Some Cobb churches resume in-person worship

From Georgia-

Amy Goetze, communications director at St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta, said the church is heeding its bishop’s directive, which is that all churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta must be exclusively online until further notice.

“I think that many of our parishioners are eager to return to church but understand the need to be cautious,” Goetze told the MDJ on Friday. “We have such an active parish, and many miss seeing their friends, and they miss serving and volunteering at St. James. While we have the tools to gather online, technology can never replace in-person worship. People long for physical interaction and connection.”

Goetze said the church is exploring creative ways to safely gather in person for worship when the time comes, such as drive-in services in the parking lot.

More here-

https://www.mdjonline.com/news/some-cobb-churches-resume-in-person-worship/article_802aa78c-96e4-11ea-9dab-e335bee7632a.html

Episcopal Bishop Wright: Worship remains online until health experts ok gatherings

From Atlanta-

Gatherings at all 117 worshiping locations of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta will remain online until health experts advise that in person worship services and meetings are “reasonably safe,” Bishop Robert C. Wright announced on Wednesday.

In response to an announcement on Monday by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp that worship services could resume April 27, Bishop Wright communicated his decision Wednesday during an online meeting with Diocesan clergy.

Wright stated rather than reopening worship spaces, services will remain online and asked that clergy “bring imagination to how we care for one another, new power to our proclamation of God’s good news and new effectiveness to how to support those who are oppressed by fear and lack.” All Diocesan meetings and worship have been online since March.

More here-

https://ocgnews.com/episcopal-bishop-wright-worship-remains-online-health-experts-ok-gatherings/

Sandy Springs worshipping community closes but church remains open

From Atlanta-

A Sandy Springs church has ceased services for its worshipping community, but the church itself has not closed yet.

Highpoint Episcopal Community Church hosted its last service Jan. 12, and though its membership had been on the rise, the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta decided to stop services there because the worship community was no longer financially viable.

Rev. Lang Lowery, the church’s canon, said Episcopal churches are categorized as a mission, parish or worshipping community, with the last designation meaning the congregation had relinquished self-governance to the diocese because of its finances.

More here-

https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/northside_sandy_springs/news/sandy-springs-worshipping-community-closes-but-church-remains-open/article_1bbd2870-4837-11ea-81a1-5369fa83e8da.html

Sandy Springs’ Highpoint Episcopal church to close; property’s future unclear

From Atlanta-

Highpoint Episcopal Community Church is closing after serving more than a half-century as a place of worship and a community center for Sandy Springs’ High Point neighborhood.

In the wake of failed, four-year effort to rebrand and resurrect the former Church of the Atonement amid a dwindling congregation, the church will hold its final Sunday service on Jan. 12. The future of the 7.5-acre property at 4945 High Point Road is said to be unclear beyond that.

Officials with the church and the Buckhead-based Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta did not immediately respond to comment requests about the closure, which was announced on the church website. But Duffy Hickey, a longtime parishioner whose wife Robin served in various leadership roles, said it came down to some simple calculations.

“We didn’t have enough fannies in the seats and enough money in the coffers,” said Hickey.

More here-

https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2020/01/07/sandy-springs-highpoint-episcopal-church-to-close-propertys-future-unclear/

Atlanta Episcopal Bishop Helps Ensure Justice for Children

From Atlanta-

He was born in an inner-city Philadelphia orphanage. A combination of faith and perseverance propelled him to become bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. 

And Bishop Robert Wright is the only faith leader on the Georgia Supreme Court’s Committee on Justice for Children (J4C) committee. The 29-member committee’s goal: ensuring justice for children and families involved in Georgia’s juvenile courts.

Wright said he brings a unique perspective to J4C, because of his own life story. “Having been a ward of the state for a short time, when I see some of these kids and I see some of these cases, I see myself,” he said. “One of the best things we can do as Americans is to take in our children and give them better futures. A more just juvenile system is just one way to get that done.”

More here-

https://jjie.org/2019/10/23/atlanta-episcopal-bishop-helps-ensure-justice-for-children/

Episcopal bishop calls for bell-tolling to remember 1619 slave-trade incident

From Atlanta-

The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, based at Buckhead’s Cathedral of St. Philip, is calling on its churches and schools to toll bells on Aug. 25 in remembrance of the first enslaved African people forced to come to English North America 400 years ago this month.

That 1619 event in what was then the Colony of Virginia was recently highlighted by the New York Times Magazine in “The 1619 Project,” a package of stories about the legacy of slavery in American history.

Rev. Robert C. Wright, the bishop of the diocese, said in a press release that the bell-tolling, scheduled for 3 p.m., is intended to be part of a national commemoration involving other Christian denominations and other religions.

“At 3 p.m., we can join with people of all faiths to remember those who came enslaved, those who came to a country that one day would proclaim liberty,” Wright said in the press release.

More here-

https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2019/08/21/episcopal-bishop-calls-for-bell-tolling-to-remember-1619-slave-trade-incident/

Activist priest wants to be Georgia’s first lesbian state senator

From Georgia-

Jackson is jumping into the race with goals of passing an LGBTQ-inclusive civil rights bill, beating back anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” bills and protecting women’s reproductive rights.

Jackson, an ordained priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, would become the state Senate’s first out lesbian member if elected. It’s her first run for office, but she had designs on doing so from a young age.

“I knew that I wanted for run for office when I was 13 years old and went to a city council meeting in rural South Carolina,” she told Project Q Atlanta. “I think it was this internal visceral call that I want to be a part of change. That’s where it started.”

Jackson said she’s running now to safeguard the Democratic seat in the district that includes Scottdale, Pine Lake, Stone Mountain, Clarkston, Tucker and Lilburn. Sen. Steve Henson, who also serves as minority leader, will leave the Senate in 2020 after 17 years in office.

More here-

https://www.projectq.us/atlanta/activist_priest_wants_to_be_georgias_first_lesbian_state_senator

Frank Allan led church through challenging times

From Atlanta-


In the late 1960s, while rector at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Macon, the Rev. Frank Allan, who’d later become the eighth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, stood squarely at a crossroads. St. Paul’s already had a smattering of black members. But during a sermon one Sunday, Allan told his congregation that further integration and shifts were imminent and critical.

He was interrupted in mid-sentence by a woman named Hazel Burns, who reportedly stood up and asked, “Are you saying that [as an all-white church) we’ve been wrong all these years?”

He abandoned his sermon and engaged Burns in a dialogue that other parishioners joined. Though she wasn’t present that day, Allan’s longtime friend and colleague, the Rev. Martha Sterne, said the congregation “discussed, argued, discussed some more and some even cried.”

More here-

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-obituaries/frank-allan-led-church-through-challenging-times/NvlPALGDpMYnFg6DySQQwL/

Volunteers work to combat sex trafficking before Super Bowl

From Orlando-

"We are here to save our adolescents from prostitution and we know with the Super Bowl coming, many of these children will be coming through your hotel," one volunteer told a hotel clerk.

t's called the SOAP project or Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution.

Theresa Flores, a survior of child sex trafficking and the founder of Traffick Free, partnered with the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta to bring the SOAP Project Initiative to Atlanta for the Super Bowl.

"It is our job as citizens to number one keep Atlanta safe and then also to protect those women who are being brought in," Flores said. "We know any time an event comes to town – and it doesn't have to be the Super Bowl, it can be the Final Four it can be a NASCAR race – any time an event comes to town the numbers for the demand for women quadruples."

More here-

http://www.fox35orlando.com/sports/volunteers-work-to-combat-sex-trafficking-before-super-bowl

Austin Ford, priest and 1st director of Emmaus House, became neighbor

From Atlanta-

In 1967, the Rev. Austin Ford, an Episcopal priest, moved into a run-down, two-story house in the Peoplestown area.He was a strange sight at first. The white man in his late 30s rode his bicycle through the predominantly black community and knocked on doors to talk to residents about ways they could work together to improve the area.

The polished but affable Ford, who grew up DeKalb County, moved into what is now Emmaus House, an Episcopal Church mission, with the aid of at least two nuns and a seminary student.
“He didn’t just drop in,” said longtime Peoplestown resident Columbus Ward. “He moved in. He became a neighbor. He made it known that this Southern white man had no problem fighting the system.”

And that he did, even at times if it meant butting heads with city powers-that-be and even some diocesan authorities. 

Ford, of Grant Park, a tireless advocate for Atlanta’s disenfranchised and poor, died Saturday at 89.

More here-

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-obituaries/austin-ford-priest-and-1st-director-emmaus-house-became-neighbor/4jFDT0qC9tfyiehYlnD3AJ/

Atlanta churches join in rebuke of federal immigration policy

From Atlanta-

Joining other churches in the Atlanta area, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church (IHM) and the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany (ECE) have published rebukes of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

The IHM statement from Father Javier Muñoz states that the “the separation of immigrant children from their parents is countenanced, much less embraced, by anyone in our nation demonstrates how far we have fallen in common decency and respect for the human person.”

Although the current administration has recently shifted its immigration policies and is no longer separating families, many groups still believe that it is not enough.

“As I told our United States Senators, my representative and the White House when I contacted them last week: A letter like this should not have to be written,” the pastor wrote.

More here-

http://www.atlantaloop.com/atlanta-churches-join-in-rebuke-of-federal-immigration-policy/

Diocese of Atlanta clergy, laity renew vows at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church

From ENS-

Clergy and laity of the Diocese of Atlanta gathered this week for their renewal of vows in the sanctuary of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father and grandfather preached.

Bishop Robert C. Wright, whose diocese also includes middle and north Georgia, said he sought permission to use the site because of its connection to the civil rights movement leader and the recognition of the humanity of all Americans.

“Being that we are all Georgians now, and that Martin’s and Coretta’s earthly remains are laying just outside, it seems good to stop here and remember, and maybe even borrow some of their resolve for service,” Wright said, motioning toward the site outside the church where King and his wife are buried. “More than that, I invited you here because there are three important ideas that are easy to illustrate in this space. They are simple but eternal ideas. They are possibility, pain and power.”

Wright said the small sanctuary that launched King to the international stage is a powerful symbol of possibility.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/03/29/diocese-of-atlanta-clergy-laity-renew-vows-at-martin-luther-king-jr-s-church/

Atlanta bishop rallies opposition to death penalty with book of articles by faith, legal leaders

From ENS-

The death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. Since then, 1,468 convicts have been executed across the country.

And, according to records kept by the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 80 percent of those executions have been carried out in the South, which Diocese of Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright sees as a “terrible irony” for a region known as the Bible Belt.

“People want the love of Jesus for themselves, in terms of redemption, but they want the Old Testament ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ for the people who do these terrible murders,” Wright told Episcopal News Service. “Do we serve a God who can have compassion for the victim and the perpetrator?”

For Wright, the answer is an unequivocal “yes,” and he is heartened by the Episcopal Church’s decades of speaking out against the death penalty while also providing pastoral care to victims’ families.

The Supreme Court’s 1976 decision outlined how states can craft constitutional death penalty laws. Thirty-one states have such laws, and eight of those states carried out executions in 2017, including one in Wright’s state of Georgia. In an effort to renew public attention to the issue and encourage greater advocacy toward abolishing the death penalty, Wright has collected five articles by faith and legal leaders in a book to be released Feb. 15 by the Diocese of Atlanta.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/02/12/atlanta-bishop-rallies-opposition-to-death-penalty-with-book-of-articles-by-faith-legal-leaders/

On Religion: A Muslim preacher in a Christian pulpit

From Atlanta-

Soumaya Khalifah’s sermon fell in the usual place in the Holy Week rite in which clergy from the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta renewed their vows: after a Gospel passage and before the consecration of bread and wine as Holy Communion.

In this Mass, the Liturgy of the Word also included a Quran reading, including: “God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting. Neither slumber overtakes Him nor sleep. Unto Him belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on the earth. Who is there who may intercede with Him save by His leave?”

Khalifah asked leaders from the region’s 96 Episcopal parishes an obvious question: Was this a historic moment, with a Muslim woman preaching in a liturgy for an entire Christian diocese?

“I truly believe that interfaith works is the civil rights movement for the 21st century,” said Khalifah, head of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta. “Faith is used to divide us and we need to make intentional efforts to bring ourselves together. Normally we worship, associate and have friends from our own faith tradition, our own race. ...

More here-

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/faith/on-religion-a-muslim-preacher-in-a-christian-pulpit/article_80d47275-0ae2-5f50-8ea9-2c77628c9004.html

Muslim woman to preach at Episcopal Service

From Atlanta-

A Muslim woman is to preach Tuesday during a service in which Episcopal priests and deacons will reaffirm the vows first taken at their ordinations.

Soumaya Khalifah, executive director and founder of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta was chosen to preach by Atlanta’s Episcopal Bishop Robert C. Wright. Wright said he chose Khalifah because of her ongoing efforts to bridge the gaps between religions.

“Soumaya provides a wonderful example for how to share the love of God; the same God worshiped by all the world’s Christians, Jews and Muslims,” Wright said. “It is an example that has never been more needed.”

The renewal of vows service will be held Tuesday, April 11, at St.

David’s Episcopal Church in Roswell beginning at 11 a.m. The service is open to the public.

More here-

https://atlantadailyworld.com/2017/04/10/muslim-woman-to-preach-at-episcopal-service/

What Christians Can Learn from Golf – or any Sport!

From Atlanta-

After seeing 11Alive anchor Jeff Hullinger's "Jeff's Take" on what we can learn from Jordan Spieth's loss at the 2016 Masters Golf Tournament , St. Phillip Cathedral's Rev. Samuel Candler asked for permission to use it in a sermon. This is a reprint of that published sermon.

What Christians Can Learn from Golf – or any Sport!

Okay, for years now, I have not been afraid to make a particular confession, an unusual one, one that not many Episcopal priests can make. I confess: I don’t play golf.

But I know that golf is a great sport! And I know lots of good people who do play golf! So it was that I found myself watching some of the recent Masters Golf Tournament, in Augusta, Georgia, a few weeks ago. Being from Georgia, I have to watch the Masters anyway.

More here-

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/what-christians-can-learn-from-golf-or-any-sport/154286663

Atlanta's Episcopal Clergy Renew Their Vows... In A Synagogue

From Atlanta-

It’s “Holy Week,” the week leading up to Easter. And, every year at this time, Episcopal bishops, priests and deacons renew their ordination vows.

The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta followed that tradition this morning with a ceremony. But one part of the event was very untraditional: instead of a church, the priests gathered in The Temple – Atlanta’s oldest synagogue. 

So how did this happen? It was the idea of Episcopal Bishop of the Atlanta Diocese – the Rt. Rev. Robert Wright.

"The renewal of vows is a great opportunity for me to gather the clergy and for us to make these sacred promises again and again in the places that in fact Jesus would have been," Bishop Wright said.

More here-

http://wabe.org/post/atlantas-episcopal-clergy-renew-their-vows-synagogue

Exclusive interview with Episcopal Priest who counsels convicted killer Kelly Gissendaner

From Georgia-

Rev. Cathy Zappa is the first to admit she feels helpless. She said there is little she can do to comfort Kelly Gissendaner, a woman who has become her friend. Gissendaner is schedule to be executed by the state of Georgia Monday for masterminding the murder of her husband, Doug Gissendaner.

"She has changed," said Rev. Zappa.

Rev. Zappa met Kelly four years ago when she was teaching theology to inmates.

She says Gissendaner graduated with a certificate and went on to teach a few classes and even preached once at a service in prison.

More here-

http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/2015/02/27/episcopal-priest-gissenbaner-murder-death-row/24159959/

Atlanta Bishop: Jesus’ ‘inconvenient’ birth brings people together, lights the world’s darkness

From Atlanta-

Episcopalians gathered Tuesday for 2014 Christmas Eve services at The Cathedral of St. Philip heard their bishop say that the “inconvenient” birth of Jesus gives everyone who gathers in his name the gift of hope for peace in a violent world.

The Right Reverend Robert C. Wright, the son of a church musician, sang verses from Christmas hymns and secular tunes to illustrate to his key points.

“What would Christmas be without music and singing?  O Come All ye faithful, Joyful and Triumphant, come all ye citizens of Bethlehem.  Or, Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm all is bright,” Wright said. “Or, Augusta Georgia’s own James Brown’s contribution, to Christmas music,“Santa Claus go straight to the ghetto, hitch up your reindeer and go straight to the ghetto.” 

More here-

http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/holiday/atlanta-bishop-jesus-inconvenient-birth-brings-peo/njbhq/#__federated=1

Diocese holds service of repentance and reconciliation for racism

From Atlanta-

Episcopal Bishop Rob Wright is asking Episcopalians in Middle and North Georgia to attend a worship service of “repentance and reconciliation” in response to the sin of racism.

Wright is the first African American Episcopal bishop in Georgia. The service will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Road N.W.

“The enterprise of dismantling racism as agents of racial reconciliation is the work of all the baptized in every age,” Wright said in the letter to the Diocese’s 110 worshiping communities.

Racism is a “sin (that) is founded on a lie and therefore an affront to God, an abuse of power and a demonic spirit…,” Wright wrote to the Diocese’s more than 56,000 members. “What scripture calls ‘the more excellent way’ forward for us is not to be consumed by blame or guilt but to take inventory of our hearts and amend our lives…” he continued. “Though we may be culpable, we are not condemned.”

More here-

http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/episcopals-hold-service-of-repentance-and-reconcil/nhprg/