Faithlines Online
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Episcopal Church Women (ECW)
www.nationalecw.org
Your
National ECW Board is asking all Episcopal Church Women
throughout the nine provinces to come together and work
as the “hands and feet of Christ” by raising funds to
build a home in the City of New Orleans for a family.
“The cost of a Jericho Road house is $110,000” said
Bradford M. Powers, Executive Director of Jericho Road.
This
National project emanates from the Social Justice
Committee and specifically from our ERD Representative
Mary Ann Ransom’s attendance at their latest meeting
which was held in the Katrina affected areas of the Gulf
Coast. All Episcopal Church Women are encouraged to
participate. A generous $500 donation was given by one
of the National Board members to kick off the project.
If you wish to contribute to this fund and/or find out
more about this National ECW project, please go to our
website
www.nationalecw.org and click on ECW Jericho
House Project and download a donation form and
other information. Checks can be made payable to
Domestic & Foreign Missionary Society and just mark “ECW
Jericho House Project” and mail to Elizabeth Campbell,
ECW National Treasurer, 12191 Nemo Road, Nemo, SD 57759.
A Need is
Identified
An
Organization Has Become Engaged
A Dream
Is Realized
And this
is just the Beginning…
Come Join
Us and Be a Part of this National ECW Project!
For
further information contact:
Kay H.
Meyer, National ECW President, 500 Valley View Dr., Fort
Valley, GA 31030
Phone:
478-825-7779 or Email: kayhmeyer@aol.com
Deborah
Anderson, Social Justice Chair, 2 Parkview Dr., New
Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone:
732-668-2170 or Email: andersonecwdb@aol.com
NATIONAL
ECW ASKS ALL ECWS TO HELP RAISE FUNDS FOR “ECW JERICHO
HOUSE PROJECT” IN NEW ORLEANS
Contact:
Mary Ann Ransom
mransom1@bellsouth.net
828.625.8338
Toll-Free phone number: 1-877-628-5329
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HIGHLIGHTING
OUR
SEMINARIANS
Debbie Noonan
I am from Grace St. Paul's in Tucson.
I am currently in my second semester at Yale
Divinity School and am studying the Old Testament,
Medieval Theology, the History of the Reformation
and Christianity and Culture. I live at the
Berkeley House, the Episcopal Student Center, and
help cook dinner for 125 people after the weekly
community Eucharist. I also enjoy singing in the
Gospel Choir at the ecumenical chapel. Thank you
for your prayers!
Debbie Noonan, 363 Saint Ronan St.,
New Haven, CT 06511
Anglican Tradition and Life
By Debra Asis
Seminarian, Church Divinity
School of the Pacific
Every Tuesday afternoon people from all walks of
life arrived early to secure a seat in Bill
Countryman’s class, “Anglican Tradition and Life.”
Countryman, as gracious as he is wise, allowed the
limits of his class roster to expand (well beyond
seating capacity) to welcome the lawyer and the
philanthropist, the long time graduate and the opera
singer, the septuagenarians and the ministers of
other denominations as well as all the first year
CDSP seminarians. To say his class was popular is
an utter understatement.
A “tradent” is a person who passes tradition along
making it accessible, interesting and relevant to
the listeners. Following his opening prayer, this
was the first thing Countryman said to the class. At
the time I did not grasp that he was telling us
exactly who he is (a tradent) and what he intended
to do for the next sixteen weeks. Countryman was as
likely to lapse into Gaelic (one of the languages in
which he is fluent) as to refer to a web blog or put
us in small groups to engage a George Herbert poem.
His lectures flowed seamlessly from explanations of
the history of the Church of England to current
issues in the Anglican Communion to the complex
weaving of voices in canticles composed for morning
and evening prayer. Every lecture was punctuated
with church music played twice; one time to listen,
one time to hear.
Reflecting on what it means to be Anglican,
Countryman offered, “ we are a community of people
who worship together, with appreciation of past,
with no doctrine peculiarly our own.....therefore
not an ism.” To be Anglican is to be in community,
community defined by it’s center not with
boundaries. For Countryman, the center is palpable
though perhaps elusive. It is more an ethos - or
community temperament- that takes us to the
question, “What is my (our) relationship with God?”
and how does that call me (us) to act within a
particular context? As Anglicans we are always
looking to discern how God is working with us in the
gospel and in the particular moment in the world in
which God has placed us. We bring the gospel to the
reality of the world as it is, and that is a very
messy enterprise.
At the center of Anglican tradition and life is
Jesus and the grace of God. By God’s grace we
receive the three gifts of scripture, tradition and
reason. These three gifts are in ongoing
conversation with each other and point to God’s
living presence and action. Countryman concludes;
“any tradition that is fixed is not a tradition any
more, it is an artifact.” Once inside a museum the
rightful question is, “How then shall we encounter
God?”
Ever priest and ever elegant, Bill Countryman ended
the semester serving the class high tea. Ever
students, we offered him a rather rustic and
worthily cracked three-legged stool.
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Message from the President
Getting folks together.
How do we get folks to come together and
talk with us? Do we have anything in common? How do we
find out if we have anything in common?
The answers to these questions and more
we will never know if we do not come together and talk.
That is what the Episcopal Church Women’s
organization is about. A place where all women, Lay and
Clergy, can come together and talk about our needs and
our offerings.
On the parish level ladies come together
and share stories and talk about how they can help in
their community. At The Regional level, ladies of the
region come together and share stories from parish to
parish. At The Diocesan level, your area representatives
or you, come to Diocesan Convention and share your
stories with others in the Diocese. At these meetings
you get ideas to take back to your parishes and the
process starts all over again. This increases
information and data needed to enhance our knowledge on
issues that affect all of us.
This is what ECW is about. It is not
about how much we make on the Rummage sale, but how are
we using our gifts to better our communities.
It is about how we the Women of the
parishes large and small come together and talk about
our needs, and the needs of others around us.
Your Servant in
Christ,
Winifrid Follett
President ECW
Diocese of Arizona
PH: 928-639-3418
Cell:
928-274-1561
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Vice- President’s Blog
By
Marilyn
Hedges
In October of 2007, shortly after
being elected the new Diocese of Arizona Episcopal
Church Women’s vice-president, I went as your delegate
to the Province 8 Women’s Ministries Retreat. This was a
great honor for me to be the Arizona representative to
this very special learning experience. The women
attending this conference at Mercy Center in Burlingame,
Ca came from all the western states including 2 from
Hawaii.
The theme was “We are all women
moving together in our various ways helping one another
in whatever way that we can.” This is what women’s
ministries are all about. Caring, sharing, listening,
giving, and just being there for one another. Various
names can be given to our individual groups but we all
have one common denominator and that is being a woman in
the Episcopal Church.
This is the message that Winnie, your AZ
ECW President and myself want to spread here in Arizona.
As is currently being expressed in
the political world, we need change! Each generation has
different wants, needs, and expectations. What our
grandmothers needed might not be what our granddaughters
need. We need to consider these new concepts but also to
not forget the past ones. Compromise is also change.
Each group needs to adapt to what currently meets the
expectations of their members.
We are all children of God, which
unites us as one. We are all women in the Episcopal
Church, which also unites us as one. Caring, sharing,
listening, giving, helping one another, and then being
able to go out into the world to spread the Good News by
doing the same to others. This is Episcopal Church
Women.
If you would like me to share some
of the information, I have about Women’s Ministries at
one of your gatherings please let me know. I would like
to come and just chat as we get to know one another.
Let’s
raise some Friends!
Let’s
grow in Christ together!
Marilyn
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Obituary
Elizabeth Finn
It's with great sadness I inform you
of the death of former Diocesan Directress, Elizabeth
Finn.
Elizabeth was also a former
directress of the St. Mark's, Mesa altar guild, Diocesan
Directress during the 1991 Phoenix General Convention,
and also served a term as Province VIII representative
on the National Altar Guild Association Board.
She moved from Mesa to Sun City
several years ago and was a member of my guild here at
All Saints of the Desert.
According to Barbara Gent's history
of the National Altar Guild Association, Elizabeth was
the Diocesan Directress who first implemented the "table
Eucharists" which are now routine at General
Conventions-an additional challenge, which she handled
with aplomb, at an already difficult time.
Elizabeth was friend, inspiration and
mentor to many altar guild members in this Diocese.
Please advise your membership of her death and keep her
and her family in your prayers.
Blessings, Connie Castillo
Elizabeth Finn was a former Diocesan
Altar Guild Directress, Province VIII representative on
the National Altar Guild Association Board, and member
of the Diocesan (AZ) ECW Board. She died in Sun City on
January 8, 2008 from complications of kidney and heart
disease. She was 93.
Elizabeth's term as Diocesan Altar
Guild Directress coincided with the 1991 General
Convention held in Phoenix, and she was responsible for
organizing all altar guild duties for the many
convention Eucharists. As Diocesan Directress she served
a term on the ECW Board and was also an ECW Central Area
Representative for another term.
She was a member of St. Mark's, Mesa
for 17 years and altar guild directress there. After her
move to Sun City in the mid-1990's, she served on the
All Saints of the Desert altar guild and founded that
parish's DOK chapter.
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Attention all parish UTO directors.
Marianne Prather has resigned as Diocesan
UTO director for personnel reasons. Please send any
questions and or correspondence to Marilyn Hedges your
Vice President until we get someone to fill this
position.
If anyone
would like to join our team in this or any other
position please contact any of our board members.
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What is
Going on Around the Diocese
St. Francis-in-the-Valley
is campaigning to adopt "green" policies, believing that
as faithful stewards of God's creation, we have an
obligation to save our planet for future generations.
Recently we installed energy efficient light bulbs in
the sanctuary and other areas of the facility. The bulbs
were purchased and donated by members of the parish. At
our recent ECW Home Tour, we saved gasoline by driving
carloads of guests to the homes on the tour.
We are happy to have our new rector, Rev. Terri
Pilarski, to support the work of our ECW. She attended
the Southern Area Spring Convention meeting at St.
Andrew's in Nogales on Saturday, April 12.
Also in attendance were Deacon Marge Perry and 6
women from our parish. St. Andrews provided those in
attendance with a delicious continental breakfast
followed by a Eucharist service with special music by
women of the parish. Following the service, President
Winifred Follett presided over the business meeting.
For the program, the women of St. Andrews presented a
moving and informative program on St. Andrew's
Children's Clinic. Our meeting culminated with
a luncheon of tossed salad, chicken and broccoli
casserole, and dessert, prepared by the women of St.
Andrew's ECW.
All who attended this convention enjoyed a beautiful
day renewing acquaintances and sharing experiences with
each other.
Respectfully Submitted, Madeleine Glaser
So. Area Rep.
St.
Stephen's, Sierra Vista,
women prepared a lunch for the Salvation Army, held a
rummage sale, prepared and served a funeral reception,
attended the Southern Area Spring Gathering in Nogales,
and are planning a luncheon and a baby shower. The UTO
Ingathering will take place in May. The money from the
rummage sale will go to give ½ scholarships to all
children from St. Stephen's to go to the Diocesan camp
in Prescott, plus buy a new vacuum cleaner for the Altar
Guild.
It will also help to provide Mother's Day
goodies for the mothers who bring their children to St.
Andrew's, Nogales, children's clinic. Peace, Dinah
McCreery
St.
Paul’s, Payson
The
Ladies of St. Paul’s are one busy group they are raising
to send kids to camp this summer, with October fest and
other raisings. They help with presents for prison kids;
this is a project to give something to kids whose
parents are in prison that would not get anything from
their parents otherwise.
