Here’s the story: The two pieces of slate, and the large rounded glacial pebbles set in crushed limestone around it, are the salvaged pieces of the altar at Holy Innocents Hoffman Estates, my former Episcopal mission parish. When we closed the church at the end of December, 2006, there were a few people who mourned the loss as if a family member died. Many of them left after trying to remain with the rest of us; they just couldn’t continue in the new place. One of the things that was discussed in the run-up to the closure and merger with…
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Daily Herald | Cook County faith I need to check with somebody – this news item says that Holy Moly’s food pantry is open every Wednesday – it had been 1st and 3rd Wednesdays…. Technorati Tags: Food Pantry
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Today being the third Saturday of the month, some of us from the “nurturing” team at Holy Moly/St Nicholas were at Asbury Park for the ecumenical service we do. On my way in, I spotted this on the schedule board for the day: there we are at 10:30, in direct competition with the Wii Bowling. And let me say, the Wii virtual bowlers were kicking ass and having a great time, from the sound of it. We had a pretty good time too – Tim from choir showed up, so we “made a choir” and stood together. Finished with “Amazing…
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Choirmistress Mary does a lot for us, and frequently pays out of pocket for new music and things she thinks we need in order to look and sound like a seasoned choir, and not a ragtag group that formed a little over a year ago. So one of our members found a Christmas ornament that mirrored a unicorn print that Mary has in her home and we presented it to her last night. We also had a wonderful surprise from another choir member who’s been battling brain cancer; she got amazing news from her oncologist. Let’s not say “miracle” yet,…
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I can’t wait to repost this over at the Holy Moly blog… perhaps later in the liturgical season of Soccerates, when attendance drops and we combine two services into one over the summer. I already sent a link to Father Steve, who really loves the upholstered chairs we have at St Nick’s and performs a kind of meditative dance when he lines them up in new and interesting patterns before services. He may get a kick out of this: Fat Liturgical Dancer Now that every church is certain that the only path to success is by having a Mega Church,…
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Yes! This is what we hoped to see: Chicago’s new Episcopal bishop, national leader speak up for gay clergy — chicagotribune.com Chicago’s new Episcopal bishop and the church’s national leader sent a clear message Sunday about where they stand on gay clergy, a smoldering issue that threatens to tear apart the denomination.Wrapping up a five-day tour in honor of Jeffrey Lee, the new Chicago bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori declared that the American church will not stand alone in its support of gay clergy during an international meeting in July in Lambeth, England. “Many more [bishops] than you might expect are…
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I must have sent 3 press releases to Manya Brachear, the Trib religion editor. Maybe 4. I had hoped for a sidebar in the Trib on Holy Moly’s big visitation, but no joy in this article. She does an okay job of explaining the complicated background detail.  I’m planning to go to the shindig tomorrow at House of Hope, but we got a lot of snow last night and frankly I’d rather go x-c skiing rather than spending a lot of time cooped up in someone else’s car trying to get to the South Side. We’re not scheduled to leave…
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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…
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Episcopal Life Online – NEWS Bishop-Pope Duncan emerges as the leader of a very mixed bag of Anglican nut fudge. One of the new allied leaders apparently didn’t get the memo about always speaking as if from a position of strength; he speaks of being “in a lifeboat” situation and hoping to find a broad enough church to overcome their many and various differences of opinions. Um.
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AKMA’s Random Thoughts Now, let’s ask the embarrassing question. which is your church more like: the office funny guy repeating something that someone once thought was amusing, or the brilliantly subtle, detailed creation of a physical-world Kwik-E-Mart? Much of the time, my rants about attention to detail and communicating carefully and responsibly and deliberately, are drowned out by a culture of casualness, spontaneity, free-wheelin’ yada yada yada. Hey, spontaneity and relaxation and freedom are good things, I approve of them. But attention to detail — by people who know what they’re doing — makes a difference, and viewers, visitors, congregants…