Fr. Harrison's Letter for July 1, 2018

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Dear Hearts,
 
No need to make breakfast at home this Sunday, July 1!  Bring your breakfast appetite to worship with you on Sunday morning!  Our InReach Committee is hosting another of their terrific French toast, sausage and bacon, fruit and juice breakfasts between Sunday's services.  So, if you are an 8 o'clocker plan to stay after, and if you're a 10 o'clocker plan to come early.  You'll be able to get caught up with friends from the other service.
 
Our Sunday worship will include the Collect for Independence Day in anticipation of July 4th.  The two versions are in the Prayer Book on pages 190 and 242.  Here's the latter:

Lord God Almighty, in whose name
the founders of this country won liberty
for themselves and for us,
and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: 
Grant that we and all of the people of this land
may have grace to maintain our liberties
in righteousness and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.  Amen. 

Wherever, and however, you celebrate the 4th, I hope your day will include such a prayer of gratitude for, and commitment to, our nation's founding principles.
 
The situation of migrating parents and their children, and unaccompanied children, fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking refuge on the southern border of the United States, continues to command public attention.  Given reports that family separation may be continuing in some places, here's a joint statement from our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and other Catholic and Protestant leaders.  Our own bishops, +Ian Douglas and +Laura Ahrens issued their own letter on family immigration; you can find it here.   
 
The Episcopal Church’s General Convention will gather in Austin Texas July 5-13 to organize for the Church’s witness, ministry, and common life.  Like our own Annual Parish Meeting, or own Annual Diocesan Convention, General Convention includes elections, budgets, policy-making and setting the rules (i.e. canons or bylaws) that govern the life we share, and the worship and witness we offer as a Church. One key difference is that General Convention does not meet annually, but once every three years; good thing, since it lasts for nine days!
 
The General Convention sits in two houses – the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, drawn from each of the Church’s 100 dioceses within the United States, plus the dozen or more dioceses in other countries (e.g. Haiti, Ecuador, Taiwan, etc.).  Dioceses may send as many as four deputies, plus as many alternates, equally divided between clergy and laity. 
 
One never knows what kind of coverage General Convention will receive in the popular press.  Although the Church’s media office provides reporters with ample guides to help them understand the Episcopal Church, reporting is sometimes less than thorough.  For example, in reports on the recent royal wedding, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was often reported as being a bishop from Chicago; while he was born outside Chicago, Bishop Curry grew up and was sponsored for ordination in western New York; he served parishes in North Carolina, Ohio and Maryland prior to becoming Bishop of North Carolina.  He was elected Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church in 2015. All that information was readily available to the press, but it was easier to report that he was a bishop from Chicago.  So, if you read or hear a report that sounds odd, it may well be wrong.
 
This 79th gathering will likely reflect the issues of our day, as well as concerns for the Church’s own life:  Immigration policy and practice, sexual harassment – including the #metoo movement, racial reconciliation -- creating a Beloved Community, care of Creation, and preventing gun violence, all effect how the Church organizes for ministry, how we worship, and how we order our common life as the Church.  Karin Hamilton, the Episcopal Church in Connecticut’s (ECCT) canon for mission communication, has already begun to report on General Convention.  If you already receive ECCT e-newsletters, you have already received Karin’s two pre-convention reports.  If you haven’t and would like to get the straight scoop from the inside, with a special emphasis on things of interest to CT Episcopalians, then you will want to subscribe by clicking here;   mark "General Convention 2018" at the bottom of the page.
 
Let us keep General Convention in our prayers -- for faithfulness in its deliberations, and safety in travel and its gatherings.
 
Hope to see many of you in morning coolness for Sunday breakfast!
In faith, hope and love,
Harrison+
YFNR

p.s.: We have at least two -- Mark McNamara and Erik Mastalerz -- returning from a Pilgrimage Fellowship NYC Mission, and three -- Keelyn Ervin, Erik again, and mentor Page Pelphrey -- departing for the ECCT Youth Mission in the Dominican Republic this weekend.  Let's give thanks for their commitment to serving our neighbors, and pray for their safe travel.