By Canon Barbie O. Bach, Diocese of NJ

“Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations: you shall be called the repairer of the breach” – Isaiah 58:12.

Approximately 30 members of the Diocese of New Jersey supported the Reparations movement on Juneteenth at a march and rally at Newark City Hall, urging the state senate and legislative assembly to vote on proposed bills to establish a task force to study reparations necessary for the lasting effects of slavery.  Two priests of the Diocese of New Jersey held a banner at the rally, and Bishop Chip Stokes spoke among the opening leaders: “After more than 400 years of brutal history and oppression it is time for us as a state and a nation to face the enduring deep and living scars of slavery and take meaningful steps toward reparative justice.”  In the fall, the diocese’s busy Reparations Task Force will host a second informative webinar and a service at Trinity Cathedral for the entire diocese to confess woeful sins of injustice and reveal hidden hurtful truths of the past.

The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe has just been awarded a seed grant at the June Executive Council meeting.  This was one of thirty grants awarded at that meeting.  See what is planned with this exciting venture!

​The Setting. Like churches everywhere, the year of pandemic—”Covidtide”—has dramatically affected the European part of the Episcopal Church. At the same time, we have recognized both opportunity and blessing in the creativity, innovation, and resilience of our communities. The emergence of the virtual church has for us not only been risky experiment—it has been a liberation from the usual, iron-clad limitations of geography on the possibility of ministry.

The Convocation of Episcopal Churches is a gathering of 21 Episcopal communities spread out over a space equaling the distance between Boston and Phoenix. Across the years from our beginnings in 1814 to the moment before Covid arrived, the single most powerful limiting factor on our growth was locating a sufficient number of interested people in a given geographic location to gather for worship and fellowship. The “opening of the virtual door” has broken down that fundamental barrier to growth—and fostered the emergence of new Episcopal communities, gathered around different organizing principles.

The Opportunity. Over the past year we have witnessed, and then encouraged, the emergence of new communities gathered around ideas other than geography—notably, a shared language or a shared experience, especially experiences that have limited participation in the life of the church (caring for a spouse or partner at home, being a refugee in a major European city, being a member of a group historically unwelcome and disenfranchised in a church of first faith). With support from a grant focused on the development of Virtual Missions, the Convocation’s Committee on Mission Congregations has undertaken an initiative to foster the intentional planting of “virtual missions” with a European base and identity, focusing in the first instance on language-area communities.

The Vision. On the horizon we see the moment of emergence from the limitations and lockdowns of Covidtide, and the challenge of regathering the physical church. In the Convocation, we are speaking of this as our “Third Isaiah Moment”—a time to bestir ourselves from the routines and comforts we have developed in this time of exile, and to return to the task of rebuilding the (metaphorical) temple.

​There is a parallel to this work in the virtual missions we’ve nurtured. In a reverse of the pattern of established congregations, our virtual missions now face the challenge of inventing a path from the virtual to the physical. We are blessed that in this moment we have identified a leadership team and of both ordained and lay folks in three of our language-area missions. Now is the moment in which we need to provide these teams with the resources and support they need to lead their communities on a path that will link virtual beginnings with physical gatherings, establishing a model of hybridity that we believe future missions will follow

​​This is a three year program with the intent of settiung up six mssions.  The Francophone Mission is planned for two communities, the German Mission is planned for three and the Hispanophone Mission is planned for one community. Each community will have its own missioner as well as a Zoom and OneL license.  In addition to the grant funding received from the Episcopal Church, the Convocation will be providing more than matching funds to make this work.  It is, of course, hoped that there will be volunteer contributions.  This project began in April of 2021 is is slated to be completed im March of 2024.  Way to go, Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe!

From the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe:
Our Episcopal congregation in Tbilisi, Georgia, is a witness against the violence which has been launched against LGBTQ+ persons in the Republic of Georgia. Bishop Mark Edington and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry have issued a statement regarding these persecuted brothers and sisters. (read the ENS article) Please pray for our Tbilisi congregation, for their safety and their continued witness.

I know many are concerned about the Covid-19 crisis in India. Indeed, the world has been watching. I thought I'd share something I'm doing to respond that might be of interest. If anyone has any questions or would like to review and join the effort, feel free to contact me.

I’m an international board member of The Rambo Committee, which supports the Christian Hospital Mungeli (CHM) in the rural and poorest state of Chhattisgarh, known as “The Rice Bowl.” I did some mission work with the hospital and the English grade school there for many months in 2014 and 2015 and have stayed in touch.

What am I doing? It began as simply boosting their social media posts and establishing an online presence for them. I run their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and help with website (not much lately though!) It has morphed into spreading hope, raising money for needed vaccines, and holding Zoom meetings with the new doctors and staff of the hospital. Though a world apart, we work together to raise awareness in the tribal villages surrounding CHM and have generated plans to hold vaccine fairs, similar to how our Diocese of New Jersey has tried to ensure everyone can have access to a vaccine if they choose to have it. Nationally, there has been conflicting information about the efficacy of vaccines and this has done harm, confusing the people. I also learned that while many vaccines are free, those are given from the government to state hospitals and not to rural, mission hospitals. So, we have been working with churches connected to Global Ministries to raise awareness and funding for the COVAX and Remdesivir vaccines.

CHM’s success in fighting Covid has also been due to the availability of Remdesivir, a very expensive treatment. The cost is $60 USD for a single treatment; the average Covid patient requires about 6 treatments at $366 USD. Most patients do not have the ability to pay leaving the hospital to cover this very expensive but crucial drug. CHM has been given government approval to administer the Rapid Antigen test at a cost to the hospital of approximately $4 USD per test. While a Covid vaccine is free, the cost to take it to the most rural areas is not.
 
If you would like to donate to help Christian Hospital Mungeli fight Covid, you may do so knowing 100% of your tax exempt donation to the Rambo Committee will go to providing immediate financial support to CHM.
 
Critical supplies of oxygen also run out in many places across India. CHM can treat many Covid patients a day in their ICU, due in part to having the only oxygen generator in the region, funded by a USAID / ASHA award to Rambo Committee, Inc. A new doctor on staff, Dr. Sapan Kumar, is a Pulmonologist and has been a crucial lifesaver there.
 
So, the little bit that I can do is just that, but oftentimes, I find that those little “drops-in-a-bucket” end up creating a wave of difference in many lives. It’s also a nice thing to simply be connected to a place that is dear to my heart and see the new beginnings forming there out of love for people. Certainly, there are other and larger organizations, but this is what I do.

A Story from Dr. Sapan  The Face of Covid in Rural India
 
This is the story of Mr. Uttam, who is a father of five and was admitted in Christian Hospital Mungeli. He was referred to us with a saturation of 34% on 7 lit/min Oxygen. Mr. Uttam was started on non-invasive ventilation on which he was managed for more than two weeks. Non-invasive ventilation was discontinued once he improved, but after two days, his breathlessness increased. Non-invasive ventilation couldn't be restarted since it has already been used on a sick patient. By the grace of God, after a day we received our first set of BIPAP (a kind of small ventilator). There was a delay in transportation of the machines due to the lockdown and the tropical cyclone but we finally received them just on time for Mr. Uttam. He was soon started on the machine with which he felt much relief. Currently he is improving on BIPAP. We wish him a speedy recovery. The new BIPAP machines are an important part of treatment of moderate and severe Covid patients and we wish to help many more like Mr. Uttam with the machine.
 
We also want to thank all those who have constantly kept us in their prayers without which we wouldn't have been able to do the good deeds.
 
Regards
Dr. Priyamvada and Dr. Sapan

St. Paul’s Community Health Clinic—a ministry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Camden and the Diocese of New Jersey—will receive more than $11,000 in a United Thank Offering (UTO) grant this year.
 
The focus of the granting process this year was “Recovering with Love and Gratitude: An Episcopal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Local Contexts.” UTO Grants are a ministry of the Episcopal Church.
 
“I am deeply grateful to the United Thank Offering for their decision to award a grant in support of the St. Paul’s Camden Community Health Clinic which represents a joint project with the Rutgers School of Nursing,” said the Rt. Rev. William H. Stokes, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey. “This is a ground-breaking project that represents the kind of vital partnership that can have real impact in a community with significant challenges and help us to carry out the mission and ministry that Christ calls all of us to.”
 
In the economically challenged community of Camden, St. Paul’s Church has been working for decades to feed the hungry through its Sunday food programs, serving two hundred people for breakfast and dinner each week. Although the idea for a health clinic was conceived late in 2019 as part of a more holistic approach in meeting the needs of the poor and homeless in downtown Camden, the pandemic and its disproportionate toll on the poor gave it special urgency.
 
Partially funded by a Becoming Beloved Community grant, the clinic—operated in cooperation with the Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden—opened on the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church property in January.
 
“The creation of a health clinic offered our parish a way to meet the most basic health needs of the very poor in our part of the city,” said St. Paul’s rector, the Rev. Z. Mark Smith.
 
UTO Board President Sherri Dietrich said, “Choosing which grant applications to fund and not fund is always difficult, but during this extraordinary time of suffering in the global Covid-19 pandemic we had to prioritize mere survival over thriving. As always, if we’d had more money to grant, we would have been delighted to fund more of the excellent grant projects submitted, so please continue to be thankful and make your thank offerings to UTO.”
 
 The award of $11,065.18 will be used for start-up and continuing costs for the year. This includes durable and single-use supplies, as well as supervision of the nursing students. The grant will also give the parish and the medical community some time to consider how the new space can best be used in a future post-COVID environment.
 
“We are very grateful for the support of UTO, Bishop Stokes, and our partners at the School of Nursing at Rutgers for their belief that we can and should address inequities in access to basic medical care,” said Rev. Smith.

St. Paul’s Church, Sea Cow’s Bay, in the Diocese of the Virgin Islands is a congregation that is small in human resources but with a broad reach. An underpinning belief is that family wellness is an important aspect of Christian charity and a sign of community wellness.

Amid the strenuous impact of COVID-19, members of the Youth Fellowship continue to keep hope alive and have resumed in-person meetings, gathering on the second, third, and fourth Friday of each month.

Youth Fellowship is classified as a safe, sacred space where young people gather and engage in many activities that help to mold them for both the present and the future. The format places youth in the lead, organizing their weekly activities and fundraisers with the support of shadowing leaders.  

Since resuming meetings in January, youth have learned or honed the skill of baking and capitalized on it to produce most of the items for a fundraising bake sale.

The Youth are on the move - to God be the glory!  Great things He has done and will continue to do in the lives of these awesome youth! Stay posted for more wonderful things.

St. Paul's, Sea Cow's Bay has launched a new outreach ministry.  On Saturday, March 6th the congregation delivered soup to 39 people from its newly-launched soup kitchen.  Although some of those receiving were members of the congregation, the majority were from the wider community. The outreach is a collaboration between the Bishop's Committee and the ECW.  Initially, deliveries will be made on the first and third Saturdays of the month, but it is hoped to increase the number of days as soon as is feasible.  Support for the ministry comes from members of the congregation who are invited to make cash or in-kind donations.  Members also contribute by purchasing a bowl of soup, the money for which goes into buying supplies.  One exciting development is that, since the initiative was posted on the Facebook pages of the church and of its vicar and a member, a small local restaurant has expressed an interest in contributing to the effort.

This latest venture is in addition to a pantry which St. Paul's officially launched late last year to assist persons in the community who are food poor.  The pantry formalizes the assistance which the congregation has been giving to a number of individuals and families since the British Virgin Islands was devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.  Their situation has worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in the loss of jobs for some and reduced work hours for others.  St. Paul's, SCB is committed to assisting wherever it can as it lives out its mission of welcome, worship, and service.

The Parish Congregation of St. Peter in St. Croix in the Diocese of the Virgin Islands on Monday March 8th, 2021 celebrated its 51st anniversary as a congregation. Founded in the year 1970, the parish began out of a need to engage and to provide spiritual support for persons residing in the central portion of the island. With two churches situated on what may be considered the further eastern and western areas of the island, St. John and St. Paul respectively, and Holy Cross Episcopal in close proximity to St. Paul, many felt that those persons residing between these congregations were somewhat neglected. The late Fr. David Henry, along with a number of concerned Episcopalians and with the assistance of conscientious donors, joined to begin worshiping in borrowed premises until a suitable plot of land was donated which now houses the beautiful structure!

There are many memories that continue to be cherished by the congregation, which stands at about 180 regular members. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic Covid-19 virus, it was not possible to engage in the type of open activities of celebration that had been envisioned, a repeat of the condition that hampered the 50th anniversary in 2020. However, the resilience and grateful nature of the congregation demanded an observance falling within the protocols and guidelines governing the current situation and a service of Evensong was held in the church building. The Rev. Fr. Alric H. Francis, Sr, conducted the service and, in a brief homily, reminded and challenged the congregation on both the church’s Mission Statement, and Theme.

Mission Statement: "St. Peter Episcopal Church exists to experience the fullness of God's love and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pledge to support individuals of all ages in their relationship with God through ministries of worship, Christian education, youth and adult programs, fellowship, and community outreach!"
Theme: “Moving from maintenance to Mission!”

Members were encouraged to live out the mission statement with an evangelical purpose and approach and to find creative ways of communicating with the community at large, especially during the time of restrictions we are experiencing. In addition, there was a call to pay special focus to people, especially the unchurched, the seniors, and youth, thus avoiding paying too much attention to maintaining the physical buildings and neglecting our mission to the masses.

The Vestry and congregation give thanks to God for his unfailing love, blessings, and guidance, and pledge to trust Him for continued sustenance in the years ahead.

Attending the service were four (4) of the original members whose pictures appear below.