At last! One of the press releases pays off, very modestly. I sent PR #3 earlier to all my news contacts, and it’s more of a peppy upbeat thing than this one, which is cut and pasted from the original PR with quotes inserted by the diocesan communications guy – I had asked him to pass it along to Episcopal Life Online.
That’s okay, I’ve got a contact now… we’ll see how that pans out.
U.S. Episcopal Bishop To Visit EG Church
By TOM ROBB
Journal Reporter
The presiding bishop of the United States Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, will preach and celebrate mass at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Elk Grove Village on Sunday, Feb. 3.
“Bishop Katharine’s visit is the most exciting event in our history,” said St. Nicholas Pastor Fr. Stephen Martz. “Having the presiding bishop come here is a wonderful affirmation of our determination to become a new kind of church.”
Spokesman for the Chicago Diocese, David Skidmore, said St. Nicholas was chosen because it is a growing church with innovative programs.
Skidmore said St. Nicholas’ GLBT (gay lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) program as being of particular interest to the bishop.
Recently, the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.
Skidmore also said geography played a part in the decision. On her last visit to Chicago the bishop visited a church on Chicago’s north side.
Fr. Martz said the church is growing in both size and community outreach. St. Nicholas merged with the smaller congregation of Holy Innocence Church on Jan. 1, 2007, and increased its size 20% beyond the growth from the merger.
In the last year, St. Nicholas expanded its food pantry from one day per month to two and expanded its client base from five or eight people to 25. It has also expanded its outreach focus from hunger and children to senior citizens and the GLBT community.
Schori is visiting Chicago to consecrate Jeffrey Lee as the new bishop of Chicago.
Urk! It’s “Holy INNOCENTS Church.” And I think that Bishop ++Katharine prefers “Jefferts Schori.” Still, not bad for a first effort.
[tags]Episcopal, Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Chicago, St Nicholas Episcopal, Elk Grove Village, Gay Clergy[/tags]
Very cool!
Not being one who likes to spend a lot of his time spinning his wheels in the current controversies of the church, I had never visited your blog site. Indeed, naive fellow that I am, I had never heard of it until a friend mentioned yesterday that our church had drawn your attention.
I hope you will permit a few observation from the other side. First, I was most struck by the tone of the comments. Apart from a couple of posts, none apparently had ever visted St. Nicholas, but all seemed to know what a terrible place we were and were intent on mocking us.
The truth is that we are a smaller suburban church that most visitors find exceptionally friendly and welcoming. Yes, we are inclusive of LGBT people, and we are proud of being so. We are far from a one-issue church, however.
Besides our important LGBT outreach, we have considerable focus on children, seniors, the hungry, and the inner life. We’ve no axe to grind with Stand Firm readers or anyone else. We are doing good ministry and, since our merger with Holy Innocents a year ago, we are growing in attendance, pledges, and most importantly ministry.
I also was struck by the two posts from persons who had some experience of St. Nicholad or Elk Grove. I remember Fr. Kingsley’s visit and dispute his account of him rushing to the parking lot after enduring the horros of St. Nicholas. In fact, he sought me out after the liturgy and we had a nice conversation. He also took the time to introduce me to his wife.
He is more accurate when he notes that our worship space reflects an immanent spirituality more than a transcendent one. Both, however, are valid approaches to the inner life and anyone who spends more than an hour around St. Nicholas willl know that we care about both.
Finally, I was struck by “Summersnow’s” description of Elk Grove. I agree that it is a pleasant Chicago suburb. It also, she may not know, has for many years been home to one of the few gay bars in the suburbs and there has long been a gay community in the village. As our church has become more intent on including all people, some of these folks have found us and we are glad they have.
That in the end is the point of our ministry. Children, seniors, the hungry, even LGBT people, all deserve a home where they can grow spiritually. We provide that and provide it well, and that is why we are starting to grow after many years of stagnation. That, in the final analysis, is what the presiding bishop’s visit recognizes.
We wish all of our detractors well and, when you are next in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, we hope you’ll come visit us. We’ll welcome you as warmly as we welcome everyone. That is how we practice inclusion.