QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION OF THE ECUMENICAL CATHOLIC COMMUNION

Transcription

1 QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION OF THE ECUMENICAL CATHOLIC COMMUNION The ECC churches of the Rocky Mountain Region are now members of the Colorado Council of Churches! We are looking forward to collaborations in service and advocacy. Fr. Teri Harroun and Fr. Michael Nicosia attended their recent Board Meeting to put personal faces to their newest partners, and were immediately put to work: Fr. Teri is now a Member of the CCC Board! She also currently serves as our Judicatory Member officially representing the ECC as it makes decisions by 100% consensus for all policy statements that are made by the CCC. This role will be filled by whoever replaces Teri as vicar in September Fr. Michael has agreed to serve as Communications Contact between the organization and our region. The CCC has a monthly newsletter that goes out on the 1st of the month; requests for event inclusion should be to the director, Adrian Miller, by the 20th of the previous month. Also, if you are videotaping homilies, you can submit those to Adrian for possible broadcast on the CCC s YouTube site. Task Force: Ecumenical plans Easter Sunrise Service and provides resources for shared worship. Task Force: Interfaith Relations works to promote interfaith relations, formulates responses to acts of defamation or intolerance, and coordinates a monthly Pastor/Rabbi Study Group in Denver currently discerning Israel in the world. Seeking Catholic voices in this group. Task Force: Criminal Justice Reform addresses the need for systemic reform, and suggests/ coordinates action steps. Task Force: Shine the Light reviews proposed endorsements and advocacy issues, Shark Tank style. Task Force: Voices for Justice reviews, culls and distills Colorado legislation for consideration by the CCC. Task Force: Respectful Conversations small group looking at death, gun violence and other difficult topics. For more details, visit their website at and their page at The Journey Shared Spring

2 Contents ECC joins CCC, 1 Vicar musings, 2 Life at COB, 3 LOC Journey, 4-5 Easter Sacraments at MOM, 5 Holy Week at CHF, 6 PC Holy Week, 7 Rev. Denise s Ordination, 8-9 Our Communities Series: CHF, Open Forum, 12 Co-Editors Kerrie Anderson, Copy twigleaf@frii.com Fr. Michael Nicosia, Layout nicosia410@yahoo.com I believe in the ECC, and I know that the Rocky Mountain Region is strong in passion and spirit within the ECC. God is here. Yes, God is here with us and in us, and beyond us as well. I am delighted to be part of the ECC, and the myriad of ways that I get to serve. It has been my humble pleasure to serve both Bishop Peter Hickman and Bishop Francis Krebs as vicar in the Rocky Mountain Region. I am inspired by our current Presiding Bishop's wisdom and leadership. I believe he will nurture the Communion prayerfully, pastorally, and with integrity. I have learned a lot in my role as vicar these past years. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve in this capacity. At this time, however, I have requested that I be relieved of my duties as vicar by September 1, I intend to leave my role with joy and delight. I will happily help whoever is selected as the new vicar to transition Fr. Teri represented the Colorado Council of Churches at a Music Benefit for Syrian Refugee Families on April 15 at First United Presbyterian Church in Loveland into this role of ministry. I have learned a lot, but I believe it is time for me to step down from serving the communion in this role. There is nothing wrong in my life, or in how dedicated I am to the ECC and how we are expanding in faith while actively co-creating God's reign in our world even as we discover some of our growing edges. I have prayerfully come to the conclusion that it is time for me to retreat from the role as vicar, and use that time to concentrate on my family and my home faith community. I will always hold this region in prayer, as well as our Presiding Bishop Francis. Thank you to the Rocky Mountain Region for your prayers and generosity toward me these last several years. I have been deeply blessed. Thank you! It is a good time to be us. Peace, Teri ECC Rocky Mountain Region CHURCH OF THE HOLY FAMILY Fr. Scott Jenkins, Pastor Mass: 10:00 am Sundays E. Iliff Avenue Aurora CO Jennifer LaRochelle, Administrator (303) jennifer@holyfamilyco.org CHURCH OF THE BELOVED Mother Kae Madden, Pastor Mass: 5:00 pm Saturdays Grant Drive Northglenn CO Mother Kae ; pastor@churchofthebelovedecc.org Fr. Paul Burson Fr. Len Schreiner The Journey Shared Spring

3 At Church of the Beloved, both our governing documents and the pastor's letter of call require an annual evaluation of the community and the pastor. We have entered into a variety of processes over the years. This year a knowledgeable community member, Jack Kremeier, suggested we utilize Appreciative Inquiry as our model. Many of you may be familiar with it or are using it already. We will begin from the philosophy that The church is a mystery to embrace rather than a problem to be solved. Appreciative Inquiry is based on the idea of discovering what works and gives life to an organization and building the organization on these life giving properties. David Cooperrider, the founder of Appreciative Inquiry describes it this way: "More than a method or technique, the appreciative mode of inquiry is a means of living with, being with and directly participating in the life of a human system in a way that compels one to inquire into the deeper life-generating essentials and potentials of the organizational existence." In using Appreciative Inquiry in churches, it is best described as discovering "What in God's name is going on here?" and then designing the church structure and programs to enable more of these Godly things to be done and participated in. The pastor's role/responsibility in the vitality of the church is considered within the context of the community as whole rather than isolated. In essence the AI model uses a process of inquiry to discover people's best experience and use these experiences as a basis for imagining a future and designing the processes and structures that will make the imagined future a reality. This imagined future however is not just a fantasy because it is grounded in the experiences of the people involved. It doesn't require a detailed analysis of problems or deficits. Consequently it is less prone to initiating negative, blaming and judgmental atmospheres than problem focused interventions. We are beginning this process with our leadership in April and will continue to roll it out to all in the community over the summer. We'll let you know what we discover! Stay tuned. ~ Rev. Kae Madden COB Easter photos on page 12! PAX CHRISTI ECC CHURCH Fr. Michael Nicosia, Pastor Mass: 4:30 pm Saturdays 6thAveUCC, 3250 Sixth Avenue Denver CO Fr. Michael ; nicosia410@yahoo.com Fr. Stan Manickam ; Stan.Manickam@comcast.net Rev. Denise Roberts-Graham ; 64deniser@gmail.com Sue Kaessner, Administrator suekaessner@me.com LIGHT OF CHRIST ECUMENICAL CATHOLIC COMMUNITY Fr. Jim Demuth, Pastoral Vicar Fr. Teri Harroun, Pastoral Associate Masses: 5:00 pm Saturdays, 11:45 am Sundays, 9 am Wed Bethlehem Lutheran Church 1000 W. 15th Avenue Longmont CO ; churchoffice@lightofchristecc.org The Journey Shared Spring

4 Ten years ago, when Light of Christ in Longmont was a new community searching for a home, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Longmont kindly opened its doors and invited us in. Since then, it has been a warm and friendly relationship. Not only did Bethlehem Lutheran share its space with us, but we have also shared mission trips, Youth Group activities, St. Patrick s Day parties, liturgies, and during this decade we have just felt like family. To express our gratitude and celebrate this significant anniversary, Light of Christ hosted an appreciation breakfast for Bethlehem Lutheran on Sunday, February 7. We welcomed over 125 members of Bethlehem Lutheran to the parish hall with flowers, coffee, coffee cakes, salmon, egg dishes, fruit, muffins, croissants, and an array of homemade desserts. It was a joy to welcome our Lutheran sisters and brothers on that morning as a way of saying thank you for walking this tenyear journey with us. MARY OF MAGDALA COMMUNITY Fr. Jim DeMuth, Pastoral Director Mass: 5:00 pm Sundays St. Paul s Episcopal Church 1208 W. Elizabeth Street Fort Collins CO marymagdalafc@gmail.com Also check out our friends of the COMMUNITY IN BOULDER Mass: 1:30 pm every first and third Sunday Community United Church of Christ 2650 Table Mesa Drive Boulder CO Mother Sheila Dierks sheiladierks1@gmail.com For more information about the ECUMENICAL CATHOLIC COMMUNION, visit The Journey Shared Spring

5 Initiation of Daniel Chavez LOC joined with Bethlehem Lutheran to celebrate St. Patrick s Day in a way that would have made any Irishman (or woman) proud. The menu, of course, was corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread as well as accompaniments to provide a fantastic feast. The evening was also filled with toe tapping music, singing, and dancing. There was a silent auction whose proceeds will help fund our joint mission trip to Appalachia later this year. The evening s events netted $4300 for that mission. Kudos to members of both communities for a great evening. Holy Thursday at LOC LOC Easter Egg Hunt! Mary of Magdala was honored to celebrate the sacraments of First Communion, Confirmation and Baptism with our members this Spring. Noah Lewis and Blake Livengood received the sacrament of First Communion, Daniel Chavez, Michael Schoenbauer, C.J. Orsi, Samantha Reising, Rain Orsi, and James Chavez received the sacrament of Confirmation, and Adele Luis H Dominguez received the sacrament of Baptism. We are so blessed to be part of the faith journey of these children and youth. On April 10th we held Volunteer Appreciation Dinner/Annual Meeting for our MoM Community. We had a catered dinner to thank our many volunteers (almost all our members) who make our community work. It was a wonderful evening of good food and fellowship. The Journey Shared Spring

6 This year, our Family Ministry began a new program: Family Service Saturdays. We partnered with Family Promise of Greater Denver, an organization serving homeless families, to offer a consistent, monthly service opportunity for students and their families. The logistics don t change, but the activity does. It is a great way for us to spend time together as a community and for students to get some of their required service hours! We have done cleaning and organizing and on Easter Saturday we put on an Easter Egg Hunt for about 20 kids. We are looking forward to seeing how this grows! We tried something new for our Children s Liturgy. Each week of Lent, we discussed a different symbol and how it relates to Lent. We talked about light and brainstormed ways that we can be Christ s light in the world. We talked about shells as a token of our baptism. Rocks served as a reminder of Jesus temptation in the wilderness and prompted us to ask Is there a stony place within us that, with a little attention, might even become a gift for you and others? Each week, the students got to take the symbol home with some discussion questions, where it hopefully sparked further conversation! Despite the HUGE mid-week snowstorm, Holy Family celebrated a meaningful Holy Week. Our confirmands washed feet on Holy Thursday. Good Friday was celebrated with reverence through a Tenebrae reading of the Passion and veneration of the Cross. We celebrated a baptism at the Easter Vigil. It all culminated with a rousing Easter message from Deacon Mike Weil and, in true Holy Family fashion, a brunch and Easter Egg Hunt after Mass. We are so thankful for all those who served that week- reading Scripture, helping with environment, and bringing food to brunch (of course!) The Journey Shared Spring

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10 While the structure of the [leadership] council may differ from those of other faith communities, in general, it should include lay leaders as the president or chairperson, the financial officer and financial committee members, the recording secretary, and various committees to coordinate functions of the community (Section VII, By-Laws of the ECC Constitution). When the Rocky Mountain Regional Council decided to host the up-coming regional gathering of church leadership on April 30th, the question arose, whom do we invite? We had to acknowledge that each church has a different leadership structure among our 5 churches there s a Church Council, a Leadership Council, two Parish Councils and a Ministry Council, along with a wide variety of paid and volunteer staff. While we decided that each community could determine for themselves who classifies as invited leadership, our quandary only highlighted the need for such gatherings so that we might learn more about one another. And so we encourage each community to contribute to this series of articles. We turn now to our beginnings as recounted by Teri Thompson Church of the Holy Family was founded over 19 years ago by a small group made up of both clergy and laity, some of whom are still members to this day. It s hard to believe we ll be celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2017! Our beginning was a modest one where we gathered weekly, setting up and tearing down, in the clubhouse of a condominium complex. We came together as a dedicated team of volunteers wanting nothing more than to practice a sacramental life in the catholic tradition. We have our founding pastor Fr. Scott Jenkins and his wife Kris Jenkins to thank for our beginnings, since it s on the tails of their sacrificial life that we existed in those early years. Slowly we came to afford a minimal wage for our pastor and were able to lease a small, 700 sq. ft. storefront to call home. It was here that people began to find their way to Church of the Holy Family. Many were broken from their experience of church so, before we knew it, we found ourselves to be a mash unit, of sorts, bringing together the disenfranchised and wounded, forming a loving, healing and safe spiritual community. Led by the call that All Are Welcome, a motto that can be found above the door to our sanctuary today, Holy Family offers a loving church family where both stranger and friend are met with hospitality and compassion. Many of our children have been lucky enough to know nothing else as a church experience, and that has been the greatest gift of all! Holy Family moved from the small storefront at the end of a 5 year lease to share a building with a small Baptist community. It was a time of great growth, locally, regionally and The Journey Shared Spring

11 nationally. Remembering that Church of the Holy Family began long before there was an Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC) it came to be one of the first communities to join St. Matthew s in Orange California, pastored by Fr. Peter Hickman (the future ECC s founding Bishop). In the beginning we were simply called an Ecumenical Communion of Communities. Over a short 4 year period the relationship between our communities quickly expanded as new independent catholic communities found their way to us from across the nation to form what is now called the Ecumenical Catholic Communion. talents and treasures of community, clergy and friends. CHF from the beginning participated at the national level as founding parishioners, Teri Thompson and Marlene Guganig, were called by Bishop Peter to be the first leaders of the House of Laity. Shortly after our pastor, Fr. Scott Jenkins, would be called by Bishop Peter to be the first Vicar of the Rocky Mountain Region. Other communities formed during that time in the Rocky Mountain Region; Church of the Beloved and Pax Christi both came to be led by Holy Family clergy. Light of Christ joined the Rocky Mountain Region during that time, moving from a Roman Catholic parish to the ECC; they too came be pastored by clergy sent forth by Holy Family. Growth at the national level continued to flourish in those years as did CHF. Shortly after celebrating a 10 year anniversary, it moved from the Baptist church to the place called home to this day. The new location, three times the size of that first storefront, needed to undergo a massive remodel. Holy Family rose to the occasion and efforts were solely executed by the time, Since that move nearly ten years ago Holy Family continues to serve not only the national community of the ECC but the local community of Aurora; offering assistance to the homeless of our city and therapy for those in need through a licensed counseling outreach. Holy Family honors the call to hospitality as well, both locally and nationally, having organized and hosted retreats, the National Leadership Team (2007) and the ECC at large (2009). Most recently Holy Family hosted the 2014 Synod in Aurora where both Fr. Scott and parishioner, Bonnie Pino Fraiser, were serving 4 year terms as leaders of their perspective houses. Holy Family has a great leadership model very unique this link will take readers right to it. ofholyfamily.org/leadership.php Now entering into a third decade, reflecting on the last 20 years, it must be said that Holy Family has been abundantly blessed by both great leadership and dedicated community. Holy Family is indeed a special place where every member of the community serves to create a place where all are, indeed, welcome! The Journey Shared Spring

12 Easter Vigil at COB and their Children s Group on Easter Morning Fr. Michael s and Marc s house rabbit, Cloud (left), has a new girlfriend, Bess! Submissions to: Kerrie Anderson twigleaf@frii.com The Journey Shared Spring