The View from Bolton Street
Switch to 100% Green-E Windpower
Switch to 100% Green-E windpower through Groundswell. You’ll reduce your carbon footprint and Memorial gets $10 for each parishioner or friend who makes the switch!
If you tried this unsuccessfully after seeing last week’s notice, please try again. The old link had changed, and the procedure to follow is just slightly different:
It’s easy and economical to make the switch. Just click on this link to enroll. https://groundswell.org/wind-power/ Scroll down and choose the FOR YOUR HOME tab:
Fill in your personal information and then select Memorial Episcopal Church on the drop-down list, check the permission box and hit “submit”.
You will see the screen below (check out the Frequently Asked Questions) and then click the GO TO WGL Energy Box.
Once you’re on the WGL site, select BGE from the drop down list and hit submit.
You will see the prices available for BGE customers. Choose a 1-year contract, currently priced at 8.6 cents per kilowatt hour, or a 2-year contract at 8.4 cents.
Anyone who pays an electric bill, regardless of whether they rent an apartment or own a home, can sign up for a 1 or 2-year contract. You will NOT receive a second bill and you will simply see a change in your electricity supplier from BGE to WGL. If you are currently under contract with an electricity supplier other than BGE, you may not be able to enroll until your contract is up.
All God's Children Update
ALL GOD'S CHILDREN camp update. Many thanks to those who have contributed to the "campership" fund for the 5-night residential camp at Claggett. Memorial has sent children to Claggett since 1998! Contributions are still needed and are welcomed gratefully.
We provide transportation out and back, Sunday afternoon Aug. 5 and Friday morning Aug 10. We have 4 children registered and maybe a 5th child, so 2 or 3 drivers will be fine. All information is on the back table at church. I will have a clipboard at the picnic this coming Sunday, July 8.
Pam Fleming 410-982-9869
The View from Bolton Street
This Week is General Convention in Austin, Texas. What IS General Convention?
Good Question! I am aware that for many Memorialites, the politics and organization of the larger Episcopal Church is somewhat of a mystery. But this is a very important week! General Convention is more or less like the ‘Congress’ of the Episcopal Church. Only they meet once every three years for less than two weeks. Imagine if our state legislature only met once every three years? Or our vestry? (Don’t get any ideas Vestry!)
During General Convention all kinds of decisions are made. Like where the National Church should spend their budget. They will allocate somewhere close to $133M to be spent over the three years on many things, including mission, evangelism, disaster relief, youth and children’s programs, anti-racism work, church planting, as well as just the regular operations and administration of a nationwide organization with more than 2 million members. Other important discussion points are ‘should we begin to draft a new prayer book’, ‘how do we respond to the #metoo movement and the long history of sexual abuse in the Church’, ‘what role should the church play in Israel-Palestine issues’ and ‘whether we should re-unify the Diocese of Cuba with the Episcopal Church.’
It is a hurcelean effort. Hundreds of resolutions, thousands of delegates and lots of work to get done that can ONLY be done once every three years. It is all important, but sometimes when we have so much we HAVE to do, we forget to do the most important things. One of the biggest challenges confronting General Convention and the Episcopal Church in General is how should the Church re-make itself for the 21st century? Over the last ‘triennium’ (the three year cycle the Episcopal Church operates on) the National Church has done a lot of work spreading its staff across the country, de-centralizing it’s work and putting more money towards outreach, evangelism and church planting. A lot of that conversation continues this week in Austin. How can the Church better prepare itself for a world that is increasingly more online, connected, and un-churched? And how does a body (and a tradition) that is decidedly older, whiter and more affluent than America at large present a Gospel narrative that resonates with those we would like to see in our pews - but haven’t quite made it here yet?
This is an equally important conversation to have at the Diocesan and Parish level. How do we remake ourselves in order to continue to share Jesus’ message of compassion, salvation and love and care for neighbor and stranger in Baltimore in 2018,19 and 20?
In three years, we will be lucky to have a front row seat to General Convention because it will be here in Baltimore! So if you have some time check out www.episcopalnewsservice.org or www.episcopalherald.com for updates on what is transpiring at General Convention, or if you are on social media you can search the hashtag #GC79 as we get ready for #GC80 in 2021 right here in our backyard.
Sunday in the Park - July 8
Sunday, July 8, we will be in Sumpter Park for the first time this year. It's shaping up to be a special event with live music from the BSA jazz group, chicken tenders, vegetarian options, and beautiful, cooler, weather.
We are asking everyone to bring something with them, but we're not going to assign anything! Just bring something you like - that way you know there will be at least one thing there for you to eat.
To get to Sumpter Park, you can follow the map below.
All God's Children Camp - Drivers needed
DRIVERS NEEDED!! Out and back to All God's Children camp
The Camp dates are August 5th through August 10th. We have 5 children this year and we will need 2, maybe 3 drivers! for the children and their gearThe camp is at Claggett, in Buckeystown south of Frederick. The children gather at Memorial on Sunday the 5th at 2:30 PM. They are due at camp at 4 PM. The return trip is Friday, August 10th. They need to be picked up at Claggett at 10 AM and returned to Memorial where the family is waiting.
The drive is easy. Please sign up for driving! Sign up sheet will be on the back table,
Pam Fleming 410--982-9869
The View from Bolton Street
“So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers agreed.”
Genesis 37:23-27
There are not a lot of biblical stories about a government ripping children from the arms of their mothers and locking them up (perhaps even the biblical scribes couldn’t imagine such cruelty), but the story of Joseph comes close.
Brothers conspiring to first kill, and then “humanely” imprison and sell their own brother because they were jealous of the freedoms he enjoyed, they felt, at their expense.
Joseph suffers at the hands of his brothers, but because of God’s good grace, the kindness of the Ishmaelites and then Potiphar, and then the jailer and finally Pharaoh, Joseph survives. And thrives.
While he remains angry with his brothers, he also has compassion for them, and for his father and his youngest brother — and so seeks to care for them when they come to him in need.
Through such a lens, it is helpful to ask our selves, “Who are we?” Most of us, lucky for us, are not Joseph. We are not trapped in a well. We have not been abandoned by our government in a cage or a tent city on the border.
And, I hope, most of us are not the brothers, callously casting our fellow man into the pit out of jealousy, bitterness, or resentment.
Perhaps it is up to us, then, to be the kind-hearted people on the way — the traveling caravan, the temporary host, the supportive jailer, the empowering leader — doing what we can to support, uplift and show God’s love and care for children and families in need so that one day they may turn and say, in spite of everything, “Look at those Episcopalians, how they showed love for us.”
Imagine how the Joseph story might have ended otherwise. Not only the end of Abrahamic lineage, but the end of our story, and our relationship with the Divine. Now imagine how the story of these children at the border might otherwise end.
If you’d like to make a donation now:
The Florence Project - to support legal services and humanitarian services at the border
CASA of Maryland - to support legal services for families facing detention and separation here in Maryland
Farewell to Vaughn Vigil
With a mixture of sadness and gratitude, we note that our deacon, The Rev. Vaughn Vigil, will take his leave from us in July, to be reassigned by the bishop. His last Sunday with us will be July 1.
Vaughn has been a much-loved presence among us, most visibly at Sunday services and Liturgy and Living, and also in the delivery of pastoral care and the advancement of our justice ministries. He brought biblical scholarship, a deep and compassionate understanding of the struggles of marginalized persons, and an openness of heart that have enriched us all. We pray that he will long continue to serve in our diocese, and know that he will continue to advance the Kingdom of God through the use of his many gifts.
Please be sure to join us at a festive coffee hour after the 9:30 service on Sunday, July 1, to thank Vaughn personally for his service.
Walking the Green Talk - June 2018
By Guy Hollyday
The Earth’s human population is now 7.6 billion and still increasing. (How much is a Billion?) This is resulting in an enormous demand for essentials like food, clothing and shelter and for non-essentials like autos and airplanes, TVs, cell phones and I-pods, beer, ice cream and candy. This demand, in turn, is exhausting materials used to make these things possible, economical, or pleasurable—like coal and gas and metals and wood and fabrics. And our consumption produces ever more harmful amounts of refuse and pollutants on land, in the air, and in our waters.
You and I can do little about population growth, but we can do something about consumption and pollution. Water, for instance. To conserve energy (read coal and gas), we can turn down the temperature setting on our water heaters and install individual water heaters in the kitchen and bathroom. We can wash our hands and dishes with cold water—even in winter. With these chores and with brushing our teeth, we must see just how often and quickly we can turn the faucet off. We must take fewer and shorter showers and baths, put a brick in the water jacket of the toilet. Put up rain barrels and make rain gardens so that we don’t need to run the water outside.There are many other places where we can make a difference, but Water is a good place to start.
Guy Hollyday
Look Back: Power52 Foundation presentation at Redeemer
Through Dick Williams’s recent work with MEEP (Maryland Episcopal Environmental Partners), he became introduced to an initiative being considered by some of largest electric users in the Diocese (the “Group”).
Barbara Cates, Dick and Grey+ attended a presentation to the Group on June 5th by a co-founder and a vice president of Power52 Foundation and Power52 Energy Services (sister companies), and by a Redeemer parishioner on behalf of MEEP. The related companies organize and pay for workforce development training for solar Photo-Voltaic (PV) systems, and develop solar PV fields for electric power users. Power52 was founded shortly after the Freddy Gray riots, but a co-founder has prior experience in the renewable energy business.
Power52’s leaders have proposed that the Group commit to buying up to 90% of typical, annual electricity demand each from a solar PV farm to be built in Howard County. Due to the purchasing power of the larger among the Group, Memorial would get a lower rate per kilowatt hour than we are currently paying for 100% renewable wind plus BGE charges for transmission and delivery. A longer-term commitment is necessary for the “economics” of the deal. Any “overage” in demand, such as a string of hot summer days, not available from the solar PV farm would be met by Memorial’s current renewable (wind) contract with Constellation, or other in the future.
The big bonus is that Power52 is training 3 at-risk employment groups—Veterans, returning citizens and high school dropouts—in solar PV systems design, construction and maintenance. Graduates of the 13-week training program, with certificates in hand, have been proven to be imminently employable. The average graduation rate is 87.5% among 82 Baltimore City residents in previous classes taught by Living Classrooms’ Workforce Development Team, accredited by both the NCCER and OSHA programs. The current class numbers 40.
Each entity of the Group has been asked to sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) so that the solar PV field developer, Power52 Energy Services, can attract financiers/owners with better prospects for a deal. The process can run four to six months.
At the June 18th Vestry meeting, Grey presented the Power52 program. A motion to enter into a LOI, the next step, was approved unanimously. The LOI is not binding, and no contract would be executed until an acceptable deal is worked out according to preliminary terms suggested to the Group, and approved by our Vestry.
Solar PV fields have or are being constructed under this program for Living Classrooms Foundation, the Baltimore City Government, the Baltimore City Public Schools, Christ Church Harbor Apartments and the Columbia Association, among others.
Pride Events - 2018
Pride events:
The Pride parade is on Saturday, June 16 starting at 1pm. Faith Communities of Baltimore with Pride will be marching again this year and we would love to have some Memorial folks in the group again! The parade will start at Charles and E. 33rd Street and proceed down Charles to E. 23rd Street (a map of the route is at http://baltimorepride.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Parade_1.pdf). We are still waiting to hear the specific gathering time/place.
Festival:
Faith Communities of Baltimore with Pride will have a combined tent again at the festival in Druid Hill Park (Sunday, June 17 from 11-5) and are looking for help staffing it (there are tables with flyers and other information from the various places of worship).
If you can take part on either Saturday or Sunday, let Dave Hansen (hansendavid743@gmail.com) or Erin Kelly (victorianlibrarian@gmail.com) know and we can get you more details as they are available.