Graduations

GTU Commencement 7 May 2022

Spring is graduation season and this year, I joyfully walked the stage in-person for my Graduate Theological Union – Master’s – Theology degree, as well as graduating three of my own student-mentees from the University of the South – School of Theology – Education for Ministry (EfM) extension program.

My GTU – MA and Master’s hood were officially presented online last year* but GTU offered the 2020 and 2021 pandemic-years graduates an opportunity to walk in-person this year. I was hooded by Associate Dean of Students, Dr. Wendy Arce in a ceremony at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. I was also awarded the Interreligious Chaplaincy Certificate, as only the second person to complete the new GTU – ICP program. Part of ICP is completing a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which for me meant working part-time as a Chaplain Intern for five months at Stanford Hospital during a pandemic surge. Several of us from Stanford Hospital – Spiritual Care Services graduated from GTU together this year. I was happy that my family which lovingly supported me during my long educational journey was present for my graduation.

Co-Mentor Karen LeBlanc, with whom I have led EfM seminars together for over twelve years, celebrated with me the graduations of Joel Martinez (graduated 2020, diploma presented 2022) and Beth Hopf at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, CA), and Mark LeBlanc (Karen’s husband) at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church (Cupertino, CA). Joel, Beth, and Mark faithfully completed four years of EfM study and theological reflection on the Bible, church history, theology, and ethics.

*Read my thesis here: “Range of Chaplain Engagement with Prisoners”

Katy Dickinson GTU – Master’s diploma 2021, tassel 2022

GTU Commencement 7 May 2022

GTU Commencement 7 May 2022

GTU Commencement 7 May 2022

GTU Commencement 7 May 2022

GTU Commencement 7 May 2022

Education for Ministry graduation, 12 June 2022

Education for Ministry graduation, 12 June 2022

Education for Ministry graduation, 26 June 2022

Education for Ministry graduation, 26 June 2022

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2022 by Katy Dickinson, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and Paul D. Goodman.

Jail Ministry News

Stepping Stones ministry first anniversary, 27 Oct 2019

A national Episcopal Church news story on our jail ministry in the Diocese of El Camino Real was published yesterday, “El Camino Real Episcopalians Continue Jail and Reentry Ministries Despite Pandemic,” by Sharon Sheridan. There have been other news stories about Stepping Stones and our jail ministries, but this is the first national news. Congratulations to the Rev. Peggy Bryan and team for a remarkable contribution to a community that is too often ignored! Even my work in jail with Education for Ministry got a mention.

Update: Another news story was published yesterday by the Diocese of El Camino Real in their newsletter: “$25 UTO Grant Awarded to Stepping Stones Reentry Ministry,” RealEpiscopal – News from El Camino Real, 15 October 2020.

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Help with Zoom

EfM at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, California

Education for Ministry is holding an online training this week for its mentors, trainers, and other seminar leaders, many of whom are starting their annual terms this month. We have over 165 already signed up!

Cynthia C. Hargis, Diocesan Relations and EfM Online Coordinator, University of the South – School of Theology – Education for Ministry, asked Cheri Winter (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of Colorado), and me (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of El Camino Real) to give this session on how to use Zoom for EfM seminars. Our training materials are linked here, both for those who will attend the session and for others who may find them helpful:

• Zoom Technical Tips: EfM Zoom Tips 14 Sep 2020 (by Katy Dickinson)
• Creating an Online Environment of Hospitality: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors 09 2020 (by Cheri Winter)
• EfM Event Evaluation form: PDF format – Zoom Practices for EfM Evaluation, Doc Format – Zoom Practices for EfM Evaluation (by Cindy Hargis)

We welcome any additional suggestions you may offer. Here are questions and answers from the live chat during the event – the start to an FAQ: Questions from Zoom Practices for EfM, 18 Sep 2020

The recording of the event is on Zoom Practices for EfM 9-18-20. All of the material from the event is also linked to EfM – Resources for Mentors – Webinar: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors.

To learn more about EfM, watch this two minute video: https://vimeo.com/450619912

We opened with this prayer, by the Rev. Aaron Klinefelter of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church (Cupertino, California):

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2019-2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Updated 24 Sep 2020

Process for Online Video Services

Since 2014, my husband John Plocher has been running the Video Ministry for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, CA. What started out needing a few hours a week using spare equipment has grown vastly since the Covid-19 pandemic took over our lives this year. John now routinely spends 12 or more hours a week creating and editing videos of music and worship services using sophisticated software and hardware. (Some of which were paid for by a 2018 St. Andrew’s Opportunity Fund grant.) John has been mentoring Youth Group members for over a year to develop their technical skills and extend the Video Ministry. In the hope that recruiting and training even more helpers will reduce his own load, John has written these process documents.

Online Worship Services and Music

• An Overview
• The Structure behind our Online Ministry
• Online Service Recording Process
• Postlude Slideshow Guide
• Virtual Music Recording Guide

John has developed a chat and video best practices exchange group – contact me if you want to join. He publishes stand-alone videos of the classical and folk service music on  Saint Andrew’s Sings. Go there to hear “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” the “Navy Hymn,” a folk Taizé “Jesus Remember Me,” “Rest in the Lord,” “Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise,” “We’ll Meet Again,” and other favorites. Or, hear the music as part of the weekly worship service videos. (More in my blog post New Music for Quarantine Times.)

I have been helping John by reviewing videos during development, finding memes for the end, and providing photos for preludes and postludes:

• Trinity – Images of God (7 June 2020 Prelude, 3 minutes) – based on my 2017 “Images of God” Katysblog post for EfM
• Stations of the Cross, Harare, Zimbabwe (14 June 2020 Prelude, 5 minutes) – with pictures I took during the TechWomen Zimbabwe Delegation, 2016
• Tocatta on Amazing Grace, Photos from Lalibela, Ethiopia (14 June 2020 Postlude, 4 minutes) – with pictures I took in Lalibela, Ethiopia, 2014

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Images Copyright 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Congratulations on EfM Graduation, Joel Martinez!

EfM Class Meeting Online, April 2020

Since we could not honor Joel Martinez in-person while under COVID-19 quarantine, we celebrated online. Congratulations to Joel Martinez for his graduation after four years of study from Education for Ministry – so proud of him! In addition to taking the regular EfM program, Joel was my Co-Mentor for three years at Elmwood Jail. To do this work, he became an accredited EfM Mentor and volunteer for the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy. Joel took Year-1 at our home church (with me and my Co-Mentor, Karen LeBlanc), Year-2 and Year-3 in jail while serving as a volunteer chaplain with me as his Mentor, and Year-4 back at our home church (with Karen and me as Mentors).

2017 Elmwood Jail: Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, Rev. Peggy Bryan, Joel and Katy

As his EfM Administrative Mentor, I would usually make this presentation in front of the whole congregation of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church but thanks to technology and my geek husband, John Plocher, we were able to celebrate together in a video segment during the regular weekly service. John even created this stand-alone video.

Contact me if you want to learn more about the EfM class that starts in September. More about EfM in the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. Our 2019-2020 EfM class held its closing session last night but we are taking signups for the seminar that starts in September 2020. We will meet in person or online as appropriate. More about EfM:

Education for Ministry (EfM) is a program of the University of the South – School of Theology, a unique four-year distance learning certificate program in theological education based upon small-group study and practice. Since its founding in 1975, this international program has assisted more than 100,000 participants in discovering and nurturing their call to Christian service. EfM helps the faithful encounter the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition and bring it into conversation with their experiences of the world as they study, worship, and engage in theological reflection together.

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Images Copyright 2017 – 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Moving Online with EfM

The weekly Education for Ministry (EfM) seminar I mentor with Karen LeBlanc shifted last month from in-person to online because of the coronavirus pandemic quarantine here in the Silicon Valley. I have been an accredited EfM mentor since 2011 and very much look forward to our weekly discussions and theological reflections. We usually meet at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga. This year, our class has two students in Year 1 (Hebrew Bible), two in Year 2 (New Testament), and one in Year 4 (Theology and Ethics). No one signed up to study Year 3 (Church History) this term. About EfM:

Education for Ministry (EfM) is a unique four-year distance learning certificate program in theological education based upon small-group study and practice. EfM is designed to prepare lay persons to live out by word and deed the promises made at baptism: to love God, to serve Christ, and to proclaim the Gospel. It is administered by The School of Theology Programs Center of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. More about EfM

Our annual movie night was yesterday, watching the remarkable film, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” It took some preparation but here was the process we used:

• Make sure you have both Skype and Netflix working
• Bring your own movie snacks!
• Join the Skype call about 6:25 pm to be sure all is well
• Have two devices available – one for Skype and the other for Netflix – logged in and plugged in
• At about 6:30 pm, we will talk by Skype and then go on mute
• Once everyone but me is on mute, I will count down so we start watching the film together on our second devices
• Stay on mute but keep your Skype chat open so we can comment about the movie
• After about an hour, I will announce on the chat that we will have a ten minute break and brief discussion
• After the break, we will resume watching the movie
• Discussion again after the movie

Other than at-home technical challenges – and remembering to stay on mute when watching (and to go off mute when talking) – movie night went well. Next week, we study the material for Week 31 of the 36 week curriculum:

Year 1:

• Proverbs – Bible
• Job – Bible
• Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) – Bible
• The Hebrew Bible – by John J. Collins, chapter 24 – Proverbs
• Collins chapter 25 – Job and Qoheleth

Year 2:

• James – Bible
• The New Testament – by Mark Allan Powell, chapter 25 – James

Year 4:

• My Neighbor’s Faith – by Peace, Rose, Mobley,  Foreword, Introduction, Chapter 1 – Encountering the Neighbor

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Images Copyright 2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Christmas 2019

May this blessed Christmas season bring you and your family joy! It has been a busy Christmas, starting even before I turned in my last (16 and 18 page) term papers at the Graduate Theological Union. So far, our adventures have included:

• Reading Charles Dickens‘ “A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas” aloud with my Shakespeare Reading Group
• Hosting the Silicon Valley Lines and John‘s train club lunch group’s annual holiday party
• Dinner with my Education for Ministry class, after the Bethlehem pageant at Santa Clara First Baptist Church
• Lunch with the Interfaith Speakers of the Islamic Networks Group
• Shopping in Chinatown, San Francisco, with Sally Hambridge and Paul
• Receiving my certificate of appreciation from the US State Department for being a TechWomen 2019 mentor for Team Algeria (my 10th year as a citizen diplomat with TechWomen!)
• Dickens Christmas Fair day of music, high tea, and shopping with Jessica and Paul (including buying an amazing Christmas candle)
• Seeing the new Star Wars movie with John, Matthew, Jessica, and Paul
• Cheering on Paul for finishing the many Christmas orders for his reclaimed hardwood cutting boards
• Sitting with John and his teen video crew recording the Christmas Eve service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
• Bringing services to two Elmwood jail dorms with John on Christmas Day (on behalf of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy)
• Enjoying family, food, and gifts with John, Jessica, Matthew, and Paul at home on Christmas Day!

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Images Copyright 2019 by Katy Dickinson.