Good News in the Garden State: March 23, 2018
CHURCH OF ST. RAPHAEL THE ARCHANGEL 40th ANNIVERSARY
BRICK, NJ
From the Bishop
Bishop’s Schedule
Congregational Events (Add events here)
Notices and Classifieds
FROM THE BISHOP:
Dear People of the Diocese of New Jersey,
In their compelling book, The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem[1], renowned biblical scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write of the drama that unfolded on that first Palm Sunday. They describe two processions that enter the city from opposite ends. The first, from the east, was a peasant procession. The other, from the west, an imperial procession. Jesus, riding humbly on a donkey, down from the Mount of Olives was cheered by people, mostly peasants, waving palm branches. Crossan and Borg report that the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, was at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and came in from the west. They sum it up, “Jesus’s procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire.” Crossan and Borg write, “The two processions embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus’ crucifixion.”[2]
A clash of visions – the kingdom of God versus the power of empire. As Christians, and as Americans, we live in the tension of that clash every day. With whose procession and what vision of “kingdom” do we most identify?
Jim Wallis and Sojourners Magazine sponsored a retreat of American Church leaders this past Ash Wednesday. The group included our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. As Wallis describes it, during this retreat, “We prayed. We experienced a deep sense of lament for the political and moral crisis we are in and for the ways it unfolded. We confessed on behalf of the churches and for our own complicity in the situation in which we now find ourselves. And we strongly sensed the need for repentance, realizing that word means much more than guilt and shame, but a “turning around” and moving in a new direction.”[3]
The group also wrote and published a public declaration – Reclaiming Jesus, which they are commending to the churches “for a process of prayer, study, reflection, and action.”
I am grateful for this declaration. As I prepare to leave for Washington, D.C. to join young people from Parkland, Florida and from around the nation to cry out against the senseless violence of our culture and particularly the disease of gun violence, I am profoundly aware of the choice we are being asked to make as Christians. It is a choice of visions – the vision of Jesus and the kingdom of God built on the values of deep love, or the choice of empire and the kingdom of violence and war.
I pray the people of the diocese will read this declaration, use it for prayer and study this Holy Week and beyond. Above all, I pray we will all use it for prayer, repentance and to help us to clarify the procession we feel called to join.
May God bless you in this Holy Week.
Yours in Christ,
The Right Reverend William H. (Chip) Stokes, D.D.
Bishop of New Jersey
[1] Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem – New York: HarperCollins e-Books, 2006,
[2] Borg and Crossan, see p. 1 ff.
[3] Wallis, Jim “Commentary – Reclaiming Jesus: ow Confessing Faith Can respond to a Moral and Constitutional Crisis – on the Sojo Website found at Reclaiming Jesus: How Confessing Faith Can Respond to a Moral and Constitutional Crisis | Sojourners
Bishop’s Schedule Highlights
March 23, 2018:
7:00 p.m. Washington National Cathedral Vigil
Saturday, March 24, 2018:
March For Our Lives – Washington DC
Sunday, March 25, 2018:
10:00 a.m. Visitation: Grace Church, Merchantville
Monday, March 26, 2018:
Bishop’s Sabbath
Tuesday, March 27, 2018:
9:30 a.m. Chrism Mass – Trinity Cathedral
Office appointments
Wednesday, March 28, 2018:
Bishop’s Study Day
Thursday, March 29, 2018:
7:30 p.m. Trinity Cathedral – Celebrant at Maundy Thursday service
Upcoming Diocesan Events
Use the hashtag #MarchwithLEAMNJ to share your stories! Make sure posts you wish to share are public.
Stories will be streamed together at DioceseofNJ.org/MarchwithLEAMNJ.
The buses will leave at 6am on 24th and the locations are:
NEWARK: Episcopal House, 31 Mulberry Street, Newark, NJ
HAMILTON SQUARE: NJ Synod Office, 1930 State Highway 33, Hamilton Square, NJ 08690
MARLTON: Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 61 Route 70 East, Marlton, NJ 08053
MONTCLAIR: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 73 S. Fullerton Ave, Montclair, NJ 07042
For more information, please visit the LEAMNJ website here: https://www.leamnj.org/march-for-our-lives-2018
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Join Trinity Cathedral for its
Annual Cathedral Sunday
All congregations in the Diocese are invited to participate in the Trinity Cathedral’s Cathedral Sunday confirmations on June 3, 2018 at 10:30 am.
Please send names to Patrice D’Angelo at Trinity Cathedral no later than May 25th.
*This will be in place of a separate Spring diocesan-wide confirmation service this year.
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SPRING 2018 BISHOP’S FORUM SCHEDULE
DATE | TIME | CONVOCATION | LOCATION |
Wednesday April 4, 2018 |
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Watchung |
St. Mark’s Basking Ridge
|
Thursday April 5, 2018
|
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay |
Atlantic |
Holy Trinity Ocean City |
Tuesday April 10, 2018 |
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Trenton |
St. Matthew’s Pennington |
Tuesday April 24, 2018 |
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Monmouth |
Christ Church Toms River
|
Thursday April 26, 2018 |
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Northern |
Trinity Church Woodbridge |
Tuesday May 1, 2018 |
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Camden |
Grace Church Merchantville |
Wednesday May 2, 2018
|
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Woodbury |
Christ Church Woodbury |
Wednesday May 9, 2018 |
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – clergy 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. – lay
|
Burlington |
Trinity Church Moorestown |
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Save the Date!
NEW JERSEY COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
Opioids: The Next Step

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PART-TIME ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT POSITION Send a resume to The Rev. J. Connor Haynes by email or mail to 145 West Broad Street, Burlington, NJ 08016. |
SEEKING KEYBOARDIST |
SEEKING INFORMATION
ABOUT ELECTRONIC GIVING St. Francis, Dunellen, is exploring setting up an electronic giving system If your congregation is using such a system, please contact them with the following: Name and contact info of the service you use, fees/costs involved for parish and/or donor, rough percentage of households that use this option, pros and cons, anything else we should know. |
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SEEKING LEVAS II
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Proclaiming Christ in the Garden State
609.394.5281
info@dioceseofnj.org
We are the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement in the Southern 2/3 of New Jersey.