It has been a couple months since the last blog post featuring St. John’s parish in Vernon and St. Monica’s parish in Hartford, and their participation with Joining Jesus in this new Missional Age (JJMA). When we met St. John’s and St. Monica’s, they were just beginning in this journey, and now they have finished…
Back to school at Kent School, with the Rev. Kate Kelderman
In honor of back to school season, I drove up to Kent, CT and met with the Rev. Kate Kelderman. Kate, or Mama K, as she is known on campus, is the school chaplain, Dean of St. Joseph’s chapel, a chemistry teacher, and varsity field hockey coach at Kent School. Kate gave me a tour of…
Meet Margaret Clark: the importance of perpetual care
I first heard of Margaret Clark and the Cemetery on Hope St. in Stamford from a former co-worker, Don. He told me of the history of the cemetery and Margaret’s initiative and dedication to its perpetual care. So, I drove to Stamford with my camera and recorded Margaret’s story. Here it is: Margaret Clark is…
Creating a culture of kindness at Armsmear
I had first heard of Armsmear about three years ago when I started at The Commons. Bishop Laura Ahrens has a binder on her bookshelf with the word “Armsmear” on the spine, and for three years I would find myself looking at the binder thinking “what a weird name, I wonder what that is.” Fast forward to now, when I was looking for this week’s blog post, I decided I would do some research into this mysterious binder and Armsmear.
Painting Apartments & Building Peace in New Haven
I spent my Thursday painting an apartment in Newhallville, New Haven with the 12 young people from Palestine, Israel, and Jordan and the Christian Community Action. This service project was one of seven offered with IWagePeace.org and Jerusalem Peacebuilders’ Interfaith Service Day.
I had heard about this service day from the Rev. Canon Nicholas Porter, Executive Director for Jerusalem Peacebuilders.
Church on the Beach
A couple weeks ago I worshiped God on a beach in Fairfield. It was an interesting and spirit-filled experience, to blur the lines between sacred and public with 40 other people on the sandy shore of the Long Island Sound.
The Rev. Curtis Farr is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fairfield and he invited me to check out Church on the Beachthis summer. St. Paul’s holds Church on the Beachevery Sunday in July and August at 8:30 a.m. at Jennings Beach, Fairfield.
Stories from the past: 45th anniversary of women’s ordination
oday is the 45th anniversary of the first ordination of a woman to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, and the 40th anniversary of the first woman ordained in ECCT – The Reverend Joan Horwitt. To celebrate and reflect upon the past 45 years, I met with our Archivist, Greg, to see if he had any fun and interesting finds around women’s ordination. I not only acquired a new online folder of scanned images of newspaper clippings and whole booklets from the 1970s arguing for and against women’s ordination, but Greg and I dove deep into one theological question: symbolism associated with the clergy person.
Trail Magic in Salisbury
I spent last Saturday at a trailhead in Salisbury feeding hikers.
I was joined by two young adults, Elizabeth Peters and Joshua Brown, as well as Dylan Mello, the Northwest Region Missionary and his family. We arrived around 9:45 a.m., unloaded my car with a table, chairs, a cooler of sodas, box of chips, sandwich makings, home-made O’Henry bars, pie, and four gallons of water. Then we waited.
Attempting to find unmixed attention in a modern intentional service community
In March of 1911, the rector of Christ Church, New Haven led a procession through my current home. With holy water and incense, he blessed every room. Mary S. Johnson and Josephine A. Lyon had recently moved into this home, St. Hilda’s House, on the corner of Broadway and Elm with the intention “to establish and provide for a place where a certain body of women could live a life of devotion and humble service,” as Lyon writes.
Time-traveling in Brooklyn, CT
Yesterday I drove up to Brooklyn, Connecticut to attend the historic Eucharist at the Old Trinity Episcopal Church. For the last six years or so, the congregants of Trinity Church has gathered on the Sunday after the Fourth of July for a travel back in time. This time-travel is not just because of the lack…
