News

From Scott -- I was consecrated the Tenth Bishop of Georgia on January 23 of this year and what made it an extra special time was the presence of my brothers and sister in the Order of the Ascension. I am very much aware of the challenge in front of me and the prayers of my fellow professed members each day help sustain me.

Georgia is a wonderful diocese full of committed Christians who are so willing to serve. They also recognize that the culture has changed and that business as usual will not suffice. The challenge of growing the parishes and missions in a post-Christian context is clear to most members of the diocese.

The leadership is focused on responding creatively and intentionally in this new reality. We are beginning the Church Development Institute this December so we can expand the skill set and competencies of our lay and ordained leaders. We are reforming our ordination process so we can raise up and form ordained leaders who are equipped with the skills the Church will need in the 21st Century. I see my task as leading the leaders and helping them develop the skills they will need to navigate the present and future church.

This time of transition is particularly challenging for me and my family. My wife, Kelly, and I just celebrated our 26th anniversary. She is still living in Washington DC along with my 17 year old daughter, Mary Grace, until she finishes high school in May of 2011. Being separated from them is not easy and often lonely. This is uncharted waters for us, but we recognize it is what we must do for the next year.

Scott is also the 6th Presiding Officer of the Order, elected in 2008. Scott was also the second Presiding Officer.

Bishop Benhase is planning a CDI for the Diocese of Georgia. Scott has been part of the training team for the Church Development Institute in the Diocese of Washington and the Seattle CDI.

Father Lowelll Grisham is rector of Saint Paul's Church, Fayetteville, AR. From Lowell -- We’ve begun a planning process to solve a good problem at St. Paul’s. We’re full for our two main Sunday morning services. We will engage the congregation in a conversation about whether we need to expand our 1870’s building or whether we need to build a new church to meet the growth projections for the coming decades.

I’ve recently joined the board of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, our state’s pre-eminent voice on behalf of constructive legislative and governmental policies that benefit children and families. I’m also a new member on the CREDO Advisory Board for the Episcopal Church. I recently became a co-convener of the Chicago Consultation, working for equal access to the sacraments for all Episcopalians. Last year I led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, my first trip. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience. I’m working on a teaching series about what we learned on the journey.

St. Paul’s continues to be a fun and challenging place to work. I’m especially fortunate to have an outstanding and congenial staff. I continue to writing a column in the regional newspaper about the intersection of church and society. And I’m proud of the work my wife Kathy does directing a network of federally qualified health and dental clinics that serve the uninsured and underinsured in our region.

From Father Jeremy Bond. -- This past year proved different in many ways for me, the OA retiree. I enjoyed the recent meeting in NYC, especially after having missed last year's gathering due to the death of our daughter Angela, age 45, from cancer. So a lot of my energy this past year has gone into grieving and

ministering to my wife, Kathy, as she works through her grief.

Last October we did enjoy a cruise from Pt. Lauderdale, Florida through the Panama Canal to San Diego, CA. We made the cruise after our regular autumnal visit east to visit children and grandchildren -- including Angie's daughter and son. Then, this spring we again visited the week before our OA gathering and celebrated a first anniversary memorial service on May 1st. at her parish church of St. Mark in Perryville, MD.

As one of several retired priests in our deanery of the Diocese of El Camino Real I don't get too many opportunities to lead Sunday worship, but I do sing in the choir and teach an adult class and volunteer in the parish thrifty shop. Also, this past summer I organized the annual VBS for our parish of St. Barnabas, Arroyo Grande. We used a curriculum designed by Habitat for Humanity. This dovetailed nicely with their building of four homes in our city of Grover Beach to which parishioners gave time and energy.

I do not know what this coming year holds, but I will look for opportunities to minister as the Holy Spirit urges.

Michelle Heyne took the Promise and became a Professed Member. She continues to serve as the managing editor of Ascension Press.

Michelle serves as part of the training team with the Diocese of Washington and national CDI’s. She is the chief compliance officer for a Seattle based company and has extensive experience with financial management, interpersonal communications and team dynamics, and developing and implementing organizational change initiatives. She has non-profit experience in the areas of team building, strategic planning, and conflict management. She is a member of Trinity Parish, Seattle.

We had two visitors exploring membership with OA.


Erika Meyer - Is the rector of Good Shepherd, NYC and a CDI grad.		Liz Tunney - Liz is completing her second year at GTS. She's served on several CDI staffs and as an LTI trainer.

Companion: Bryan Carr continues as a companion of the Order.

My blog, Speculum Criticum Traditionis, has been garnering a little attention in the small world of online philosophy. This summer I was asked if I wanted to join in a group posting about Salomon Maimon, who was one of Kant's earliest and best critics; his main philosophical work has just been translated. This is not on the level of being invited to give the Gifford Lectures, but it's a nice validation-- though it means I must really do my homework now.

My health remains a question mark. I feel fine mostly, but some
symptoms (mainly joint pains) that had become quite chronic during
last summer and then abated have never completely gone away and never been explained. I go in for regular tests and keep the specialists scratching their heads.

I've been singing in the choir for the new 5:00 pm Sunday liturgy at St. Paul's, Seattle, and it has been a very good experience that has deepened my sense of how worship and doctrine involves but transcends the mind by way of the whole body and soul.

Other than that, I keep volunteering at my stepson Gabriel's school and Amanda and I are now in our second year of marriage.

Bryan Carr

Ascension Press Decisions

Books and CD's in the works -- two books on spiritual practices by Michelle Heyne and Bob Gallagher, a handbook for prayer by Lowell Grisham, and The Hope of Glory: Congregational Options by Bob Gallagher, and a book applying spiritual life frameworks to three large parishes by Scott Benhase, Greg Rickel, Lowell Grisham, and Bob Gallagher.

News about our Companions

Bryan Carr and Amanda Klein were married at Trinity, Seattle on August 2, 2009. Bob Gallagher officiated. The picture below includes Gabriel, Amanda's son.

Michelle Heyne preached her first homily on the Feast of Thomas Becket 2008 in St. Margaret's Chapel, Trinity, Seattle. From her homily --

We are all products of our own era. We live in this age, with all of its attendant cultural, religious, intellectual, and environmental limitations. We are called to try to discern the will of God and to take seriously the temporal and eternal consequences of our actions, but I don’t believe we are called to get it right for ever and all time. We are called to step up to the plate, to recognize what is needed today, for these people, in this place and this time. ...

We do our jobs, we take care of our families, we hang out with our friends, we try to do the right thing in the places we find ourselves. Sometimes doing the right thing is painful and frightening. Sometimes, it’s hard to know what the right thing is. It is easy and natural to become overwhelmed by competing duties, by our need to do everything correctly, by our anxiety that not everyone will like us or approve of us. Thomas, by virtue of his ordinariness, by virtue of his courage in the face of changing truth, helps us remember to focus on today, this place, these people, exactly where we find ourselves, knowing that God has brought the kingdom of heaven among us and given us the faith and hope to proclaim it.