Letters to the Churches of Carbon county

Hello fine folks who gather weekly around the table to discuss what have taken place and will take place throughout the South-central part of Wyoming and beyond! Again this was a week in which I attempted to double the workload with various levels of success. I was talking to a fellow priest in the Diocese of Wyoming and I told him that I am giving up bad attitudes for Lent, which means that all complaints will be addressed AFTER Easter. He laughed and said that he is going to make a sign and post it in his door to his office. Well, off to the weekly musing of Carbon County and Beyond. I hope this letter finds you well.

St. Luke (Medicine Bow): I made it over to Medicine Bow for the Sunday service. There was a pleasant surprise as a family who lives in Hanna (the McCartney’s) had decided to make the trip over. They have been occupied for the past year or so with various other tasks and now are available to attend on a regular basis. Joy said that she knows quite a few Episcopalians in the area and Ida mentioned that it is one of St. Luke’s goals to reach out to the surrounding communities and to invite them to attend. Arlen preached and I was impressed by his message and found what he had to share was insightful – “Walk to Walk” as we as a church move of the mountain top experience and move into mission.

St. James (Encampment): Before I went to bed on Saturday evening (Feb 13) I realized that I had overlooked calling Jess to line up Wade in the Water program. So, first thing on Sunday morning I gave him a call and asked if he is ready to lead the discussion which Jess said with sincerity, nope. Not a problem when I called to Roxan about it. We talked briefly and got a quick up-date on St. James project of building a parish call and Roxan said they had some important work ahead of them. However, when the project is complete the building will be in great shape to last another 100 years or so. We will prayerfully look forward to seeing where God is leading the church in this endeavor. Nevertheless, Jess got to spend this first Sunday with this congregation as their Associated Priest.

St. Paul’s (Dixon or Little Snake River Valley): I arrived in the “Valley” last Monday (Feb 8) for their bi-monthly bible reflection also known as Winter Bible Café as they continue to read the Psalms. I bring along the Book of Common Prayer to read as we all shared and read from different versions of the Psalms. A phrase has caught my attention “Tears in a bottle” and when time permitting I am going to see if that has any cultural meaning in the bottle. Standing in front of the text I interpret this to mean great sadness. That however does not reflect upon the morale of St. Paul’s!

St. Thomas (Rawlins): Monday as it turns out was a full day. Before I headed to St. Paul’s I joined a bible reflection session at Kraft Hall on Monday morning in which Kathleen and I reviewed and pondered about the assigned Gospel reading. While I was there I quickly reviewed my calendar with Stephanie (the parish administrator). We did schedule a MST (Ministry Support Team) meeting for Wednesday, however I made a trip to Denver for an appointment and was not able to return in time. So, we will reschedule for another time.

Ministry Developments: This occupied most of the second part of the week as I drove to Casper for two nights. Thursday I spent time at the Diocesan Office to learn more about the compress video equipment as a backup administrator. It is not uncommon for “Murphy” to arrive when it comes to using and learning new technology and so Andy and I spent the day trouble shooting. The day was not completely lost and I learned how to “podcast” and soon I will be working on putting together my own podcast to post on this blog site along with the Diocesan web-site. On Friday I had lunch with Anthony Guillen who led a Latino Ministry Workshop on Saturday. That evening the Ministry Developers also met with Anthony to share what we are doing with Shared Ministry and to listen to what Anthony is doing with his ministry. On Saturday the workshop took place and something that I discovered was that in the Southern half of the state of Wyoming has the largest Latina/o population in the state. This also means that there is a large potential for ministry right in the area. Anthony has given us all new eyes to see and discern how we can connect with people beyond our walls. Good stuff!

What is coming up? Monday is President’s Day and I am planning on making a few calls and prepare for Ash Wednesday services. Tuesday is an All Day Web/Phone conference with the Ministry Developers and it will end with Strove Tuesday dinner in LSRV. Wednesday I will be at Kraft Hall (Rawlins) for a couple of hours and then will preside at St. Paul’s that evening. Thursday I will be hosting a Web/Phone conference in which Zone 4 (Torrington, Wheatland, two churches in Cheyenne, and Laramie) will decide collectively where to have a compressed video site for the coming year. Friday I will be in Laramie to working on my personal project and perhaps write a sermon for Sunday. Saturday I will be attending a worship breakfast at St. Thomas (Rawlins) and then participating with an Apostolic Team face to face meeting from 10am to 2pm. Sunday I will be heading to St. Paul’s to preside. I don’t think I could add another thing on my calendar! Have a great week.

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond

Hello fine folks of Carbon County and Beyond! It is time to gather around the table and add a leaf or two. It is growing. Before I get into the weekly events and sharing I want to share with all of you something important.

It came to my attention last week that listing blogs on this weekly posting could have been interpreted as campaigning for the next bishop of Wyoming. For any misunderstandings that I may have created, I want to apologize. It is my intention to communicate what is taking place and to provide information so that we all can make a well informed decision regarding the next bishop of Wyoming. Also I listed blogs to encourage others to find what is being posted as well as to encourage people to think about starting a blog for themselves as well. I see one of my roles as a Ministry Developer, is to connect with others and blogging is another means of doing just that. I do ask that you please direct your questions about the election process to Cindy King (St. Mark's-Casper) 307-259-2023 cindylking@juno.com and John Peacock (St. Mark's-Cheyenne) 307-631-8914 mettenheim@msn.com. Also the Wyoming List Serve that is monitored by Ann Fontaine is an excellent source for on-going developments. The Search for the 9^th Bishop of Wyoming @ http://www.wyomingbishopsearch.org is another resource that people can access to get information about what is taking place. Again I want to say that I am sorry for any misunderstandings about my postings last week. I remain supportive in the discernment process and pray for God to direct our efforts for the future of our church.

Now on to the weekly events! Have you ever had a week that one attempts to pack two weeks into one? This past week was one of those weeks.

St. James: This past Wednesday I had lunch with the leadership of St. James (Encampment) in Rawlins. During our time together we discussed briefly about plans for the Apostolic Team Meeting on Feb 20, 2010 and to get a brief up-date on their plans for building a parish hall to be used for outreach and handicap accessibility for the church. We also set our next “lunch date” for March 10^th for on-going checking in and connecting.

St. Luke’s: Again not much to report for this week. I am planning on presiding this up-coming Sunday @ 4pm. Perhaps I will have more to share next week. I am sure I will.

St. Paul’s: I was in Dixon last Monday (Feb 1) for a Wade in the Water Session Two. The first group met and we used a liturgical format to gather us into this learning experience. There was some good sharing and one person noted that we don’t celebrate our baptism like we would a birthday or another important event. Why not? That is not a bad idea. The second group didn’t meet and so I got an early pass to head home that evening. On Sunday I drove to Dixon and enjoyed spending some time with the fine folks of the Little Snake River Valley. They hosted their annual meeting following the service and they discussed upcoming goals. They are in good shape for the coming year.

St. Thomas: Last Wednesday I was hanging out at Kraft Hall. During my time there I made a couple of phone calls and scheduled a Ministry Support Team meeting for the coming week. I also called Norm Peterson and we discussed briefly how the selection process is going with the video compression site is going throughout out the Region. Now, we have 9 zones throughout the state and two zones in Region 4. St. Thomas has agreed to become a host sight for this zone that includes Dixon, Encampment, Saratoga, and Medicine Bow. Great news!

Evangelism: The team that Kathy has assembled (I am counted as one of the members) got together for a web/phone conference on Wednesday (Feb 3) evening for an hour. Kathy shared what she learned from an Evangelism workshop that was hosted at the Diocesan office. The team is also looking to make presentations throughout the state and if you are interested please contact me, Kathy -> wyomom50@gmail.com or Roy -> rwalw@allwest.net. They would love to visit your congregation and make a presentation.

Ministry Developer: This is where my week became really full! I drove to Denver early Thursday and arrived in Des Moines for the pre-Living Stones Workshop: More than Survival: Financial Concerns of Ministry Developers. This was an informative workshop that took place over Thursday evening through Friday after dinner. For the coming days and months I will be working with Linda Wilson and we will develop a presentation to share with the congregations that we work with and throughout the Diocese.

What does my week look like? Well by the time I get this letter sent it will be Monday evening and so I did make it to St. Thomas Gospel reflection and beginning to ponder the up-coming sermon. Monday afternoon I arrived in Baggs to join in the Winter Bible Café as St. Paul continues to read the Psalms and share what they discover. Tuesday I will be working on writing a sermon and writing a report for St. Thomas vestry. Wednesday I will be joining the Ministry Developers for the weekly web/phone call and then that evening participate in the Ministry Support Team Meeting at St. Thomas. Thursday through Saturday I will be in Casper for training on the compress video equipment and to attend the Latino Ministry Workshop. Sunday I will be presiding at two services with the first service at St. Thomas @ 9:30 am in which they will recognize the ministries of the church. The second service will be held at St. Luke @ 4pm in Medicine Bow. Have a great week!

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County

Ok folks it is time to gather around the table to have our weekly check in chat and to share what is taking place throughout Region 4 (Encampment, Dixon, Medicine Bow, and Rawlins) and to briefly check in from Fort Bridger and Green River. It has been a joyous week as Karen Buckingham was welcomed into the priesthood on Saturday with representatives from Casper, Laramie, Cheyenne, Lander, Standing Committee, Hudson, Encampment, Saratoga, Dixon, Evanston, and Rawlins. I am sure I am missing a community or two and please forgive me! As the month of January draws to a close the month of February opens up and it is promising to be a month full of activities and exciting events as the Church draws the season of Epiphany to an end and begins Lent. I hope this letter finds you well.

Before I get on to the news of the week, how about seeing a list of who is currently or have blogged throughout the Diocese of Wyoming? They are:

Marilyn Engenstrom http://www.marengstrom.blogspot.com

Kathy Robinson http://storieswithkathy.blogspot.com/

Andrew Kerr http://kerrepiscopalwy.blogspot.com/

Margaret Babcock http://margaretinwyoming.blogspot.com/

Ann Fontaine http://seashellseller.blogspot.com

I am sure they are more; however, check those out when you can it could provide a richer view of the diversity of our wonder state.

St. Paul – Last Monday I spend most of my Monday in the Little Snake River Valley. I was able to catch up with a member of St. Paul for lunch and for a getting to know one another a bit better. We discussed what is taking place in the church and discovered that they are some exciting things going on. We also had a chance to clear up some questions about how the Episcopal Church works and discernment. From there I arrived just in time for the Winter Bible Café Psalms reflection activity to enjoy the wonderful dessert. It was nice to see St. Paul being represented at Karen’s ordination on Saturday. They had to get up early in the morning to make it in time for the 9am service. Great work!

St. Luke’s – There is not much to report from St. Luke’s in Medicine Bow. I did receive a copy of the annual meeting minutes and they have delegates elected for the electing convention as well as the annual Diocesan Convention in 2010. It is a quite time for St. Luke as we prepare for the spring and summer activities.

St. James – I received a phone call on Monday requesting that we move our lunch date to this week. No problem. I heard that they met with a contractor to discuss floor plans last Monday for a parish hall addition along with up-grades to the church building itself. This Wednesday we will catch up over lunch and discuss the bishop walkabout and granting writing.

St. Thomas – This past Saturday was the big event for Rawlins. St. Thomas after working on their formation process for the past seven years had reached an important milestone in their congregational life. The ordination of Karen Buckingham was a celebration of their hard work. There were about 80 people in attendance and that was quiet remarkable considering the service started at 9am! People ask me now that a local priest in place does that help me? My response is not really, but what is really important is that St. Thomas now has more resources for their ministry and they will receive the sacraments with more consistency. In turn this helps everybody as we continue to equip the laborers for the work of God’s mission to the world.

Ministry Developers – I have been in conversation with Andy Kerr and we are putting together a Ministry Developer technology tool kit. It will include a computer, camera, and a projector. My target is to share this with the ministry developers in Feb for their input. Wednesday we had our weekly check in call in which we discussed a report from the COM about upcoming ordinations and up-date on the preaching licensing; Latino Ministry Workshop; Up-date on compressed video conferencing sites; along with general check in. Wednesday evening the ministry developers along with the Regional reps met on WebEx to check in around the video conferencing sites, Safe Guarding God’s Children Training and to learn more about the walkabout.

What is on deck for this week? PLENTY! It is going to be short week for me in Wyoming as I prepare to attend a workshop in Living Stones that will be hosted in Des Moines Iowa. I will be out the state from Thursday to Saturday. This Monday I will be leading two sessions of Wade in the Water in Dixon with the first session starting at 2:30 and the second session starting at 5:30pm. Wednesday I will be on my weekly call checking in with my fellow Ministry Developers, setting in on a WebEx Meeting for Latino Ministry Workshop, and Evangelism meeting that evening. Then it is off to Des Moines for the remainder of the week. On Sunday I will be presiding at St. Paul’s at 10:30 am and then participating in their annual meeting following the service.