Christ Church in Westerly Welcomes First Female Rector

On Sunday January 27th, 2013 Christ Church in Westerly welcomed the arrival of their new rector, The Rev. Christine Purcell. It was a momentous day for this parish founded in 1834. Christine is the very first female rector of the church, and the decision to call her was unanimous across the search and vestry committees. Her acceptance was announced in October, at the end of a two-year search.

While her official duties did not begin until this week, the Westerly community had an exciting opportunity to meet the Rev. Purcell when she and Bishop Knisely both visited on Sunday, November 18th. Her visit happened to fall during Bishop Knisely's Ordination weekend, and he had chosen Christ Church for his very first visitation as the 13th Bishop or Rhode Island. The Providence Journal has a wonderful photo gallery of the day.

Christine comes to Christ Church from the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania where she served God’s people in a number of settings.  Most recently she served as the interim rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Shippensburg, PA and prior to that assignment, as the interim rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Altoona, PA.  She also served as primary missioner for 3 years at the Greater Lycoming Episcopal Area Ministry which is composed of 3 small churches located in and around Williamsport, PA.  Christine has served on many diocesan committees and was twice elected as a clergy deputy to General Convention in 2009 and 2012.

Former parishioners, lay leaders, and clergy have described Christine as “one of the warmest people you will ever meet”.  She has described herself as a “people person” who is a passionate preacher and wants her sermons “to connect with real life”. Christine strives at “making Sunday good”.  One of her goals for the liturgy “is that it ushers us into God’s presence by touching our aesthetic sensibilities, through its music, language, gesture and colors.

Christine grew up is Southern California and went on to Dartmouth College where she received an AB in History in 1978.  She took a job working in finance for a Fortune 400 company and continued her education earning an MBA from the University of Connecticut in 1988.

The call to serve God led her to complete a certificate of Education Ministry from The University of the South in 1995.  She continued her religious training by completing a Master of Divinity degree at The General Theological Seminary in 2004.  Christine is currently enrolled in the Doctorate of Ministry in Biblical Preaching program at Luther Seminary. This three year program is tailored for working clergy and will allow her to do most of the required course work within her home parish.  The congregation will be involved in the program as well by providing feedback to Christine on her sermons.

Christine and her husband Bob currently reside in Williamsport, PA and will be relocating to the Westerly area.  Bob is a gastroenterologist in private practice. The couple have two grown children, a son in California and a daughter in the Washington, D.C. area.

For more information about Christ Church please visit www.christchurchwesterly.org

 

 

The latest eRISEN- January 22nd 2013

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events newsletter, at the link below:

eRISEN: 1/22/2013 issue

Want to subscribe to the eRISEN mailing list? Want to submit your event or job listing? Just visit eRISEN on our website.

Get Ready: Ashes to Go 2013

By the Rev. Edmund Harris

Last year on Ash Wednesday, a handful of lay people and clergy from congregations in the Diocese of Rhode Island did something new: we took ashes outside of our church buildings and offered them to people on the streets. Of all the days in the Church’s year, we thought, Ash Wednesday is a day when God’s love and mercy meet people wherever they might be, whatever their connection to church or God has been.

Seeking to embody this, we stood at bus depots, train stations and even at the airport, imposing ashes on people’s foreheads and offering prayers. When people asked about who we were and what would compel us to stand out in the cold for hours, we told them about the Episcopal Church and invited them to come on Sunday. “Ashes to Go” was an incredibly simple, easily organized event, yet one that had a huge impact on both those offered and received ashes. The following Sunday, many of the congregations who had participated saw a surge in visitors and newcomers. One woman, who has since joined the Episcopal Church, said she saw us on the news and knew she “wanted to be part of a church that did something like that.”

This Ash Wednesday, February 13, Bishop Knisely will be participating in Ashes to go as well, and invites every congregation in the Diocese to participate by taking ashes out into their local communities. Where might your congregation offer ashes in your local community? Where are the people in your community who are not coming to church on Ash Wednesday? Are they in coffee shops? Waiting on train platforms? Hanging out on park benches? Dropping their kids off at school? We encourage you to pay attention and to consider offering the gift of ashes, your prayers and your presence. Only God knows how your encounters on Ash Wednesday will change others, yourself, even your whole congregation.

Ashes to Go 2013 is being coordinated by Church Beyond the Walls, a new ministry of Church of the Epiphany in East Providence, which is planting a “street church” in Providence that hopes to begin worship soon near Burnside Park, and encourage Rhode Island Christians to engage people outside of their doors.

Church Beyond the Walls will hold an orientation to Ashes to Go on Thursday, February 7 from 6-7 p.m. at Church of the Epiphany, East Providence. All who are interested in offering ashes are encouraged to attend.

Plan to participate? please contact the Rev. Edmund Harris, Church Beyond the Walls Priest and Lead Organizer 434-5012 #14.

For online Ashes to Go resources, visit http://ashestogo.org/.


 

Harvard Divinity School Episcopal Chaplaincy Call for Papers

Contemplation in Action

The 3rd Annual New England Anglican Studies (NEAS) Conference
April 20, 2013
Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA
Keynote Speaker:
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, 1998-2006

Call for Papers
Due Date for Proposals Extended to January 31st, 2013

Contemporary Christianity has seen a resurgence of interest in contemplation: the retrieval of the rich resources of the pre-modern Christian contemplative traditions, as well as the exploration of contemplative practices in other religious traditions.  Together these trends enliven contemporary prayer and practice.  Common to all these efforts, however, is a conviction that contemplation is not a flight from the world and its many challenges, but rather a mode of delivering oneself and others into the world anew, renewed, and ever ready to face those very challenges.

This conference aims to investigate and deepen this conviction by asking what contemplation is, and how it acts, both on the practitioner and his or her world. What can contemplatives and activists learn from each other? Might contemplation be a form of activism?  Might the struggle for social justice be a form of contemplation?  What other forms of religious “action” might be shaped or driven by contemplation?

Given our investment in both the contemplative life and social activism, we Anglicans aim to convene this conversation and to ground it in our tradition, but also to widen it to include other voices and other traditions.  We invite theoretical and practical reflection on these themes, hoping not only to re-imagine contemplation and action, but also to redouble our commitment to them.

Again, the due date for proposals has been extended until January 31st, 2013. Paper proposals or questions should be directed to NewEnglandAnglicanStudies@gmail.com. All proposals should contain an abstract of no more than 300 words and an abbreviated CV.

Hosted by the HDS
Episcopal/Anglican Fellowship and the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Harvard.

 

Bishop Knisely's Statement on Marriage Equality in RI

A statement by Bishop Knisely, sent this morning to all active Episcopal clergy in Rhode Island, with a cover letter that reiterates

"As your Bishop I respect and honor your right to disagree with me. A key part of what it means to be a member of the Episcopal Church is that, as long as we all agree that we believe Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, we can hold varied and diverse opinions on most other issues and still meet each other in Christ at God's altar."

Statement on Marriage Equality Legislation in Rhode Island

 

As the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island, I support the bill before the General Assembly that would allow same-sex couples to marry in our state, not in spite of my Christian faith, but because of it.

 

Episcopalians are not unanimous in our views, but in the Episcopal Church we find our unity in common prayer, not in common opinion. Even so, through many years of prayerful discussion, the majority of Christians in the Episcopal Church have come to believe that it is possible, and even common, for two people of the same-sex to live covenanted, faithful lives together in service to God, just as people in traditional marriages do. We have also learned that it is possible to protect the consciences of those who disagree within our church and still live together in community.

 

Part of what informs my opinion is that before I became a priest and then a bishop, I was a scientist. So I know the importance of trusting evidence that we see with our own eyes. I have seen what St. Paul describes as the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in the married lives of two men and of two women. I have seen relationships that are loving, mutual, and monogamous and that have lasted a lifetime. Jesus tells us that we must test each tree by looking at the goodness of its fruit (Luke 6:43-45). Across our congregations and communities, I can see the goodness of gay and lesbian couples and their families.

 

The Episcopal Church has been blessed for many years by the life and ministry of gay and lesbian couples, both lay and ordained. I have seen how they contribute to the common good of a congregation and a community by creating stable, loving homes. As a new citizen of Rhode Island, I am eager to see our state legislature join many others across the country in passing legislation to ensure civil marriage equality. I believe it is time for the State of Rhode Island to extend marriage equality to all of its citizens. I urge the legislature to pass House Bill 5015.

 

The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island