There was fun and foolishness at diocesan convention, all for two very good causes. The organized silliness raised thousands of dollars for the Native American Youth Ministries and the Emergency Propane Fund of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota.
At the Friday night Home Run Challenge between the bishop of Fort Worth and the bishop of Texas, the bishops were properly outfitted in handcrafted personalized purple mitered baseball hats. Each had a purple Nerf bat. Pitchers used plastic baseballs that were color coordinated with the initials on the miters – red for Rayford B. High, Jr., bishop of Fort Worth, and purple for C. Andrew Doyle, bishop of Texas.
Tracie (Super Arm) Middleton of St. Stephen’s, Hurst, pitched for Doyle and Edwin (Fast Eddie) Barnett of St. Andrew’s, Fort Worth, pitched for High. Becky (Dead-Eye) Snell of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Keller, was the catcher.
Each bishop got ten pitches (well, sorta. It was easy to lose count). It was exciting down to the wire, but eventually Bishop High pulled it out, winning, 1 to 0.
But the excitement didn’t stop there. The bishops signed one of the Nerf bats, and it was auctioned off to raise money for the Emergency Propane Fund of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota. After a hot bidding war with Bill Greenhill of All Saints, Fort Worth, Cynthia Eichenberger of St. Francis, Willow Park, had the winning bid. She also had the winning bid for the signed plastic baseball. The total for the two? $900.
More foolishness ensued on Saturday when the hand-crafted mitred baseball hats were auctioned off. Doyle stepped up and said he would match the bid on his hat, and High then followed suit with matching funds on his. Chris Jambor of All Saints, Fort Worth, was the high bidder for Bishop Doyle’s hat and Bill Stanford of St. Christopher, Fort Worth, had the winning bid for Bishop High’s hat, for a total (after matching funds were added) of $2,400.
The fun continued post-convention. On the Sunday following convention, the altar “flowers” at St. Francis, Willow Park, featured the bat and ball and two of the purple pom-poms from the table decorations at convention. Bishop High’s mitered baseball hat also was on display at the Sunday Eucharist at St. Christopher, Fort Worth.
In the drawing held Saturday at Convention, Norm Snyder of Good Shepherd, Granbury, won the quilt. Sandy Shockley of the Episcopal Church of Hamilton County has organized the auction of the quilt at convention to benefit the diocese of South Dakota for several years now. It was her idea to add the Emergency Propane Fund after the high price of propane during last year’s brutal winter in South Dakota caused at least one death and put many in danger of freezing.
Here are the totals for the two fund-raising events at 2015 Diocesan Convention:
Quilt ticket sales to benefit Native American Youth
- Ticket sales at pre-convention deaneries – $296
- Ticket sales at convention Friday and Saturday – $291
- Friday Eucharist offering – $1000
- Diocesan Mission & Outreach – $2000
Total – $3587
Emergency Propane Fund for Diocese of South Dakota
- Auction Friday – $900
- Auction Saturday – $2400
- Diocesan Mission & Outreach – $2893
Total – $6,193
In addition, Province VII donated funds for the Emergency Propane Fund that includes donations from the Episcopal Church Women of the Northwest Texas diocese ($408) and St. Mary’s, Hamilton, ($420) for a total of $828.
See more photos of the Friday foolishness at the diocesan Flickr photo gallery.
See more convention photos at the diocesan Flickr photo gallery.