Clergy

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chatham recently completed a three-week series exploring the connection between disability and faith, culminating in a Walk Now for Autism event on Saturday, Oct. 6. More than 40 people from St. Paul’s gathered at Morris Plains’ Central Park to walk together in support of ministry to those families wrestling with the issues of autism. The Rev. Mary Davis, rector of St. Paul’s, noted, “We raised over $2,300 for the cause and became a missional presence in the community.”

When they were written in the 1940s and early 1950s, the postcards and letters that landed in Jutta Sturdevant’s care a few years back told of a kind of helplessness, of people forced from their homes by the Nazi terror.

On Sunday, Oct. 14, at a small white Episcopal church in West Orange, their struggle was remembered, and honored with a commitment to oppose such evil wherever it arises.

Bishop Beckwith is quoted in this article by New Jersey Monthly.

New Jersey clergy representing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths are joining together to lead an interfaith trip to Israel and the West Bank — Roots of Faith — this October.

Leading the trip are The Rt. Rev. Mark Beckwith of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark; Rev. Bob Morris, Executive Director of Interweave; Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz Senior Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Short Hills; and Imam Wahy-ud Deen Shareef of the Waris Cultural Research and Development Center, Convener of the Council of Imams in NJ and a Senior Advisor to Mayor Cory Booker (Newark).

The Reverend Canon Denise G. Haines, in the vanguard of women ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, former Archdeacon of the Diocese of Newark and developer of innovative clinical pastoral care programs died on October 8th in Summit, NJ. She was 73. The cause was cancer, said her daughter, Elizabeth L. Haines. She was a resident of Summit from 1967 to 1986 and then again from 2007 until the time of her death.

On Friday night, September 21, over 30 teenagers from Grace Church in Madison, St. Paul’s Church in Chatham, Grace Church in Newark, and St. Stephen’s Church in Milburn gathered to “keep watch.” The overnight, hosted by the Revs. Tom Murphy, Brent Bates, Megan Sanders and Mary Davis at Grace, Madison, was the first in a series of events planned for District 4 Youth.

In August 2011, flooding from Hurricane Irene put downtown Millburn in the national news – and badly damaged both St. Stephen’s Church and its freshly renovated rectory. On September 9, 2012, St. Stephen’s congregation joined with Bishop Mark Beckwith and Millburn Mayor Sandra Haimoff to celebrate the completion of a year of flood repairs by dedicating the restored rectory, which will be used to house parish offices and various ministries, including The Tinning Center for Diaconal Ministries.