Communique’ Spring 2014

Communique Spring 2014

Table of Contents

*Only select articles are posted from our archive. The entire publication is viewable within this pdf.

From the President’s Desk – Retreats, Conferences, and Meetings—Oh My! By The Reverend Deacon Nancy R. Crawford

COVER STORY A Walk for Ratification by Helene Swanson

EpiscoMom Upending Traditional Time Management by Kristen Pratt Machado

In the News Record Shows Jesus Honored Women, Wife or No Wife by The Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman

Triennial Tidings Introducing Triennial 2015’s Keynote Guest by Shirley Greiman

Diocesan Discourse

Walk for Ratification

By Helene Swanson

The daughter-in-law of priest and activist Katrina Swanson carries on her efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

She and 10 other women, rocked the male-domi­nated hierarchy of the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974. On that day, in Philadel­phia, Pa., Swanson and her colleagues become the first women ordained priests in the church. The women became known as the “Philadelphia Eleven.” […]

Upending Traditional Time Management

“The time is always ripe to do right.”—Nelson Mandela, 1918-2014, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, philanthropist, and President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

by Kristen Pratt Machado

I have always loved to volunteer. I remember count­ing down the days of my third grade school year so that, as a rising fourth grader, I could start volun­teering at my local library. Oh how I loved putting the books back in their rightful spots on the dusty shelves and helping kids fill out forms to receive their first library cards. And don’t get me started on the joys of using the Dewey Decimal System through row after row of tiny cards housed in neat little drawers (yes, I was a nerd) to help patrons find just the books for which they were looking. I think most of us, especially people of faith, want to perform good deeds. We want to make a difference, but often, this idea that we don’t have enough time gets in the way. […]

Record Shows Jesus Honored Women: Wife or No Wife

By The Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman

Ah, the famous papyrus fragment has popped up again [“Jesus’ ‘Wife’ Papyrus is Likely Ancient,” published April 11, 2013 in the StarTribune]. Did Jesus have a wife or didn’t he? Could she be a disci­ple? After all, on the tiny, ink-splotched scrap of paper, dauntlessly unveiled in 2012 by Harvard Divinity School Prof. Karen King, the words are [more or less] clear: “My wife” and “She will be able to be a disciple.” Now, other Ivy League universities such as Brown, Columbia, and MIT, are weighing in—No. Yes. Maybe. Yet, instead of debating which [Biblical]women might have been real, let’s consider those whom Christians across the world know to be real.  […]