Thoughts from August 23rd to August 29th

It is hard to describe this week. In a sense I believe it was a “hinge” week as I am preparing for the coming Fall church season. What am I working on? I have been reading “Born of Water, Born of Spirit” these summer months and believe that this is a good resource for the congregations that I work with to read and have a discussion. St. Thomas has agreed to use this resource for their formation work this fall. It is my hope to talk to other churches throughout the Region to see what their levels of interest are and to invite them to also to consider this as a worth while endeavor.

I also reviewed LifeCycles material and I feel that I have rediscovered an important tool I that I can use to offer to the congregations that I work with. On Wednesday I used the opening and closing of LifeCycles session for the Ministry Support Team meeting and in my opinion the meeting was quite productive and had more of a worship perspective. I am using LifeCylces to also set the tone for the book study this fall.

In some ways this week a transition from the play hard summer months to more the rhythm of learning and discerning aspect of Shared Ministry. Formation work is beginning again as we all take this last week to play before Labor Day Weekend unofficially announces the end of summer. I have been in conversation with Rt. Rev Canon Vernon Strickland about a training that I am planning on taking in January of 2011. I have invited the worship leadership for Region 4 to plan out the next three months of Church Services and we will complete that this upcoming Wednesday. I am also in the middle of an on-line course with EDS as a facilitator for a group of people who are interested in learning more about Mutual Ministry.

In a sense it was one of those weeks where the work pace slowed down and I had some time to reflect on what has happened and where I am heading in the future. In some ways my future is clearer and other ways it still yet to be determined. What I have also encountered is the Divine. I am not anxious about what tomorrow holds and I really don't know what is right around the corner.

The news of St. Peter's in Sheridan reminds me about what my parents experienced when their church went through a similar event with their former rector attempted to take the church building, endowments, and other property to CANA. The Diocese of Colorado was successful in their defense in court and everything was restored back to the Diocese of Colorado. However the people of the church had to live through a painful period of uncertainty. As it turns out the Grace and St. Stephens Episcopal Church emerged as a healthy group. I know that St. Peter in Sheridan will need our support and prayers in the months ahead. Their world has been turned upside down. I pray that our Bishop is up to the task along with all the members of this Diocese to continue to be gracious and supportive for our sisters and brothers in the Northeastern part of the State.

What is coming up? Monday I will be on the weekly WebEx meeting with the Ministry Developers starting at 8:30am. Then I will be heading to Baggs for the last Summer Bible Cafe Session before it will be referred to as FALL Bible Cafe and that session will begin at 2pm. At 3pm I will be found at Linda Fleming's house to be hosting an Adobe Connect meeting with EDS. Tuesday I will be working on my sermon and making phone calls throughout the region. Wednesday I will be on another WebEx meeting in which I will be working with the leadership of St. Paul's, St. James, St. Thomas, and St. Luke's as we look at the last three months of 2010 and schedule church services. Sunday I will be presiding at two services first at St. Thomas at 9:30am and then St. Paul's at 5pm.

Have a great week.

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond - August 23 2010

I am coming to the belief that August is one of those months that I wake up and realize that it is the last month before school starts (which in code means Fall is here) and therefore it is imperative to do as much as possible in two weeks. I believe the goal was accomplished. Not only did I managed to get through Fair Week without losing all of my sanity and remained married (really it was not that bad) I also managed to get a few goals accomplished before vacation. When I got back there was productive Pre-Convention meeting and a wonderful “Church in the Park” event in Encampment. I hope this finds you well.

Ok, what to let people know about the past two weeks? To do this we need to first jump back two weeks ago (August 9th through the 14th) to understand the timeline of work. My normal format is to explain what I have done with each church, but that will be a bit difficult for this week because my work was more on the Regional Level. So here we go!

Monday (August 9th): It was Web Meeting Day as I was on three different meetings (two which I was the host and one I was the participant). The first web meeting was with the Ministry Developers. We caught up about the weekly events and noted that most of the Pre-Convention Material was on the web-site for us and others to review. We talked about weddings, vacation plans, and the up-coming Regional Rep and Ministry Developer WebEx meeting that night. The second meeting of the day was with EDS as we prepared to meet a group of people from throughout the United States who are interested in learning more about Ministry Development. The final web meeting for the day was with the Regional Reps. During that meeting we talked about pre-convention and the election of new Regional Reps and other various topics. My last meeting of the day was with St. Thomas worship ministry team which we reviewed the up-coming month worth of services. It was a full day!

Tuesday (August 10th): I was on the phone scheduling a Ministry Support Team Meeting for St. Thomas and putting together a church service leaflet for “Church in the Park”. Vonnie called me that day to report that she had received a commitment of 74 people who were planning on attending the service on August 22nd in Encampment. WOW! Normally we can expect about 15 to 20. That evening I joined with Tristan and Shane Glassburn (St. Thomas) to “test” the VTC equipment as we preparing for the Pre-Convention Meeting on August 21st. Shane and I attempted to program the St. Thomas unit to have a static IP (an internet address that is assigned to that one particular unit) I will save that story for another day. I will say that I believe we have a solution in the works. That evening I met with the group who signed up for the EDS distant learning event and they were about 30 people. Oh, boy we are going to have some fun now.

Wednesday (August 11th): I spent a couple of hours at Kraft Hall as I worked on giving my dates of events to Stephanie for this current week and making phone calls to schedule a WebEx meeting for Region 4 Church Services Schedule for the 4th Quarter. It is set for September 1st at 10am and for those who need to join, you will be receiving an invitation next week.

Thursday (August 12th): Spent most of my day working on figuring out how to program the LifeSize Unit at St. Thomas for its static IP address without any success. I found out that I needed more information from the internet provider and I didn’t have access to the account information. Nevertheless Norm and I worked hard and I made a couple of phone calls to learn a bit more about how this system works. After further conversation with Tristan English we have a working plan that we will be implementing in the weeks to come.

Friday and Saturday (August 13th and 14th): Was the wedding weekend. Friday I drove over to Vedauwoo to take a look around and begin planning how I will preside at Jason and Nichole’s wedding. The day was beautiful and it was nice to meet with the wedding party, parents, and close friends. Saturday was the day of the wedding. Five minutes before we get started it began to rain. We were unable to move and so here we were having a wedding in rain, hail, lightning and thunder. I kid you not, every time I mentioned God it boomed! After the service concluded the sun came out and everything dried off except the wedding party. The pictures will look like the event took place over three different days. What fun!

Saturday (August 21st): The Pre-Convention meeting was held using the VTC network which provided much promise. Yes, there are still some technology issues to resolve but that comes with the territory. As for Region 4 it worked well as we were able to see and hear everybody clearly. I am sure more information will be coming out in the days leading up to the Convention in Laramie in October.

Sunday (August 22nd): It was another full day. I drove to St. Paul’s in Dixon for an eight am service. We didn’t have music and five people arrived. So, we had a full service both the Ministry of the Word and the Ministry of the Table with enough time for me to travel over the mountain and into Encampment to assist on planning the “Church in the Park” event. People started to arrive around 10:30am and by the time we got started we had people from St. Mark (Cheyenne); St. Matthews (Laramie); St. Barnabas (Saratoga); St. James (Encampment); St. Thomas (Rawlins); and St. Paul’s (Dixon). The presiding duties were shared between Rev. Karen Buckingham (The Ministry of the Word), Rev. Doug Wasinger (Homily), and Rev. Jess Smith (Ministry of the Table). The music was provided for by the Shipps of Saratoga and by the time we were done and ready to feast on the banquet of fine fellowship and food there were 58 people in attendance. Good Work Region 4!



What is coming up? Ha,ha,ha! I didn’t think I would reach to this point. What am I up to this week? Well – Monday I was on a WebEx meeting with the Ministry Developers and have be working on catching up with other people and preparing for the week. Tuesday is Sermon Prep day and other various administrative tasks (light day). Wednesday is office day and a meeting with the Ministry Support Team of St. Thomas. Thursday is a hurry and catch-up day on my preparation for Born of Water; Born of Spirit book study. Sunday I will be heading to Region 5 to preside at St. David’s in Fort Bridger at 9am and St. John’s in Green River at 11am.

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond - August 8 2010

The first week of August is now in the books. This turns out was one of those weeks where I had some plan on what to do and by the middle of the week my “carefully laid out plan” was out the window. As it turns out Friday was not really a day off from the church as I worked on writing a reference for a couple who are looking to adopt a child (which was a privilege to be asked to do). As the summer works on wrapping up I find myself doing some discernment about what it means personally to be a Ministry Developer and I discovered an event that has brought clarity to that question. I know that I am a priest and I have come to use the working definition that a priest gathers people around God. As priest in the Episcopal Church I have been called and given the authority by this Church to bless and grant absolution on God’s behalf. For me the Ministry Developer part of this ministry is not to only bless, but to recognize what ministries are already taking place in the midst of other people’s lives. This took place on Saturday as I was called upon to help a family put to rest their father who had died 18 months ago in California. Henry Smith Larson spent most of his formative years in the Rawlins area and his son and daughter-in-law thought it was best that he be put to rest in this part of the world. I was talking to Henry’s son and he told me that he is a medical doctor in the Air Force and had a tour in Iraq. He had a private practice back East, but he wanted to work with veterans and so he moved to Monument (a small town north of Colorado Springs, Colorado). As he was getting his car I told him that he was doing an honorable thing working with the veterans because he saw the same landscape that they did and shares a common experience. He belongs to that group and therefore can be accepted “as one their own.” He paused and said, “I didn’t think of that. Thank you that was important.” What I did was recognized what God was already blessing to this man’s work and vocation. Well on to the activities of the week. I hope this letter finds you well.

Seating of the Bishop (Laramie): It was a good day to gather with other Episcopalians throughout the region. As I pulled up I gave Ray Griebs a wave and found out that his house in Elk Mountain is under contract and that he needed to donate some of his books to the Cathedral Library. As I getting out my vestments I saw my old crew from Wheatland. There were four of us who all discerned together our calls to Holy Order, three priests and one deacon. We laughed about how we almost scared everybody out of taking any more Education For Ministry (EFM) at All Saints. As it turned out there were more people from Wheatland in attendance and they almost didn’t recognize me because the last time they saw me I was heading to seminary ten years ago.

Bishop Smylie was seated in proper fashion and he preached. During his sermon he jokingly pointed out that the Diocese of Wyoming has one of the highest if not the highest Cathedrals in the United States. He challenged the good people of St. Mathews to strive to be the Cathedral that is the closest to heaven. I do believe they are up for the challenge. During the service he received a crosier that was made of pine, aspen and walnut wood that he will be taking with him when he travels. The Diocesan crosier that is over a hundred years old, will remain in the bishop seat and pointed out to let others that Bishop Smylie is “on the road” throughout the state.

St. James (Encampment): I was scheduled to preside at St. James this morning but like I noted last week there would have been only one person there and that one person was in Laramie this Sunday. We talked about what is taking place around Encampment and they are in full haying season. As for the earlier part of the week I have made some phone calls letting other churches know that “Church in the Park” is rolling forward and St. James needs some sense of who is coming so they can order the meat. The deadline is NO later than August 12, 2010 and you can contact me if you or Vonnie at the following e-mail address - yasbell at gmail dot com.

St. Luke (Medicine Bow): I understand they will be having their annual rummage sale soon. I received reports that the Rounds have been running back and forth from Laramie to Medicine Bow taking up items and getting them ready to sale. I told them that they cannot sell my Book of Common Prayer that I forgot to pick-up when I was last there! The Rounds were also present at the Seating of the Bishop in Laramie and it was good to see them again.

St. Thomas (Rawlins): I was on hand to assist for Bob Woodhouse memorial service last Thursday. One of the perks of being a VTC (video teleconferencing) host site is the use of the equipment. The Woodhouse family wanted to have a slideshow playing during the reception on the high definition television which worked out well. I have already talked to Shane about the up-coming pre-convention test that will be taking place this week in which we are planning on using this equipment for that meeting. I talked about the graveside service that took place last Saturday. However, I didn’t get the chance to schedule the next MST and that is on deck for this week.

St. Paul (Dixon): Last week I arrived for the Summer Bible Café in which this group continues to work through the bible one book and chapter at a time. We are working through Proverbs and some of the topics we discussed where excuses and our need to watch out for them in our lives. Another topic was how being lazy does not have its rewards and finally we talked about the word discipline. The proverbs are pretty strong on this word and yet how do we live into the “spirit” of the author of proverbs without making this wisdom about control and abuse? This is an important and sometimes difficult balance to strike.

What is coming up? Monday is a full day of “web” meetings. It starts with a WebEx meeting at 8:30 am as I meet with my fellow Ministry Developers. Then at 2pm I will be on Adobe Connect with EDS hosting. I am one of the facilitators who will be assisting in a long distant learning event for the next eight weeks. The course is designed for those who are looking at becoming Ministry Developers in different parts of the country. That evening I will be on another WebEx meeting as the Regional Reps and Ministry Developers get together for their monthly meeting. Right when you think I was done for the day I will be heading to St. Thomas to meet with the worship leaders to schedule services for the month of September and that meeting starts at 7pm. Tuesday is a stay close to Rawlins day as I wait to hear from Tristan to schedule a test of the VTC. Wednesday I have office hours at Kraft Hall from 10:30 am to 12pm. Thursday I will begin preparing the Born of Water, Born of Spirit book study that I am encouraging the congregations that I work with to do as continuing their formation in Shared Ministry. Friday and Saturday is a wedding rehearsal and wedding respectfully of Jason Urasky and Nichole Smith of Green River. Then is it VACATION! Oh, did I mention that it is Fair Week around here?

A slideshow from the Installment and Concercation of the Rt. Rev. John Smylie

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond - August 3 2010

Everybody, how is your first Tuesday of August going? I readily admit it there is satisfaction in completing 21 months of hard work as it was recognized by the Installment and Consecration of the Right Reverend John Smylie on July 31, 2010 in Casper. My wife commented that the liturgy was outstanding. She enjoyed the music, the prayers, the procession, and the sermon. She smiled and noted that if we could do that every Sunday, our churches will be packed. I have to agree. The challenge is how to do this every Sunday. Sure it would take some work (like that is new), but with God all things are possible. I hope this letter finds you well.

St. Thomas (Rawlins): For reasons that are not easily understood it was a week of closure for this Episcopal community of faith. On Monday (July 26th) afternoon in the warm sun, we said good bye to a person who left her mark on the hearts of many in Rawlins. Her life was not always easy and she may have not always believed in God, God always believed in her. The presence of so many family and friends at the graveside is a witness to the love of Christ. Where relationships may be strained, they will not be broken. Following that same theme, on Thursday (July 29th) another chapter of life was brought to a close with the laying of rest of two parents who had died over seven years ago. There is something deeply healing as we say good bye to our loves ones with the assurance that we will meet again in the fuller presence of God.

Karen continues to work on her Family System’s work and shared with a reflection group at St. Thomas some of the concepts that she has been learning for the past six months. She talked about the difference between chronic and acute stress and how that effects churches. She also talked about our tendency to focus on our weakness at the expense of our strengths and we need to celebrate our success from time to time. Karen also reviewed that on-going dynamic of triangles in our relationships and how we need to remain focused on how they are working in our relationship in our personal and church families.

On Sunday (August 1st) I presided at St. Thomas. It has been over a month since I last presided in Rawlins. It was good to see everybody. The service was a break from the normal routine in that music was not played. The change was nice and it invited all of us into a deeper more rich relationship with God in the silence. The music brings a nice contrast to the different ways we worship as a church.

As you can read, I spent most of last week working with St. Thomas.

St. Paul (Dixon): Last Sunday evening I presided at St. Paul’s in Dixon. There was a good feel that carried over from the Installment and Consecration of Rt. Rev. John Smylie. This Episcopal Community of Faith was very proud of their banner and cross stands that were made. You can see from the picture they are unique and special. As the Prayers of the People were being said, a request was made for rain and within minutes the rain began to fall. It was nice timing due to the fact the church was a bit warm. As I was wrapping up and heading out the door one of the parishioners noted that I am a special priest that has my very own acolyte who will travel with me (my middle daughter). He was right!







St. James (Encampment): I have been in conversation with this group around two things. One, I talked to the members of the church asking about their thoughts about attending the Seating of the Bishop on August 8th in Laramie and as it turns out this will work out just fine. Most of the congregation will be engaged in other activities as they wrap-up the last of the summer activities. I have also been talking to them about moving forward the Church in the Park gathering that is scheduled for August 22nd. This is going to be a fine day even if the rain comes. It was good to see St. James being represented at the Installment and Consecration in Casper last Saturday. Yes, they picked up their plant and took it back to Encampment.

St. Luke (Medicine Bow): Here is a community that works hard to include everybody. It was a joyous event for them in Casper last Saturday as they too had a great opportunity to participate in the life of the larger Diocese. Both members of the church made it a point to come over and say hi to my family and me. The smiles they had on their face were one of pride. I am really proud of their dedication to the church. On another note there was a gentleman who was on a journey throughout Carbon County. He visited St. Thomas (Rawlins) on Sunday morning, traveled over to St. James (Encampment) and saw the church. He then traveled over to St. Luke’s (Medicine Bow) and read the overall church schedule that is posted on the door and drove to St. Paul’s (Dixon) and arrived just in time to enjoy the coffee hour. Talk about connectivity!

Ministry Developers: It is nice to have the Bishop in place now. The liturgy was powerful and I was deeply moved during the litany with the music playing in the background. Talk about emotional impact! I enjoyed the sermon and fully understand that not all of us are called for that kind of work; however a couple of quotes resonated with me. We are all one family. I agree with that even if we are dysfunctional we are still one in Baptism. Bring on the love! And we all may have come over in different ships, but we are all in the same boat now! Without a doubt! I am looking forward to working with my fellow sailors in this boat called the church.

What is coming up? Today (Tuesday) is a day for me to work around the office and slow down a bit from all the traveling over the weekend and Monday. It also seems like a day to work on weddings as I put together a bulletin for a wedding on August 14th in Vedauwoo and start my correspondence in regards to my cousin wedding in September in California. Wednesday I will be assisting in the planning of the Church in the Park, office hours, scheduling a MST (Ministry Support Team) meeting for St. Thomas. Thursday I will be attending a memorial service for Bob Woodhouse at St. Thomas in Rawlins. Friday will be an official day off as I tinker around the house. Saturday is a graveside service for Henry Smith Larson in Rawlins. Sunday I will be traveling over to Laramie to participate in the Seating of the Bishop at 9:30am. Take care everybody.