[Dialogue] Spong on The Emerging Church

[Lynda Cock]

Speaking of churches where our collegues are ministering, I thought of
the Shadowrock Church in Arizona where the wedgeblade is a big part of
the architecture. They have an exciting webpage.
http://www.shadowrockucc.org/  Does anyone know what church in
Greensboro that Spong is speaking of?  Is it Greensboro, NC?  

Lucille, I received your book this week, and have been fascinated with
its simplicity and its message that You, Yes, You, Can Teach Someone to
Read. It will be a big help in tutoring that I plan to do this year.  I
thought that other colleagues who are teachers or community workers, or
retired persons looking for a way to engage part-time (even a few hours
a week) in the education process would find it very helpful.  With its
big print, its poetic style on the written page, and its pages that can
be easily duplicated, it is an easy-to-use "package" program.  Thank you
for sharing your story with others in this way.  Best wishes! I have a
few other contacts for you which I will get to you soon. 

     Lynda Cock, in Greensboro, NC.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:Dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of
Chagnon at comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 8:48 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: [Dialogue] Spong on The Emerging Church



Dick Kroeger, 
   Thank you for today's article on The Emerging Church.  As lengthy as
the Spong pieces are, I have missed them these past couple of weeks.
And this one today tops all the others--which takes some doing.  
  
   I have a hunch that if Bishop Spong visited churches pastored by our
colleagues or in which our colleagues are vibrant, participating
members, he would find a whole slew of other examples.  We get glimpses
of them now and then in a variety of e-mails, and I would love to hear
more from some of those congregations here on the Dialogue.
  
 Let me tell you my story.  
   Since 1979, the year after our marriage, Richard and I have had a
strong relationship to Sacred Heart Church in south Camden, NJ where I
was an interim principal during the 1986-87 school year and where
Richard was the organist for the 8:30 Mass for many years.  Most of the
200+ students are not Catholic, mostly Black and Vietnamese from the
neighborhood in a city which leads the lists for poverty and violence.
Fr. Michael Doyle refuses to take money from the diocese which has
closed most of the RC schools.  He raises every bit of it by urging over
2000 sponsors to donate $300 per child, and every year Sacred Heart
School meets it goal. 
   There's a school Gospel choir, which I'm proud to say I started, a
health clinic, a food pantry, and after-school programs.  Heart of
Camden Housing has rehabbed dozens of row homes with labor donated
Saturday after Saturday from the suburbs and from urban neighbors who
now own the homes and whose monthly mortgage payment soon covers the
$5,000 or so that Sacred Heart paid the city for the abandoned property.

   Individual members of the congreation are involved in a multiplicity
of tasks, programs, you name it.  This past week-end I participated in
the annual day-long Woman's Spirit Rising Retreat open to well over 100
women from the community and the congregation, free of charge and funded
with donations.  After a morning of song led by Mother Brown, sacred
dance, prayer, Scripture, and a marvelous lunch prepared by a group of
suburban men of the parish, there were nine two-hour workshops to choose
from in the afternoon, ranging from dance, to food and spirit, to
journal writing, to earth medicines, to women and earth: beautiful
bodies.  
   Mother Teresa visited Sacred Heart.  And on May 22nd, Jeremy
Sullivan, 26, set out alone from south Camden to ride his bicycle to
California over six-months.  He decided to do it to raise money for a
project that will cost a million dollars: to change traffic patterns,
erect buffers of evergreen trees, create water effects, and plan an
abundance of dust-diminishing vegetation--all to replace the damaged air
that the children breathe every day from the neighborhood air-polluting
facilities, businesses, and their diesel trucks that go down the length
of the church and school.  He plans to talk about Camden and ask for
hospitality.  
   If you folks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and
California hear about Jeremy Sullivan and the 50 pounds he pulls in a
one-wheel cart behind him, run to meet him and invite him in.  
   There's much more going on there, but that's enough for now.  I hope
I got the ball rolling as Jeremy rolls across the country. 
Grace and Peace,
Lucille Chagnon
in Wilmington, DE 
where the butterflies are finally visiting our butterfly bush this
summer 
    




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