“Other” centeredness is better than self centeredness…
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
Philippians 2: 3-4

Administrative items:

• Along the King’s Highway – The next edition scheduled for delivery to your homes in February. Please submit articles or comments for future editions to Edy Unthank at: editor[atecr]edecr.org
• Deployment/Position Postings – Detailed postings for jobs can be seen by clicking on the following link: http://www.edecr.org/jobs.htm .
  • Santa Maria Urban Ministry is looking for a new Treasurer for their Board of Directors. If you know of someone, or are interested in serving as Treasurer for this important diocesan ministry, please contact The Rev. David Breuer at: drbreuer@stlukeslg.org or 408-354-2195. Thank you.
  • Youth Coordinator, All Saints’ Episcopal Church of Palo Alto
• The El Camino Real Foundation website has great information on planned giving, wills awareness, and links to the Episcopal Church Foundation. You can send questions or requests via e-mail, and one of the Foundation members will contact you with a reply. Check it out at: http://www.edecr.org/foundation/ . Also, please see below information on the upcoming Foundation Academy to be held at St. Mary’s in Pacific Grove tonight and tomorrow!.
• Parochial reports are to be completed online with a hard copy sent to the diocesan office by April 1st.  If you have questions or need help in completing these reports, please contact me at: brian@edecr.org  or 831-304-4465. 
• Attention Rectors and Vicars: Please remember that ASA (Average Sunday Attendance) is the process for delegates to be elected, and your congregations need to gather that information before your Annual Meetings (Resolution 1, Article 7, Section 5). After your annual meetings, please contact the diocesan office with your officers (wardens, treasurer, delegates, and alternates) for 2008.
• Parish/Mission Treasurers:  f you haven’t already done so, please send your information to us on your estimated fairshare for 2008.
• Vestry/Bishop Committee Training (including Treasurers) will be offered by the Diocese in April. There will be 3 regional sessions on the evenings of April 1-3 from 6 to 9pm. A 4th session will be offered on Saturday morning April 12th from 9:30 to noon. All wardens, vestry/bishop committee members, treasurers, parish administrators, and clergy are encouraged to attend. Topics to be presented include: roles and responsibilities, business methods in church affairs, risk management, church finances and legal issues. This will be a basic overview of these subject areas - an introduction or general review of vestry/bishop committee functions. The following are the locations and dates:
  • April 1st – St. Lukes in Atascadero – 6-9pm
  • April 2nd – All Saints in Watsonville – 6-9pm
  • April 3rd – St. Andrews in Saratoga – 6-9pm
  • April 12th – St. Pauls in Salinas – 9:30am to noon
     

  The registration form is attached to send to Susan Altig at the Diocesan office or susan@edecr.org .  Please share these dates and times with your Vestry, Bishop’s Committee and Treasurers, and come as a group. Rectors and Vicars are welcome to attend in addition to parish administrators. If you have any questions, please contact me at: brian@edecr.org  or 831-394-4465.
   

Announcements:

• GRANT REQUEST FOR SMALL CONGREGATIONS -- In keeping with the theme, A Year of Wonder, the Diocese of El Camino Real is pleased to offer a grant application intended to support the dreams and hopes of our smaller congregations. This $13,000 fund for 2008 provides an opportunity to imagine what might be possible if seed money is available and granted. $5,000 is set aside from an endowment for education and $8,000 is available for other projects that meet the funding requirements outlined in the application (attached). For more information, contact Diane Lovelace at DiLovelace@aol.com  or Keith Johnson at Keith0731@aol.com  with any questions you may have.
• VISION INTO ACTION: Small Congregations meeting -- Sat., Feb. 23rd, at St. Paul’s, Salinas -- 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. All clergy and lay leadership from small congregations are invited – come as a team!! The Committee on Small Congregations invites all small-membership congregations in the diocese to an action-focused conference that will include: Visioning: Opportunities and Challenges in 2008, Vision into Action (action strategies from Small Church Handbook), Guest Speaker: Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, Connection Groups – networking, Getting Ready: The Magnetic Church, and Resources. WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Vestry/Bishop’s Committee members, Clergy, Lay Leaders. RESOURCES (attached): See the bulletin insert and flyer. RSVP to Susan Altig at 631-394-4465 or Susan@edecr.org  with your name and church name. Please register by Wed., Feb. 18th. For more information, contact Diane Lovelace at DiLovelace@aol.com .
• SJSPIRIT once again is sponsoring the Ash Wednesday services at SJSU and is seeking clergy who might wish to spend a couple of hours with the students in conversation, prayer, blessing, and imposition of ashes. If you feel called to this ministry, please contact Roger Wharton 408-451-9310, chaplain@sjspirit.org .
• Trip to Camp Coast Care in Mississippi - Our Diocese is planning a mission trip to Mississippi Camp Coast Care May 3 - 10 or May 4 - 11, 2008. There is an urgent need for volunteers to help Gulf coast residents get back into homes. Many are still in FEMA camps, tents and trailers over 2 years after Katrina. Persons with some experience in any type of construction are desperately needed but all volunteers are important and utilized. If you can cook, paint, pound nails, install tile, clean up, put on roofing, use a saw, read a level, clean the bathrooms or dorm room, you are needed at Camp Coast Care. There are some construction supervisors on staff but both experienced and non-experienced helpers are needed. Our group is already registered as the El Camino Real group using my name as contact person. We need to make our plans soon in order to reserve space in camp. If you are at all interested in going on this trip, please e-mail me and I will answer all your questions. You should also go to www.campcoastcare.com  and watch the videos and read the information. Please join us on this 2nd diocesan trip to Mississippi. Together we can be the hands and feet of Jesus on the Gulf coast. Sheila Vossler, mabear2@sbcglobal.net .
• Youth ministry:
  • The Diocesan Youth Snow Trip will be at Yosemite 2/29-3/2. This event is now closed to applications. If you wish more information please contact Leann Brooks at: leannbrooks@hotmail.com  or 805-550-9832.
  • Diocesan Youth Mission Trips for 2008: Next summer our youth will have the opportunity to serve Native American populations in Nevada through Sierra Service Project. http://www.sierraserviceproject.org . Our diocese has a 5-year history of teaming with SSP for our mission trips. This year we plan to send two groups to the Walker River Paiute reservation in early summer, coordinated by Leann Brooks and Robin Denney. The first trip, June 29-July 5, is for high school youth who will be entering 9th grade in the fall of 2008 through those graduating in the summer of 2008. Experienced counselors from ECR (including Bishop Mary) will accompany our youth and other church youth groups will join us at the reservation. The second trip, July 14-19, is a brand new opportunity for Middle School students and is for youth entering 6th through 8th grades in the fall. This will be a smaller group and the program is being specially crafted for the younger audience. Please begin discussing these opportunities with your youth and youth leaders. Separate applications for the Middle School and High School youth are attached for completion and submission by February 15th with a $100.00 deposit.
  • Episcopal Youth Event (EYE) – Between the 2 youth mission trips, the 2008 EYE will be held in San Antonio, TX from July 8-13 at Trinity University. The theme for the event is, “Sown in the Heart of Christ”. This event is for youth that have completed grades 9, 10, 11, or 12 by this Spring and who have not begun to attend college. El Camino Real has space reserved for 15 to attend (12 youth and 3 adult sponsors). The cost for the event is $480 per person that includes room and meals and ground transportation in Texas. Airfare to San Antonio is extra. To register, you need to contact the diocesan office. There is only one registrar per diocese, so you can not sign up on your own. Lastly, if you are an adult youth leader, and would be willing to help coordinate the ECR contingent, please contact me at the diocesan office (831-394-4465) or brian@edecr.org . 
  • Youth Katrina Relief Summer Mission Trip: June 14-20, 2008: Open to all Junior High and High School Students. Spend a week working to provide better housing for our gulf coast neighbors with Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi. There is a wide variety of jobs we might due gut a damaged home, work in the kitchen, dig a foundation, paint, clean the dorm, frame, install sheet-rock, remove debris from a home, or finish out a home. Everyone will have the opportunity to do meaningful work in restoring the beauty and dignity to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. For more information contact Katie Machemer at 408 867-3493.
  • Honduras Youth Trip - There is an opportunity for our youth to go on a mission trip to Honduras. Sierra Service Project (the organization also running our Diocesan Youth Trip to Nevada) runs this program. Robin Denney, (our diocesan missionary who just returned from Liberia) is leading one of the trips (July 14-July 28). The trip is open to high school juniors, seniors, and college age young adults, who have had some previous mission experience. The trip costs $2,000 for each participant. SSP staff will talk parents through the steps required for obtaining passports and necessary documentation, and will answer any security related questions. View more information online: http://www.sierraserviceproject.org/honduras_info.htm  To sign up, get the registration form online at the above link, or call the SSP office at: (916) 488-6441. Applications must be received by March 1, with a $300 deposit.

Important Training / Dates to mark on your calendars:

• The Foundation Academy will be held at St. Mary’s in Pacific Grove on February 1-2, 2008. There will be a kick off event the evening of Friday, February 1, 2008. Training sessions will run concurrently on Saturday, February 2, from approximately 9 am to 4 pm. This event will be held at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Pacific Grove, CA. Meals provided for small registration fee. Registrants will make their own accommodations; details attached.  For more information and to register, contact Susan Altig at susan@edecr.org  or call 831-394-4465. Cost per person: $30, including meals.
• THE COMMISSION ON MINISTRY is preparing a “Day of Discovery” on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at St. Paul’s, Salinas. This is the third time we have offered this program which has the purpose of offering individuals a way to further explore how they might respond to their calls to ministry in our churches. The COM cordially invites members of your parish to attend this Day of Discovery. It offers the opportunity for those already doing active ministry to renew their call to a particular ministry or to explore new ways of responding to God’s call. Although this Day of Discovery is a required first step for those individuals who are discerning a call to ordained ministry, its focus is not in any way limited to these individuals. All lay persons would benefit from participating in this process. Experience has shown that participants in our “Day of Discovery” come away having shared in a process of discernment which is rejuvenating, validating, and transforming. Pre-registration (by February 1st) to Susan Altig (susan[atecr]edecr.org ) will help us in preparing enough materials and order enough lunches for the participants. Thank you.
• Epiphany West Interfaith Conference - Sacred Text as Window: Seeing one’s self through the eyes of another. Conference classes: January 28 – 30, 2008 Conference presentations: January 30 – February 1, 2008 CDSP campus, Berkeley. Religiously-fueled conflicts around the world are intensifying. We must push beyond "tolerance" to deeper, more enduring inter-religious understanding and cooperation. This conference takes inter-religious dialogue to a new level of engagement, by meeting one another through our sacred texts. Classes offered include: Beit Midrash (House of Study); FAQs About Islam; FAQs About Christianity; FAQs About Judaism; Principles of Dialogue; Dialogue for the Common Good; Youth as Catalysts for Interfaith Action; Ultimate Values in Our Different Religions; Faithful Renderings: Translation as Window; Sacred Text in Worship; Women in Jewish and Muslim Law; Redemption and Revelation. For more information and to register, visit www.cdsp.edu/center_epiphany.php 
• Faith Formation Event - Ministry Training will be held on March 1st at St. Mark’s in Santa Clara for the following: EM (Eucharistic Minister), EV (Eucharistic Visitor), Safeguarding Children as well as Praying in Color. Please see attached flyers: Bulletin insert, flyer, registration form and details on the seminars being offered.
• Healing Our Planet Earth: Singing A New Song of Hope is a national conference focused on the web of relationships between faith, justice and the environment to be held April 10 – 12, 2008 Hilton SeaTac, Seattle, Washington. It will be a place and time where people from all faith and spiritual institutions and environmental communities come together to learn, share, inspire and seed plans for sustainable action, and a global sustainable future. For more information, please see attached.
• CLERGY CONFERENCE – April 21-23, 2008 at St. Francis, San Juan Bautista. More info to follow.
• MAGNETIC CHURCH CONFERENCE – May 16-17, 2008. This event is led by an Episcopalian, is fun, has some great practical ideas and will stimulate lots of thought about how to effectively be hospitable and welcoming to those not yet with us. It will be very accessible to all and a good way to begin our collective work of empowering our diocese for evangelism.
• Breaking Barriers Conference – Sometime in September/October 2008. Details to follow.
• 2008 Diocesan Convention – November 7-8 – Sherwood Hall in Salinas

Diocesan Office Meetings:

• Next Week:  No meetings scheduled in the office.
   

God, I pray that my gratitude - for the life that you have given me -
will bring humility.  Amen