Brothers and sisters in Christ,

 On the first day of December, people around the world pause to remember World AIDS Day.  Christians remember all who live with HIV and AIDS, and all who have died, at the same time we begin the season of Advent.  We search for a healer and a hope-giver as we prepare for the coming of the Redeemer.  One of the traditional prophetic readings for the season says:

 While gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,
[God’s]all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,
into the midst of the land that was doomed.  [Wisdom 18:14-15, NRSV]

 The magnificent contrasts of this ancient vision – silence pierced by the Word, doom cast out by new life – seem a fitting frame for reflecting on the challenges and opportunities confronting us on World AIDS Day 2010.

 The world lives in painful silence and gathering doom.  More than 30 million people around the world are living with HIV, and at least 2.5 million persons will be infected in the coming year. Developing countries experience HIV and AIDS as major links in the chain of poverty and instability binding so much of God’s creation.  In the United States HIV rates are also rising among the poor.  An increased need for American funding of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment has been met with silence and retreat, as other pressing challenges vie for national and global attention.  

And yet silence and doom do not have the last word.  The UNAIDS report released last week notes that the rate of new HIV infections has either stabilized or been reduced significantly in 56 nations.  New infections have fallen 20% in the past decade, and AIDS deaths have fallen 20% in the past five years.  The director of UNAIDS urges the world to break “the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic with bold actions and smart choices.”  The Centers for Disease Control identify HIV/AIDS as one of six diseases which can be overcome.  Research results released last week show promising results in clinical trials of a new prophylactic drug, designed to prevent HIV infection in at-risk communities.  This success comes in the wake of recently publicized advances in identifying HIV ‘controller genes,’ which may lead to advances in vaccines or treatment.

This contrast confronts us on World AIDS Day:  great progress and even greater hope despite public discourse and political leadership that rarely prioritizes an end to this deadly and stigmatizing disease.  What can Christians do to ensure the victory of hope and new life in the face of silence and death?

The first priority:  continue to advocate forcefully for government investment in the fight against AIDS both here and abroad.  The U.S. government’s has, in the past two years, decreased our nation’s promised investment in HIV/AIDS abroad.  This reduction had included both funding for particular countries, and our investment in the multinational Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote compellingly of President Obama’s unfulfilled commitments in a New York Times op-ed this past summer.  As the President prepares his budget for the coming fiscal year, I urge Episcopalians to challenge him and the new Congress to keep America’s promises to the world.  Joining the Episcopal Public Policy Network will connect your voice to those of other Episcopalians working in this and other areas of social justice.

The second priority:  Episcopalians must continue to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS within our own communities.  This Church still has AIDS, and urgent challenges remain.  Stigma continues to be a major issue in the United States and around the world.  Encouraging routine testing is essential, particularly among adults over age 50.  I commend to all Episcopalians the work of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition, which has done much to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and avenues of healing within our own communities.

Finally, I urge your prayers.  As we prepare to mark the thirtieth year of the world’s awareness of HIV and AIDS in 2011, pray for all who have died from this terrible disease.  Pray for those living now with HIV and AIDS.  And pray for a future without AIDS.  

These past weeks have brought us new signs that such a future is indeed possible.   Pray that we will use our collective resources, imagination, and will to make a world without AIDS a reality.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church

by John Hay Jr. 08-25-2009

I approach the discussion about health-care reform from the perspective of an urban minister.  I’ve worked with urban core neighbors, neighborhoods, congregations, and community groups for more than 20 years.  I’ve watched people struggle to access basic health services in the shadow of world-class hospitals.  I know hardworking people caught in the “catch-22” level of income: They make too much to access Medicaid but too little to afford health insurance premiums.  They work for companies that either don’t offer health insurance or offer it partially at a level these employees can’t afford.  Workers are forced to use a patchwork of health fairs, free clinics, and doctors who will see them occasionally without cost (God bless these).  They put off illness or pain until it becomes chronic or unbearable and then make a dash to an emergency room. The health costs they incur are a greater portion of their household income than most Americans.  The cost to their dignity is inestimable.  But the cost to America’s integrity is even higher.

At the same time, I know that health-care costs are spiraling upward for higher-wage neighbors.  The monthly cost for my family’s health insurance is higher than our mortgage payment.  Our benefits are stripped down and our co-pays and deductibles are higher than ever.  I know people whose prescriptions are no longer covered, whose important procedures are denied, and whose insurance has been dropped.  Many people have filed bankruptcy due in large part to unpayable medical bills.  In short, while the health-care system has not been working for the working poor for a long time, it is not working for more and more middle-income neighbors.  None of this begins to factor in the significant levels of abuse of the system by those who game it — professional health-care providers, the insurance industry, and consumers of health-care services.  The current system is not sustainable, it is not reasonable, it is not just.  It does not reflect what we know is best about or for America.

So, I am completely on board with the call for quality, accessible, affordable health care for all citizens.  I’m advocating for this from the perspective of an urban Christian minister on the one hand, and as an American citizen on the other.  As a Christian minister, I am convinced that quality, accessible, affordable health care for all is a moral imperative.  As an American citizen, I am personally convinced it is a right that’s implied in the very intent of our Constitution and historic social contract.

But it is as a Christian minister that I offer the following considerations on health-care reform to the church I love:

1. The Samaritan principle sets the tone for the Christian church regarding care for the poor, uninsured, and desperate in our land. Simply put, in the care a Samaritan extends to a wounded, helpless victim, Jesus declares what it means to be an authentic neighbor. If we have the resources to help and heal, we should.  Not because we’ll get reimbursed.  Not because there’s profit involved.  Not because we’ll get recognized or rewarded.  But because it reflects the caring, healing intention of God for God’s people in relationship to one another and in witness to the world.  We cannot pass by because we presume somebody else will take care of uninsured people.  We cannot ignore what’s happening because it’s just bigger than us or beyond us.  Jesus calls us to see, respond, help, comfort, and restore — as if those left out and wounded were our very own.

2. Jesus’ ministry of healing was conducted in the face of structures and regulations designed to control, limit, and exclude. I’ve been reading the gospels again during this time of national concern about health care.  Health and healing was front and center for Jesus.  Undoubtedly, Jesus’ healings were a sign that he was the anticipated Messiah and that a new era was beginning.  However, Jesus’ healings also confronted, exposed, and undermined age-old systems that, in the name of health care, prevented healing from occurring.  Jesus cut through the red tape, system-serving regulations, and control-oriented rituals to actually offer what God desired for people — healing, restoration, and a future of dignity and hope. Instead of defending the current status quo practices that place ordinary folks in similar binds, the people who follow and claim to reflect Jesus should consider how he judged and exposed the ineffectiveness and meanness of structures that served themselves at others’ expense.

3. The context of community, inclusion, and sharing resources to assist the neediest — central in the early church witness — is a pattern and principle to renew. Beginning with Acts 2, we see the earliest believers holding things in common, pooling resources, and selling off assets in order to meet the needs of the weakest among them.  It was not about me and mine, but we and ours.  In the perspective of that early faith community, my personal self-interest includes your well-being.  They realized that we are deeply interconnected with one another.  The apostle Paul affirmed this principle with his counsel that we are members of one another, that no part can say to another, “I don’t need you.” To what extent are there such awarenesses or practices in the church today? And to what extent is our sense of community — over against asserting individual privilege and private right-bearing witness to the larger community and nation of what is good, possible, and godly?

4. Christian leaders should be leading the health-care dialog by seeking the truth and speaking the truth. To this point, it doesn’t seem to me that there has been a debate or dialog about health-care reform.  Much of the so-called debate to this point has focused on myths, distortions, and outright lies about proposed health reform legislation.  The news media focus has been on misinformed people shouting down congressional leaders, calling them Nazis, and burning them in effigy.  I’m convinced Christians should not only not be a part of those scenarios, but that we should make a contribution to the dialogue that is fact-based, truth-seeking, civil, and that moves all to find the common ground necessary to ensure that quality, accessible, affordable health care is available to all American citizens.  If the news media or partisan groups play to distortions and extremes, then people of Christian faith have a significant role to get the facts, convey them in understandable ways, and create conversations that deal in what’s real.  We are the people whose scriptures declare, “you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.”  We are the people who are reminded that “God has given us, not a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline.”

5. Let us embody and advocate for the principles, practices, and norms of the beloved community toward which Jesus pointed. Christians have no stake in propping up old-order systems, or aligning ourselves with self-serving institutions, or playing to sub-Christian social stratifications.  At personal, community, and systemic levels, Christians are challenged to practice now the norms and promises of the future described in the scriptures.  I love the way Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann puts it: “God’s future is enacted as present neighborliness.”  Is not quality, accessible, affordable health care for all one such act of “present neighborliness” that is a signal of the direction God intends the future to move?  I think so.  And I invite Christians and people of other faiths to join me and others in this kairos moment — this period of unique opportunity to witness something magnanimous and restorative in our generation.

John Hay Jr., a longtime urban pastor and advocate in Indianapolis, Indiana, recently began working with international child sponsorship opportunities through the Free Methodist Church.

By Derek Olsen

The January unemployment numbers are out and things don’t look good. In January alone the American economy lost 598,000 jobs. The official unemployment number is 7.6% but that’s an artificially low figure; it doesn’t include those unemployed for over a year or contractors who have no work once a corporation has canceled their project. Some look at this figure and see a crisis needing swift and solid government intervention. Others see it as a system reaping the fruits of failed fiscal policy. Me, I look at it and I see—competition.

I already got the call.

While I may pontificate on things historical, liturgical, and obscure, none of that pays the bills; I’m an IT consultant who, until recently, had a secure long term contract. With a bank. I’m sure you can see the problem here…

I consider myself quite fortunate. My boss called me a week or so ago and broke the news that due to the economy and conditions at the bank my contract would end on the final day of February. In truth, I had been expecting to hear this news ever since the company announced major staff reductions at the end of last year but, as time had passed and I heard nothing, I crossed my fingers and prayed that I was safe. I’m thankful that the call gives me a little time, at least a few weeks, to cast about and find something else.

I’m not alone, of course. A lot of Americans are finding themselves in this predicament and our numbers seem to be growing daily. The toppling edifices of Wall Street are crushing Main Street, where we live, work—and worship. In fact, this financial crisis is not just coming into our homes, it’s already in our churches through me and the thousands others like me. Its times like these that the church needs to step up and remember exactly what it is called to be: a nurturing community intent on proclaiming the Good News. Not economic news, not even social news, but the Good News of God’s love for us in Jesus that transcends economic info—that God loves me, Jesus cares for me whether I’m employed or not, and that the Body of Christ cares too.

To get some thinking start on what churches can or could do, I’d like to address the two topics that are foremost on my mind:

1. Recognize that I’m freaking out! And that it’s both ok and normal…

Now let me say while IT work is my current occupation, it’s not my vocation. I don’t feel that God is calling me to be an IT guy for the rest of my life. In my eyes this lessens the lay-off blow a bit in that I don’t feel that my personhood has been assaulted in the same way as if my self-identity were deeply connected to my job. Nevertheless—this is a big hit for us. The past few months have been the first time in our almost ten year marriage when both my wife and I had jobs due to schooling, children, and a variety of unpleasant circumstances. We were finally shifting out of grad student mode and were looking forward to enjoying things that our peers have been savoring for years. Now that may have been cut out from under us—again.

I’m going through a grief process. Most clergy and many informed laypeople are familiar with Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief. Let me remind you that these don’t just apply to death! Job loss can take you through these stages as well: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Me—I’m still swinging through them all… And that’s both normal and necessary. You need to realize that too. Don’t tell me to “buck up” or that “tomorrow will be a new day.” I can think of clichés as easily as you can—and do you think your platitude will put food on my table? Just let me know that you care and that you’re there “if” I want to talk. That doesn’t mean bringing up my job search every time you see me, it just means giving me space to talk or not talk about it, giving me space to freak out my way…

Whatever you do, do not even contemplate using the words “God” and “plan” in the same sentence. As in—“Well, things may look bad now but remember that this is all part of God’s plan for you…” It doesn’t make me feel any better—and it’s bad theology. God is not a puppeteer pulling strings to screw things up so I learn “life-lessons.” A worldwide recession and the concomitant human sufferings that it causes (far worse than mine) is not God’s idea or plan. Can God make good things come out of it? Most definitely. Can I learn valuable lessons from this experience if and when I keep my eyes focused on God? Oh yeah. God can bring resurrection out of the bleakest situations—that’s the message of the cross and empty tomb. But that doesn’t mean God causes or plans these things. I have great faith in human freedom and therefore human sin—both individual and collective—to really screw things up. Thankfully I have an equally great faith in God to bring resurrection to flower in the midst of it.

2. Have some basic resources in place to give me a hand

The church is not first and foremost a social services agency, but that is one of its peripheral functions. The first way that the church can help—short of handouts or help with rent—is simply to identify community resources. Prepare a one or two page handout that identifies local government assistance programs, social service agencies, and other area programs that could help me out. You’d be amazed how helpful a contact sheet with phone numbers, contacts, and websites could be—yet so few churches actually have something like this on hand for the clergy and staff to hand out to those who need it. Get on this one!

A church I visited recently was promoting a support group meeting for people looking for work. I thought that was a great idea. Too—it shouldn’t just be for those looking… If anyone in the community is hiring, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t look for qualified individuals in the congregation first. Having a résumé book on hand for those who would like to participate in it would seem to go right along with a support group.

Like I said, I’ll fight hard against the notion that God plans or causes situations like these and yet an environment like this one is an opportunity for the church. We’ve been accused over the years by our communities of being too self-centered, too distant, too otherworldly—sometimes justly, sometimes not. However this gives us an opportunity to go beyond bickering and rhetoric. This is an opportunity for us to get down to the work of both proclaiming and enacting the Good News in tangible, visible ways in communities that need us now and—I believe—will continue to need us for quite a while to come. You got a chance and a choice—go ahead and do it: be the Body of Christ for me. Be it for those like me. And in the process you’ll be it for yourselves as well.

Derek Olsen is in the final stretch of completing a Ph.D. in New Testament (with a healthy side of Homiletics) at Emory University. He has taught seminary courses in biblical studies, preaching, and liturgics; he currently resides in Maryland. His reflections on life, liturgical spirituality, and being a Gen-X/Y dad appear at Haligweorc.

“It was an encouraging and hopeful day. There were so many signs of new life and renewal as an important reminder to us during these difficult times that many people are enduring in our country right now. It shows that there are still signs of hope for us to see, and there always will be — it was a truly wonderful day.” – Rev. Julie Platson

Read the full article »

The group received a grant from the United Thank Offering to purchase the present site on Irene Street.  They met in a pair of used mobile homes on the property until they could build a church.  They broke ground for the church in September, 1994, held the first service on December 4, 1994, and consecrated the building on March 12, 1995.  Our priest, the Rev. Julie Platson, was called to the priesthood and ordained in 2001.

After ten years of rising and falling membership, the attractiveness of Pahrump as a low-cost alternative to Las Vegas living (and, some would say, a better quality of life) increased the local population and membership at St. Martin’s in the Desert beyond the capacity of a 768 square foot building.

The population within the Pahrump Township has increased nearly ten-fold in the last decade (2007 population is estimated at 38,000) and the latest prediction is more than 50,000 by 2012.  According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Pahrump is now the seventh largest urban area in Nevada, and will soon pass Boulder City and Carson City.   St. Martin’s attendance has grown from a half-dozen or so on Sunday to consistently more than thirty.

About three years ago, members of the vestry and building committee met with the Standing Committee to discuss construction of a steel building that would provide a larger worship space, sacristy, vesting room, handicapped accessible bathrooms, and a small office.  Once a firm source of funding was established, including grants from the United Thank Offering and the Standing Committee, Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefforts-Schori joined us for the groundbreaking on June 27, 2006.

Besides acting as general contractor for construction of the 2,400 square foot building, the congregation contributed sweat equity to the project.  Thirty-four people worked a total of 3,411 hours pounding nails, insulating, wiring, dry-walling, painting, tiling, and everything in between.  Even more people worked on rummage sales and bazaars, spaghetti dinners and pancake suppers, and all manner of fundraisers.

Finally the hard work was rewarded when the construction was nearly completed, and a temporary certificate of occupancy was received on March 10, 2008.  The first service was held on Palm Sunday, March 16, 2008.  A final certificate of occupancy was received on March 28.

The pews in the first church building would not provide enough seating in the new building.  Fortunately, bequests and donations to the memorial fund were sufficient to purchase new chairs that will allow more flexibility in seating.  The old pews were recycled to a new, start-up church in Pahrump.

On hand for the first service were Deacon Jim Taylor, Priests Julie Platson and E.A Thompson, and Acolyte Keith Slaughter.  The round window behind the altar, a stained glass Sanctus, was crafted by Fr. Thompson.  Assisted by other members of the congregation, he is making stained glass inserts for the other eight windows.

One significant improvement with the new church building is the addition of six paved handicap parking spaces and paving three existing spaces.  The new building has two handicap-accessible bathrooms, and all entrances are accessible.

Another improvement is the formal entrance and courtyard that provide a space for outdoor activities when the weather permits.

The courtyard and the narthex are spaces that can be used to greet each other and visitors before the service,   Also, the narthex adds a much-needed space to post notices and a table to hold bulletins and other material for the service.

The second Sunday in the new church was Easter, and an opportunity to break out of Lent with full pomp and ceremony.  There was actually enough room to move about the sanctuary without tripping over the lilies.

The new church was consecrated on April 13, 2008, with the Rt. Rev. Dan Edwards presiding.  Members of the congregation and visitors gathered in the courtyard before entering the new church.  Joining the bishop were priests Julie Platson and E.A. Thompson, and acolytes Anthony and Maisie Cafeo.

During his homily, the bishop said that the consecration of St. Martin’s was his first.  Noting the New Testament lesson for the day (And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Acts 2:47), the bishop said that he was pleased to find a vital and growing congregation in Pahrump, and called for us to use our larger space to “rendezvous with God.”

Speaking for the Building Committee, Bob Green thanked the congregation for their patience and persistence in seeing the project through to a successful conclusion.  In particular, he recognized the foresight exercised by the wardens and members of the vestries over the years spent in planning and construction, and the support received from Bishop Katharine and the Standing Committee.

The congregation of St. Martin’s in the Desert extends an open invitation to the diocese to come by and visit with us in our new space.  The church is located at 631 West Irene Street, and Sunday services begin at 10:30am.  Join us in the parish hall afterwards for conversation and refreshments.

Written by Bob Green for the Nevada Diocesan Newsletter