Articles

Tabitha, also known by her Greek name Dorcas, already had a reputation for being a woman of good works and charity before Peter arrived in Joppa to preach the Gospel (Acts 9:36). The Scriptures mention that many widows had benefitted from her work in making them clothes. Their desire to show Peter examples was both a testament to her charity and perhaps also the level of craftsmanship with which she made them.

I thought it would be a good idea to write a bit about our relationship with our Kenyan congregation, known as All Saints Goshen. Shortly after I came here, Fr. Paul Karume came to a service. He wanted to know if he could use our space for his own congregation. Over the next few months I and the Bishop’s Committee talked this over with diocesan officials and Bishop Greg. We were excited to receive them, effectively providing an entirely new place of worship for a fine group of people.

The historian Eusebius, in his Life of Constantine, tells how that emperor ordered the erection of a complex of buildings in Jerusalem “on a scale of imperial magnificence,” to set forth as “an object of attraction and veneration to all, the blessed place of our Savior’s resurrection.” The overall supervision of the work—on the site where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre now stands—was entrusted to Constantine’s mother, the empress Helena.

We just had a very successful visit with Bishop LaBelle. It was his first time with us, though he’s been to our facility before with the Goshen congregation. I wanted to offer a few thoughts on his time.

The Transfiguration is not to be understood only as a spiritual experience of Jesus while at prayer, which three chosen disciples, Peter, James, and John, were permitted to witness. It is one of a series of spiritual manifestations by which God authenticated Jesus as his Son. It is at one with the appearance of the angels at the birth and at his resurrection, and with the descent of the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism. Matthew records the voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).

Bishop Phil LaBelle will be visiting us on July 12th. This is his first visit to All Saints’ although he’s been to the Goshen congregation before. This is a large diocese, almost 100 churches, so we can expect to see him every three years. That is the canonical requirement. In the intervening two years someone from diocesan staff will make a visit. Recently that has been the Canon to the Ordinary, the Rev. Cristi Chapman.

Mary of Magdala, a town near Capernaum, was one of several women who followed Jesus and ministered to him in Galilee. The Gospel according to Luke records that Jesus “went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out . . .” (Luke 8:1-2). The Gospels tell us that Mary was healed by Jesus, followed him, and was one of those who stood near his cross at Calvary.

I served in Northern Indiana at Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Marion, a small town in the center of the state. A few miles south of us, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was located in Gas City, a smaller town. It had been founded at the height of a boom in natural gas in the 1890s. Welsh miners organized the parish with the expectation that the gas supply would never end. Great prosperity was expected, but after a decade the gas wells dried up. Gas City remained a very small town dwarfed in size by the slightly larger town of Marion.

Thomas Ken was born in 1637. Throughout his life he was both rewarded and punished for his integrity. His close relationship with the royal family began when he became chaplain to Princess Mary of Orange at the The Hague. Ken was appalled at the Prince of Orange’s treatment of his wife, and rebuked him publicly.