Voice of Jubilee: April Happenings

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TAP invites children to 'Play Fair'

CVEM will soon begin taking applications for this year’s TAP (Thompson-Pound Art Program).
TAP will be held June 23-27 from 8:45 a.m. to noon at the Rankin Arts Center. The program is an interfaith, intercultural art program for children ages six through 11.
We will also be looking for children 12 and above to serve as volunteers.
This year’s theme is “Play Fair.”
“Can we learn to play fair in a world where life is not fair? If we play fair, are we more likely to be respectful of cultural, racial and religious differences? TAP 2014 explores fairness through games, music, role-playing, and the visual arts. Children can discover how to use their creativity to choose to play fair in a world where life is just not fair.”
“Play fair. Don’t hit people. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.” - Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
For more information on TAP, please contact:
Debbie Anderson at 706.660.6932 or DEBA264@aol.com, or
Vicky Partin at 706.327.0400 or cvemvicky@knology.net

No Guns at Episcopal churches in middle, north Georgia

By: Nan Ross
Firearms will not be permitted in buildings or on property of Episcopal churches in middle and north Georgia, Diocese of Atlanta Bishop Bob Writght instructed cleargy and lay leaders in a letter.
“Georgia law permits and enforces this policy, and it shall remain in effect in this diocese,” Wright said in response to Gov. Nathan Deal’s April 24 signing of what is called the Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014. “My judgment and this policy are based on the normative understanding of the teachings of Jesus as the Episcopal Church has received them,” Wright said. “This matter and I hope this policy afford us yet another opportunity to live the words we pray each week.”
The law, which expands broadly where guns may be carried, takes effect July 1. Places of worship may allow the carrying of weapons, but the congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta will not. Illegally bringing a gun into a house of worship will be considered a misdemeanor with a $100 fine. On-duty law enforcement officers will be exept from the restriction.
Wright closed the letter with “In the Name of the Prince of Peace” in his signature. More than 200 Georgia faith leaders spoke against having guns in houses of worship while the Georgia legislature was in session March. Biship Scott Benhase of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia joined Biship Wright in issuing a statement decrying the measure and questioning the logic behind expandning gun-carry locations.

Infusion takes Civil Rights journey

By: Holli Melancon
This year’s Infusion class is centered on the theme Civil Rights, and the students will take a trip May2-4to major Civil Rights sites in Alabama for their service trip.
The students will begin their trip in Montgomery touring the Civil Rights Memorial Center, the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center and Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. They will then travel to Selma and stop on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, made infamous by Bloody Sunday.
On Saturday, Infusion members will spend the day helping build a house in Greensboro with an organization called Hero on Saturday.
They will conclude the trip in Birmingham attending worship service at 16th Street Baptist Church and going on a Tour of the Civil Rights Institute.
“I hope the students can get to know each other better and expand their world view,” said Susie Allison, Infusion leader. “Some of them will be stepping out of their comfort zones in various ways. We are doing some serious work for a deserving woman. We are also visiting some powerful places that are helping us remember the past and work for justice today and for our future. I hope the trip will help them realize what roles they can play in making the world a better place.”
Susie said each Infusion meeting focuses on leadership, social justice and faith, and the trip will further enhance what they have been doing all year.
“It’s a really good way to end a year of learning about these things by being able to apply them and see leadership, social justice, and faith in action,” she said.

All donations given to Easter Meditations this year will go to the Infusion program.

April Direct Service Report

In April, we assisted 36 families with a variety of situations, ranging from dental to Columbus Tech tuition. Each year we provide a $100 sponsorship for several seniors who go monthly to Brown Bag of Columbus. There they receive bags of extra food to tide them over when their meager food stamps run out. This year we sponsor five seniors, and Sandy Cullen sends cards at birthday and major holidays. At Christmas they receive a $10 Target gift card. These ladies never call for other assitance but remember CVEM with thank-you notes.
Thank you for making all this possible!

Assistance Given: $2,654
Donations: $1,427
Families Served: 36

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In Focus: Agnes Shelton is 'Woman of Distinction'

By: Holli Melancon
CVEM Board President and Shedding Our Secrets member Agnes Shelton was honored as one of the Girl Scout’s Women of Distinction this month.
“Agnes represents the goodness in our community. She has taken her profession as a nurse and her everlasting faith into her community to show compassion for good mental and physical health and to include all ages and cultures in her pursuits,” said Vicky Partin, Lay Missioner.
“She not only models this goodness, she convinces the rest of us around her to join in and be glad for the opportunity to serve.”
Agnes is retired from a 40-year nursing career, but she continues to pour her heart and soul into volunteer work.
In addition to her work at CVEM, she is the former president of the Columbus Metro Black Nurses Association, a Golden Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and a volunteer with CASA and the American Heart Association.
In Shedding Our Secrets, she chairs the education committee, and she also chairs the Candlelight Vigil for Domestic Violence Roundtable.
She is also a member of the choir, vestry and lay reader at St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church; a Docent for the Columbus Museum; a member of the Board for the Columbus State University Theatre; a founding member of the Columbus Metro Duplicate Bridge Club and member of the Challengers Bridge Club. Agnes also helps CVEM stick to its committment of being green. You can often find her going through the garbage can to find recyclable materials.
“Agnes’ spirit is compelling and contagious. We want to follow her when we see her goodness and faith at work,” Vicky said.

Dismantling Racism Training

By: Denny Clark
In this year’s CVEM Easter Meditations, a mult-iracial, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious set of authors reflect on the continuing subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) reality of racism in both church and society. This series lays the groundwork for a special CVEM-sponsored event in the Chattahoochee Valley -- Beloved Community: Dismantling Racism Training, to be held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 2100 Hilton Avenue, Columbus, Saturday, June 14, 8:30-4:00. Breakfast and lunch will be provided by CVEM. The cost of the training itself is $20/person.
This event will be conducted by a team from the Commission for Dismantling Racism of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, led by Dr. Catherine Meeks, Chair of the Commission and an Easter Meditations contributor. The training focuses on conversation. Dr. Meeks says, “We are bound by fear – the fear of saying the wrong thing or of being misunderstood, even when we mean well…. This fear is immobilizing and prevents the formation of the beloved community, because that community cannot emerge without conversation.”
The Diocese requires all clergy and its staff to take this training, and highly recommends it for parish lay leaders and staff. Each Episcopal parish in the Chattahoochee Valley has been allotted a limited number of slots for this event. If you are interested in participating, please contact your parish priest. If a parish does not reserve all its allotted spaces by Monday, June 2, those spaces will be made available to people from other parishes.
Thank you for your commitment to forming the Beloved Community, in which each person is valued for one’s own unique identity, gifts, experiences and perspectives.

Golfing for Good

We raised more than $3,500 in this year’s Golfing for Good tournament! This fundraiser goes toward the operations at CVEM, and we are so thankful for our many sponsors, friends, supporters and of course, players, who made our 3rd Golfing for Good a success! Thank you also to Ginia McPhearson, chair of the External Affairs committee, and her team for orchestrating this tournament flawlessly.

Below: Members of a team sponsored by Dr. Peggy Augustine were the Low Gross winners. They took home $100 gift cards for Maple Ridge Golf Course. Kristy Sholtis and Rosanna Borders collect prizes for the rest of their team, who were the Low Net winners.

Tournament Sponsors:
•Chatt Glide Tours
•Agnes Shelton
•Denny Clark & Toni Fisher
•St. Thomas Prayer Group
•St. Thomas Episcopal Church
•West Georgia Orthodontics
•A&J Screen Printers
•St. Matthew’s in the Pines Episcopal Church
•Nicolson, Ray & Turner
•Xpress Printing
•Donna & Alex Gafford
•St. Lydia’s Guild
•Joseph Arnold, DDS, PC
•Hirsh & Partin Law
•B.R.I.D.G.E. of Columbus
•Silver Service, LLC/Emily Rosher
•St. Mary Magdelene Episcopal Church
•Brenda & Willie Dozier
•Valley Wood, Inc.
•Char-Broil
•Peachtree Liquors
•Dinglewood Pharmacy
•Callaway Blue

Bronze Sponsor:
•A&J Screen Printers

Friends:
•Cynthia Walker
•Glenda Bryant
•Pitts Enterprises, Inc.
•Celia Page
•Muffy Schladensky

Awards & Prizes:
•Chatt Glide Tours
•Char-Broil
•Columbus in the Valley Magazine
•Rivertown Toyota
•RKJ & Sons, LLC
•Goo Goo Express Wash
•Callaway Blue
•Dinglewood Pharmacy

St. Thomas and CVEM team up to serve a meal at Circles in Columbus this month. Linda Prince, Alice Gammage, Rev. Grace Burton-Edwards and Vicky Partin are pictured above.

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