All posts by Jeff Diehl

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Festival of Christian Spirituality, September 27-29, at All Saints’, Carmel

20130927 Festival of Christian Spirituality.jpgExclusion and Embrace—Living in Community

The Festival of Christian Spirituality offers a weekend of joyful renewal and spiritual refreshment. We will undertake various spiritual exercises, such as Christian yoga, prayer walks, praying with icons, meditating on Holy Scripture, and using poetry as prayer. Through the Benedictine practice of conversatio we will seek to discern Gospel responses to one of the most pressing issues of our time: exclusion and embrace. One of last year’s festival participants said that conversatio is “life-giving.”

We pray that you will return home from the festival weekend refreshed by God’s grace and
inspired to live out the Gospel in new ways. We encourage you to explore our website for
further information. You may register through the church (831-624-3883) or on our website.

Please see the flyer for more details.

Emmanuel-Chelthenham

St. Philip’s, Scotts Valley, and Emmanuel Church, Cheltenham, join for “Pulpit Exchange”

Emmanuel-Chelthenham
St. Philip’s, Scotts Valley, is participating in a long-distance pulpit exchange with a church in the Diocese of Gloucester, our companion diocese in the United Kingdom. Vicar Jacqueline Rodwell, from Emmanuel Church, Cheltenham, and INDABA Team member will preach and preside at St. Philip the Apostle, Scotts Valley, on June 2 and June 9 while the Rev. Mary Blessing, Rector of St. Philip’s, is in Cheltenham serving at Emmanuel.

ECR Seal

Ordination of Robert Emmons Neville on August 3 at St. John’s, Aptos

ECR Seal

By the grace of God and with the people consenting

The Right Reverend Mary Gray-Reeves

Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real

will ordain

Robert Emmons Neville

to the Sacred Order of Priests

in Christ’s Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Saturday August 3, 2013

at 2:00 PM

St. John’s Episcopal Church

125 Canterbury Drive

Aptos, CA 95003

Your prayers and presence are requested

Remember to account for beach traffic

Reception to follow       Clergy: Red Stoles

Our Little Roses

St. Mary’s Celebrates Our Little Roses on Pentecost

Our Little Roses

What an energetic Pentecost! We did it…raised $5,000 to allow for a new sports area and to reinforce a wall for the girls of Our Little Roses in Honduras. Muchas gracias Kirsten for your leadership and passion and  to St. Mary’s Youth Group for your hard work and organization.  The red bricked wall, created by the Youth Group, represents $5,000 in gifts. A Baleada lunch, traditional in Honduras, musical entertainment and my favorite popsicles, capped a delightful day. OLR, we hope to be with you in 2014!

20130824 womens-retreat

Women’s Retreat on August 24 at Santa Lucia Mission

20130824 womens-retreat
You are invited to join us for a day amid the towering redwoods of the Big Sur Coast, to listen to the soothing sounds of the Big Sur River as it gently splashes over stones. We will explore how we can become a trusting community of God’s women. We will build a labyrinth, a sacred space from the stones of the earth and from Christ’s love in our hearts. You will meet new friends and share stories.
Each of us will bring our own lunch. Beverages and snacks will be provided.

Click here to download the brochure.

When: Saturday, August 24, 2013
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Where: Santa Lucia Mission
and Campground
Cost: $15.00
What to bring: lunch, river shoes, a folding chair, comfortable summer clothes, and a sweater or jacket. Camping in Paul’s Meadow and the Mission Cottage garden is free for Friday and Saturday night.

Maurice Dyer describes his plans to serve in the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps in South Africa.

Monterey Deanery Meeting, May 4, 2013

The meeting was called to order by Deanery co-convener Richard Smith of St. George’s, Salinas. Morning Prayer was led by the Rev. Lawrence Robles from St. George’s.

Reports

Treasurer – No changes were reported since the last meeting. However, we were reminded again that there is a $75 assessment due from each parish. It was suggested that the deanery establish budget priorities which will help parishes understand what their assessment is going toward.

Board of Trustees – Win Fernald, St. John’s, Aptos, reported on the activities of the diocesan Board of Trustees. He indicated that the Board is addressing two questions: How are we building the Body of Christ? and How can we grow in a time of loss? He reported that several parishes in the diocese are merging (notably All Saints’ and Cristo Rey in Watsonville and possibly in the near future St. Paul’s and San Pablo in Salinas). He says that the diocese is beginning to participate in The Barnabas Project, a program aimed at leadership development (http://www.episcopalfoundation.org/tools-and-programs/endowment-tools/the-barnabas-project). Another diocesan activity has been the expansion in communications with the recent mailing of a full-color brochure on the diocesan strategic plan. The diocese is looking at various kinds of communications vehicles such as this. Such a flyer costs $1/person per mailing. The diocese continues to plan for moving the office to Salinas; and the recent audit was “clean.”

Standing Committee – The report from the Standing Committee is that they recently met with the Commission on Ministry to clarify roles; and overall things are going smoothly in the diocese.

Ministries to Veterans – Charles Greenleaf, St. John’s, Aptos, reported on a new ministry taking shape at St. John’s focused on veterans. Two Vietnam vets at St. John’s succeeded in getting a grant that has allowed them to open an office providing support for Vietnam and Iraq war vets. They urged other parishes with similar interests to contact them.

Deanery Website – Jeff Diehl gave a presentation on the new Monterey Deanery website (http://montereydeanery.org/) which was enthusiastically received by the delegates and resoundingly approved. We are all urged to submit events and other news via the easy-to-use tool on the website. Jeff Diehl will continue as moderator for the time being. We are welcome to publicize the web address and acquaint our parishes with its availability. Next steps include notifying the diocese, linking from the diocesan website, and announcing on Facebook.

Program

Mission at St. James, Monterey – The Rev. Jeff Kohn gave an overview of St. James’, Monterey, the first Protestant church on the Monterey Peninsula, founded in 1876. He describes St. James’ as a spiritually-centered place. They recognize that they are a small parish, but they have a large building (McGowan House) which has become a spiritual center for Monterey, hosting 27 twelve-step programs, a Korean church, a Zen Buddhist meditation service, and various arts programs. He says they have seen the evangelical benefits of their hosting such services and programs and have learned to celebrate what they have.

missio:Engage! at St. John’s, Aptos – Jon Showalter and the Rev. Rob Neville reported on the missio:Engage! program at St. John’s, a two-year redevelopment process sponsored by the Episcopal Church and supported by a community of practice of other churches (see http://5marks.org/). The program costs $5,000 and includes regular online meetings with other churches participating in the program. It allows congregations to identify the best way to engage with the larger community and to bring in new members. St. John’s has completed an inventory of their gifts and they are now in the process of developing their skills in welcoming and inviting new members. On June 30, they will conduct a 2-hour workshop on welcoming and inviting and it is open to all churches in the deanery.

More Effective Networking – Steve Dodds, St. Philip’s, Scotts Valley, gave a presentation on how we as a deanery can network more effectively, but he acknowledges that the points he makes can be used in any organization. He is the Executive Director of Every Voice Engaged (http://everyvoiceengaged.org/), a nonprofit focused on helping citizens, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations collaborate successfully on improving quality of life. Their process includes various “innovation games” which encourage people to talk together and prioritize solutions. He suggested that the deanery use the process to a) develop a strategy for prioritizing deanery budget and programs and b) get to know each other better. This type of networking process would also work well in developing a capital campaign for a church.

Building Networks Beginning with Prayer – The Rev. Bob Ott, St. John’s Chapel, Del Monte, and the Rev. Blaine Hammond, St. Andrew’s, Ben Lomond, gave a presentation on prayer networks. At the January 2013 retreat of the Board of Trustees and the Standing Committee, Bishop Mary told attendees that she and the diocesan office staff pray daily for all the parishes in the diocese. Following up on this practice, each member of these two committees was given three congregations to pray for. Each was asked to contact the parish and ask them what prayers they needed. Both Bob and Blaine thought this would be something to think about doing within the deanery, partnering two churches to pray for each other. St. Andrew’s, Ben Lomond and St. George’s, Salinas are already doing this for each other with rewarding results. So at this meeting, we put all the names of the churches in the deanery into a bowl and paired them up. Here are the Deanery Prayer Partners for 2013/2014 (additionally, all churches are asked to pray for Trinity, Gonzales):

St. Andrew’s, Ben Lomond and St. George’s, Salinas
Epiphany, Marina and St. Dunstan’s, Carmel Valley
Calvary, Santa Cruz and All Saints’, Carmel
St Luke’s, Hollister and All Saints’/Cristo Rey, Watsonville
St. Paul’s, Salinas and St. John’s, Aptos
St. Stephen’s, Gilroy and St. Philip’s, Scotts Valley
San Pablo, Salinas and St. James’, Monterey
St. John’s, Monterey and St. Luke’s, Jolon
St. Mark’s, King City and Good Shepherd, Salinas
St. Mary’s, Pacific Grove and San Pablo Apostol, Seaside

Announcements

Among the announcements of various activities at the churches in the deanery, Maurice Dyer from St. James, Monterey, introduced himself as a new member of the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps. He will be leaving for South Africa this summer to begin work at the Holy Cross Monastery and School in Grahamstown, South Africa. Prayers are encouraged, along with donations to the diocese to support his work. Follow what’s happening with him on his blog http://mauricedyer.blogspot.com/.

Next meeting: August 10, St. John’s Chapel, Del Monte

st_marys_antiques_show_2013

56th Annual Antiques and Collectibles Show & Sale at St. Mary’s, Pacific Grove on July 12-14, 2013

Fri, Sat: 10:00am–5pm
Sun: 11:00am–4:00pm

Many antiques and vintage collectibles vendors and a silent auction! An $8.00 donation is good for all 3 days. Snack bar open daily: beverages, sandwiches and desserts. Lunch served daily from 11:30am–1:30pm for $10.00

For more information, click here.