Tag: St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church

Advent Calendar Day 7: 16 Days of Activism

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

It’s never too late to be a voice to end violence. The final week of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (Nov. 25 – Dec. 10) sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University begins today (12/3).

Quote . . .Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE), the Episcopal Women’s Caucus (EWC), Episcopal Church Women (ECW) and Episcopal Peace Fellowship (EPF) have teamed up to promote this year’s Episcopal 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, November 25-December 10. …

The Episcopal 16 Days campaign targets faith communities in the Episcopal Church and challenges them to participate in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international campaign sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University. Since its founding in 1991, more than 3,700 organizations in approximately 164 countries have participated in CWGL’s 16 Days campaign. The Episcopal Church began participating in 2010. (from the EWC E-newsletter of 29 November 2011)

Raising Awareness

“Since 1991, the annual 16 Days Campaign has mobilized more than 3,700 organizations in 164 countries to raise awareness about the pervasiveness of the multiple forms of violence women face. From Afghanistan to Iceland, the 16 Days Campaign has grown into a powerful platform to educate the public and governments about violence against women and human rights.” (from the 16 Days Press Release)

For the rest of the story: 16 Days Home Page. Hear what the Spirit is saying.

Local efforts to provide safety, raise awareness and offer “a hand up” include:
Shelter from the Storm (a Coachella Valley Resource)
Julian’s Housing Program for Women and Children (a program of Episcopal Community Services in San Diego)

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

Official News Release about the campaign

New Brunswick, New Jersey—On November 25, 2011, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) will launch the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. Hundreds of events by organizations worldwide are planned to campaign against gender-based violence, which is experienced by up to 70 % of women in their lifetime, according to the United Nations. It is estimated that worldwide, one in five women will experience rape or attempted rape. Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war, and malaria.

The 16 Days Campaign begins on November 25, the International Day Against Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day. These dates symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation. The 16 Days Campaign theme, From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women!, puts the spotlight on militarism and its role in perpetuating violence against women and girls. “The violence we encounter is often profoundly influenced by national, regional, and international policies and practices, and challenges us to act in solidarity to promote an end to militarism and violence against women,” says Dr. Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership; the coordinator of the 16 Days Campaign.

Over 250 events are planned worldwide to call for an end to militarism and violence against women, including: A Silent No More! march through Yerevan, Armenia, focusing on violence against women; Across Alice Springs, Australia, a series of arts events focused on women’s resilience is organized, including a quilt exhibition; In Lagos, Nigeria, student trainings and dialogues with media outlets will be held to sensitize communities about gender-based violence; The Center for Women’s Global Leadership will co-host a Java n’ Justice Coffeehouse, featuring a military fashion show, at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA.

This year, the Center is also partnering with Stardoll to bring the 16 Days Campaign to the online media site’s over 130 million users between the ages of 13 and 17 years old. Since 1991, the annual 16 Days Campaign has mobilized more than 3,700 organizations in 164 countries to raise awareness about the pervasiveness of the multiple forms of violence women face. From Afghanistan to Iceland, the 16 Days Campaign has grown into a powerful platform to educate the public and governments about violence against women and human rights.

View or download the Official Press Release of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign

____________
Photo: 16 Days of Activism official website


Advent Calendar Day 6: Wounded Warrior Project

Wounded Warrior Project

Friday. In the Daily Office we remember in prayer the suffering and death of Christ. In our daily walk we encounter men and women who served our country, Veterans, who carry scars that are both visible and invisible. We encounter men and women who carry wounds received while serving us. The Wounded Warrior Project is one group reaching out to those men and women, with our help.

Mission

To honor and empower wounded warriors.

Vision

To foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history.

Purpose

  • To raise awareness and enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members.
  • To help injured service members aid and assist each other.
  • To provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members

For the rest of the story: Wounded Warrior Project

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
October 22, 2011

The Wounded Warrior Project sends about 2,000 care packages to injured warriors overseas every month.

It takes a lot of manpower to assemble that many care packages, and on Tuesday, the nonprofit organization got some help from some [Jacksonville] Jaguars players.

The care packages, which are headed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Germany, are filled with the comforts of home. And while the wounded service members who receive them may never know they were assembled by professional athletes, it’s the thought that counts. Read the whole story from News4Jax.com

Who does this group help? Who helps this group? Read Justin Constantine’s story to begin to answer those questions.

____________
Image: The Wounded Warrior Logo from the internet


Advent Calendar Day 5: Ayni Education International

Ayni Education International

You probably have never heard of Ayni (pronounced EYE-knee) Education International. And yet, the founder is the daughter of one of our parishioners; she worshipped with us on the First Sunday of Advent. In Afghanistan she witnessed the ability of educational opportunities to change lives; moreover she has both risked and dedicated her life to create such opportunities for children in Afghanistan. There is still so much to do, one child, one village at  time.

“Ayni Education International creates quality educational experiences in Afghanistan that empower and inspire children and their families to build peaceful, just and life affirming communities.” (from their website)

Mission Statement

By fostering interchanges between the United States and Afghanistan, Ayni creates quality educational opportunities in Afghanistan that empower and inspire children and their families to build peaceful, just and life-affirming communities.

Vision Statement

People from diverse backgrounds living peacefully together in just, sustainable and life-affirming communities, forming a universal web of friendship, understanding and mutual respect.

For the rest of the story: Ayni Education International. Hear what the Spirit is saying.

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

The meaning of Ayni (EYE-knee)

There is no better word to describe what we do at Ayni Education International. The definition of Ayni is embodied in our mission and vision. Ayni (pronounced EYE-knee) is a word from the ancient peoples of the Peruvian Andes. It means “reciprocity.” It is the interchange of kindness, knowledge and fruits of one’s labor. It provides the basis for how people relate to each other, as well as to nature and Spirit. Ayni is a key to building not only just, sustainable, and life-affirming communities, but also a world where there is mutual respect, acceptance, cooperation, love and peace.

The concept of Ayni can be seen on many different levels. On a basic level, it means giving something without expecting anything in return or conversely, receiving something without feeling like you now owe someone in return. Actions are motivated by respect and love, not by judgment, guilt, duty or jealousy.

At a community level, it means learning about each other’s cultures and beliefs, trustful that differences add to our lives; and that we are each transformed by the wisdom of others. Ayni recognizes each individual’s unique skills and talents.

____________
Photo: Ayni Education International website


Advent Calendar Day 4: St. Margaret’s Outreach Center

St. Margaret’s Outreach Center

Bob from our Forum volunteers at our St. Margaret’s Outreach Center every Tuesday. Stan and Julie are frequent participants in the Thursday Morning Prayer at the Outreach Center. The Outreach Center is part of our Parish’s Overall Mission to “change the world.”

What we do

St. Margaret’s Outreach Center reaches out to children, adults, and seniors in our community assisting them with the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter.

Current efforts

  • Food distribution on Tuesdays from Noon-4:00 pm
  • Morning Prayer Service on Thursdays at 9:00 am
  • Assistance by appointment on Thursdays

For the rest of the story: Outreach Ministries at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church


For further reflection

Bonus Bag Update (11/27/11)
SMEC Parishioners are the best! Not only did we bring in $540 for last week’s Bonus Bags; but three of our parishioners signed on for credit card charges for one year’s worth of monthly support! For the cost of a few lattes, you can provide our Outreach gang reliable $$ for year-round fresh food expenditures. Your $20 (or more!) donation will be gratefully accepted in cash, check or credit card. You, too, can be a part of this tremendous service to those in need…

St. Margaret’s Parish Life Bulletin for November 27, 2011

Looking for gift ideas this year? Do we have something for you!

Proudly introducing the St. Margaret’s Online Advent Calendar.

Beginning with the First Sunday of Advent (11/27/2011) a new posting will be made everyday to introduce you to a person, an organization, or a fund that embodies the Gospel imperative to “love your neighbor as yourself.” This Advent you will become aware of the many needs that surround us and the many persons, individually and collectively, working to meet those needs.

Every day during Advent come to the Online Calendar to open a new “window” and look upon the world into which Christ is to be born. In quiet and prayer, hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

Advent Calendar 2011


For further reflection
Culturally we are bombarded with messages in this season to go and buy gifts for others. We are immersed in the notion that if we are a decent human being we will go and buy lots of gifts to give to our loved ones; furthermore, if we have been good, then we can expect to receive lots of gifts from our loved ones who have been (like us) buying things like crazy.

Spiritually, of course, we hear readings and prayers about the end of time, the second coming of Christ, and judgment. We hear, too, of the foretelling of the birth of Jesus and we prepare ourselves to remember the birth of Jesus (Christmas) and the revelation of God’s love to the whole world (Epiphany, January 6). This year we enter Advent having just heard that we encounter Jesus in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the one who is sick and the one in prison; we encounter Jesus in the “least” among us. Matthew 25:31-46

The St. Margaret’s Online Advent Calendar is a response to what we hear the Spirit saying in the Sunday Morning Forum. Sunday after Sunday, in a variety of ways, we hear the truth of the Apostle’s teaching:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. James 2:14-18, 26

Instead of purchasing another item to give to a loved one you will be invited to consider gifting the money (you would have spent) to a person, organization, or fund on behalf of your loved one.

Going in Circles, Getting Whole

Walk the Labyrinth at St. Margaret's in Palm Desert, CA

“Going in Circles, Getting Whole” by David Burgdorf (a Forum participant) will set you in motion for the moving meditation that is the labyrinth. Every month the Labyrinth Guild at St. Margaret’s offers a time to experience the labyrinth within a group setting. I invite you to participate in this walk.

Need additional inspiration about walking the labyrinth? I share the wisdom and experience of Macrina Wiederkehr a Benedictine Nun. Hip Deep in Tears opens her experience to you and will serve as an introduction to the power of the labyrinth. This is one tiny example of encounter with the power and mystery of God within the labyrinth. You will have your own story to tell. Come and walk.

The kingdom of heaven is like

On Sunday, July 24, 2011 Brian got us all thinking about the parables of Jesus in his sermon. We were invited to consider Jesus’ words more deeply, including the fact that his images may not be as neutral as one would think (or as you have been led to believe). While we wait for the podcast and posting of his sermon, here is another preacher, a Lutheran, raising the same issues for us in her own words:

… Today we heard Jesus say that The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that when it has grown becomes the greatest of all shrubs. Um, the greatest of all shrubs?  What kind of off-brand kingdom is this?   It’s like saying someone is the smartest of all the idiots or the mightiest of all baby dolls. Yet he says Heaven’s kingdom is like Shrubs, and nets and yeast  – and the yeast part might be the worst when you realize that yeast is considered impure – we’re not talking little packets of Flieshman’s we find at King Soopers – we’re talking big lumps of mold which contaminate….and that in fact, Jews were required to  rid their entire house of yeast before celebrating some Holy Days.

We mistakenly may think that the kingdom of God should follow our value system and also be powerful or impressive and shiny. But that’s not what Jesus brings.  He brings a kingdom ruled by the crucified one – populated by the unclean, and suffused with mercy rather than power. And it’s always found in the unexpected.… Read the whole sermon

Share your thoughts about Brian’s sermon  and Nadia’s sermon and the words of Jesus in Matthew 13. Keep the conversation going, leave a comment; two fine preachers have set us to thinking about the kingdom…

A Message from the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church

The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church issued the following letter at the conclusion of its three-day meeting at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, MD (Diocese of Maryland).

A Message to The Episcopal Church

from the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church,

meeting in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, June 14-17, 2011

these widowed boats,
the men who loved them
gone to their graves.

By M. Kei (an award-winning poet who lives on Chesapeake Bay)

————————————————

Models, paintings and photographs of “widowed boats” line the halls of the Maritime Institute, some showing vessels caught in mid-explosion, others detailed in all their newly launched beauty and power. Scripture often uses the sea as a symbol of danger and chaos, and the boat or ship as a symbol of the safe place God creates for God’s people–a symbol for the church.

For the last three days the Executive Council has met among these powerful symbols to talk of hard financial issues and church decline and growth, to address elephants in the room, and to speak truth to one another in love.

The Presiding Bishop began her opening address by saying she was seeing a “significant rise in readiness for mission . . . for connection to needs beyond the local congregation.” The President of the House of Deputies spoke of the need for courageous change and called for a structure that “supports mission and ministry at the most appropriate level – congregation, diocese, province or church center.”

These have been reoccurring themes in the addresses of the Executive Council’s chair and vice chair this triennium as they have repeatedly urged the Council to be creative risk takers in addressing the challenges facing The Episcopal Church.

Read the entire Message: NewsLine.

———————————————————–

A question for youForum participants: do you know any of the elements of our St. Margaret’s Mission Statement? Would the Presiding Bishop see a “significant rise in readiness for mission…[and] connection to needs beyond [St. Margaret’s]” in you? in our congregation? These are questions for personal consideration as well as communal (Forum) consideration.

Begin the conversation now, leave a comment here.

The Anti-necktie Father’s Day 2011

Kiva.org logo
Click the logo to find out more

In the Sunday Morning Forum at St. Margaret’s in Lent we were introduced to Kiva.org: “We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.” About Kiva

Folks like us browse Kiva.org and find a person or community we would like to help. Through Kiva a loan is made. The loan is used and then repaid through Kiva.

Click the box at the left to learn more about the details of each step in the process.

While you are on the website check out the requests being made from around the world: Lend through Kiva.org

Finally, choosing a gift for Dad (or grad) from Kiva.org is simple and will allow the recipient (Dad or grad) to choose with whom to share the gift. Simply follow the link to the Gift Card page on Kiva.org. Choose a Gift Card process and follow the instructions and your gift will go way beyond a necktie hanging in a closet. Your gift will have the chance to give grace and life to people you may never meet, and all for God’s glory.


A House of Hospitality

When the new St. Margaret’s sanctuary was available for use in June 1989 The Rev. Brad Hall, Fourth Rector of St. Margaret’s,  preached a sermon, “Solomon’s Prayer: Our First Day in the New Church Building” (June 4, 1989), that we continue to live up to and into as a community.

Though speaking about the building itself and the entire St. Margaret’s community, Brad’s words give us a vision when spoken into our little community–The Sunday Morning Forum–within the larger community. We need to make our room and our presence match what the congregation does in the sanctuary in Sunday worship. Here is an excerpt of Brad’s sermon; hear that the Spirit is saying the same thing to us 22 years later:

God’s House is a House of Hospitality

This is truly a beautiful building, and people will come and visit it. Whether they are drawn here by its architectural majesty, its open, light-filled sanctuary, or to worship and pray, we must always be prepared to welcome and accept all sojourners and visitors who wish to enter our doors.

This is an Episcopal Church, a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion of over seventy million peoples. We are also a community church, a part of this Coachella Valley, and our church is a gift to all who live in their beautiful desert. And so the doors of our building and our hearts must be open to welcome, in God’s Love, all who come to us seeking peace, seeking an answer to their prayers, seeking God, Himself.

My final prayer for us is that your love and Christ’s Love will so shine through these doors and windows that all sojourners who come here seeking will find that their prayers will be answered and that God’s Peace and Joy will fill their hearts.

Note: the entire sermon will soon be posted in the Supplemental Resource category 6/7/11

The Rev. Lane Hensley, current Rector of St. Margaret’s, continues this fine tradition among us. In November 2010 Lane set out some principles for our ministry. Here is an excerpt to help guide our work in the Sunday Morning Forum, a community within a community:

Our collective task is to take our place as members of the Body of Christ, and to come collectively “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” Here, then, are some principles that I think need to guide that process.

We are a public Church, and a ministry leader in outreach, formation, music, and worship. Our efforts should be directed to the community we serve in mission, and their highest hopes, deepest fears, and most important deliberations should find home at St. Margaret’s.

We expect God’s blessing on our work, and to grow and be transformed into the Body of Christ.

Lane’s principles can be viewed or downloaded here: From the Rector’s Desk, November 2010

Let us be open and inviting to others in the spirit of Christ’s love as we build community. We have a fine vision and strong principles and God’s amazing grace guiding us along the Way.

Your thoughts and observations and questions are important. Please use the Comment section to continue the conversation.