August 7, 2011
Those of us who serve and care for the men and women of the Armed Services have heavy hearts today as we mourn the loss of 30 U.S and NATO special operations service members who died in an aircraft crash yesterday in Afghanistan. The words of the Psalmist in the Old Testament speak for us: "Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also." (Psalm 31.9) Please join me in prayer for the their souls, for their families and for those who served with them.
+Jay
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Former Army Chaplain Devoted to Helping Vets
[This article appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune. Bishop Magness was interviewed for the article.]
Nobody was as ardent a champion of veterans as the Rev. William Mahedy Jr. An Army chaplain in Vietnam from 1970 to 1973, he knew intimately how war could haunt its survivors, and he forged a career serving them.
“I still carry something in my soul that is unresolved,” he said during a 1991 interview with the San Diego Union.
Rev. Mahedy wrote extensively on peace in the nuclear age and co-authored the program that led to the establishment of Vet Centers nationwide. He also helped found the predecessor of Veterans Village of San Diego.
Rev. Mahedy died of cancer July 20 at the VA San Diego Medical Center in La Jolla. The Clairemont resident was 75.
As a VA benefits counselor in Los Angeles in 1977, he teamed with another counselor, Shad Meshad, to design the Vietnam Veterans Outreach Program. It provided the blueprint for the storefront Vet Centers that offered counseling and readjustment services.
“Bill was called the ‘High Priest,’ and I was the ‘Street Priest,’ ” Meshad said of their odd-couple partnership when they introduced their program to officials in Washington, D.C. “Bill was fluent and elegant and looked like VA in his polyester suit. I looked horrific with this Afro and beard and my street talk.”
Rev. Mahedy worked a year at the Vet Center in Van Nuys before coming to San Diego as team leader. He left two years later to create a uniquely local vets group.
“We started a rap group (at the Vet Center), and out of that he challenged us to start the Vietnam Veterans of San Diego, now Veterans Village of San Diego,” said Jack Lyon, co-founder of VVSD. “He said, ‘Why don’t you do something purposeful with your energy and your rage?’ ”
Rev. Mahedy was a guiding force for numerous VVSD programs, including job placement, drug and alcohol recovery, getting homeless vets off the streets and, in 1988, Stand Down.
“What he gave us kindled a little flicker of hope in us when we felt hopeless,” Lyon said. “He gave us confidence, and he loved us when we really didn’t know how to do that so well.”
William Peter Mahedy Jr. was born June 30, 1936, in San Diego, the oldest of four to William Mahedy Sr. and Loretta Engler Mahedy. He attended St. Augustine High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Villanova University in 1959. In the 1960s and 1970s, he obtained three master’s degrees: in marriage, family and child counseling from Chapman University; in philosophy from Villanova; and in religious education from Augustinian College.
Ordained a Catholic priest in 1963, Rev. Mahedy left the priesthood to marry and became an Episcopal priest in 1976. In the ’80s and ’90s, he served as a priest and campus minister at UCSD and SDSU, and worked as a VVSD therapist, a VA Medical Center chaplain, and a member of the medical center’s PTSD Clinical Team.
Rev. Mahedy is survived by his wife, the former Carol Rice of Clairemont; sister Mary Shier of San Diego; brothers Thomas of Des Moines, Iowa, and John of Portland, Ore.; son Michael of Tracy; daughter Marie Lockton of San Diego; and three grandchildren.
A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. today at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Rev. Mahedy’s memory to St. David’s Episcopal Church, 5050 Milton St., San Diego, CA 92110.
caroline.dipping@uniontrib.com (619) 293-2823
Written by
Caroline Dipping /h5>
Nobody was as ardent a champion of veterans as the Rev. William Mahedy Jr. An Army chaplain in Vietnam from 1970 to 1973, he knew intimately how war could haunt its survivors, and he forged a career serving them.
“I still carry something in my soul that is unresolved,” he said during a 1991 interview with the San Diego Union.
Rev. Mahedy wrote extensively on peace in the nuclear age and co-authored the program that led to the establishment of Vet Centers nationwide. He also helped found the predecessor of Veterans Village of San Diego.
Rev. Mahedy died of cancer July 20 at the VA San Diego Medical Center in La Jolla. The Clairemont resident was 75.
As a VA benefits counselor in Los Angeles in 1977, he teamed with another counselor, Shad Meshad, to design the Vietnam Veterans Outreach Program. It provided the blueprint for the storefront Vet Centers that offered counseling and readjustment services.
“Bill was called the ‘High Priest,’ and I was the ‘Street Priest,’ ” Meshad said of their odd-couple partnership when they introduced their program to officials in Washington, D.C. “Bill was fluent and elegant and looked like VA in his polyester suit. I looked horrific with this Afro and beard and my street talk.”
Rev. Mahedy worked a year at the Vet Center in Van Nuys before coming to San Diego as team leader. He left two years later to create a uniquely local vets group.
“We started a rap group (at the Vet Center), and out of that he challenged us to start the Vietnam Veterans of San Diego, now Veterans Village of San Diego,” said Jack Lyon, co-founder of VVSD. “He said, ‘Why don’t you do something purposeful with your energy and your rage?’ ”
Rev. Mahedy was a guiding force for numerous VVSD programs, including job placement, drug and alcohol recovery, getting homeless vets off the streets and, in 1988, Stand Down.
“What he gave us kindled a little flicker of hope in us when we felt hopeless,” Lyon said. “He gave us confidence, and he loved us when we really didn’t know how to do that so well.”
William Peter Mahedy Jr. was born June 30, 1936, in San Diego, the oldest of four to William Mahedy Sr. and Loretta Engler Mahedy. He attended St. Augustine High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Villanova University in 1959. In the 1960s and 1970s, he obtained three master’s degrees: in marriage, family and child counseling from Chapman University; in philosophy from Villanova; and in religious education from Augustinian College.
Ordained a Catholic priest in 1963, Rev. Mahedy left the priesthood to marry and became an Episcopal priest in 1976. In the ’80s and ’90s, he served as a priest and campus minister at UCSD and SDSU, and worked as a VVSD therapist, a VA Medical Center chaplain, and a member of the medical center’s PTSD Clinical Team.
Rev. Mahedy is survived by his wife, the former Carol Rice of Clairemont; sister Mary Shier of San Diego; brothers Thomas of Des Moines, Iowa, and John of Portland, Ore.; son Michael of Tracy; daughter Marie Lockton of San Diego; and three grandchildren.
A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. today at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Rev. Mahedy’s memory to St. David’s Episcopal Church, 5050 Milton St., San Diego, CA 92110.
caroline.dipping@uniontrib.com (619) 293-2823
Written by
Caroline Dipping /h5>
Monday, July 25, 2011
Rector Position Available in Northern Virginia
Dear Friends,
Our beloved rector, The Rev. Scott Dillard, will retire this May after 18 years of service at Wicomico Parish Church. We are grateful to him for our joyful worship services, for helping us find Christian purpose in our lives, for parish stability and growth, and for our prayerful awareness of who we are and where we are headed.
As such, we will be seeking a new rector. Most importantly, we want a spiritual leader who is able to preach and make scripture relevant to our daily lives. We have little interest in evangelism or church politics, are traditional in many ways, and respect the variety of understandings and interpretations that exist among us. We are most comfortable with an informal style and an outgoing, communicative and self-confident manner, and we also appreciate a sense of humor.
We recognize the need for a pastor to counsel and guide us in times of spiritual and personal crisis. More specifically, we seek one who is comfortable dealing with the fears and uncertainties of the aging and elderly while appreciating their wealth of experience and depth of understanding regarding life’s joys and sorrows.
Wicomico Parish Church is a small country church founded in 1645, and located in the Northern Neck of Virginia. We enjoy almost 200 miles of waterfront, open fields, forests, and small towns as well as many social and cultural activities and facilities. Those who live here embrace our rural setting and slower pace of life.
The members of our church number approximately 200, the majority of whom are married, retired, well educated, active, over 60 years of age and from diverse backgrounds. We are known for our warmth and friendliness as well as our commitment to outreach. There is nothing stuffy about us.
Sunday worship services are held at 8 AM and 10 AM, and the average attendance at both is around 50 parishioners. The early service is briefer and more informal than the later one. Each service involves lay volunteers who read the scripture, lead the prayers and serve as chalice bearers. The 10 AM service also includes our choir, acolytes and ushers.
Parishioners at Wicomico Parish Church feel a strong sense of community, both in our parish life and in our efforts to care for those beyond our walls. Volunteers are willingly involved in many efforts and events throughout the year for both fellowship and to support outreach projects.
Our church building is the kind found on postcards, with a parish hall connected by a breezeway, a thrift shop, a cemetery and a columbarium. Our rectory, “Wicomico House,” is over 150 years old but has been recently renovated.
Please visit www.wicomicoparishchurch.com and contact us at any time.
Point of contact is Marshall Waterman, Chairperson of our Search Committee whose email is:
marshallwaterman@gmail.com
Our beloved rector, The Rev. Scott Dillard, will retire this May after 18 years of service at Wicomico Parish Church. We are grateful to him for our joyful worship services, for helping us find Christian purpose in our lives, for parish stability and growth, and for our prayerful awareness of who we are and where we are headed.
As such, we will be seeking a new rector. Most importantly, we want a spiritual leader who is able to preach and make scripture relevant to our daily lives. We have little interest in evangelism or church politics, are traditional in many ways, and respect the variety of understandings and interpretations that exist among us. We are most comfortable with an informal style and an outgoing, communicative and self-confident manner, and we also appreciate a sense of humor.
We recognize the need for a pastor to counsel and guide us in times of spiritual and personal crisis. More specifically, we seek one who is comfortable dealing with the fears and uncertainties of the aging and elderly while appreciating their wealth of experience and depth of understanding regarding life’s joys and sorrows.
Wicomico Parish Church is a small country church founded in 1645, and located in the Northern Neck of Virginia. We enjoy almost 200 miles of waterfront, open fields, forests, and small towns as well as many social and cultural activities and facilities. Those who live here embrace our rural setting and slower pace of life.
The members of our church number approximately 200, the majority of whom are married, retired, well educated, active, over 60 years of age and from diverse backgrounds. We are known for our warmth and friendliness as well as our commitment to outreach. There is nothing stuffy about us.
Sunday worship services are held at 8 AM and 10 AM, and the average attendance at both is around 50 parishioners. The early service is briefer and more informal than the later one. Each service involves lay volunteers who read the scripture, lead the prayers and serve as chalice bearers. The 10 AM service also includes our choir, acolytes and ushers.
Parishioners at Wicomico Parish Church feel a strong sense of community, both in our parish life and in our efforts to care for those beyond our walls. Volunteers are willingly involved in many efforts and events throughout the year for both fellowship and to support outreach projects.
Our church building is the kind found on postcards, with a parish hall connected by a breezeway, a thrift shop, a cemetery and a columbarium. Our rectory, “Wicomico House,” is over 150 years old but has been recently renovated.
Please visit www.wicomicoparishchurch.com and contact us at any time.
Point of contact is Marshall Waterman, Chairperson of our Search Committee whose email is:
marshallwaterman@gmail.com
Funeral for Bill Mahedy
The funeral for Bill Mahedy will be July 30th at 10AM at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in La Jolla. The address is:
4321 Eastgate Mall
San Diego, CA 92121-2102
There will be a reception at the church immediately after. Internment will be at the National Cemetery at a later time.
4321 Eastgate Mall
San Diego, CA 92121-2102
There will be a reception at the church immediately after. Internment will be at the National Cemetery at a later time.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Death of the Reverend Bill Mahedy
I write with a combination of human sadness and resurrection joy to inform you that the Reverend Bill Mahedy, who for many years was a member of this episcopacy, has died. After a long and ultimately debilitating illness, Bill died yesterday, July 20th, at the V.A Medical Center in San Diego. Plans for scheduling The Burial Rite are still pending.
I last spoke with Bill on the afternoon before he died. As I told his son Mike, in our final conversation Bill continued to be lucid and took solace in the opportunities he had to care for "vets." It is no small coincidence that roughly at the time of his dying, within the community of faith that meets for the weekly Eucharist in the Chapel of the Pentagon, we prayed for Bill.
Bill was a friend and mentor to many of us, me included. During the almost 20 years I knew him, I found Bill to be the type of man whom you could immediately identify as a person of quiet and immense significance. I consider Bill to have been the “dean” of wisdom on the subject of the spiritual components of post traumatic stress in military veterans. During his nearly two decades as a Roman Catholic priest he was an Army chaplain for three years, one year of which was spent in Vietnam. For some time Bill had been developing a sense of affection and appreciation for veterans, and his Vietnam chaplaincy experience served to heighten and sharpen that sense. It was during the 1970s that Bill married Carol and also became an Episcopal priest. Simultaneously, Bill went to work for the VA and was instrumental in the establishment of the Vietnam Vet Centers that for years were the storefront connections with wounded warriors from the Vietnam War.
Right up to the time of his death Bill continued to be engaged and was current enough on the subject of the care of combat veterans to be asked by Navy leaders to work in their wounded warrior program. The author of several books, I consider his 1986 volume, Out of the Night: The Spiritual Journey of Vietnam Veterans, to be his seminal work. I approached this book with a “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” mentality. As a fellow Vietnam veteran. I am keenly aware that those who want to provide effective spiritual care for wounded warriors are well advised to understand what Bill teaches readers of this book.
Please join me in offering prayers the repose of Bill’s soul, and for his wife, Carol and family.
Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Bill Mahedy. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of our own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. AMEN (Commendation prayer of Burial Rite II, The Book of Common Prayer: BCP, p. 499).
+Jay
I last spoke with Bill on the afternoon before he died. As I told his son Mike, in our final conversation Bill continued to be lucid and took solace in the opportunities he had to care for "vets." It is no small coincidence that roughly at the time of his dying, within the community of faith that meets for the weekly Eucharist in the Chapel of the Pentagon, we prayed for Bill.
Bill was a friend and mentor to many of us, me included. During the almost 20 years I knew him, I found Bill to be the type of man whom you could immediately identify as a person of quiet and immense significance. I consider Bill to have been the “dean” of wisdom on the subject of the spiritual components of post traumatic stress in military veterans. During his nearly two decades as a Roman Catholic priest he was an Army chaplain for three years, one year of which was spent in Vietnam. For some time Bill had been developing a sense of affection and appreciation for veterans, and his Vietnam chaplaincy experience served to heighten and sharpen that sense. It was during the 1970s that Bill married Carol and also became an Episcopal priest. Simultaneously, Bill went to work for the VA and was instrumental in the establishment of the Vietnam Vet Centers that for years were the storefront connections with wounded warriors from the Vietnam War.
Right up to the time of his death Bill continued to be engaged and was current enough on the subject of the care of combat veterans to be asked by Navy leaders to work in their wounded warrior program. The author of several books, I consider his 1986 volume, Out of the Night: The Spiritual Journey of Vietnam Veterans, to be his seminal work. I approached this book with a “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” mentality. As a fellow Vietnam veteran. I am keenly aware that those who want to provide effective spiritual care for wounded warriors are well advised to understand what Bill teaches readers of this book.
Please join me in offering prayers the repose of Bill’s soul, and for his wife, Carol and family.
Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Bill Mahedy. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of our own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. AMEN (Commendation prayer of Burial Rite II, The Book of Common Prayer: BCP, p. 499).
+Jay
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
NEW ARMED SERVICES AND FEDERAL MINISTRIES WEB SITE
Following 12 months of research, frustration, collection of data, and the formation of an IT strategy, I can now let you know that we are on a fast-track leading to the development of an enhanced system for both internal and external communications. We are working with a respected web development firm to create, establish, and maintain a new web site that will have the capability to communicate both public and private information to those seeking an ecclesiastical endorsement from this office and those who are holding a current ecclesiastical endorsement.
Though the specific details for our new web site are still under development, I can tell you that the new site will have a page that is open to everyone including those who are seeking basic information regarding chaplaincy in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense. The process of application for my ecclesiastical endorsement to serve in these agencies as an Episcopal chaplain will be accessible on this page. There will also be a password-protected section of the new web site that will be accessible only to those who have a current ecclesiastical endorsement from me.
As soon as we have a release date for the new site my Executive Officer, the Rev. Dr. Wally Jensen, will make an announcement to that effect, and passwords will be issued to those who qualify as ecclesiastically endorsed Episcopal Chaplains. Though I regret that it is taking so long to establish an effective communications medium, I believe that you will be pleased with our new web site and the resources that will be made available to you.
+Jay Magness
Though the specific details for our new web site are still under development, I can tell you that the new site will have a page that is open to everyone including those who are seeking basic information regarding chaplaincy in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense. The process of application for my ecclesiastical endorsement to serve in these agencies as an Episcopal chaplain will be accessible on this page. There will also be a password-protected section of the new web site that will be accessible only to those who have a current ecclesiastical endorsement from me.
As soon as we have a release date for the new site my Executive Officer, the Rev. Dr. Wally Jensen, will make an announcement to that effect, and passwords will be issued to those who qualify as ecclesiastically endorsed Episcopal Chaplains. Though I regret that it is taking so long to establish an effective communications medium, I believe that you will be pleased with our new web site and the resources that will be made available to you.
+Jay Magness
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Laura Adelia's Ordination
On the 2nd of July we ordained Air National Guard chaplain Laura Adelia to the sacred order of priests, the first ordination of a priest in this episcopacy since I became Bishop for the Armed Services and Federal Ministries. The ordination was celebrated at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Sedona, AZ. The Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, Bishop Diocesan of Arizona, was the ordaining bishop. Bishop Smith graciously invited me to assist him with the ordination.
Laura, a chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) in the ANG, had been an ordained clergy person of the United Church of Christ. Most recently Laura completed a deployment with the ANG to Antarctica and achieved the distinction of being the first female chaplain to have wintered over in Antarctica. This past May, in anticipation of her impending ordination to the priesthood, Laura attended our annual Episcopal Federal Chaplains Training Conference in Roslyn, VA, where many of us had the opportunity to meet Laura for the first time.
Laura is currently completing a Clinical Pastoral Education unit at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, CA. Upon completion of this phase of her clinical training she will split her time between her ANG chaplaincy and serving as a college chaplain in the Diocese of Arizona.
We welcome Laura into our community of federal chaplains!
Bishop Jay
The Rt. Rev. James B. "Jay" Magness, D.Min.
Bishop Suffragan for the Armed Services and Federal Ministries
Laura, a chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) in the ANG, had been an ordained clergy person of the United Church of Christ. Most recently Laura completed a deployment with the ANG to Antarctica and achieved the distinction of being the first female chaplain to have wintered over in Antarctica. This past May, in anticipation of her impending ordination to the priesthood, Laura attended our annual Episcopal Federal Chaplains Training Conference in Roslyn, VA, where many of us had the opportunity to meet Laura for the first time.
Laura is currently completing a Clinical Pastoral Education unit at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, CA. Upon completion of this phase of her clinical training she will split her time between her ANG chaplaincy and serving as a college chaplain in the Diocese of Arizona.
We welcome Laura into our community of federal chaplains!
Bishop Jay
The Rt. Rev. James B. "Jay" Magness, D.Min.
Bishop Suffragan for the Armed Services and Federal Ministries
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