In the bleak midwinter, Standing Rock Episcopal ministry is changing

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Is your congregation offering "ashes to go?" Let DioCal know!

Expanding Horizons together

With the Bay Area facing many challenges today, it is imperative that the diocese be able to meet the needs of the people it serves. The diocese has the opportunity and vision to make a transformative impact on global mission, essential housing, poverty, and environmental stewardship. Congregational growth and development is a major aspect of this vision. Providing congregations with the resources to become better prepared to live out their baptismal vows in their diverse communities is paramount to its purpose. The diocese launched a $32 million capital campaign called Expanding Horizons in the fall of 2015 to achieve this vision. Many Episcopalians and other friends across the Bay Area have stepped forward to invest in the future of our Church and local communities, raising more than $12 million so far. The campaign office looks forward to continuing to work with the diocesan community to make this vision a reality. If you are interested in learning more about Expanding Horizons, Davey Gerhard looks forward to hearing from you at daveyg@diocal.org or at 415.869.7836.
 

Register for 2017 Equipping the Beloved Community: Vestry and Bishop’s Committee training

Grace Cathedral will be the host for this learning-rich vestry and bishop’s committee training event. Gather your lay and clergy team and register for a day of learning and fellowship on Saturday, February 11. The Rev. Nancy Frausto will lead the keynote address, featuring her experience and passion for the ministry of ‘scrappy churches.’ Frausto is the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles’ first Latina leader to have grown up in a Spanish-speaking Episcopal church who has gone on to pursue ordination. She will be leading a workshop on shared leadership with bilingual congregations. The day will also feature workshops for vestry and bishop’s committee leaders, parish administrators, treasurers, Eucharistic ministers and visitors, and more. Empower new congregational leaders with the knowledge and skills to play their roles with confidence while enjoying worship, fellowship, and lunch with peers throughout the diocese.

When: Saturday, February 11, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco
Cost: $10 (vestry/BC members), $25 (general admission), free to Grace Cathedral members
Registration: https://diocal.wufoo.com/forms/z1f5x6m20g7tep6/
Contact: Caren Miles, carenm@diocal.org
 

Save the date: Annual Absalom Jones and Richard Allen commemoration at St. Paul’s, Oakland

Come join members of the Afro Anglican Commission, the Union of Black Episcopalians, and DioCal to celebrate the legacies of Absalom Jones and the Rev. Richard Allen at St. Paul’s, Oakland. Jones and Allen were friends, activists, and fellow evangelists who were active in The Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.  Absalom Jones, ordained priest in 1802, was the first African American priest of The Episcopal Church and first rector of St. Thomas African Orthodox Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. Allen was the first African American ordained in the Methodist Church (1816) and was the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Both men were leading abolitionists of their day. This year the commemoration is especially honored to have Bishop Marc Handley Andrus as the celebrant and guest homilist Bishop Clement Fugh of the Fifth Episcopal District, AME Church. Additional guests include a choir of the California Conference of the AME Church. Love to sing? Watch this space as for information on the DioCal festival choir forming to sing at the commemoration!

When: Saturday, February 18, 10:45 a.m. (choral concert), 11 a.m. (Eucharistic celebration), 1 p.m. (reception)
Where: St Paul’s, 114 Montecito Avenue, Oakland
Cost: Free
Contact: the Rev. Eric Metoyer, ericm@diocal.org
 

Health and wellness grants available through Episcopal Impact Fund Action Networks

The Episcopal Impact Fund is kicking off 2017 with $75,000 in new grant funding for organizations that are working to create pathways out of poverty! This year's granting focus area is health and wellness. Attend an Action Network meeting in your deanery and bring your ideas of organizations that are making a difference in your region. Action Network meetings are open to all members of the community, including staff and board members of nonprofits interested in learning more about this funding opportunity. Each Action Network will meet twice in 2017. The following is a schedule of the first meeting in each deanery:

Alameda Action Network Meeting
When: Tuesday, February 28, 7 p.m.
Where: Our Saviour, 1011 Harrison Street, Oakland

Contra Costa Action Network Meeting
When: Tuesday, February 21, 7 p.m.
Where: Resurrection, 399 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill

Marin Action Network Meeting
When: Thursday, February 16, 7 p.m.
Where: St. Paul’s, 1123 Court Street, San Rafael

Peninsula Action Network Meeting
When: Thursday, March 2, 7 p.m.
Where: Holy Child and St. Martin, 777 Southgate Avenue, Daly City

San Francisco Action Network Meeting
When: Wednesday, February 15, 7 p.m.
Where: St. John the Evangelist, 1661 15th Street, San Francisco

Southern Alameda — To be announced

Link: http://www.episcopalimpact.org/news-and-events-blog/new-health-and-wellness-grants-available-through-our-action-networks
 

‘These are our bodies’: talking about faith and sexuality in youth and family ministry

Parents, clergy, and lay leaders are invited to the fifth annual CDSP Youth Ministry Symposium with keynote speaker Leslie A. Choplin, D.Ed.Min., co-author of These Are Our Bodies: Talking Faith and Sexuality at Church and at Home. Choplin received her doctor of educational ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary and spent a decade as a director of Christian education, sexual misconduct prevention trainer, facilitator, and speaker in Episcopal congregations across the United States. In addition to the keynote address, the symposium will include opportunities for training and certification in safe church practices in accordance with the national policy.

When: Saturday, March 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; those taking advanced Safeguarding training will continue to 5:30 p.m.
Where: Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2451 Ridge Road, Berkeley
Cost: $25 (Youth Ministry Symposium, including standard Safeguarding workshops); $75 (Youth Ministry Symposium plus advanced Safeguarding training). Scholarship and travel funding is available from the Diocese of California, Diocese of Northern California, and Province VIII.
Registration: http://cdsp.edu/on-campus-courses/these-are-our-bodies-talking-about-faith-and-sexuality-in-youth-and-family-ministry/
Contact: For registration, Alissa Fencsik, call@cdsp.edu. For Provincial or Northern California scholarship aid, Anne Clarke, anne@norcalepiscopal.org. For Diocese of California scholarship aid or questions about Safeguarding training, Caren Miles, carenm@diocal.org.

Luvvie Ajayi at The Forum tonight, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

The winter Forum returns and welcomes Luvvie Ajayi, the award-winning writer and executive director of The Red Pump Project, in conversation on everything from feminism to friendship to social media to sex tapes to her first book, which takes a hard look at why we think and act the way we do in today’s crazy-connected digital world.

When: Tuesday, January 31, 7:45 p.m.
Where: Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco
Cost: Free
Link: RSVP required
 

Other upcoming events at Grace Cathedral 

Lion Dancers of Kei Lun Martial Arts
Sunday, February 5; after the 11 a.m. service; free

Organ Recital Series – Hans Uwe Hielsher
Sunday, February 5; 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; suggested donation of $10

Winter Crab Feed
Saturday, February 18; 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.; donation of $30
 

Roderick Lowe and Sally Porter Munro in concert at Incarnation, San Francisco

A vocal recital with tenor Roderick Lowe and mezzo-soprano Sally Porter Munro in a program of art songs by Vaughan Williams, Richard Hundley, Quilter, Faure, Manuel de Falla, and songs from broadway by Sondheim, Stephen Schwarz, and Bernstein. Roderick Lowe has sung with many Bay Area choruses including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Masterworks Chorale, San Francisco Festival Chorus, San Francisco Choral Society, Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, and Pacific Mozart Ensemble. Sally Porter Munro, a full-time member of the San Francisco Opera chorus, has sung with the English National Opera, Royal Opera de la Monnaie in Brussels, and as an oratorio soloist in Europe.

When: Saturday February 4, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Incarnation, 1750 29th Avenue, San Francisco
Cost: $20 (general), $15 (seniors/students)
Contact: Mathew Chacko, comebefed@aol.com, 415.564.2324
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roderick-lowe-tenor-and-sally-porter-munro-mezzo-soprano-in-concert-tickets-29736122543     
Link: https://sunsetarts.wordpress.com/roderick-lowe-tenor-and-sally-porter-munro-mezzo-soprano/  

Other upcoming events at Incarnation

Jere Torkelsen (baritone) and Sibel Demirmen (soprano) in concert
Friday, February 17, 7:30 p.m. $20 (general), $15 (seniors/students)

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper with live music
Tuesday February 28, 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m., $12 (general), $6 (children under 12)

Journey to Rwanda and Kenya with Dr. Barry Levine (SFSU) – An Incarnation Travelogue Series
Saturday, March 4, 5:30 p.m., free. Please bring a dish to share at the potluck

Shawnette Sulker (soprano), Victor Khodadad (tenor), in concert
Saturday March 11, 7:30 p.m. $20 (general), $15 (seniors/students)
 

East Bay chapter of Episcopal Peace Fellowship to meet at St. Alban's, Albany 

Gather for inspiration, planning, organizing, and fellowship. The Episcopal Peace Fellowship (EPF) is a national organization connecting all who seek a deliberate response to injustice and violence and want to pray, study, and take action for justice and peace in communities, church, and the world. Christians are called to do justice, dismantle violence, and strive to be peacemakers.

When: Saturday, February 11, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: St. Alban's, 1501 Washington Avenue (at the corner of Curtis Street), Albany
Cost: Free
Contact: The Rev. Kathleen Van Sickle, deaconkvs@att.net
Link: http://epfnational.org/#

Listen, love, and pray: a day of healing prayer with The Rev. Nigel Mumford at St. Clare’s, Pleasanton

Companion in Franciscan spirituality programs 2017, St. Francis House, San Francisco

Join the Sisters of the Community of St. Francis at St. Francis House in San Francisco in a study of Franciscan Spirituality and a living out of that spirituality through participation in our life of prayer, work, ministry, and community. Open to any woman over 18 (limit 2 participants per immersion). Room and board provided as part of this free program, but donations always welcome. (St. Francis House is not wheelchair accessible). Three 10-day residential immersions in Franciscan spirituality are being offered in 2017: Holy Week and Easter from Friday, April 7 to Monday, April 17; summer from Friday, August 11 to Monday, August 21; St. Francis Day from Friday, September 29 to Monday, October 9.

When: Friday, April 7 to Monday, April 17
Where: St. Francis House, 3743 Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco
Cost: donation
Application deadline: Wednesday, March 1 for Holy Week program
Contact: Sr. Pamela Clare, CSF, pamelaclarecsf@aol.com