May 2018

The St. John’s Bible see stories, pp. 2-6

Seven Days of Creation, from The St. John’s Bible

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From saintjohnsbible.org, saintjohnsabbey.org, seeing-theword.org, Christopher Calderhead, Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint John’s Bible

On Pentecost Sunday (May 20), St. Luke’s will receive and bless the gift of a seven-volume reproduction of The Saint John’s Bible, a gloriously beautiful and profoundly spiritual work of art and faith.

The Saint John’s Bible is the first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey since the invention of the printing press. A team of artists coordinated by Donald Jackson, artistic director, in Wales, and a team of scholars at St. John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, MN, brought together the ancient techniques of calligraphy and illumination with an ecumenical Christian approach to the Bible rooted in Benedictine spirituality.

In 1995, world-renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson (see story, p. 6) discussed his dream of creating a handwritten, illuminated Bible with Fr. Eric Hollas, OSB, former executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John’s Abbey and University. The leaders and members of the monastic community and university embraced Jackson’s dream.

In Wales, at Jackson’s scriptorium, and in Collegeville, among the community of monks

living according to the ancient Rule of Saint Benedict, the dream of a masterpiece in art and biblical scholarship took shape. Between 1996 and 1997, Saint John’s explored the feasibility of the project, Jackson created first samples, and theologians developed the illumination schema. The Bible was officially commissioned in 1998 and funding was sought. Production was completed in

2011, with the final word penned in May and touch-up work completed by December.

Sacred Scripture and Benedictines are inseparable. Called to pray at critical points during the day, a monk centers his life on the Liturgy of the Hours, a set pattern of prayer composed of Psalms, biblical readings, and hymns. It should be no wonder that when the community of Saint John’s Abbey was looking for a way to mark the turn of the millennium, the Bible should play a role.

Just as the Bible set the direction for the first 2,000 years of Christian history, the purpose of The Saint John’s Bible is to shape and guide the Christian

message for the third millennium. Rather than nostalgically looking to the past as some golden age, however, this Bible takes an approach to history which sees the Christian tradition as a continuum of salvation involving past, present, and future. Furthermore, because Benedictines define theology as faith in search of understanding, the monks see the natural and human sciences as informing biblical interpreta-tion; the more we know about creation, the more we can know about God’s love for all creation. That openness to the world is reflected in the calligraphy and artwork of The Saint John’s Bible.

The Saint John’s Bible

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The Saint John’s Bible original is divided into seven volumes, and each volume is two feet tall by three feet wide when open. The Bible version used is the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE). The creators of the Bible used a mixture of the techniques used in ancient illuminated manuscripts (handwritten with quills on calf-skin vellum, gold and platinum leaf and hand-ground pigments, Chinese stick ink) and modern technology (computers used to plan the layout of the Bible and line-breaks for the text).

For this work, Jackson created a new script, designing it with three qualities in mind: the text had to be readable, modern, and appropriately dignified for the Bible. But he also wanted a text with speed, flexibility—“juice.” The Bible is a living Word and needs to be alive on the page as well. As with any handmade object, there are slight variations in the text. Some of these add personality to the page—a flourish on a descending letter “p” or “y” at the bottom of the page or into the margin. Some are a result of the personality of the scribe, or the cut of the quill, or the nap of the vellum page. In the Psalms volume, a subtle variation on the main script was designed for each of the five books by the scribe who wrote it, adding variety to the text.

During production, a team of scholars and theologians gathered weekly to develop the theological content behind its 160 illuminations. This included not only developing the schema for the illuminations (i.e., which passages would be illuminated), but also identifying underlying themes and elements for the artists to incorporate. The Committee on Illuminations and Text met in Collegeville, while much of the artwork was produced in Jackson’s scriptorium in Monmouth, Wales, resulting in a transatlantic collaboration as drafts were passed between the two groups.

It took 8-10 hours to write and illuminate a single page. Even an error is an opportunity for artistry. When a line of text is missed by the scribe, it is written in the margin and assisted to its place. In this instance by a bee that hoists the line on a pulley system based on one of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings (see image).

Illuminated Bibles throughout history have depicted the times and places in which they were created. The illuminations in The Saint John’s Bible bring to life familiar scriptural passages from a modern perspective, conveying a multicultural humanity, representations of science, technology, and space exploration, as well as other contemporary historical events. Its purpose, as its designers have expressed it, is to “ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world by commissioning a work of art that illuminates the Word of God for a new millennium.”

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, commented on the significance of The Saint John’s Bible. “In the days before printed books, people must have thought and felt differently about words on the page: words were written with discipline, slowly and thoughtfully. It was a kind of outward expression of that ruminating over the words of the Bible which shaped the inner world of reflective believers, especially monks. This project not only revives the ancient tradition of the church sponsoring creative arts: it also offers an insight into that lost skill of patient and prayerful reading. We tend to read greedily and hastily, as we do so many other things: this beautiful text shows us a better way.”

Correction in the “Wisdom of Solomon”

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The Saint John’s Bible is divided into seven volumes:

1. Gospels and Acts (completed in May 2002): 25+ illuminations, including opening illuminations to each gospel;

2. Pentateuch (completed in August 2003): Illuminated text from the first 5 books of the Old Testament;

3. Psalms (completed in April 2004): Illumina-tions include the digital voice prints of songs from various ethnicities/religious backgrounds;

4. Prophets (completed in April 2005): Includes Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah, Amos, Daniel, Zechariah, and Baruch;

5. Wisdom Books (completed in July 2006): Includes Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Job, Wisdom, and Sirach;

6. Historical Books (completed in March 2010): Largest page count, 25+ illuminations, includes Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Judith, Esther, Ruth, Tobit, 1st and 2nd Maccabees;

7. Letters and Revelation (completed 2011).

The original manuscript of The Saint John’s Bible is held at Saint John’s Abbey and University. The Bible has been produced in three editions: the Apostles, the Heritage, and the Trade Editions.

Only 12 sets of the Apostles Edition exist, including one donated to the Library of Congress in 2015 in the presence of Pope Francis, at the time of his address to a joint meeting of Congress. A separate set was presented to

the Pope and is now available to scholars at the Vatican Library.

The Heritage Edition is the full-size fine art reproduction of the original. It is the exact size of the original manuscript and replicates, to the degree possible, the original. The edition is limited to 299 signed and numbered seven-volume sets and contains the same volumes as the original. Many of the illuminations are touched up by hand, including the burnishing of gold leaf, so no two imprints are the same.

The Trade Edition consists of smaller printed copies of the seven volumes, roughly the size of coffee table books, measuring 10” x 15.2”. It is available for purchase in single volumes or as sets, as are other works about the calligraphy, artwork, and production of The Saint John’s Bible.

The Bible includes decorative elements from

the Minnesota landscape.

Transfiguration

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From saintjohnsbible.org, Christopher Calderhead, Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint John’s Bible, others

onald Jackson, lead calligrapher, illuminator, and artistic director of The Saint John’s Bible, holds the position of

senior scribe to Her Majesty the Queen’s Crown Office at the House of Lords in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A renowned calligrapher and teacher, he maintains a workshop at the Calligraphy Center in Wales, the only one in the United Kingdom where artist calligraphers are still regularly employed.

Jackson was born in Lancashire, England in 1938. At age 13, he won a scholarship to art school, where he spent six years studying drawing, painting, design, and traditional Western calligraphy and illuminating. From an early age, he sought to combine ancient techniques of calligraphy with his own imaginative and spontaneous letterforms. As a teenager, his first ambition was to be “The Queen’s Scribe” and his second was to inscribe and illuminate the Bible.

Jackson’s talents were soon recognized. At age 20, while still a student, he was appointed a visiting lecturer (professor) at the Camberwell College of Art in London. Within six years, he became the youngest artist calligrapher chosen to take part in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first International Calligraphy Show since WWII and was appointed a scribe to the Crown Office at the House of Lords. In other words, he became “The Queen’s Scribe.” As Scribe, he produces historic Royal documents, including Letters Patent and Royal Charters. In 1985, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the Medal of The Royal Victorian Order (MVO), given for personal services to the Sovereign. [Letters Patent—always plural—are legal instruments in the form of a published written order issued by the monarch granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation. Royal Charters are similar instruments, still used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities and learned societies.--Ed.]

Jackson is an elected Fellow and past Chairman of the prestigious Society of Scribes and

Illuminators, and in 1997 he was Master of the 600-year-old Guild of Scriveners of the City of London. His personal innovative work and inspirational teaching, together with books, a film series, and exhibitions throughout the world have gained him recognition as a leading influence on Western calligraphy. In 1980, he wrote The Story of Writing, which has since been published in many editions and seven languages. His 30-year retrospective exhibition, “Painting With Words”, premiered at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis in 1988 and has since traveled widely.

Jackson first visited St. John’s Abbey and University in 1981 for the International Assembly of Lettering Artists, a seminar he inspired. He returned to Saint John’s in 1996 to serve as a keynote speaker at “Servi Textus: The Servants of the Text,” a symposium that included a calligraphy exhibition featuring Jackson’s work along with that of other artists, many of whom were his past students and past associates of his workshop.

Beginning in 1998, Jackson became the artistic director of The Saint John’s Bible, the first handwritten illuminated Bible of its scale in over 500 years. In addition to his work on the original manuscript, Jackson directed the creation of the Heritage Edition, a full-scale fine art edition of the original Saint John’s Bible. For him, the project became a deeply spiritual one. He wrote, “The continuous process of remaining open and accepting of what may reveal itself through hand and heart on a crafted page is the closest I have ever come to God.”

The Queen’s Calligrapher, Donald Jackson

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Episcopal Diocese Fights Suicide

From Casper (WY) Star Tribune

On a Sunday in September 2017, in all the churches of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, the congregations bowed their heads. “God of Mercy,” the priests

said, “hear our prayer for ourselves, our friends, and families who hold painful memories of loss, grief, and suicide. We ask for strength for today, courage for tomorrow, and peace for the past.” “Amen,” the congregations respond, thinking of those they knew who died by suicide. Amen. Not many Christian sects have a service specifically dedicated to suicide prevention. In many churches, suicide is taboo—something to be whispered about over after-service coffee, but never mentioned from the pulpit. For some, suicide is a violation of the Fifth Commandment, “Thou shall not kill.” For some, those who die by suicide are damned to hell. But the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming doesn’t condemn those souls. Instead, the 49 parishes in the state are actively attempting prevent suicide but also erase its stigma. They are training their clergy and lay people to recognize the signs of potential suicide. They are also holding special services for the victims and families of suicides. Suicide prevention has been a priority for the Episcopal Church in Wyoming for years, but after state lawmakers drastically cut funding for prevention in 2017, the Church’s efforts intensified. “It’s an obligation,” Bishop John Smylie said, especially so in a state that consistently has one of the highest rates of suicide. “It’s become the moral priority for the diocese.”

Legislative Cuts During the 2017 legislative session, Wyoming lawmakers cut $2.1 million from the Wyoming Health Department’s $5.7 million budget for suicide and substance abuse prevention. They reduced state spending by hundreds of millions that year because they faced a major revenue decline due to the downturn in the economy’s

energy sector. The Wyoming Health Department then chose to devote its reduced funds to preventing smoking and substance abuse, which, it said, touched more people. The cuts deeply affected the Prevention Management Organization of Wyoming (PMO), the nonprofit organization contracted by the state to provide prevention services. Because of the cuts, PMO had to eliminate 21 positions at both the local and state levels, including the position that coordinated suicide prevention efforts. The organization no longer has the money needed for information campaigns, training materials, or prevention efforts focused on specific communities at-risk for suicides and is only able to facilitate suicide intervention training with the help of the Episcopal diocese. Local PMO staffs partner with Episcopal churches in their areas and request funding from the diocese’s foundation. The nonprofit can provide the trainer, but money for materials and space now comes from the church. Otherwise, even intermittent training efforts would dwindle away all together. The decision to cut also meant fewer resources for the thousands of people affected by suicide every year in the state. Each death leaves behind loved ones—as many as 115 people per suicide death, one study found—to grapple with loss and bewilderment, anger and grief. Gov. Matt Mead estimated that half of all Wyomingites had been affected by suicide to some extent. The Episcopal diocese had been working with the PMO on suicide prevention since 2014, but the relationship grew closer after the state’s budget cuts. Last July, Bishop Smylie sent a letter to legislators and the governor condemning the cuts. “The Scripture says,” he wrote, “‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ Have you no heart for the individuals and families who suffer so greatly from suicide?” In the letter, he explained that the diocese’s foundation would set aside $100,000 for suicide prevention, but he also made it clear that the money was a one-time contribution. He warned lawmakers not to think the private sector would provide a long-term solution. “This omission of funding for suicide prevention is an embarrassment, one that I trust you will remedy at your next session,” it ended.

Continued on p. 7

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The Churches Act In the meantime, the bishop and his diocese took matters into their own hands. For example, once a month the Rev. Tom Fiske, rector of Holy Trinity Church in Gillette, gathers families grieving a loved one who died by suicide. They meet and discuss their loss, their bewilderment, their healing. Talking doesn’t always ease the pain, but at least the families know they’re not alone. Fiske’s work is based on personal experience; he still grieves the deaths of his sister and father by suicide. So he has become especially interested in “postvention”: the care of people whose loved ones died by suicide. How can someone support a family while they heal from such a loss? How can the community embrace those who are hurting? On the other side of the Bighorn Mountains, the Rev. Lin Davenport has held multiple “Question, Persuade, Refer” (QPR) trainings in suicide prevention at Thermopolis’s Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. The two-hour sessions teach participants to recognize the signs of a suicide crisis, persuade the person to seek help, and refer them to resources. Because of the sessions, she said, “I don’t believe there is one member of my church who now isn’t aware of suicide prevention and the need for it.” Churches in other parts of the state are tailoring the Diocese’s funding to their own needs. In Fremont County, churches are requesting money to train law enforcement to better respond to people in crisis. In Sweetwater County, three Episcopal churches are pooling their money to bring in a man who survived an attempt to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and now tours the country educating audiences about suicide. The Rev. Bernadine Craft, a priest and member of the diocese’s Episcopal Suicide Prevention Connection, who is both a psychotherapist and former state senator, said the diocese chose to focus on suicide prevention because it seemed to be the most underfunded of Wyoming’s health priorities. “This is something where we as a faith community can step in,” she said. Wyoming’s Prevention Management Organization sees real benefits partnering with a church and its clergy. Priests and deacons are often the first persons to whom someone might admit depression or suicidal thoughts. Making sure the clergy are educated about suicide and equipped to handle those conversations is crucial, especially in small, rural communities where there aren’t formal mental health practitioners. Clergy

often act as counselors when professionals are not available and there is nobody to whom the person can be referred. “Those priests think, ‘I’m it,’” the Rev. Craft said. “That can scare them.” Even the bishop is trained in suicide prevention, and most of the diocese’s 94 clergy have also been certified in one of the courses now mandatory in the diocese’s training for prospective priests and deacons.

Suicide and Theology Clergy, like others who work in suicide prevention, constantly battle damaging cultural myths about suicide and mental illness. Depression is not a weakness, they have to repeat, it’s a health condition. Discussing suicide with someone will not cause that person to commit suicide. But within the Christian community, clergy and churchgoers have to combat a deeper theological issue. Among the faithful, there is often a belief that those who die by suicide are condemned to hell. The act of suicide is compared to homicide. For many years, some Christian churches would not allow a person who died by suicide to be buried in their cemeteries. Wyoming’s Bishop Smylie, along with the Episcopal Church at large, rejects that interpretation. There needs to be a consistent message, Smylie says, that suicide does not equate damnation; “We want folks to know that they’re going to be heard, loved, listened to.” The Rev. Fiske is more blunt: “We don’t condemn to hell the person who has died of cancer, or in a car wreck, or in a car wreck while they were talking on the

The Rev. Jim Stewart, right, and wife Sylvia with some of the 600 crosses put up outside St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Cheyenne, representing the 600 suicides that occur each

month in the U.S.

Continued on p. 10

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My life began in Oelwein, Iowa, where I spent my first 18 years. I was the fourth child in a very loving family consisting of two girls and three boys. My sister is eight years older, so I was surrounded by brothers. My father, Jacob Joseph Yankel Levin,

was a Jewish immigrant from Lublin, Poland. He sailed with his mother and three siblings on the Lusitania in 1913 to enter America through Ellis Island. His father had arrived in America three years earlier to earn enough money for his family to be able to leave behind the restrictive and dangerous life of Polish Jews in the early 1900s. Grandfather was assigned work with John Deere in Rock Island, IL. Eventually he purchased a grocery store and salvage yard in Nevada, IA. My father was 12 when they moved there. I am very proud of my Jewish heritage, especially being a Levin; I’ve always been told that we are Levites, descendants of Levi. My great grandfather was a rabbi. One of my brothers and my sister’s son have converted to Judaism. My mother was a blond Norwegian Lutheran growing up in the town of Slater, IA (just 20 miles from Nevada). At the time my parents met, she was captain of her high school basketball team. Because of their differences in religion, their families were against their getting married, so after dating off and on for eight years, they eloped. After working five years in the family businesses, my parents purchased their own scrap yard in Oelwein. Ultimately, my father owned three businesses in Oelwein – Levin Iron and Metal, Oelwein Concrete Co., and Oelwein Sand and Gravel. They were introduced to the First Christian Church and soon became actively involved. We rarely missed a Sunday at the Christian Church. In high school, I was president of Christian Youth Fellowship and sang in the choir. Although my father was eventually baptized,

we celebrated many Jewish holidays and events with the Levin family. Daryl Sullivan also was from Oelwein, and we began dating our senior year. I attended Iowa State; Daryl attended Upper Iowa. Though we dated other people, the summer after our sopho-more year in college, we got back together. By this time, he was at UNI, so I transferred there. We were soon engaged and planning a summer wedding. With both of us coming from mixed marriages (Daryl was raised Roman Catholic), we knew we wanted to make ‘religion’ decisions before we got married. We visited St. Stephen’s Episcopal in Newton with my brother’s family and we both felt comfortable. We loved the ritualistic and traditional service. We took instruction that spring at St. Luke’s, Cedar Falls, and were confirmed at Christ Episcopal Church, Waterloo. It was decided! We would get married at Christ and have our reception in Oelwein. We quickly settled into St. Luke’s where we were welcomed with open arms. In 1966, before Daryl and I student-taught in Marshalltown, I was offered a job as the third grade teacher in New Hartford. I finished student teaching on a Friday and began teaching on Monday. Our first son, Andrew, arrived on the scene during my second year of teaching. Eric arrived two years later. I decided to become a stay-at-home mom, but before I knew it, I was teaching at St. Luke’s Preschool four mornings a week. Our third son, Tobin, arrived during this time. In 1974, Daryl and I purchased the Tally-Ho Salad Dressing Company and for a time did very well. But when we built a new factory in the Cedar Falls industrial park, we lost the business and we “lost our shirts.” It was a very difficult time for us. Daryl was active in Masons and Shrine and one evening at the Shrine Club, I found myself having a heated discussion with the potentate about the value of early childhood education. Sid Morris, a longtime friend and administrator at AEA 7, was eavesdropping and immediately offered me a posi-tion as hospital-homebound teacher for the agency. I needed a full-time job, so it was perfect timing! I began my master’s degree at UNI in special education and before that was completed, I was

The People of St. Luke’s: Connie Sullivan

Continued on p. 10

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telephone,” he said. “Nor should we condemn the person who has long suffered from depression.” At the Episcopal Church’s national convention in 2000, church leaders adopted a formal resolution on suicide prevention. Church members committed to educating themselves on suicide prevention methods and how to best minister both to those who have suicidal ideas and those who have lost a loved one to suicide. In the resolution, the Church cited a verse from Romans: “Nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Rev. Craft, with the help of others, wrote a prayer for suicide prevention to help support that belief. Later, others expanded on the prayer and created the Liturgy for Suicide Prevention, the church service that was performed across Wyoming in September 2017. The hope was that the liturgy would help church members know they would not be judged for their struggles with

suicide. “We are called to be the face and hands of God in the world,” Craft said. “God is loving and giving and compassionate.” Three years ago a coalition of Wyoming’s Sweetwater County organizations and the Episcopal diocese commissioned a Rock Springs writer to create a one-act play about suicide. His work, “Chimes,” is a stark portrayal of suicide. It follows a character who is contemplating killing himself. It’s not easy to watch, but ultimately carries a message of hope. The play has been performed in Rock Springs for the past three years. This year the play was performed for the first time in a church. After the performance, a stranger approached the Rev. Craft with tears in her eyes. The woman told the priest that her father had died by suicide more than 20 years ago, and for all that time the woman believed that her father was barred from heaven. For all that time, she bore two burdens—of loss and torment. Finally, she said, she could believe her dad had found peace.

offered an AEA 7 teaching job as a resource room teacher at Southdale Elementary. I held that position for 22 years. This was a tremendously busy time of my life. Here I was with three active teenagers and a traveling husband. (Daryl had become a salesman and later, the regional manager for John Morrell Meat Co.) I was involved with everything I could possibly do at St. Luke’s – teaching Sunday School, on the vestry twice, and head of the Fellowship and the Inviting Church Committees. Daryl chaired the lasagna dinner for approximately 25 years. I also was a member of Junior League and several community organi-zations. As president of the Learning Disabilities Board of Iowa, I drove to Des Moines a lot. After retirement, while on vacation in Alaska, I received a call from the Department of Special Education at UNI. They wanted me to teach a class there, so we cut our vacation short and I became an adjunct professor. I have never applied or interviewed for any of my teaching jobs. They all just sort of fell into my lap! Somehow, our sons survived our chaotic life and went on to become productive adults with very talented and professional wives. I am especially proud of how involved they are with

their churches. They have blessed us with seven beautiful (and brilliant) grandchildren. In retirement, Daryl and I have spent most of our time traveling. We sold our country home and lived in our RV for almost five years. We have traveled every state and province in North America and have visited over 265 national historic sites. This past year we have been to Hawaii; Williamsburg, VA (with the Jolicoeurs and Bishop & Mrs. Stanton); and Panama. This summer we will visit Alaska for the sixth time. We spend our winters in south Texas where we are faithful members of Grace Episcopal in Weslaco. But we always miss our St. Luke’s family, and our time away truly makes us appreciate our wonderful priest and excellent choir. These days I especially enjoy spending time with my family, P.E.O., quilting, making diapers for Nicaragua and genealogy. I’m writing a book about my Jewish grandfather. My pride in my Jewish heritage has caused me, from time to time, to struggle and question my Christianity. But over the years, I have found that I can be very comfortable in both worlds, especial-ly as an Episcopalian. At St. Luke’s, I know I will never be judged, I can express myself freely, and I will always be accepted for exactly who I am. And I’m so very thankful to God and all of you for that.

Wyoming, continued from p. 8

Sullivan, continued from p. 9

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Adapted from the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley,

http://cyber-coenobites.blogspot.com

Our long-delayed spring reminded us that Iowa churches could be confronted by this question. Fortunately, we can turn to the wisdom of Archdruid Eileen, author of England’s Beaker Folk blog.

Dear Archdruid Eileen,

We have a baptism due on Sunday and every time we pour water in the font, it freezes solid. Is a baptism legitimate if it takes place with ice?

Many worried priests have written to me asking, “Is a baptism effective if the water freezes?” It’s a common concern out here in more rural parts. The heating in our church is always on the blink. Normally we just close down until spring when this happens and redirect everyone to another parish.

The important thing is that the candidate’s head comes into contact with the water. And ice is, when all’s said and done, water. Obviously, there is great symbolism here - the flowing of water represents the movement of the Holy Spirit. But an ice-baptism is suitable in the Church of England where we, the “frozen chosen,” have rules to slow the Spirit down.

The best compromise would seem to be laying the head of little Hermione or Heathcliff on the surface of the ice. Too quick a contact would bang their heads on the ice. But, too slow might cause them to stick. You could argue that all the godparents hovering around the font, blowing on the candidate's head to loosen it from the ice, would be another symbol of the Spirit. I suggest it would be better not to end up in that situation in the first place.

Baptism with full immersion is another matter. The ice on the pool will never be so thick that the candidate can’t fall through it eventually. But the normal pattern of the newly baptized person scooting off afterwards to get changed is disrupted in cold weather. Firstly, their drips will freeze on the floor as they scurry off - so you may need to grit the church floor. Secondly, on very cold days they may just freeze

completely while they get changed. And finding an ice statue of someone putting on his pants is not a sight that the church secretary wants to encounter on Monday morning.

The best solution, I would suggest, is a little salt in the water to lower the freezing point. However, be aware that this makes the water much colder. Get the candidates and the minister in and out before they turn blue.

Baptism by Ice?

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St. Luke’s Episcopal Church 2410 Melrose Drive ■ Cedar Falls, IA 50613 ■ 319-277-8520

st.lukes@cfu.net ■ stlukescf.org Facebook: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (Cedar Falls)

Holy Eucharist Sunday at 9:15 AM

Nursery Care is available Sundays during the service.

The Rev. Elizabeth Popplewell, Rector The Rev. Liane C. Nichols, Deacon

The Rev. Ruth Ratliff, Deacon

Sharon Anway, Music Director & Composer-in-Residence Janet Sanders, Organist

John Nocero, Sexton

Daryl Smith, Senior Warden Steve Daniels, Junior Warden

Sharon Kelleher, Clerk Vestry Members: Pat Heisterkamp, Dianne Jung,

Sandy McDonald, Chris Opsal, Jen Rasmussen, Bill Witt

Episcopal Voices May 2018

Episcopal Voices is published monthly.

It includes news, ideas, and opinions from the

parish, diocese, denomination, and

Communion.

Articles and suggestions are welcome and

encouraged. Please send them to

Jan Robbins, swanman@cfu.net

Publication Team: Ruth Ratliff Jan Robbins Chris Opsal

Bill Witt

Episcopal Church 2410 Melrose Drive Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613