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TRANSCRIPT
QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF NEBRASKA EASTERTIDE 2013
From the Bishop’s Desk
You can get the on-line version of this FOR FREE—click the “Nebraska Episcopalian” button on
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Summer 2013
From the Bishop
As this issue of the Nebraska Episcopalian
comes together, we are still very much in the
midst of celebrating the season of Easter.
Hence, the theme of this issue of our
Nebraska Episcopalian is Resurrection. As
I’ve endeavored to be faithful in that
celebration in my own life, I’ve become
aware of the deep level of commitment and
faith that is required to sustain living every
day in the kind of hope, kindness and joy
that is worthy of Eastertide, and the Good
News that Christ is risen from the dead. It’s
one thing to worship faithfully, throw a great
big party and behave like a disciple for one
long weekend at the end of Holy Week. It is
quite another thing to live like that for fifty
straight days (not to mention all the rest of
the days of our lives here on earth!)
It is a real challenge to make every single
day of our lives an “Alleluia!” day. We are
guarded in loving and forgiving, forgetting
that Jesus forgave even those who betrayed
him most deeply at his life’s end. Fear of
loneliness, sickness and death creeps back
into our minds before the sun is set on
Easter day, and we fall right back into the
pattern of living small and timid lives.
We let everyday cares distract us from the
astonishing truth that “life as we know it”
is ended, and that because of the mighty
acts accomplished in the passion, death
and resurrection of Jesus, a whole new
creation is rising to life around us.
There is evidence throughout this great
diocese that Christ is risen from the dead,
and that his disciples in this here and now
are in fact devoting themselves in some
truly amazing ways to being a Church
and a people that live every day in the
light of our great Easter proclamation. I
hope you enjoy this celebration of our
Diocese of Nebraska as an Easter place…
and an Easter people. Alleluia, Christ is
Risen!
Faithfully Yours in Christ –
The Right Rev. J. Scott Barker
Editor-in-Chief
Camp Comeca 2013
Did you register yet? Camp is right around corner. Register for Camp Comeca, by 06/01/2013 date, and you will be registered in the drawing to win this cozy blanket, made by Noelle Ptomey and Robin Wilson Proctor. Constructed from our colorful Camp t-shirts and backed with a dark grey sweatshirt material, this light weight, throw sized blanket is perfect for that long road trip to camp! So don't delay, register TODAY!
How to Subscribe
Page 2
Living Out Our Call Collaboration There is a growing desire to collaborate in works of justice and compassion. A growing concern for the whole. We’ve gone far beyond “what must I do to be saved?”—which is well and good—to “how can we work with God to establish the Kingdom on earth?”
Br. Mark Brown
Society of St. John the
Evangelist
Sign up for “Brother, Give Us
a Word”, a very brief daily
devotion from The Society of
St. John the Evangelist, an
Episcopal Benedictine
monastery in Boston, at
http://www.ssje.org/
Stories of people making a difference across Nebraska…
As Lent drew to a close,
parishes all across the
diocese prepared for Easter
weekend: readings were
practiced by new Lectors,
meals were planned and
Easter egg hunts were
organized. And in the
quiet places, were priests.
Thoughtfully writing sermons to
share the story of new life
through the Resurrection with all
those in the pews. These pews
were filled with people, some
regular attendees, some
occasional visitors and some
entering the church for the first
time. They come because they
were invited by family, friends
or neighbors. They come
because they are drawn by
something they feel that they
need. It is in those pews, when a
parishioner offers a hymnal, a
welcoming smile, an invitation
to coffee hour or any help to
these first time or occasional
visitors that the feeling of new
life resonates with them. It is in
the loving warmth of our
welcome to these visitors that
they feel the full impact of the
new life of the resurrection
message delivered by the priest
that morning. For me, I had such
a moment this Easter. It
happened when a nervous
visitor entered the pew. As we
all waited for the procession, the
opportunity came for me to offer
a smile and a Happy Easter
greeting. I watched as the
anxiety left his shoulders and he
seemed to relax. Together we
worshipped. The story of the
resurrection came to life for me
again that day. I hope it did for
the visitor as well.
- Kate Baxley
Director of Administration and
Communications
Favorite Bible Verse
Job 39:5
Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass?
Fr. Jason Emerson,
Church of the Resurrection
Send us your
favorite
Bible verse
and we’ll
use it in a
a future edition of the
NE Episcopalian !
Taizé for All St. Mary’s in Blair is once again
offering a Taizé service on the first
Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m.
Originating in Taizé, France in 1940,
Taizé Prayer Services provide a non-
denominational and ecumenical
opportunity for the entire community
of Blair, as well as greater Omaha area,
to participate in a meditative service of
ritual, reverence and simplicity. The
35-minute service consists of music,
song, gospel readings, quiet meditation,
chants, and veneration of the cross.
“Nothing is more conducive to
communion with Living God than a
meditative common prayer with
singing that never ends, but continues
in the silence of one’s heart, when one
is alone again,” says Brother Roger
Schutz, founder of Taizé. St. Mary’s Taizé Services are being led
by seasoned musician and long-time
All Saints’ Episcopal Church (Omaha)
member, Claudianna Todd.
Claudianna and Father John Symonds,
Rector of St. Mary’s, hope that by
offering many of the familiar Taizé
songs penned by Jacques Berthier, it
will create a new interest among others
Send in photos and stories of ways that you and your church “Extend the Table” in 2013!
Fr. John Symonds & Claudianna Todd
so we can successfully, “Extend the
Table,” in 2013! For more information about St.
Mary’s Taizé Prayer Service please
contact Fr. John Symonds at 402-
426-2057. For more information
about the Taizé, France community,
visit the following website:
www.taize.fr. Please consider
attending a Taizé Prayer Service to
encounter Christ in song and silence.
Laudate dominum!
Page 3
Environmental Ministry I know every bird in the sky, and the creatures of the fields are in my sight. (Psalm 50:11)
Resurrection Hope
John’s account of the resurrection includes
Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen
Christ at the tomb. Mary is weeping because
Jesus’ body is gone from the tomb and she
doesn’t know where his body has been
taken. When she turns around and sees Jesus,
who asks her why she is weeping, she is so
caught up in her grief and despair that she
doesn’t recognize him. Initially mistaking
him for the gardener, she finally sees through
her tears and recognizes him when she hears
him call her by name.
Along with her grief and despair and tears,
Jesus’ appearing as someone alive and
standing and speaking makes it difficult for
her to identify him because she was
expecting to find something very different.
She expected to see a body wrapped in burial
linens, not someone fully alive.
Our expectations can do so much to color
our perceptions that sometimes when exactly
what we need or want is right in front of us,
we fail to recognize it.
Right now concentrations of carbon dioxide
are approaching 400 parts per million for the
first time in human history. (It may well be
that by the time you read this, we will have
surpassed 400 ppm.) As atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels rise, the average global
temperature rises. Scientists tell us that
carbon dioxide levels need to be reduced to
no more than 350 ppm in order for life as we
know it to be sustained.
In his book The Blue Sapphire of the Mind:
Notes for a Contemplative Ecology, author
Douglas Christie quotes biologist E.O.
Wilson: “We now have a sense that we are
bringing life to a close. I mean, we’re
destroying life, we’re reducing the natural
world out there in an irreversible way.”
Christie adds that we aren’t “merely” losing
places and species; we are losing the
“Beloved Other”.
Those of us who pay attention to the
degradation of the earth and particularly to
the discouraging math of global warming
find ourselves at times grieving the plants,
animals, eco-systems, and way of life we
know and love that are beginning to
disappear or change, and we can feel
despair when we see the enormity of the
challenges we face compared to the lack of
political will to do enough soon enough to
make much of a difference to a our future.
But we Christians are first and foremost an
Easter people. While being realistic about
what we are most likely losing, we have
faith that God somehow brings some sort
of new life out of even the most painful
death.
Mary Magdalene did not expect to see the
risen Jesus in the way that she did. While
believing his teachings and being a faithful
follower, she couldn’t begin to understand
his promises until the moment she saw
him standing there outside the tomb. He
was there but he wasn’t the same; he told
her she couldn’t cling to him because he
had not yet ascended to the Father.
We can’t completely understand what life
on this planet will be like in 50 or 100 or
200 years, but we know it will be very
different. If our expectations and hopes are
for a future that resembles today’s
business-as-usual, we may not recognize
whatever signs of life and a realistic hope
we might encounter. Our inability to
imagine what this may look like doesn’t
mean that hope isn’t there; it doesn’t mean
that grief and despair are the only valid
responses to our situation.
True hope – hope that takes into account
the stark reality of climate change – is a
gift we Christians can give the world now
when the world most needs it. When
environmentalist Bill McKibben’s Do the
Math tour visited Omaha, he said that he
became discouraged at first when people
pointed out that in trying to convince
people to end our reliance on fossil fuels
he was involved in a David and Goliath
situation, but then he remembered how
that story ends.
Easter tells us the wonderfully
unimaginable end of the story, and it calls
for an alleluia response from an alleluia
people grounded in faith and true hope.
-The Ven. Betsy Blake, Archdeacon
Springtime Blossoms, photo by Betsy
Page 4
Salute!
Youth Ministry Notes
Resurrection: [rez-uh-rek-
shuh n]: the act of rising from
the dead. As a Chr istian,
my first thought at the sight
of the word resurrection is,
obviously, our Savior rising
from the dead on Easter
Sunday. However, the theme
of resurrection is really only
prevalent during the Easter
season, when flowers are
blooming, baby animals are
born, and Jesus is risen;
during the rest of the year, we
rarely tend to think about
anything rising from the
dead, even though that is
when we most ardently need
the reminder that rebirth can
happen.
I’m a really busy teenager:
I’m in an average of six
theater productions a year,
Student Council, the school
newspaper staff, three choirs,
an orchestra, a tennis team, a
competitive dance team, and
12 academic classes per day,
and like a lot of other people,
I have a really hard time
saying no to anyone who
needs something. Because
of all of this, I have dug
myself into a deep hole of
over-achievement, a hole
that seems impossible to
climb out of, especially at
11p.m. when I have three
hours of homework left to
do. I have, essentially, lost
myself in this hole. Don’t get
me wrong, I love everything
that I do, but for a while
now, my identity has seemed
to be one long to-do list.
However, I was really forced
to think about the way my
life was going after a
fantastic sermon this Easter
season, in which my priest
spoke of simplifying your
life so that you were utilizing
your full potential for the
Lord. I realized that over-
involvement was not
necessarily the best way to
serve God for a variety of
reasons, but mostly because I
was just plain overwhelmed,
and I felt like everything I
did was getting in the way of
my growing relationship
with Him. I knew then that I
had to cut some things out of
my life to resurrect my faith.
Almost immediately, I took
steps to dial back my
commitment to other
activities and became more
proactive in planning this
fall’s high school youth
event, Novo; almost
immediately, I felt that I had
much more time to let my
mind wander and to be
inspired by the beauty of
God’s earth. I have started
prioritizing things, and for an
entire week, I went to bed
before 11 o’clock. It was like
a dream.
I am still an over-achieving
kid; it’s just the way I am.
However, I feel like I have
started to resurrect myself
from the tomb of over-
involvement with the help
and guidance of God, and I
will (hopefully) enter my
senior year of high school
with only the necessary
amount of stress.
Quite frankly, simplifying
your life is one of those
concepts that sounds great in
theory, but is really, really
hard to actually execute. All
of us have our activities and
hobbies that we love, but we,
as Christians, can’t let our to
-do lists get so long that
prayer and fellowship and
service gets shoved to the
bottom. Luckily, there are so
many great ways to connect
with God and with other
Episcopalians in this diocese;
for kids alone, there is camp,
Novo, and the new youth
event this June, along with
fellowship and youth groups
in many parishes across the
state. All of these resources
can help us understand that
resurrection doesn’t have to
be about Easter, and, most
importantly, that there is
always time to resurrect your
faith and yourself.
- Abbey Kotlarz
Abbey attends Grand Island
Senior High – Ed
A tip of the mitre to Kathryn Robson, who
received St. Monica’s Commitment Award at
their May luncheon “Strengthening our Fabric,
One Thread at a Time.” The event celebrates
women and families building healthier new lives
in recovery and the community that makes their
success possible. Kathryn received the
commitment award for her
work in creating the strong
network of support for the
nearly 400 women in
recover at St. Monica’s
each year. Thanks be to
God!
Delight
When God sees us, God sees our uniqueness, our particulari-ties, our peculiarities, our strengths, our weaknesses, etc. And God loves us for who we are, warts and all..
Br. Mark Brown, SSJE
The Rose Theater in Omaha is
presenting Joseph & the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat May 31st—
June 16th, and is offering group rates
for churches for groups as small as 10
people.
If you’re interested in getting a group
from your church together, contact
Lindy Glenn at 402-502-4625 or
Suggested for ages 5 and older.
Group Rates for Churches
Page 5
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart…
Bishop’s Easter Vigil Sermon
Church of the Resurrection March 30, 2013
Luke 24:1-12
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in,
they did not find the body. Luke 24:2-3
This is called The Coming, by R.S. Thomas.
And God held in his hand a small globe.
Look, He said. The Son looked.
Far off, as through water, he saw a scorched land of fierce color.
The light burned there. Crusted buildings cast their shadows.
A bright serpent – a river – uncoiled itself, radiant with slime.
On a bare Hill, a bare tree saddened the sky.
Many people held out their thin arms to it as though waiting
for a vanished April to return to its crossed boughs.
The Son watched them. “Let me go there,” he said.
It is Sunday March 31, 33 A.D.
It happens in the dark, after the sun goes down. It happens in the same holy city of Jerusalem that still stands today. It happens at a tomb
hewn into the rocky hillside of that ancient, sacred ground. There are a group of women there – friends of Jesus – they journey to the tomb
carrying spices, to prepare his body for burial. They make their way to the grave. They are anxious to complete the work they'd been
prevented from finishing on Friday evening. There had been no time to properly care for Jesus' body on that day because the sun set
shortly after his death, preventing them – by Sabbath custom – from doing what needed to be done. So they come as soon as they are
allowed. At "early dawn" – the story says – the first moment they possibly could. As soon as the sun breaks over the earth's edge, into the
tomb they go.
But instead of encountering the hastily wrapped and lifeless body of Jesus, the women meet two men dressed in "dazzling apparel." They
are frightened, the story says, as we would be. And surely they begin to question:
What are these men doing in this private, holy place? What is their glowing clothing all about – are they religious leaders? Civic officials?
Angles? And the biggest question of all: Where is Jesus?
If the women are scared by the appearance of the men, what happens next must have pushed them right to the edge. "Why do you seek the
living among the dead?"
The body of Jesus is not here, the men say, because – as he predicted – he has risen from the dead.
Now - fast forward to this moment. Two thousand years and countless generations of human lives have passed. God's human creation has
journeyed a very long ways from the tomb in that Jerusalem hillside. Even so, Luke's Gospel account presents us with a question. It
invites us to make a decision, that is urgent, momentous, and will chart the course of the rest of our lives. You have a decision to make.
Right here. Right now. On this Saturday night in this holy city of Omaha, Nebraska.
You have to decide whether it really happened or not. You have to decide whether to believe those men. You have to decide whether the
battered body of Jesus that was taken down from that bare sad tree on Good Friday did indeed spring back to life in the dark of that first
Easter morning. The question is: Did Jesus rise from the dead: to heart-beating, lungs-breathing, belly laughing, “hinged thumbs and toes”
fullness of life? What happens next in the story – of Jesus' life and yours - all depends on what you decide. And nobody else can make
the decision for you.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead - if this thing is a mistake, a fraud or a conspiracy - then nothing that came before really matters.
What does his teaching mean to us if he does not rise from the dead? He teaches us to "love our enemies" but his enemies have
destroyed him. If he has not risen from the dead then his teachings have proven false.
Photo by Nicole Cloudt,
St. Mary’s, Blair
Page 6
What do his miracles mean to us if he does not rise from the dead? Those healings and cures have no life in them if HE is not alive.
They are just old stories in a book…"Chicken Soup" to make us feel good perhaps but of no real power or consequence to help us when
we are hurting in this here and now.
And what does his sacrifice mean if he does not rise from the dead? He intended to set things right between God and humanity, and to
show his followers the power of love. But we have eyes to see and ears to hear. The Kingdom of God that he said would come is still
very much under construction…the world is still a mess. And if he is dead and gone – if that's the best he's got – then we need to look
elsewhere for help and hope.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead - if this thing is a mistake, a fraud or a conspiracy - then nothing that came before really matters.
But if he rose that Sunday morning, that is something else again!
If Jesus rose from the dead, then everything he taught is confirmed as true. Then we have discovered a font of wisdom that offers
guidance and clarity to help us make our way every single day of our lives. If he rose, then we have found the Truth to set us free!
If Jesus rose from the dead, then his miracles are harbingers of countless wonders yet to come. Rather than mere historical footnotes of
a time when a gifted healer once walked the earth, those feats become beacons of hope for us when we find ourselves in pain or despair:
because if Jesus lives, then he can still do wonders!
If Jesus rose from the dead, then his sacrifice becomes the turning point of all human history: for the work he accomplished that day –
shattering the power of sin and death – means not only that God finds his sacrifice acceptable … but that the new creation for which he
fought must indeed be in the process of becoming even today.
If Jesus rose from the dead on that Sunday morning two thousand years ago, then life as we know it is changed for good.
You have a decision to make. Right here. Right now. On this Saturday night in this holy city of Omaha, Nebraska. Did Jesus rise again, to
heart-beating, lungs-breathing, belly laughing, hinged thumbs and toes fullness of life?
You are not required to understand how this happened – how could we "understand" the greatest mystery ever told? You are not required to
go and do likewise – this is the point: that Christ accomplished what we cannot. You are not required to have any special "feeling" about
what's taken place. Be happy. Be numb. Be dubious…whatever. You cannot help how you feel.
All you are asked to do is decide.
The African Church Father Tertullian is remembered for saying, "I believe because it is outrageous."
And so it is. A virgin birth. All of divinity and humanity packed into one holy being. A miracle-filled life. An impossibly lonely and cruel
death. A resurrection from the dead. It is outrageous. It is more than any human could conceive or interpret – let alone understand…
Do you believe it?
Robert Capon writes about the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection:
Your trust in it is your only contribution to it. All the rest of its reality is simply a free gift from the [One] who loves you. Faith – not fidelity
but simple trust, not "good faith" but plain belief - is all you need. Trust him.
When you have done that, you are living the life of grace.
No matter what happens to you in the course of that trusting – no matter how many waverings you may have, no matter how many suspicions
you may have … [just] believe simply that Somebody Else, by his death and resurrection, has made it all right, and … say thank you and shut
up.
It is enough to stake a claim in this one, bare and outrageous fact. It is enough to believe that Christ died, and was buried, and on the third day
rose again.
Beloved - the decision is yours, and no one else can make it for you. It is Saturday March 30, 2013. Christ is Risen. Do you believe?
+ J.S. Barker
Page 7
Lauds In the predawn dark, the breeze still, settled, come the first bird-songs, cardinal calls that ring in the unmoving air, robins burbling in the pasture, in the open spaces beside the scrub where pheasants shelter, whose half-choked alarms punctuate the dark. This builds, rising and cresting like the outflowing foam that rushes and folds before the schooner’s prow on seas deep and obscure as this dusk before dawn. Our window cracked in early spring’s advent, the cats assemble on the cedar chest to peer and survey, jaws chattering with excitement, rotating the furry radar of their softly rounded ears while below the dogs begin to stir, elbows thumping on the slick and hollow tiles they’ve warmed all night. We lie here listening, preferring not to rise but to resist while the waves wash over us, louder for the darkness, building in the field, the blue spruce outside the window, the meadow where rabbits run their course on the serpentine trail I mow all summer among the coneflowers and coreopsis, loosestrife and milkweed, the thistle I should harrow, but don’t. We lie still, wrapping ourselves after sleep in these robes of bird-song against the day that will wear, will strip them away, hide them in common light, sounds of custom, that lead us nearly to forget, to hear them no more, until they revolve upon the hungry, needful ear in tomorrow’s dun predawn. Stephen Behrendt Stephen Behrendt is a poet and scholar of Romanticism at UNL. Growing up in northeastern Wisconsin, he acquired a love of the music of language along with his affection for the natural world. His lifelong devotion to Romanticism has only deepened his convictions about the interconnectedness of all things, and about the need we all share to observe closely and carefully the world around us and within, to learn what we can from those observations, and to share what insights may come from the process.
Editor’s Note: Ted Kooser, the former Poet Laureate of the U.S., chooses a poem for each issue of the NE Episcopalian. Ted worships at St. Andrew’s Seward.
Deacon Cheryl Harris Honored
When the Association of Episcopal
Deacons Assembly gathers in
Williamsburg, Virginia, in June, Deacon
Cheryl Harris will be one of the deacons
recognized at the Stephen’s Recognition
Liturgy. This ceremony recognizes
deacons throughout the Episcopal
Church whose diaconal service is
exemplary of the deacon’s call to serve
others in the name of Christ and to bring
the needs, hopes, and concerns to the
Church.
While serving faithfully at St. Matthew’s
in Alliance and Calvary in Hyannis,
Deacon Harris has led the work of the
Alliance Mission Store. The store has
grown to a self-sustaining program that
resells clothing, furniture, household
items, and toys and games at very low
prices. The Alliance Mission Store now
makes grants to local programs that
serve people in need in the community.
Deacon Harris has also been a leader in
the development of a backpack program
in the Nebraska panhandle that provides
healthy meals and snacks for
schoolchildren when school is not in
session.
The Diocese of Nebraska is delighted
that Deacon Cheryl Harris’s work in the
church and the world is being recognized
by the Association of Episcopal
Deacons.
Cowboy Camino
Who: High School Students 9th-12th
Grades
What: Camping Retreat filled with friends
and fun!
When: June 6th-9th
Where: Cowboy Trail starting in Norfolk,
ending in Basset
Why: To take a beautiful, faithful, journey
through Nebraska with God!
How: Register at www.episcopal-ne.org
Look up, and see the opportunity God has given you. How often our vision becomes obscured by our many worries, they surround us like a dense forest, making it easy to lose our way. Life seems a burden. We drift among the endless details, weighted down with the bits and pieces of daily care. Look up, look out, look beyond to discover a path out of the woods. God opens the door to the cage, renews our vision, gives us a new way to start fresh with a clear mind and an open heart. Hear the bell ringing in the distance. Feel the breeze. Look up. Bishop Stephen Charleston
Page 8
By the Rev. Kim Roberts
When my husband Bill and I made
plans to attend the regional
Confirmation service April 13 at Trinity
Cathedral in Omaha, we felt more than
the usual excitement. Our friend Teresa
Houser, whom we’d met through Bible
Study, had invited us to be presenters
for her reception into the Episcopal
Church. We felt honored and excited by
her invitation. Of course we would be
there—wouldn’t miss it!
It seemed to me that the ceremony was
everything it should have been. The
people of the diocese were able to gather
at their cathedral to celebrate with their
bishop an important rite of passage for
some of our friends and family. There
was good and joyful fellowship, beautiful
ceremony, great preaching, incredible
music, and shared ministry.
The people presented for Confirmation
were Isabelle Sandra Keck Adcock,
Debrenee Adkisson, Isabella Amador,
Kayleigh Baker, Alicia Edwards, Kelsey
Lawrence Conrad, Sarah Lawrence
Conrad, Audrey Anne Coonce, Hannah
Marie Coonce, James Harry Hallgren,
Jack Long, Matthew Ludwig, Chris
Mattson, Doug Mertes, Michele Tetreault
-Mertes, Rebecca Messineo, Jennifer
Pasko, Andrew Reel, Gabe Tondervan,
Miles Wilkins, Schuler Wilson, and Joan
Wood. The people presented for
Reception were Michael Duffy and
Teresa Houser.
The delight we saw in our friend’s face
was multiplied in the faces of every
participant as well as in those who came
to show support. My hope is that there
will be many more such combined
celebrations. It is a blessed event when
the larger church family gathers together
for a joyous occasion.
Regional Confirmation: A Special Occasion
(Left to right) Michael Duffy of Trinity Cathedral; Teresa
Houser of Trinity Cathedral; the Right Reverend J. Scott
Barker, Bishop of Nebraska; Matt Grajeda, finance of
Debrenée Adkisson; Debrenée Adkission of Trinity
Cathedral; and the Very Reverend Joan Pritcher, Dean in the
Interim at Trinity Cathedral.
This service brought 24 people – along
with their friends, families and
supporters –from five churches in
eastern Nebraska: Holy Trinity in
Lincoln, Holy Spirit in Bellevue and St.
Andrews, St. Augustine of Canterbury
and Trinity Cathedral, all in Omaha. The
Right Rev. J. Scott Barker would be
present to lay hands on them all and
celebrate a Eucharist.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love
(Left to right) The Ven. Jim Visger, Archdeacon,
The Rt. Rev. J. Scott Barker, Bishop of Nebraska,
the confirmand is James Hallgren, with his brother, Henry,
in the background, his mother, Elizabeth, and Rev. John
Schaefer, Rector of St. Andrew's.
Page 9
Spiritual __ __ I set aside 15-20 minutes each day for prayer or meditation.
__ __ I participate in regular spiritual rituals with people who share my
beliefs.
__ __ I accept my limitations and inadequacies without embarrassment or
apology.
__ __ I keep the purpose of my life clearly in mind letting it guide my
goal setting & decisions.
__ __ I regularly offer my time and possessions in service to others.
__ __ I am sensitive to ultimate truths and the spiritual dimension of life
__ __ I readily forgive myself and others.
___ YES
Count up all the “yes” responses for each category and total the final count
from the 28 questions…
Excellent: Score of 24-28 count means your habits are enhancing your
health.
Average: Score of 16-23 means you are trying but there is room for
improvement.
Poor: Score of below 16 means the quality of your health is probably
diminished by your habits.
In which areas are your habits an asset? In which areas are your habits a
liability? In which areas would you like to make changes? Lastly, which
particular habits would you like to modify?
Have a Healthy and Blessed Day!
- The Rev. Dn. Stephanie Ulrich, RN, SD
Minister of Health, All Saints Omaha
Ah, Spring!...The Vernal Equinox…when days
and nights are approximately equal everywhere
and the Sun rises and sets due east and west in the Northern
Hemisphere. This season heralds in warming temperatures,
increasing daylight, and the rebirth of flora and fauna. It can also
be a time for renewal and restoration for each of us as we
continue to celebrate the Easter season daily in our personal lives
and with others. This short exercise is offered up as a “little
resurrection” to remind and help us increase our awareness as we
celebrate our own time of rebirth to a more healthy and whole
relationship with God, self and others! Balancing our lives is
hard to juggle at times and can be a real struggle…but it is never
boring. Good people of this diocese! Are we ready to meet the
health and wellness challenge?
This Health Habit Inventory comes from The Caring Question ©
1983 Augsburg Publishing House (reproduced with permission)
and as relevant today as when initially written.
Yes No
__ __ Physical
__ __ I participate regularly (3X /week or more) in a vigorous
physical exercise program.
__ __ I eat a well-balanced diet.
__ __ My weight is within 10 lbs. of the ideal weight for my
height.
__ __ My alcohol consumption is seven drinks (shot, beer, or
glass of wine) or fewer per week.
__ __ I always wear by seat belt.
__ __ I do not smoke cigarettes, cigars or a pipe.
__ __ I generally get adequate and satisfying sleep.
___ YES
Mental __ __ I seldom experience periods of depression.
__ __ I generally face up to problems and cope with change
effectively.
__ __ I worry very little about future possibilities or things I
can’t change.
__ __ I laugh several times a day and usually fit “play” into my
schedule.
__ __ I am curious and always on the lookout for new learning.
__ __ I maintain a realistic and basically positive self-image.
__ __ I choose to feel confident and optimistic.
___YES
Relational
__ __ I seek help and support when I need it.
__ __ I have at least one friend with whom I can share almost
anything.
__ __ I have nourishing and intimate relationships with family
and/or friends.
__ __ I experience & express a wide range of emotions
responding appropriately to others feelings.
__ __ Each day includes comfortable and stimulating interaction
with others, frequently new persons.
__ __ I solicit and accept feedback from others.
__ __ I stick up for myself and when it is necessary and
appropriate.
___ YES
Health & Wellness Corner
Resurrection The Revelation of What Was Always True
In the Risen Christ, God reveals the final state of all
reality. God forbids us to accept “as-it-is” in favor of
“what-God’s-love-can-make-it.” To believe in
Resurrection means to cross limits and transcend
boundaries. Because of the promise of the
Resurrection of Jesus we realistically can believe that
tomorrow can be better than today. We are not bound
by any past. There is a future that is created by God,
and much bigger than our own efforts.
We should not just believe in some kind of survival or
immortality or just “life after death”—but Resurrection,
an utterly new creation, a transformation into Love
that is promised as something that can happen in this
world and is God’s final chapter for all of history. That
is why a true Christian has to be an optimist. In fact, if
you are not an optimist, you haven’t got it yet.
Richard Rohr
Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations
Page 10
South Sudan Mission Summer 2013
Progress
Now that there is a peace
agreement with North Sudan, I am
frequently asked if I see any
progress in the communities and
villages of Twic East. I can say
conditions are improving in
certain areas. There are still tribal
conflicts and cattle raids by
different tribes, however the
frequency appears to be
diminishing.
For example, this past year in
Maar Village the headquarters for
the Episcopal Diocese of Twic
East, we have seen two significant
new additions to the community.
There is now a Primary Health
Care Clinic (PHCC) in Maar. The
clinic project was initiated by the
South Sudan Health Care
Organization (SSHCO) and the
Pakeer Payam International
Community Organization
(PPCO). It is now available for
other organizations and NGO’s
for their use as well.
In the past year there was the
construction and installation of an
Internet Café near the church
compound in Maar.
Communications are very limited
in Twic East, especially in the
southern area of the Diocese. This
will allow for internet and e-mail
access from Maar to the rest of
South Sudan. The facility was
funded by a Trinity Wall Street
grant.
We have wired funds from All
Saints Omaha and Nets for Nets
Elkhorn for a new water well at
the Maar church compound. This
will be a substantial improvement
for the Twic East Diocese
Headquarters day to day
operation. Clean drinking water
will then be readily available for
use at the compound.
Recently announced by the
Episcopal Province of Sudan is
the proposed construction of a
Primary Health Care Clinic
(PHCC) in Wangulei. This Clinic
will be located adjacent to our
Girls Middle School. This should
be an asset and be beneficial to
the school and of course the local
villages near the Clinic.
Forward Mission Planning
The January 2013 Mission to
Twic East was a joint effort
between Nebraska Diocese and
Mississippi Diocese. Mother Lara
Shine and I joined up with four
Missioners from the Mississippi
Diocese On this trip the
Mississippi Diocese included two
medical physicians in their
mission group.
It is the wishes of Bishop Ezekiel
that in the future for
organizational purposes, the
Mississippi Diocese coordinate
medical mission personnel and
the Nebraska Diocese focus on
education and agriculture. In
other words Mississippi will
coordinate medical mission
logistics as much as possible and
Nebraska will coordinate
education and agriculture
projects.
As you can realize, South Sudan
is in extremely poor condition in
all aspects of medical care,
education, agriculture, and
infrastructure, so mission work
and administration is in the
infancy stage. We are taking baby
steps at this point in addressing
what we can do as the Diocese of
Nebraska to aid and assist the
people of Twic East.
We are presently assessing what
our next activities will be. We are
looking at a possible mission trip
in January 2014 along with what
the potential projects will be for
Twic East Diocese for the coming
year. There are so many needs we
have to step away to determine
which areas of need to address.
Possible projects for the coming
year are not very different from
the past, however we are looking
at the possibility of investigating
the use of micro loans along with
furnishing one or two treadle
sewing machines. This project
would allow for the local
community to produce items for
sale locally at the church store.
South Sudan is in a very dynamic
and complex time in it’s infancy
as a sovereign nation.
Reconstruction from 50 years of
war is going to continue to be
challenging politically as well as
practically. They are a very
broken country, however they
have the resolve to overcome the
many obstacles they face as a
new nation.
Bishop Ezekiel’s Son Paul
We ask everyone to please
remember Paul Telar in your
prayers. He is only 5 years old
and has a brain tumor which will
require very difficult and
expensive specialized surgery.
Paul is the son of Bishop Ezekiel
and wife Rebecca. Bishop
Ezekiel is considering travel to
the U.S.A. in May or June this
year to raise funds for the very
expensive medical expense they
will incur for his surgery.
If you have any questions about
our experiences or want to know
how you can help the people of
Twic East, please contact Lara
Shine or Jim Yeates at
Nhialic abi weh thiei
(God be with you),
Jim Yeates
Jim Yeates is one of the chairs of
the Diocese of Nebraska's Global
Mission Ministry Team, his focus
is on our partnership with the
Diocese of Twic East in South
Sudan . Bicycle assembly with UTO-provided grant
Youth group welcoming the missioners to the village of Maar
Page 11
Camp Comeca 2013
Co-directors Kourtney Lewis
and Noelle Ptomey
The Road to Rosebud
Christmas is just around the
corner!
That's right, we said Christmas.
Christmas in July at Camp
Comeca, that is!
For 2013, we're combining two
of the year's best events --
Christmas and Camp -- into one
fun & faith-filled experience!
We'll do all the usual camp stuff,
archery, bonfires, zip-lines,
canoeing, challenge course,
talent show, crafts and hiking,
but we also going to be adding in
some fun seasonal events such as
Christmas Photo booth, Reindeer
games, a Christmas pageant and
so much more! During our
spiritual rotation, campers will
be exploring our theme of
EMMANUEL: God With Us,
where we'll learn about the gift
of God's presence.
Camp is for youth entering 4th -
12th grades and will be held at
beautiful Camp Comeca, just
south of Cozad, Ne.
Registration is now open for this
great event Follow the link to
the Diocesan camp site to learn
more (check out our theme
nights on the Final Things to
Know page) and to register click
on the link at the bottom of this
page.
One special note about
Transportation. We are working
hard to offer some
transportation options again for
camp this year. We learned a lot
from this process last year and
now know that in order to make
this happen, we need two things
from you. #1 is your early
commitment to the
transportation option and #2 is
your willingness to pay the
round trip fee (even if you just
need it for one way).
When you are in the process of
registering your camper(s),
please select the transportation
option that will work best for
you. Transportation is
COMPLETELY dependent on
the number of passengers who
commit to paying an additional
fee for this option. This means,
even if you just want
transportation one way, you still
pay the same amount for the
round trip fare. Once
registration is underway, we will
know whether or not, we can
make this option a reality.
We know that you'll have many
options while making your
summer plans, we hope and
pray you'll give your children
the gift of summer camp.
Over the last four years, youth
and adults from across the
Diocese of Nebraska have
converged on St. John's
Episcopal Church in Valentine,
NE for a week long youth
outreach project working on the
Rosebud Indian Reservation.
While there, we offer meals,
fellowship, and Vacation Bible
School to kids between the ages
of 5 and 15 and we complete
various service projects in and
around the Church of Jesus (the
oldest Episcopal Church on the
Rosebud Reservation).
We are going to do it again!!!
Because building and
maintaining relationships is such
an important part of what we do,
many of our youth (and adults)
return year after year to renew
the relationships started during
previous visits. It is also why we
garner such support from the
people of St. John's in
Valentine. So, in 2013, we will
once again journey along The
Road to Rosebud (and
Valentine) between June 16th
and June 21st. This trip is open
to all youth in our diocese 12
years old and older. Youth are
encouraged to bring a friend.
Would you like to register for
this trip?
Registration for the 2013 trip to
Rosebud opens April 22, 2013.
The cost remains $250 per youth
participant. This includes
transportation, food, supplies,
and (depending on weather)
tubing down a portion of the
Niobrara River, or some other
group event, on the last day of
our trip.
If you would like to know more
about this outreach program
check out the blogs for previous
years, email Fr. Tom Jones at
[email protected], or call
Fr. Tom at (402) 291-7732.
Camp Comeca 2013
Ascension
Ascension Day follows the high drama of Holy Week. Jesus says to his followers, “Stay here. Wait. Wait until you have been clothed with power.” Why the wait? God is waiting for us to say “yes” with our own lives: our read-iness or at least our willingness to co-operate with God for what God has in mind for our own lives
Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE
The stained glass windows at Christ Church in Sidney are
particularly beautiful and historic. The "Western Nebraska"
window pictured here depicts a native American man in
ceremonial headdress, and a bundle of wheat,
equally symbolic of God's abundant provision
for early settlers and behind that, Christ's body
given for the world.
Out & About with Bishop Barker
Will you take the challenge?