By Brown Burnett –

Just as in Ecclesiastes, St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church in Memphis “cast their bread upon the water and saw it return to them in a number of days.”

“A little more than a year ago, this church had only 15 members, and they were having services in the parlor,” said Rev. TroyAnn Poulopoulos, who pastors the church at 1362 Prescott along with Rev. James Davis. “Now, we have about 85 members.”

One of the vehicles for St. Matthew’s resurgence is its new John Meeks Mission and Service Center, a 40-bed facility located in the church for people who need a place to stay while doing mission work in Memphis.

The center consists of 10 rooms that can house as many as 60 people. There are now 40 new beds, showers, a kitchen and dining rooms, a fellowship hall, meeting rooms, worship space and Wi-Fi access.

The facility was dedicated March 3 to Rev. John Meeks, the church’s former pastor who died in 2011.

“John was so well-loved here, and he always encouraged the congregation to get out and do more for the community,” Poulopoulos said. “He hoped and dreamed the church would one day be engaging in mission and service.”

The story of the Meeks Center exemplifies the resurrection of St. Matthew’s, in a neighborhood with high unemployment and many single-parent families. The St. Matthew’s congregation, which once numbered 1,400, had dwindled to a handful of mostly elderly members.

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By Scott Carroll –

During his Sunday sermon at Whitehaven’s St. Paul Baptist church, Pastor Christopher B. Davis veered from his typical remarks on faith, family and community to share some of the challenges he faced as a former educator.

Davis taught for less than year before devoting himself to Christian ministry, and told St. Paul attendees some anecdotes about unruly students.

The church was among dozens in Shelby County that participated in the 2nd annual Sunday Celebration of Teachers. At a Magnolia First Baptist Church service later Sunday morning, another educator-turned-pastor also shared his experiences from the classroom.

Magnolia Church pastor Aaron K. Letcher, a former instructor at A.B. Hill Elementary School for nine years, said that while dealing with young students was “an amazing experience,” many outside the world of education — including some parents — don’t see the personal touch it takes to mentor a young person.

They also don’t see the stress, he said.

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By Stephen C. Bush –

Q: “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”  

A: “I will, with God’s help.”

If you’re a “cradle” Episcopalian like me, this is the promise your parents made at your baptism.  It’s the one my parents made for me in 1964 in a small parish in Brookhaven, Miss.

It’s a serious commitment to make on behalf of a crying 10-pound infant; one that doesn’t shrink as we grow. In fact, it’s a pledge that weighs more heavily upon me with each passing year.

As the head of the oldest public defense system east of the Mississippi, this call to strive for justice and dignity for all people is life’s work.

That last statement may give some pause. “Doesn’t a public defender try to put criminals back on the street?” some might ask. “What does that have to do with justice? Or with dignity?”

It is a fair question. Yet the answer has everything to do with fairness, equality, dignity, and justice.

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By Douglass Bailey –

The Ku Klux Klan arrived in Downtown Memphis on a Saturday morning in January 1998. They were bound for the Shelby County Courthouse, across Adams Avenue from Calvary Episcopal Church where I was serving as rector.

The Klan had come to Memphis to exercise its constitutional right to assemble and protest. Specifically, to protest the establishment of a national holiday to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the black preacher, prophet and charismatic leader of America’s nonviolent civil rights movement.

The Klan also came to provoke, hate and divide. Calvary Church’s Youth Group made a large banner. We hung it over the Adams Avenue entrance to the church, facing the courthouse. The banner consisted of one very large word and prayer: “PEACE!” Some clergy of Downtown churches invited our colleagues from across the city to join us in a peaceful, nonviolent counter-demonstration to the Klan rally.

Unfortunately, peace and nonviolence did not prevail that day.

A large crowd had assembled in opposition to the KKK. The areas around the courthouse were barricaded. Police were in riot gear. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Like a scene from another decade, the Klan marched up Adams Avenue to a drumbeat. Their white robes were emblazoned with their symbolic burning red crosses. Their white hoods concealed their identities.

Their parade stopped at the courthouse steps. With microphones, they shouted taunting, racist words. One of the Klan’s “exalted dragons” read a perverted version of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from the courthouse steps (you can imagine it). The counterdemonstrators booed and hissed. Our small contingent of clergy locked arms behind the rope barricade.

The Klan was organized. Counterdemonstrators were disorganized. The Klan was there to breed violence. Counterdemonstrators began to show some violence. The Klan’s language became more vitriolic. Counter-demonstrators grew more out of control. The Klan accomplished its mission. Anger overwhelmed reason.

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By Timberly Moore –

As the city remained on edge over a Ku Klux Klan rally Downtown, Jonathan Lyons said another event Saturday showed the world that Memphis is “one of the most soulful and harmonious places on the planet.”

The Heart of Memphis celebration in the Fairgrounds was organized by local groups, the city and various businesses to draw attention to the city’s positives, Lyons said, instead of focusing on something negative that was organized by people coming from “outside our borders.”

“A lot of the people and companies that put on this event are invested in Memphis and think of it as a great place to live, bring new businesses and visit,” said Lyons, public relations manager for the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Food, music and fellowship drew more than 1,500 people to Tiger Lane to enjoy the event, which also was sponsored by the Greater Memphis Chamber, YWCA, Memphis Music Foundation, Memphis Grizzlies and others.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Jr., who hosted an Easter Egg Roll for the children, said the numbers don’t lie.

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For a moment, Cavalry Episcopal Church rector Chris Girata entertained the idea of staying indoors.

It was foggy, cold and rainy outside the Second Avenue church Downtown — not ideal conditions for its 34th annual Palm Sunday prayer march to City Hall Plaza.

“What would Jesus do?” longtime church member Nino Shipp playfully asked Girata.

“He would march,” Girata said before offering a prayer and leading his congregants out the door, his robe whipping in the breeze.

About 150 people joined Girata and the leaders of seven other Memphis churches in the Sunday procession, in which participants prayed for local political leaders, school workers and the city itself. While episcopal acolytes walked west on Adams Avenue with crosses held above their heads, others toted umbrellas and palm leaves.

A donkey was used several years ago in the procession, but “that didn’t work out so well,” according to Shipp, whom Girata called a pillar of Calvary Episcopal.

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By Katie Bauman –

“Why is this night different from all other nights?”

That is the first of The Four Questions that initiate the ritual of storytelling during a Passover Seder. Traditionally the youngest child at the Seder presents these questions, a rite of passage almost as well known among Jews as a Bar Mitzvah.  These four questions are essential; the story of the Israelites’ journey out of slavery in Egypt must begin with them.

The lesser-known aspect of this tradition is that every Seder ritual – eating particular foods, dipping vegetables in salt water, reclining at the table – is intended to pique the child’s curiosity and encourage questions.

Asking questions about what lies before you indicates an awareness that it doesn’t have to be that way. Therefore, it is a sincere Jewish belief that lifelong questioning is a celebration of the ability to see the world for its possibilities.

Another highlight of Seder also involves children and questions. During the storytelling, Seder participants read about how to answer different types of questions from different types of children.
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Some people give up for Lent. Suzanne Henley gives.

Every year for almost a decade, as part as what she calls her Lenten “discipline,” Henley — a fused-glass artist — has made gifts for the speakers at the Lenten Preaching Series at Calvary Episcopal Church.

Small gifts from her heart and soul. Big messages for other hearts and souls.

One year, she made 8-inch crosses of fused glass, gold and beads. Another year, she made interfaith mezuzahs of fused glass and gold, stuffed with rolled papers bearing poems, scriptures and quotes. Another gift was a hemp pouch filled with five smooth river stones of different sizes and a card that read, “Discerning God’s call to you, arrange and rearrange the stones from time to time, then stack and place them where they can serve as a cairn to mark your new path.”

A key-ring pendant of fused glass and gold crosses (one with the Hebrew Chai, one with the Islamic crescent moon and star) and a card thanked the speakers for being among “a diverse lineage of those committed to being keepers of the Kingdom.” Fused-glass night lights carried a card that read, “Let your light so shine!”

This year, despite getting married last May to former newspaperman and industrial Realtor Jim Cole and spending eight months renovating their home in Midtown, Henley produced

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Every major community of faith in the world has a tradition of healing ministry.

In America, churches and synagogues created hospitals and cared for the sick and the dying long before the government created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. In Memphis in particular, churches founded Baptist, Methodist, St. Joseph and St. Francis hospitals. The Med was founded by the Episcopal Church.

In today’s world, the confusion that emanates from Washington dominates healthcare funding decisions. But when it comes to healthcare innovation, the faith community is stirring up a renaissance of their role in the link between body and spirit.

It should be no surprise that Memphis is at the heart of these innovative enterprises. Our church-owned and church-related hospitals along with Christ Community Health Services and the Church Health Center have all garnered national and international attention for their work.

On April 4–7, faith-based healthcare leaders from around the country and the world are coming to Memphis to attend our first-ever Church Health Conference. We will celebrate our accomplishments but, more important, we will plan for the future.

Everyone agrees that funding for healthcare in the days to come will focus on keeping people out of the hospital and in their communities. We will spend less on sick care and more on wellness. We will hear less about subspecialties and more about living well. The financial pressures to change come at a time when our shared mission, the role of the faith community in health and healthcare, is poised to grow significantly.

Andrew Young, civil and human rights leader and former United Nations ambassador, will present our keynote address, 45 years and one day from when he was at the Lorraine Motel with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., when he was shot. Although Young has led a distinguished career as a politician, he is quick to point out that on that day in Memphis and in his heart, he was and is a minister. His keynote address will be about healing wounds and seeking health in an often unhealthy world.

The depth and breadth of the conference speaks to Memphis’ potential as leaders in the faith-and-health movement. Faith community nurses who work in churches, synagogues and mosques will come from all over the world because the International Parish Nurse Resource Center is now a part of the Church Health Center.

Faith-based clinics modeled after the Church Health Center will gather to discuss new clinics opening all over the country. William Cope Moyers from Hazelden, a pioneer organization in alcohol and addiction treatment, will discuss recovery ministries such as “The Way” led by John Kilzer here in Memphis.

Memphis is a powerful force today, and we will be even more so in the future of the faith-and-health movement. It’s not just Graceland that people will come to see, although we will proudly show it to them. It is the miracle of health and healing that occurs here everyday that has gotten the nation’s attention.

Dr. Scott Morris is the founder and executive director of the Church Health Center and associate minister at St. John’s United Methodist Church. For more information about the Church Health Center, call 901-272-7170 or visit churchhealthcenter.org.

At every Passover Seder this question is asked: Why is this night different from all other nights?

One of the four answers is: “On all other nights we eat bread or matzah, while on this night we eat only matzah.”

Matzah, a cracker-like flat bread, is eaten every year at Passover in remembrance of the Israelites’ hasty exit from Egypt and slavery. Because they had no time to wait for yeast to rise, they baked it into flat pieces.

During the weeklong holiday also known as the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, Jews around the world celebrate freedom by refraining from eating regular breads and other baked goods made with traditional flours and leavening agents such as yeast, baking powder or baking soda.

But those restrictions don’t keep them from finding ways to indulge in the sweet treats and desserts that seem to make doing without bread more palatable.

Matzah, it turns out, is extremely versatile as an ingredient. When it is finely ground into a powder called cake meal, it can be substituted for flour in numerous recipes.

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