Giving Back

an interview with Kim McKee


Kim buys baby blankets at Michael's. She spends six months stitching them and then adding padding and backing. They go to friends, anybody she's aware of whose had a baby.


"It keeps me out of trouble. I enjoy it and it's giving back. I have been given the ability to sit for hours and just sew."






Thanks to an early childhood accident, Kim's right hand doesn't fully function. She has a square plastic frame, which her right hand grips while her left hand stitches.


"I lose myself in the moment of creating and I thank God for giving this ability to give back."


What gifts do you have, and how do you give back?

Thank You Good Sam for Helping CCSA Help Others

by Carole Denton, Director, CCSA (Community Christian Service Agency)

Helping people is something that CCSA has been doing for almost 40 years. The very core of our mission is to reach out and help those who are challenged to help themselves. 

At CCSA’s Joyce Snyder Center in Pacific Beach, as many as 650 individuals (a few homeless families with children too) are helped each month.  They receive emergency food, clothing, hygiene, health education, as well as advocacy and referral to other sources of help. Beyond providing for their immediate need for food and clothing, our hope is that our clients will learn simple measures to maintain the healthiest life possible whether they remain on the streets for the remainder of their life or not. 

Health promotion is so vital among the homeless population here in San Diego. And anyone can tell you that the two most basic ways to ward off illness are good nutrition and proper hygiene. Well, consider the homeless life—moving from place to place and living amongst life’s harshest elements. So, CCSA tries to pack and distribute a healthy portable lunch for its clients as well as keep adequate supplies of hygiene items and clean clothing for our clients since they have limited access to facilities to get cleaned up on a regular basis. 

That’s where CCSA’s ‘Annual Sock Drive for the Homeless” comes into play! Clean socks are a very simple promotion of health to a homeless person. When you think about it-- the homeless walk around on their feet just like we drive around in our cars with four tires.  Their feet get lots of wear and get worn out just like our car tires. We all know what happens when we get a flat tire—we’re stuck. It’s the same for the homeless; broken down feet are an entry way for infection and disease to creep in. It is estimated that more than 50% of homeless people suffer from one or more chronic untreated health problems. Illness of any kind is exacerbated by living on the streets and in shelters so risk of additional infection is one of their biggest enemies.   

Socks bought with funds raised by Good Sammers

CCSA would like to thank the congregation of Good Samaritan for their generous giving to the ‘open plate’ offering on Father’s Day in support of The Joyce Snyder Center and Its ‘Annual Sock & Underwear Drive for the Homeless’. We truly appreciate your generosity and compassion for our neighbors in need! 

CCSA -- Why Be There?

by Jacqui Todd, Photographer


What's a gal to do after 60 minutes of a Saturday morning beach boot camp? 

Filling bags with groceries

Direct her sandy feet toward CCSA (Community Christian Service Agency) to join 25 Good Sam women, men and children, ages 5 years old to 80 plus and ensure over 150 bags are filled for its Meals in a Sack program! 


The assembly lines were formed and generating an extremely efficient workflow rate when I got there, so I gravitated toward the familiar "Bag Engineering" section to ensure adequate packaging was available to support all that dedicated effort. 

We had a couple of specification changes (insert or no insert?) which were quickly implemented and even added a B.E. trainee midstream who immediately adopted our rhythm and animated conversation. 


The result? We were done with all provisions in a little over an hour - surely a CCSA record! 

As any Good Sammer knows, you can't beat that collective feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes from a community service effort. Gratitude for that feeling follows you into your week and into your life, and gives you a true appreciation for everyone's effort to contribute in whatever manner they are able to do. It's an experience that will bring you back.


What fills you with gratitude each week?

What's In A Name?

by Rev. Rebecca Edwards

Many of you have graciously inquired what I would like to be called in my new role at Good Sam, and I appreciate that. In many ways, I am still figuring that out for myself. I have been ordained for just over a month now, and there are many aspects of ordained ministry that continue to surprise and delight me. 

Anglicans believe that there is an ontological shift that occurs in ordination – that the core of one's being is actually transformed in some way. (Of course, I think that there are other sacramental moments in our lives when that happens, like marriage or the birth of a child.) That's all to say that I am discerning my new identity as well, including whether I should take on some sort of "title."

The problem is that there aren't a lot of great options of titles for female clergy. 

Though ordained ministry has been open to women for over 30 years now in The Episcopal Church, we still don't have any type of consensus on what female clergy should be called. Many male clergy still go by "Father," a title that has been part of church tradition for hundreds of years. A surprising number of my younger seminary classmates have decided to go by "Father," usually followed by their first name or a nickname. Others have been assigned this title by their congregations, whether they like it or not.

Some of my seminary friends encouraged me to consider the parallel title of "Mother," arguing that it celebrates the unique gifts women bring to ministry. I respect those points, but I have an instinctive aversion to this title. The title of "Father" originally described male priests who didn't have families of their own, but these days I think clergy with spouses and children are more concerned with keeping good boundaries between professional and personal life, and women are especially sensitive to this. 

When I asked several female clergy friends about their reactions to being called "Mother" at church, the moms in the group all vehemently opposed it, feeling that their children shared them enough with the church as it is without having to share their name as well. There are also many, many connotations that arise with parental titles, and I think some of those associations can be unhelpful to associate with your clergy, even though we are a church family. For example, I am not here to do your laundry or pick up after you.

So "Mother Rebecca" is out. (Please.)

What I really want to go by is my given name, Rebecca. It is the name by which I was baptized, and ordained. Since I come from a family fluent in nicknames it is also for me something of a formal name. Throughout my life I have been called "Reb" by my family and close friends – you will hear Josh call me this – and "Rebecca" in school and official situations (or if I was in really big trouble).

While "Rebecca" is my first choice for being addressed at Good Sam, I appreciate that some of you might still want something that is more official-sounding or that distinguishes me from Rebecca Chase. In that case, "Reverend Rebecca" can work, or you are welcome to adopt a clever title a friend of mine coined: "Revbecca." As long as you remember that I'm not your mom, we will get along just fine!

Now I invite you to ponder the names you have taken on during the course of your own life – your given name, your married name, nicknames, titles. What gifts of identity have these names brought to you?

Benediction

by Rev. Chris Chase

One of my favorite hymns ever is St. Patrick’s breastplate. Now, I know it is long and sometimes when you are in the middle of singing or listening to others sing the hymn it can seem as though Jesus himself will be back before the hymn ends. 

That said, I am drawn to St. Patrick’s hymn because I love the theology contained within, the power of the invitation sung aloud, the celebration of Incarnation that reminds us that God is ever present. Also, the action contained in the hymn is not passive or removed. “I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity.” I tie on, I bond myself, I super glue myself to the Trinity in all that I do today as the Trinity glues Itself to me. 

Out of this Irish prayer, full of celtic vision, imagery and wisdom emerges the benediction that we share with one another at the end of the service. 

This benediction was gifted to me by my friend and colleague and brother Ward Misenheimer who would pronounce this benediction over the students at Tyson House, in Knoxville. It reminded all of us that we never, ever, walk alone but that the God who created all life and breath and every being is the God who surrounds us and journeys with us.

Remember, That wherever we go we never walk alone:

Because, we KNOW that our Lord Jesus Christ is walking in front of us to lead us,

We know that our Lord Jesus Christ is walking behind us to encourage us,

We know that our Lord Jesus Christ is above us to guide us,

Beneath us to support us

We know that our Lord Jesus Christ is beside of us to hold, support and befriend us.

And it is our Lord Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord Jesus Christ who lives within our hearts

  to give us his peace, joy, mercy and love

This day and forever more.

I find this benediction, this celtic wisdom, this prayer of a saint to sustain me in any number of situations during the week as I struggle to journey into the life of a disciple and/or try to see God in any given situation. 

I wonder if it is something anyone else carries with them into their week and into their lives.

How To Keep Up With This Blog

by Leanne Shawler


Since blogging is new to a number of Good Sammers, I thought I’d write this little “cheat sheet” on keeping up with the blog.

1. If you are on Facebook, be sure to “Like” the Good Samaritan Episcopal Church page. When a new blog entry is posted, we automatically send out a notice on Facebook.
2. If you are on Twitter, follow us at @GoodSamSanDiego and ditto, ditto.
3. If you are on our email list, every week you’ll get a summary of the week’s posts and links to read the blog entries.
4. You can follow us by email. In the right hand column at the top there is a “Subscribe” heading. More on that below. Beneath that is “Follow By Email”. When you enter your email address here, each time a blog is posted, it will be emailed to you.
5. Enter your information in the “Subscribe” section. This last is best when you find you’re following more than one blog!

There are two options to subscribe to the Posts RSS feed or to subscribe to the All Comments RSS feed.

What’s an RSS feed? RSS is geek-speak for Real Simple Syndication. You’ve heard of TV shows or newspaper columns getting syndicated: that is shared across various cable channels or newspapers. This is the electronic version thereof.

So you can have something called a RSS Reader that will collate all the blogs you like to read in one place, which you check, like your email to see what’s new.

I use Google Reader which presents the text and pictures without any of the pretty blog formatting. I’m not familiar with the other readers, so if anybody else is please write a blog post about it! We’ll collect them together.

If you’ve used Google Groups, Calendar, email or some of the other features they have (not including their search engine), you probably already have a Google account. Go to http://reader.google.com/ and it will bring you to the login page. There’s also a blue button to create an account. When you’re done creating the account -- make sure to check your privacy settings, by going to the black bar at the top and clicking on the down arrow next to your email address. Remember you probably don’t want people to know your birthday and stuff like that. (See security in the sidebar)

Now you’re ready to subscribe to your first blog. Head back here and click on Posts and choose “Add to Google”. When you go back to Google Reader, you’ll see posts from this blog. You read them just like email: if they are bold they are unread. They get grayed out as you read them. When you refresh, read blog posts disappear, so if you want to read them again make sure to either “star” them or “Mark as unread”. These options and others are at the bottom of each post in Google Reade

To comment on a post when you use Google Reader, you need to click on the title of the post which takes you to the blog. (If you’re stuck on how to comment, read the guide from All Our Voices in the right hand column.) 

That’s probably more than you wanted to know. Any questions?

Daring to Step Out of the Comfort Zone

by Leanne Shawler

Have you ever agreed to do something and then wondered what the heck were you thinking? I have, more than once! 

In particular, I was thinking in late May as I stood behind a microphone, preparing to sing the opening hymn for our praise Sunday worship (which is the 3rd Sunday of the month).

I normally sing in the choir - safety in numbers - and the only previous occasions I've sung into a mike have been as a parody or karaoke. But Gary needed someone to duet with, and despite my various suggestions, I ended up with it, I think because I had a key and security code so we could get in the church to practice and also happened to be a fairly competent singer.

My primary way to worship God is through music and singing. It can be transformational for me, a time when I can really feel the Holy Spirit.

However this is where my perfectionist-self gets in the way. I'm not an excellent singer, or perfect, or, let's be honest, always on pitch.

And I want excellence for my church: that my singing matches the excellent sermons (disclaimer note: I work part-time for Good Sam but I am not being paid to say that about my boss!), incredible prayer, beautiful liturgy.

How on earth can I measure up to that? I told myself, and I prayed aloud in the praise band's pre-service prayer, that being in the band is all about God and not about me.

Even so, I didn't relax until we reached communion. It was so hard to remember that I was singing for God.

And I know I can only do my best, give it everything I've got and ask for a miracle besides. But "fine" and "pretty" and "you did good" for me translates to "not good enough".

But God believes I am good enough. Better than good enough. I know this in my head but it's often hard to translate this to my heart.

God knows I am good enough.

God knows you are good enough. For we are all loved and forgiven.

So I stayed on the fence about staying in the praise band (and singing right into that mike, my voice no longer hidden in the crowd). Do I step out of my "gotta be perfect" comfort zone and continue sharing my imperfect gift from God, or do I hide my light among the masses?


In June, I stepped out of my comfort zone.

What did you do when you found yourself agreeing to something out of your comfort zone? Or did you decline the offer? 

A Thank You from Gillian

Beloved people of Good Samaritan Church, 

Thank you so much for allowing me to begin my ordained ministry among you this past year.  

Gillian presiding early Easter morn

I write this in between packing boxes for my move to Norfolk, Virginia.  Among the most treasured things I am carrying with me to my new ministry as Episcopal chaplain to Old Dominion University are the many tangible and intangible gifts you gave me, more things than I can describe. 

Most obvious was giving me a place at the Good Sam altar and pulpit, allowing me to exercise the liturgical heart of ordained ministry in a fuller way than was possible in my campus ministry position.  And because you are such a flexible, grace-full congregation, I felt comfortable learning on the job, even knowing I'd be making mistakes as well as growing in skill and confidence.  I am particularly thankful I was able to preach regularly.  Chris assured me you were a safe congregation to take risks with, and I grew a lot as a preacher as a result.   I also appreciate being able to teach some adult classes--teaching has always been one of my greatest loves.  

The entire Good Sam staff also treated me as an equal colleague, even though I was very part-time and non-stipendiary.  And the altar guild and acolytes and wardens and other parish leaders guided and supported me.

Thank you for your support of the campus ministry at UCSD.  Your gifts of home-cooked meals, financial support and flexibility with Chris and Braden's time made a real difference in the ministry I was doing on campus.  

At Gillian's ordination (Gillian is far right at the altar)

The way in which you celebrated my ordination to the priesthood with me was amazing, and the most incredible part of that weekend.  Your generosity with material and monetary gifts and also your joy and presence left me humbled, awed, and grateful beyond words.  When I think of my priestly ordination, the Sunday morning celebrations at Good Sam stand out just as much as the actual laying-on-of-hands on Saturday.

You also welcomed me into your homes at holidays and to your tables at various meals and events.  Thank you for making me a true part of the Good Sam family, even though I was only with you a few hours a week.

The considerable synergy that developed between my role as campus missioner, with logistical support from Chris and Good Sam, and my role as clergy assistant at Good Sam, with Chris as mentor into ordained ministry, was something neither Chris nor I anticipated when we first discussed my serving as a deacon at your altar for 2 hours on Sunday mornings last September.  In hindsight it has the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit all over it.   And it is also a large part of what led to my call to be the full-time chaplain at Old Dominion University.  

You are blessed with a rector who has a true gift for mentoring others in ministry. Chris was generous in sharing roles that some clergy guard jealously, and was very intentional in finding ways for me to have the broadest range of ministerial experiences possible.  He became a valued advocate, friend, and pastor as I navigated the challenging world of the clergy job search process.  I go forth now a much more confident priest than I would have without his guidance. By supporting Chris in his ministry as a mentor, Good Sam also blesses the larger Church.

You have loved me, and allowed me to love you.  For all these things, and others that I cannot put into words, you have my deepest gratitude. 

Blessings,

Gillian+