Easter Egg Hunt 2017

Catching up on my postings… Easter was on Sunday 16 April in 2017 and as usual we had friends, family, and neighbors over for a potluck brunch and Easter Egg Hunt in our back garden and on WP668. The Associate Easter Bunny wrote a very difficult set of riddles for the adults to find the Gold and Silver Eggs – one of the clues was on Twitter! Jessica, Matthew, Paul, and John all helped – as did our house guest Thoko Miya from South Africa. John cooked Maqluba (chicken and rice “upside down” from Jordan) which was much appreciated!

Silver Egg

• I am a beautiful-bold building block,
• a 1-to-2 ton ballerina queen.
• My reach spreads from Iskanderia to
• where Toko lives (though there are fewer of
• my ances-sisters bellowing than lived
• there free when Ibn Batuta roved from
• the Cape to Cairo and Mongol Guangzhou,
• from shadowed Fez to wet-and-wild Mosul.)
• I’m sunning myself in the shade of yolks
• that hold their albumen inside their skins,
• that parents feed their dogs for YouTube lulz,
• and babies cry-smile when first they taste them.
• So far I’ve led you on a lumbering chase
• Msr, AsSeen, Arak — where is my place?

(the Silver Egg was hidden in the dirt, under a concrete hippo, under a lemon tree)

Gold Egg

• Six unkind clues will guide
• you briskly to my haunt,
• in shadow where I hide.
• Get hopping – it’s a jaunt!
• You’ll climb among downed-trees
• and wander through spike-leaves…
• Hop quickly so Ethan won’t flaunt!

(the Gold Egg was on top of the light bulb, inside the glass cover of the overhead light fixture, on the porch)

Gold Egg – Clue 1

• I’m surrounded by pot apparatus
• But it’s not a medicinal grow.
• You’ll not have to climb up to the attics
• or wander wader-deep in the snow.
• You’ll just have to walk
• to a gate that unlocks
• and find out where Paul’s clay does go.

Gold Egg – Clue 2

• The next clue is online
• you’ll practically titter
• when you see the next poem
• is posted on Twitter.

Gold Egg – Clue 3 – from Twitter

• Upon a bright flower
• You’ll find my small bower.
• Not on a rosethorn,
• or leaf-ling of corn
• – under cactus and dragon I glower.

Gold Egg – Clue 4

• Under Princess’s butt I was warming
• My contents I hope you’ll find charming
• But because she’s a cat
• And upon me she sat
• My message by now will be warming.

Gold Egg – Clue 5

• You’ve lined up and squarely stood still
• You’ve caught-on and gotten your fill
• and now hear’s the treat:
• an Easter-hunt feat
• You’ll find me outside grey-bird’s sill.

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Images Copyright 2017 by Katy Dickinson

CIC Article: Education for Ministry at Elmwood Jail

It was an honor to be featured in an article by the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy (CIC) called “Education for Ministry at Elmwood Jail”. The article tells the story of how CIC, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, the University of the South – School of Theology’s Education for Ministry program and I have worked together since late 2015 to create a new jail-based college-level theological education program.

We have almost completed two 9-month terms and are getting ready to expand the program into a second Elmwood jail dorm.  If you are interested in volunteering in a Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) jail, please contact the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy (CIC).

11 May 2017 update: Another article was recently published about our Elmwood Jail program in the alumni magazine “From the Mountain” – from the University of the South – School of Theology, Sewanee Tennessee, Spring 2017 edition. The article is called “Inmates Explore Faith, Life Through Education for Ministry” by Kevin Cummings. Links to these articles:

• “Inmates Explore Faith, Life Through Education for Ministry” by Kevin Cummings, Spring 2017, From the Mountain
• “Education for Ministry at Elmwood Jail” CIC Ministries Newsletter, 4 April 2017

Barbara Merrill in Tanzania

Barbara Merrill describes herself in her email signature as a “Certified Ergonomist and A Very Good Friend” – and she is indeed both. Barbara is also a parishioner at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and a person with albinism (PWA).

In these last two capacities, Barbara celebrated her retirement by traveling to Tanzania to help albino children and their families. She worked with a Cerebral Palsy Clinic, visited the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Step by Step school and other schools in Arusha, participated in an Albinism Conference to educate village leaders in Ngorongoro Crater, and visited an Asante Miriamu Foundation clinic and children’s camp in Kigoma and Kabanga.

This month, Barbara gave a report to St. Andrew’s called “Trip to Tanzania” about her 5 November 2016 – 12 December 2016 travels. Some facts she presented about Tanzania:

• 70% of the population is rural
• Capital Dar es Salaam and Dodoma
• 68% below poverty level
• Large percentage of population under 15 years old Generally high birth rate about 5 per woman
• High infant mortality rate – nutrition, early and frequent pregnancies, inadequate maternal health.
• Tourism is about 20% of the Tanzanian Economy

One of the most interesting of her slides for me was called “Myths About Albinism”

• PWAs are ghosts
• Mother slept with a white man
• They don’t die just fade away
• Magical powers
• PWAs are evil
• Albinism a curse or punishment
• PWAs have pink eyes
• Albinism is contagious

Thanks to Barbara for her dedication, teaching, and great heart!

Images Copyright Barbara Merrill 2016

What the Presiding Bishop Said

“You are doing it.  Keep going.” is what Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in Salinas, California, on 7 January 2017. I was a member of the panel that asked questions after his keynote. From my notes, my opening question was:

“The Silicon Valley has a skewed population.  In the high tech world where I work, there are about 25% female, 4% Latino, and 2% Black in the computing professions.  In Elmwood Jail where I lead an Education for Ministry seminar each week, men and women are separate and there are 42% Latino and 29% Black. I feel like I live in two worlds. What can we do to reach out, to bring this divided community together?”

When Bishop Michael answered “You are doing it.  Keep going.”  I heard that the answer lay in outreach ministries like mine – and in telling people about that work. Individuals with a foot on both sides can connect a community.

It is a good but a little scary to have an experimental program succeed so well.  I have been thinking a great deal about what Bishop Michael said – and about what to do next.  The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, CIC, and EfM have strongly backed our jail-based seminar during the last year.  My first step was to talk with the CIC Chaplain for Elmwood, and then with the EfM program at the University of the South – School of Theology, about starting an additional class at Elmwood.  They support expanding the program.  Now to find more funding!

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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson and Elrond Lawrence

 

Presiding Bishop Speaks in Salinas

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was featured at an all-day event at Sherwood Hall in Salinas, California, on Saturday, 7 January 2017. I was on the panel that asked questions after his keynote presentation. I was also on the Tech Team that helped to create the event – with my husband John Plocher and the Rev. Stephenie Cooper.

With the “PB” on the stage was our own Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, and the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers.  On the panel with me were Dave Mora (former Salinas City Manager), and the Rev. Ian Dellinger (Rector of St. Stephen’s, San Luis Obispo).  The moderator was Joe Heston (President & General Manager of KSBW).  A video of the event is in development.  About 650 attended the event.

Thanks to my EfM Co-Mentor Karen Carlson for the photo of me on the stage!

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Images Copyright 2017 by Katy Dickinson and Karen Carlson

Images of God

1.

This is an online version of a handout I created for my weekly Education for Ministry seminar at Elmwood Correctional Facility (County Jail – in Milpitas, California).  The students in EfM Year 1 (the Hebrew Bible) were reading Genesis 1:27 “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Here are twenty varied images of God, dated from 527 – 2014, plus Bible verses describing God, for class discussion.

Here is a Printable Version of this material.  Click on each image to see details!

2.

List of Pictures:

Description	More Information	Image Source
1. Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) – mosaic in the presbytery, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy (527 CE)	Basilica of San Vitale	Basilica of San Vitale – Lamb of God mosaic
2. God in Heaven – mosaic in the apse, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy (527 CE)	Basilica of San Vitale	Vault_mosaic_-_San_Vitale_-_Ravenna_2016
3. Christ Pantocrator – All Powerful – mosaic, chapel of San Zeno, Rome, Italy (822)	Santa Prassede	Mosaic of the vault of the chapel of San Zeno (IX century)
4. God as Architect of the Universe – Frontispiece of Bible Moralisee, Paris, France (1230)	Bible moralisée	God the Geometer
5. God the Father – painting by Giotto, Florence, Italy (1330)	Giotto	God the Father with Angels
6. Ghent Altarpiece (detail) – painting by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium (1432)	Ghent Altarpiece	Retable de l’Agneau mystique (Altarpiece of the Mystical Lamb)
7. The Creation of the Heavenly Bodies (detail) – painting by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy (1512)	Michelangelo	Poster Sistine Chapel: Creation of the universe
8. God the Father – painting by Cima Da Conegliano, Venice, Italy (1517)	Cima da Conegliano	Cima da Conegliano, God the Father
9. God the Father – painting by Ludovico Mazzolino, Ferrara, Italy (1520)	Ludovico Mazzolino	Ludovico_Mazzolino_-_God_the_Father
10. God the Father – painting by Girolamo dai Libri, Verona, Italy (1555)	Girolamo dai Libri	God_the_Father_with_His_Right_Hand_Raised_in_Blessing
11. Picture Bible “Die Bibel in Bildern” (detail) – engraving by Julius Schnorr (1860)	Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld	Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern
12. Holy Lord Sabaoth – Russian Icon (date?)	Russian icons	Holy Lord Saboath
13. Kakure Kirishitan Heaven – scroll painting, Ikitsuki Island, Nagasaki, Japan (date?)	Kakure Kirishitan	The Hidden Christians – Stephen Turnbull
14. God as Mother Hen – Dominus Flevit Church, Jerusalem, Israel (1955)	Dominus Flevit Church	Mosaic_Art_at_Dominus_Flevit
15. God as Dove (Holy Spirit) – stained glass by James Scanlan, Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne, Cork, Ireland (1990)	Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne	Stained Glass at the Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne
16. Father (and Holy Spirit) – stained glass at St. Virgil Church, in Morris Plains, New Jersey USA (contemporary, date?)	St. Virgil Parish	Stained Glass Masquerade
17. George Burns as God, from movies “Oh, God!” (1977), and “Oh, God, Book II” (1980)	Oh, God!	Classics of the Corn
18. Alanis Morissette as God, from movies “Dogma” (1999), and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001)	Dogma (film)	God as Woman
19. Morgan Freeman as God, from movies “Bruce Almighty” (2003), and “Evan Almighty” (2007)	Evan Almighty	Evan Almighty Morgan Freeman as God
20. Ethiopian Orthodox Trinity – painted hide (2014)	Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church	2016 Picture by Katy Dickinson

Pictures of God:

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Pictures of God in the Bible (Selected):

Bear
“I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps” Hosea 13:8

Dove
“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” Matthew 3:16

Eagle
“He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.” Deuteronomy 32:10-11

Hen
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Luke 13:34

Lamb
“This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’”
John 1:28-29

Woman

• “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.” Hosea 11:3-4
• “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” Deuteronomy 32:18
• “For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept myself still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.” Isaiah 42:14
• “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49:15
• “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 66:13
• “As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us.” Psalm 123:2
• “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.” Psalm 131:2

See linked pages for individual image copyrights
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Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in Salinas on January 7

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will be featured at an all-day event at Sherwood Hall in Salinas, California, on Saturday, 7 January 2017. I will be one of three panelists asking him questions after his keynote presentation.  The event is free and you are invited to attend – no registration is required.

El Camino Real Diocese Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves held a phone call this morning to discuss the panel with participants. I am very much looking forward to meeting Bishop Michael again. I met him briefly during lunch at General Convention 2015 and have listened to many of his talks.  Bishop Michael is the 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and is the first African American to serve as PB since its founding in 1789. He is a remarkable and inspiring speaker.

One of the highlights from his keynote at the “Evangelism Matters” conference in November 2016 in Dallas, TX: “God made us for God’s dream.  We were made to be in communion with our God, with each other, and with the world God has made.  That is why we are here…  Evangelism doesn’t have a thing to do with a bigger church.  It has everything to do with a better world…  We Episcopalians are of the Anglican tradition of Christianity.  I want to suggest that Anglicans are not allergic to evangelism.  Episcopalians need not take Excedrin before saying ‘evangelism’…”

Bishop Michael’s most recent book, Songs My Grandma Sang, was published in June 2015; Crazy Christians:  A Call to Follow Jesus was his first book, in August 2013.  He has received honorary degrees from Episcopal Divinity School, The University of the South – Sewanee, Virginia Theological Seminary, and Yale.

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