and is beginning restoration on the site. The two-acre grounds will become the new home to the independent Waldorf School of Philadelphia, currently located in Mt. Airy.

On Friday, Weinstein told NewsWorks that he took acquisition of the site in June at a price tag of $435,000. His organization, Philly Office Retail, will lease the campus to the school for at least 10 years, beginning in 2014.

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Jesse Zink’s “Why Provinces Matter” and the responses from William G. Witt and Colin Podmore [TLC, May 26] illustrate the range of opinions on what South Carolina’s ultimate ecclesial structure should be, from standalone province to joining the Anglican Church in North America. One thing in common to all of the initial essays, however, was the recognition that any decision on ultimate structure might still be some time away.

This recognition has also been the starting point of the Anglican Communion Institute in our work on this issue in the last several months. We believe that South Carolina’s current status does not necessarily present a problem in need of immediate resolution, but rather inheres in the nature of this dispute. Taking our cue both from Bishop Mark Lawrence and the Instruments of Communion, we have proposed that the guiding principle of the next season for South Carolina is “provisionality.” During this period ultimate decisions are deferred precisely because they are premature. Bishop Lawrence has stressed this on many occasions. The rupture with the Episcopal Church is too fresh with many unresolved issues; the ensuing litigation is only beginning, not nearing an end. This is not the time to make such a momentous decision as that regarding the ultimate future of this diocese, which predates the formation of the Episcopal Church.

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St. Francis was packed Sunday, with about 140 people filling every pew and the choir area, with visitors from Bakersfield to Lodi. The crowd fit the theme of the day, from the opening hymn to the sermon: “All Are Welcome.”

“What a joy it is to be here in St. Francis Church,” Talton said during his sermon. “This is the church, St. Francis, a part of the Diocese of San Joaquin and a church cannot be divided. We affirm that, praise God.”

But division did hit the parish in 2007, when the San Joaquin Diocese and 40 of its 47 parishes, including St. Francis, voted to leave the theologically liberal national Episcopal church. It became the first diocese in the nation to do so and renamed itself and its parishes Anglican, remaining with the worldwide Anglican Communion, to which the Episcopal church also belongs.

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His planned departure next May will bring to a close an eventful 12-year chapter in the history of the church, in which he has overseen the installation of a geothermal heating and air-conditioning system, but has clashed with his more conservative congregants at times over his outspoken sermons on political and social justice issues.

Tunkle, a former Jew born in the South Bronx, N.Y., said he and his wife, Judy, are moving to Dresden, Maine, near Augusta. That will bring them back to the state where they lived for the first nine years of their marriage, where Tunkle was baptized, where their three children were raised, where he graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in Business Administration and Accounting, and where the Episcopal Diocese of Maine sponsored him for seminary, starting a three-decade career as a rector, he said.

There, they plan to build a house fully powered by solar energy, on 38 acres of undeveloped woodland, he said, adding that they look forward to “living in a way that is congruent with our values.”

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Gary Hall’s pressed blue dress shirt and white clerical collar wasn’t the most head-turning look in a crowd that featured a lot of drag queens with towering bouffants, but his presence in Saturday’s gay pride parade through Washington was still a stunner for some.

The Very Rev. Gary Hall, as he is formally known, led the first ever official contingent from Washington National Cathedral in the annual celebration of gay life in the District.

“I won’t be walking bare-chested. I’m kind of a reserved person,” Hall said with a laugh before setting out from the staging area just west of Dupont Circle. “But if my being seen in the parade is a visible sign that God loves and accepts people across the full spectrum of human sexuality, it will have achieved its purpose.”

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I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Constructed in 1903, it is a brick and stone building designed in the late Victorian Gothic style, according to a news release from the Alabama Historical Commission.

In 1963, the Episcopal Diocese sold the building and parishioners moved to a suburban location. Various congregations used the building.

Most recently, the building was purchased by a Muscle Shoals couple who removed some of the architectural elements for salvage and later donated the building to the Colbert County Historic Landmarks Foundation.

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Read the whole letter to Christ Church Episcopal, Greenville here. It is interesting that given a choice the rector of the largest parish in the diocese will not allow such blessings in the parish in which he serves.

Members of a local congregation are finding themselves without a church.

Saint Andrews Episcopal Church in east Charlotte shut its doors this week, catching many people by surprise.

“It’s terribly disappointing, terribly disappointing,” said Tom Brice, a church member.

Tom Brice says he’s shocked and hurt over the news that St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is shutting down.

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Cyclists gearing up for summer bike rides can take a detour to the Blessing of the Bicycles on June 2, when four local churches will offer a few spiritual and inspirational words for bike enthusiasts.

The Blessing of the Bicycles kicks off Walk and Bike Month and also serves as a bicycle parts drive for Community Cycles, a bike advocacy nonprofit group.

“My road and mountain bikes are my beloved friends, and as an older cyclist riding on busy roads, I can use all the prayers and blessing I can get. I thought there must be other people out there who would feel likewise,” said the Rev. Susan Springer, rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church, who established the bicycle blessing.

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The organ at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Sandusky is the voice of the church, according to Nicholas Schmelter.

“My experience playing on the instrument ”¦ the instrument has a very sweet, unforced, mellow sound that is almost … unheard of these days,” he said.

Schmelter is the dean of the Saginaw Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and director of music ministries at First Congregational Church in Saginaw. He will be playing St. John’s 1898 Moller tracker organ during a special Evensong service at 3 p.m today….

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Anthony J. Burton, Rector of The Church of the Incarnation, said in a statement that despite the encouraging numbers his congregation’s focus “is not about growth, but changed lives.”

“Size does not make a church better, but if its clergy and parishioners are sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, God can cause their work in His name to grow a parish that is a resource of great blessing to its community and denomination,” said Burton.

Based in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas, The Incarnation is looking to add three new buildings: another worship facility, a welcome center, and an educational facility.

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Molly Ethridge, a Winnetka resident of 25 years, feels at home sitting on the church steps.

Yes, Christ Church at 470 Maple St. has been a home away from home for the 23 years she’s worked here as parish administrator.

Fittingly, at Easter this year, Ethridge celebrated her retirement among friends, colleagues and loved ones. Her accomplishments include comforting parishioners at very difficult times, often during devastating situations such as the death of a child. She has received several national awards through Episcopal Communicators, a professional organization. Her graphics art skills have assisted in the publishing of two Christ Church books with author and historian Bob Bradner.

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There has never been any doubt that Trinity Church is wealthy. But the extent of its wealth has long been a mystery; guessed at by many, known by few.

Now, however, after a lawsuit filed by a disenchanted parishioner, the church has offered an estimate of the value of its assets: more than $2 billion.

The Episcopal parish, known as Trinity Wall Street, traces its holdings to a gift of 215 acres of prime Manhattan farmland donated in 1705 by Queen Anne of England. Since then, the church has parlayed that gift into a rich portfolio of office buildings, stock investments and, soon, mixed-use residential development.

Read it all from today’s New York Times.

St. Peter’s by-the-Sea’s commanding bell tower overlooking Shore Road in Cape Neddick is shrouded behind scaffolding as contractors work to replace rotting timber against a bride’s June deadline.

The summer Episcopal chapel will open for its first service of the year Sunday, June 2, and must be ready for its first wedding of the season by Saturday, June 1, according to Norman Storrs, president of the St. Peter’s board of trustees.

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After the closure of Christ Episcopal Church in Avon, the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut is beginning the process of deciding what to do with the property.

And that all starts with a community conversation Wednesday night.

“The purpose of tomorrow night’s meeting is not to decide what to do with the church at all,” Audrey Scanlan, the state diocese’s canon for mission collaboration, said Tuesday morning. “The purpose of tomorrow night’s meeting is to have a conversation about Avon.”

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