The Mid-America Anglican A Newsletter of the Diocese of Mid-America Anglican Province of America www.dmaanglican.org

Eastertide, Anno Domini MMXIV

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Greetings from the Diocese of Mid-America, Anglican Province of America. This is the first edition of The Mid-America Anglican, the newsletter of our Diocese. It will be published quarterly and contain pertinent and up-to-date information about our Diocese and all the parishes and missions therein.

As I am confident you have heard, the Diocese of Mid-America is now formally embarking on our pastoral planning process as to the future of this Diocese, and we approach this process in a spirit of faith, hope, and love. I have great faith in God, and in all God’s people throughout the expanded geography of this Diocese. I have deep hope in what we can accomplish together with God’s grace as we confidently plan our future as a traditional Anglican family. And, I love Jesus, His Church, and you, the splendid people of this Diocese.

As we begin this process, I am reminded that ―without a vision the people will perish‖ (Proverbs 29:18). When I visit parishes and talk with priests, deacons, and our dedicated lay people, one challenging question keeps emerging—how can we strengthen our parish life, and help more people grow in their faith? I believe that promoting a new and fresh vision for the Diocese will help us respond to this question in many important ways.

First of all, God’s people in our Diocese have told us their needs. Here is what we know:

• love your parishes, and want them stronger, more stable and alive;

• love our priests, deacons, and lay leaders, hope for more, and are eager to share in leadership and service in the Church;

• want a Church where people are welcomed, and Sunday Eucharist is celebrated with reverence, joy, a solid homily, and full participation;

• want intense religious education and faith formation, not just for children, but for our teens, young adults, and adults;

• want our parishes not just to survive but to flourish;

• want attention to marriage and family;

• want a Church embracing all newcomers;

• want a Church vigorous in the promotion of the culture of life, care for the poor, sick, vulnerable, unborn, immigrants, and our elders;

• want a Church purified, positive, and transparent;

• want a Church much better equipped in communications and technology;

• want a Church, not a museum;

Pastoral planning is really the assessment of our communal response to our baptismal call to be followers and friends of Jesus. It is about responding to the invitation of Jesus in our time, given the needs of His Church, and His people right now. It is a call to discipleship, discerning how are we meeting the real needs of our people, and how can we best shepherd our resources to further His Person, message, and invitation to be His disciples. In a way, the Church has been doing pastoral planning since the first Pentecost, as His first disciples prayed and considered His imperative to ―Go, and make disciples of all nations!‖ At the heart of our planning process is the urgent reply to the call to be disciples, to invite others back to and into the Church, and to equip our parishes and ministries to do this.

Very closely related to discipleship is the call to be evangelizers—to spread the Gospel that we are a loved, redeemed, and saved people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Our Diocesan planning efforts are aimed at increasing the effectiveness of our evangelization efforts in living out the commitment to make all things new. We just don’t close or merge parishes, but ask why they are not full!

We read in the Acts of the Apostles how the first Christians planned the best ways to evangelize, preach the Gospel, celebrate the sacraments, and organize the communities of faith. The mission of the Church, then and now, is precisely the same: the salvation of souls. This mission is accomplished as the Church and her members proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God, and, with the help of God’s Grace, witness to that coming by the quality and character of their lives. Since the beginning of the Diocese of Mid-America 4 years ago, we have been committed to this very same mission. The proclamation of the mission, the carrying out of Jesus’ mandate to ―Go, and make disciples‖ has been influenced by the signs of the times, and the Church has always adapted to changing situations, while at the same time proclaiming the fullness of the Gospel message and the dignity of each and every human person. There has been a constancy in mission and service that has inspired millions and renewed the Church for the better time after time.

There have been many exciting changes in our Diocese. We have established the James DeKoven House of Studies in order to promote the education of men to Holy Order’s within our Diocese but also the wider Church of which we are a part. Additionally, the House of Studies will be offering courses in liturgy, altar guild, acolyte training, and much more once the Certificate of Sacred Theology Program is underway in the fall of 2014. Applications are presently being accepted and may be downloaded at our website, www.dmaanglican.org I will be visiting the Anglican Church of St. Andrew the Evangelist, Merrillville, Indiana on Sunday, May 18, being the Fourth Sunday after Easter, and St. Joseph’s Anglican Church, New Braunfels, Texas on Sunday, June 8, Being Whitsunday (Pentecost). I am in the process of scheduling other visitations for 2014 and the beginning of 2015, so please let me know when a visitation would be best.

Pax et Bonum,

+Robert BIRTHDAY AND ANNIVERSARY LIST

Please notify Norma Jean of the Diocesan office at [email protected] to get your name on the list. Please provide dates for birthdays, wedding anniversaries and ordination anniversaries for inclusion in the next Newsletter.

The Prayer List for Members & Friends of the Diocese The list will be kept current and expanded in future editions of the Newsletter. To add individuals to the prayer list, please call or email the church office: 812.573.9174; [email protected]

PRAYERS FOR MEMBERS Bishop Larry Shaver – for his continued recovery and physical rehabilitation Archdeacon Frank Endres - for reduced stress and better health Phyllis Grove—for continued rehabilitation after hip replacement

PRAYERS FOR FRIENDS Bob McDonald – for discernment of vocation Jessica Stanford – for increased health and direction

JAMES DEKOVEN HOUSE OF STUDIES Certificate of Sacred Theology Program Accepting Applications for the fall 2014 Module (3 courses) The Certificate curriculum, course descriptions, tuition and fees, and applications may be found at www.dmaanglican.org Please contact the Registrar, Norma Jean Giffin, at [email protected] for any questions.

From the Diocesan Administrator A thank you is extended to all the parishes for submitting their ANNUAL PAROCHIAL REPORTS on time before the Special Election Synod in February!!!!! Well done!!!!!

5TH DMA SYNOD AND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL MEETING, OCTOBER 15, 16, 17 To be held at Our Lady of the Snows, Belleville, Illinois

The Uncommon Prayer Book Canon Gregory Wilcox, Priest-in-Charge, St. Joseph’s Anglican Church, New Braunfels, Texas

The Book of Common Prayer is what it says it is-a book of prayer for common use. That seems so obvious as to make the observation not only unnecessary but perhaps even trite, but some things seem so obvious they can fly over our heads unawares. So ponder the obvious with me for a minute. The Common Prayer Book is intended for us to use together. Whatever our personal inclinations about prayer-common prayer is meant to transcend them. Personal prayer is essential to a Christian, but prayer in common is more important yet. When the Lord Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, He taught them a common prayer: Our Father. Not ―My Father.‖ Even when you and I are alone we still say ―our‖ when we begin the Lord’s Prayer. We do that not just because that’s what the Lord taught us to say, but because of the truth that lies below the surface of that word ―our.‖

The Lord taught this prayer to His disciples precisely because they were His disciples. If you remember why He taught it to them in the first place, they came to Him because St John the Baptist had taught his followers to pray and the disciples wanted the Lord Jesus to teach them a prayer of their own. So He did. He gave them, and us, this prayer not only perfect in its words but also as a perfect guide to prayer. The first word teaches us that none of us prays in isolation. His basic teaching about prayer is that every prayer is common prayer.

Does that do away with the notion ―private‖ prayer? Sort of it does. When you and I pray, we pray as Christians-as those who, in baptism, have ―put on Christ.‖ We may turn to God in personal prayer, but in our most personal anguish, pleading our deepest fears, we pray as Christians, members of the Body of Christ. Since you are His faithful soldier to your life’s end, it’s the only way you can pray-more, it’s the best possible way to pray.

So in a sense, all Christian prayer is common prayer.

The Prayer Book, though, is common prayer in a special way. It comprises the Church’s common prayer as liturgy-our common worship. The word liturgy is a fun word. It comes from ancient Greece. Liturgy originally meant some work done to benefit the public, like a street-sweeper, pot-hole repairer or public dogcatcher. In Athens, six hundred years before Christ, liturgists were men who kept the city’s streets in good repair. Eventually it came to mean something done for the public good. A few hundred years after that, those who translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek used it to mean the ―public worship of God.‖ So it’s come down to us.

The Prayer Book, then, is our common worship of God, our liturgy. It’s not an exhaustive book of prayers, it’s not the only book Anglicans are allowed to sue when they pray, but it embodies some essential principles we believe about prayer and worship. For going on 500 years, it’s been without question the single most important thing which has formed our peculiar Anglican tradition. Just like us, it’s not perfect. We’ve tinkered with it time and again almost before the ink was dry on the first Booke of Common Praier in 1549. But nothing has formed us as Anglicans like it has. It’s taught us to pray and has given us a guide after which to pattern our daily lives as Christians. It’s not just enshrined- some detractors might think ―embalmed‖ would be a more fitting word-the worship of God; for those of us who’ve had it as a long-time companion, it’s a place the Spirit breathes. Under His guidance, the Prayer Book has helped form Christ in us.

Over the next few issues of our diocesan paper, I hope to explore Common Prayer with you. I’m especially interested in the question of how it forms us as Christians. It’s an inestimable gift. If we examine the Common Prayer Book for what it actually is, rather than for what we sort of think it is or what somebody told us they think it is, we’ll discover that it’s a sure and steady guide to lead us where God wants us to go, and form us into who He made us to be.

NEW LITURGY APPROVED! The Book of Common Prayer in the English Parochial Tradition, According to Orthodox Catholic Usage, has been approved as a liturgy of this Diocese. For information about obtaining beautifully bound pew copies and the accompanying American Altar Missal, please visit www.andrewespress.com

PARISH NEWS

The Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Nativity held their annual ―Silence in the Cathedral‖ on Holy Saturday, April 19, 2014, from 5:00pm till 7:00pm. A time for reflection and meditation, ―Silence in the Cathedral‖ offers a brief but silent haven from the concerns of daily life.

St. Mary of the Angels in LaPorte, Indiana, reports that the Holy Spirit has been busy bringing them some new parishioners. The choir is expanding and the pews are filling up…not fast, but steadily!

Our Diocesan Website Have you looked at our Diocesan website lately? www.dmaanglican.org Special thanks to Mrs. Melora Adams for all the work she puts into her job as our webmaster.

WEBSITE UPDATES

Most of the parish websites in the DMA have been revamped and drastically improved through presentation and content. Melora Adams has done a fabulous job with www.photobiz.com to “spruce” things up a bit and allow the Diocese to make better use of current social media. In regards to social media, the Diocese, the James DeKoven House of Studies AND the Jackson Kemper Mission Fund all have new Facebook pages….check them out!

HAVE YOU BEEN SENDING THE DIOCESE YOUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS!!! Remember your parish pledges for FY 2014. Checks should be made out to the “Diocese of Mid- America” and sent to: Bishop Larry Shaver, 488 Amhurst Road, Valparaiso, IN 46385

THE JACKSON KEMPER MISSION FUND A Domestic Missionary Fund of the Diocese of Mid-America, Anglican Province of America

Jackson Kemper was born in Pleasant Valley, , on December 24, 1789. He graduated from Columbia College in 1809 and was ordained deacon in 1811, and priest in 1814. Thereafter he served Bishop William White as assistant at Christ Church in . (In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, diocesan bishops in the Episcopal Church also continued their ministries as rectors of parishes.) At Kemper’s urging, Bishop White made his first and only episcopal visitation in western Pennsylvania.

In 1835, Kemper was ordained bishop in accordance with a canon that provided for missionary bishops to serve the frontier and in foreign countries. Kemper immediately set out on his travels through the vast territory committed to his episcopal charge. Assigned to and Indiana, Kemper also laid foundations in Iowa, , Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas; and made extensive missionary tours in the South and Southwest. His unofficial title was ―Bishop of the Whole Northwest‖. Kemper established Kemper College in St Louis, Missouri, to help train clergymen for specialized tasks in the Church, including preparation for the sometimes harsh life of the frontier. The College failed in 1845 from inadequate funding. , which he founded in 1842 with the help of and his companions, was more successful, as was , founded in 1852. Both institutions reflected Kemper’s devotion to beauty in liturgy. He ordained James DeKoven to the priesthood in 1855.

From 1859 until his death in 1870, Kemper served as the diocesan bishop of Wisconsin.

HOW TO DONATE TO THE FUND

Donations to the Jackson Kemper Mission Fund will enable the Diocese of Mid-America to expand its presence in the same geography in which Jackson Kemper planted numerous missions, from Wisconsin to southern Texas. Although no longer the frontier of his day, the Church faces new challenges in yet a newer "frontier". Traditional Anglican Catholic churches do not presently exist in many of the states of this Diocese, and we ask for your monetary help to insure that new, vibrant churches are planted.

Please consider making a donation to this fund. Checks and money orders should be made payable to "The Diocese of Mid-America" and designated to "Jackson Kemper Mission Fund". Mail to: Diocese of Mid-America, 4455 Epworth Road, Newburgh, IN 47630

EVER THOUGHT ABOUT STARTING A MISSION? NEED LITURGICAL ITEMS FOR YOUR PRESENT MISSION? Contact Canon John Berry at [email protected]

Books, Books, and More Books!

Please contact Canon Gregory Wilcox and his wife Tanya at St. Joseph’s Anglican Church in New Braunfels Texas if you are looking for the odd theological title or other books. Canon Wilcox and Tanya have been assisting a local library with their holdings and often come across items of interest. Feel free to contact Canon Wilcox at [email protected] PLEASE NOTE: Canon Greg and Tanya will procure these wonderful books, but you must pay for their shipment to your location!!!!!!

UPCOMING PARISH VISITATIONS

May 18, Fourth Sunday after Easter, Anglican Church of St. Andrew the Evangelist, Merrillville, Indiana

June 8, Whitsunday (Pentecost), St. Joseph’s Anglican Church, New Braunfels, Texas

DIOCESE OF MID-AMERICA 4455 Epworth Road Newburgh, IN 47630

THE PURPOSE / MISSION STATEMENT OF THE DIOCESE OF MID-AMERICA ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF AMERICA The purpose of this Diocese shall be to worship God who embraces all people; to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our Revealer, Lord and Savior; to celebrate the Sacraments; to facilitate spiritual growth; to practice Christian fellowship and unity within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; to educate and nourish the Apostolic faith of the undivided Church among all ages; to render loving service towards mankind; to be faithful in our stewardship responsibilities with our time, talent and treasures; and to strive for righteousness, justice, and peace.

Church Office Email address: [email protected] Webpage: www.dmaanglican.org The Rt. Rev. Dr. Larry Lee Shaver, Bishop Ordinary, Email: [email protected] The Rt. Rev. Robert Todd Giffin, Bishop Coadjutor (812) 573-9172, Email: [email protected]

**DEADLINE FOR JUNE 2014 NEWSLETTER IS MAY 20, 2014**