What a wonderful day to be at Waldameer! We were blessed with beautiful weather, uplifting worship, and lots of smiling faces this past Sunday for the annual diocesan picnic. Check out the slideshow below for photos!
Category Archives: Events
Church Nerd: What the Heck Does General Convention Look Like Anyways? Edition
How to adequately describe The Episcopal Church’s General Convention…
The Super Bowl of church nerding, where, rather than the Lombardi Trophy, heavenly treasure is awarded to those who can last through 10 days of legislative business without having a “Jesus flipping tables in the temple” moment?
Disney World for church nerds, where you can experience the magic of ministry and mission with thousands of other likeminded folk and, rather than parades of princesses in gowns, we have processions of bishops in rochets and chimeres?
ComicCon for church nerds, where we can all take selfies with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, deputies from around the world, and a cardboard cutout of the last saint to win Lent Madness?
All of the above?
The official explanation of General Convention is that it’s “the governing body of The Episcopal Church that meets every three years. It is a bicameral legislature that includes the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, composed of deputies and bishops from each diocese. During its triennial meeting deputies and bishops consider a wide range of important matters facing the Church. In the interim between triennial meetings, various committees, commissions, agencies, boards and task forces created by the General Convention meet to implement the decisions and carry on the work of the General Convention.”
Bicameral legislature? I don’t know about you, but it’s been a while since my high school civics course. So, let’s bust out our Schoolhouse Rock lessons, shall we? Remember “I’m Just a Bill?” If you don’t, we’ll wait while you look it up on YouTube.
General Convention works sort of like that, except we would be singing “I’m Just a Resolution” (which doesn’t have quite the same rhythm…maybe we could sing it to the tune of “I am the Bread of Life” where meter doesn’t matter) and we don’t have an Executive Branch with veto power (Episcopalians would never stand for it).
Now you may be saying to yourself, “Great! But I could have Googled and found all that myself, Ms. Lazy Blogger. What does all that actually look like?” I’m so glad you asked.
It looks like the staff of the General Convention office starting to plan each event years in advance. It looks like them working what seems like 24 hours a day during the convention, handling issues and fielding countless questions and complaints with patience and grace.
It looks like interim bodies meeting in person, by telephone, and by video conference, doing the work assigned to them by the last General Convention. It looks like innumerable studies and surveys undertaken to inform their work. It looks like writing and editing and re-editing reports to be sent out to the Church, to better inform discernment and decision-making on an array of topics.
It looks like bishops and deputies starting weeks (and, in some cases, months) ahead of time, reading, researching, and networking so they are well educated about what will appear before them at General Convention.
It looks like the staff and volunteers in the Secretariat working endless hours to make sure that the legislative business is conducted seamlessly and that the work done at the General Convention is recorded properly for future reference. (Side note: the Secretariat is where you’ll find me. This will be my fourth General Convention serving as the minutes writer for the House of Deputies. You can read more about a day in the life of a Secretariat volunteer here.)
It looks like legislative committees meeting at 7:30 AM, fueled by Starbucks and the occasional Coca-Cola. It looks like the committees 
holding hearings in the evening so that anyone can give input on the resolutions in the committees’ care, and then burning the midnight oil, working on crafting amendments and deciding on recommendations, only to turn around and be right back at 7:30 the next morning to start all over again.
It looks like days of legislative sessions where hundreds of pieces of legislation are presented, debated, amended, passed, rejected, and referred. It looks like legislative decisions informed by prayerful discernment and conversation.
It looks like hundreds of volunteers gathered from all over the country, working together with people they’ve never met to help conduct the business of The Episcopal Church. It looks like registration agents, door greeters, gallery monitors, ushers, language aides, virtual binder distributors, pages, committee supporters, among others.
It looks like church communicators, laden with laptops and camera equipment, rushing from session to session and event to event, continually seeking Wi-Fi, and telling the stories of General Convention for all those who want to be connected.
It looks like ministries and vendors setting up shop in the massive exhibit hall and hosting receptions and dinners. It looks like people dedicated to their ministries hoping to spread the word about their own niche in the Kingdom, seeking those who need their help or those who can join in the work.
It looks like diocesan staff members, bishops’ and deputies’ spouses, and others taking countless trips to grocery stores, drug stores, and restaurants, making sure those who are enmeshed in the legislative work of General Convention are fed and taken care of.
It looks like staff, family members, and volunteers holding down the fort at home and at work while us church nerds do our thing for two weeks.
It looks like shared Eucharists and prayer groups. It looks like worshiping with those we don’t otherwise worship with, possibly in ways that we don’t normally worship.
It looks like friends and family and colleagues reuniting and rejoicing in each other’s company.
It looks like differing beliefs and values held in balance in the interest of remaining a unified group of Christian brethren.
It looks like love and hospitality.
It looks like church in the way we are called to be church.
I can’t wait. See you in Austin!
Vanessa Butler is Canon for Administration for the Diocese of NWPA and Minutes Secretary to the House of Deputies at General Convention.
*Author’s note: If you’re looking for a more detailed description of the legislative work of General Convention or for materials such as resolutions, schedules, orientation videos, etc., please visit the diocesan website, where we have gathered links to these resources. Before and during General Convention, we will also be posting on this blog and on social media, so watch out for intros to our deputies, reports back from General Convention, and other updates.
Ordination of Nicholas Evancho
We wish congratulations and blessings to the Rev. Nicholas Evancho on his ordination to the priesthood and upcoming move to the Diocese of Southern Ohio, where he will serve as a curate at Christ Church in Glendale.
Photos of the ordination service, which was held on Saturday, June 2, at Church of the Epiphany in Grove City, are below.
Ordination of Nicholas Evancho to the Priesthood
It’s a great day in the Kingdom, and especially in the Diocese of NWPA! Bishop Sean will ordain Nicholas Evancho to the priesthood on Saturday, June 2, at 2:00 PM at the Church of the Epiphany in Grove City, PA. All are welcome to attend.
To learn more about Nicholas’ journey to the priesthood, read Trusting the Call, about his decision to become a priest, and Who Knew There Were So Many Chipotles, a reflection from Nicholas on his first year of seminary.
Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile
the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those
whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours for ever. Amen.
Time for the Diocesan Picnic at Waldameer!
The Diocesan Picnic at Waldameer is just around the corner! This great opportunity for worship, fellowship and fun will be held on Sunday, June 17, 2018. It is hoped and expected that those coming to the picnic would also attend the worship service at 11:00 AM. Bishop Sean will preach and celebrate.
Tickets are $24.00 per person (with a $100 maximum per immediate family), which includes food, rides, and the water park (normal price per person would be $39.35). Congregations are once again being asked to gather money and reservations. Ticket sales must be done in advance using only tickets that are obtained from the Diocese. No sale of tickets will be permitted at the park. Reservations from the congregations must be to Vanessa by email or phone (814.456.4203) by noon on Monday, June 4th. Tickets will then be mailed to the congregations.
Paul Nelson, former diocesan treasurer and owner of Waldameer, is again generously allowing us to keep all proceeds from ticket sales. The proceeds will be split into two accounts, with 60% of the proceeds being placed in a scholarship fund for Camp Nazareth and 40% of the proceeds becoming available for youth ministry grants for our congregations (information and applications for this grant are available on the diocesan website).
On the day of the picnic, registration will be from 10:00 AM until 10:50 AM, and it is there that you will exchange your tickets for wristbands. There will be no registration during the service. Registration will resume and the food lines will open after the worship service is completed. Food will be available until 4:00 PM. You must have a wrist band to eat.
Hope to see you at Waldameer!
Diocesan Summer Camp 2018 “Seek the Truth”
Do you like to swim, play sports and games, make crafts, hike, climb a ropes course, or make new friends? If you do, our Diocesan Summer Camp has something for you and more!
Camp is for students who have completed 2nd through 12th grade. Three separate programs 
are run during the week. Kids Camp is 2nd to 5th grade. Middle School Camp is 6th to 8th grade. High School Camp is 9th to 12th grade.
Camp will take place from June 10 – 16 at Camp Nazareth. The theme this year is “Seek the Truth.” Campers will work in small groups for bible study, discussion, and activities. Worship happens daily.
Camp Nazareth is located in Mercer, PA. It is surrounded by forest with well-marked hiking trails. The camp’s amenities include a pool, basketball court, softball field, high and low ropes course, a chapel, and cabins with showers and bathrooms inside. Each cabin is staffed by adult counselors. Our staff is drawn from volunteers across the diocese.
The cost per camper is $345. However, the first 100 registrations received or postmarked by May 29 will receive a $65 scholarship to reduce the fee to $280.
Registration and deposit payment may be made online at http://dionwpacamp.org/forms/. If registering online, adults will still need to print, sign, and send the consent forms with their child to camp. A camp brochure, consent form if registering online, and printable application form are available to download at the camp website. Please contact Dennis Blauser at 724-699-3747 or frdenny@earthlink.net for more information.
Camp is the best week of the summer! We hope that you’ll be a part of it.
‘Children of Abraham’ Documentary, produced in Warren, March 3 at Struthers
This article originally appeared in the Warren Times Observer.
By STACEY GROSS (sgross@timesobserver.com)
“A Jewish businessman, a Christian priest, and an American Muslim…”
It sounds like the beginning of a joke. But it’s not. It’s the beginning of the tagline for a film produced in Warren County by Glarner Group Production Studio, and it ends “…coexisting in peace.”
Glarner said that he and Mark Robinault made the 45-minute documentary over the course of two years. It’s been shown most recently at the Asian World Film Festival, Glarner said. And now, it’s going to be shown in Warren.
The three men interviewed in the movie are Timothy Dyer, Sam Qadri, and Harvey Stone. All are local or semi-local. Qadri teaches at the Jamestown High school and also is a professor of Muslim Studies at JCC. Dyer is a local priest and Stone is a local businessman.
Glarner said he was sitting at Trinity Episcopal Church in Warren one day listening to Dyer talk about the latest Children of Abraham event – an event designed to introduce those unfamiliar with it to the concept of interfaith discussions – and he wanted to know more.
“Why is he doing this,” Glarner said he found himself wondering as he listened to Dyer talk. Through subsequent conversations, however, Glarner said he understood perfectly what the goal of the Children of Abraham Project hope to achieve.
Interfaith conversations, said Glarner, are “pretty relevant to everyone right now.” And this, Glarner added, “is the narrative we need to hear.” As opposed to the tendency to divide and fracture people based on differences in belief and lifestyle, the goal of Children of Abraham and of the film is to get people both recognizing they are alike, and also seek to find ways to make connections with those of different faiths. “If there’s going to be some kind of lasting peace in the world then how we’re going to get there is through conversations like these and through a loving heart.”
Glarner said the screening, to be held on Saturday, March 3 at the Struther’s Library Theatre from 7 to 9 p.m. will be both an opportunity to expose a local audience to the film, but also a fundraiser for the Music Conservatory, of which Glarner has been a part since it began. Admission to the film is $10 per person and includes an introduction by Glarner who will talk more about what compelled him to make a documentary based on the interfaith discussions of three local men.
Welcoming Dreamers the Obvious Choice
This op-ed piece originally appeared in the Morning Call on January 29, 2018.
The current political morass in Washington has thrown light on a deep and ugly divide in our country and in our faith communities on the issue of immigration.
More than half of white evangelical Christians — a group that gave 81 percent of its votes to President Trump in the 2016 election — say that immigration is a threat to this country’s “traditional customs and values.”
In the same survey, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in 2015, 70 percent of Hispanic Catholics say that immigration “strengthens American society.” Other Christian groups fall in between, but only among white evangelicals does the majority report being threatened by immigration.
Proponents of these sharply contrasting views are on center stage as Congress prepares to negotiate what Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York called “a global agreement” that will include the fate of the young people who live in this country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by President Obama in 2012 and ended by President Trump last September.
Under DACA, some 800,000 children who were brought to this country illegally by their parents were protected from deportation thanks to renewable two-year deferments. The program also made it possible for these young people, popularly known as Dreamers, to receive work permits.
The politics of immigration are complicated, but as an Episcopal bishop who graduated from Grove City College, a bastion of evangelical higher education in Mercer County, I believe that the teachings of the Christian faith along with those of the world’s other great religious and ethical traditions make it clear that we must protect the vulnerable, provide for those in need, and, when necessary, sacrifice from our own substance to fulfill this duty.
To pick just two of the manifold scriptural examples from my own tradition:
In the 23rd chapter of Exodus we read these oft-quoted, yet seemingly forgotten, words, “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”
And in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we read that Jesus and his parents had to flee their homeland to escape a king who wanted to kill the Christ child. We do ourselves and our faiths a disservice if we pretend that these stories and teachings have no meaning for us today.
Dreamers, like every human being, are created in the image and likeness of God regardless of their immigration status or country of origin. They deserve a chance to live full lives in the only country most of them have ever known. They deserve to live free from fear of deportation to a country whose customs they may not know and whose languages they may not speak.
Even as I make this argument, however, I realize that not all hearts are changed by a clergyman’s appeal to our common membership in the family of God. So let me offer another verse, this one from Matthew 7: “Thus you will know them by their fruits.”
Thanks to DACA, about 685,000 people are currently working in this country, paying taxes and contributing to the economic life of our communities. In several Rust Belt cities, DACA recipients, refugees and immigrants have repopulated failing neighborhoods and revived the community’s economic fortunes.
A study last year by the Center for American Progress estimated that the loss of all DACA recipients from the workforce would reduce our country’s gross domestic product by $460 billion over the next 10 years. Pennsylvania, home to nearly 6,000 DACA recipients, would lose more than $357 million each year.
Christians and all people of goodwill are called to do the right thing, even if it hurts. In this case it helps. Our choice is obvious.
The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe is bishop provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem and bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Congratulations, Rev. Mark Elliston!
The Diocese of NWPA is pleased to welcome our newest priest -the Rev. Mark Elliston! The service of ordination was held on Saturday, December 16 at Christ Church, Oil City.
Please keep Rev. Elliston and the Christ Church community in your prayers as they continue their journey together.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ –Isaiah 6:8
Trinity Memorial, Warren Celebrates 150th Anniversary
Congratulations to Trinity Memorial Church in Warren on 150 years of mission and ministry!
The Forward 