Gene Savoy Jr. giving the invocation at the VOA “Shelter from the Storm Breakfast” beside Nasya Mancini, Miss Nevada 2019.

The “Shelter from the Storm Breakfast” sponsored by Volunteers of Americas was held Thursday, November 14, 2019 at the Eldorado Hotel Casino Convention Center. Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. Delivered the invocation for the event.

This was the 8th Annual “Shelter from the Storm” Breakfast. The event is a fundraiser for Volunteers of America – Northern California and Northern Nevada (VOA-NCNN). Founded in 1911, VOA-NCNN provides shelter to over 1000 men, women, and children each night in Reno. The local chapter not only provides direct support to those in need through shelter, sustenance, and other integral services, it also collaborates on crucial partnerships.

In addition to the Men’s Shelter, the Women’s Shelter and the Family Shelter on Record Street, VOA-NCNN has created The Village on Sage Street, a new and innovative low-income housing development helping to alleviate Reno’s increasing housing crisis. VOA-NCNN also collaborates with the City of Reno on the very successful Reno Works, workforce development program that provides participants financial literacy and job training, employment counseling and referrals, and life skill coaching in order to sustain self-sufficiency. Finally, VOA-NCNN also runs Sierra Manor I and Sierra Manor II, an affordable housing property for seniors. There are 187 units for people 62 and older.

Bishop Savoy has served on VOA-NCNN’s Advisory Board since 2012. He gave the invocation at this year’s breakfast. Gene also serves as a table captain at the annual event with the responsibility for filling a table of ten. This year, fifteen people attended as the Bishop’s guests, among them his wife Radheka Patel Savoy.

Read this year’s invocation here.

Swami Sri Atmananda and Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. PHOTO CREDIT: Radheka Patel Savoy

After a four-year hiatus, two kindred souls, Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. and Swami Sri Atmananda, reunited at the Rectory Abbey on the afternoon of July 30, 2019. While this meeting between Bishop Savoy and Swami Sri Atmananda had no purpose other than friendship and sharing in the Light, they soon began resurrecting plans they had made years ago regarding a solar conference in India. The meeting ended with an agreement between he International Community of Christ and the Satyachetana Movement to organize a conference in India to promote Cosolargy and the role of the Sun in Indian spirituality in late 2020 or early 2021. This agreement was unexpected and joyfully received.

Present at the luncheon meeting with Swami Sri Atmananda were Prasannaa, Tulsi, Vishnupriya, Swamiji’s wife Bouma, and Devashish (David Mitchell). Representing the Church with Bishop Savoy at the meeting were Deacon Radheka Patel Savoy, Helena Savoy, Reverend Mother Rebecca Willis, and Reverend Canons Peter Foust, Amanda Buchanan, Gary Buchanan, and Robert Petrovich.

Helena Savoy with Swami Sri Atmananda and Bouma PHOTO CREDIT: Radheka Patel Savoy

On June 19, 2019 several members of the Second Advent Community — Reverends Robert and Francine Petrovich, Reverend Elizabeth Reece, along with three of Bishop Gene Savoy’s children, Sabrina, Sophia and Helena — visited Carmel of Reno to share in Taizé Prayer, a service of song, silence, and contemplation.

The Carmelite Sisters had prepared a selection of prayerful, melodic verses which were accompanied by violin, piano, guitar, and flute. During the one-hour service, those gathered sang and chanted prayerful lines in unison with the musicians. Before closing the Service there was a ten-minute period of silent contemplation. This could have been a challenge for the children but they were little champions and were rewarded with a bit more serenity than when they arrived, as everyone seemed to be.

The Carmelite Sisters have been friends of the Community for many years, with their Monastery located across the street from our Rectory Abbey on La Fond Drive in Reno. I now have fond memories of an hour of song, silence & contemplation with the Sisters.

by Elizabeth Reece

In light of the horrific events that took the lives of 50 Muslims in two mosques in Christchurch, the Northern Nevada Muslim Center hosted an event to remember them and to show solidarity. The event, called “Hearts United with Christchurch and the Muslim Community,” was held Wednesday, March 29, 2019 at the center on Oddie Blvd in Sparks.

The President of the Center, Sherif Elfass, said the event “intended to show solidarity through action. In 2015, nine of our African American brothers were killed in their place of worship, few months ago, ten of our Jewish brothers and sisters were killed in their place of worship and now 50 Muslims. Time of action is now. In my remarks, I plan to talk about actions we will be taking to combat hate and I hope you will consider the same.”

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr addressing the assembly at Northern Nevada Muslim Center

Mr. Elfass invited Bishop Gene Savoy Jr to speak with other clergy at the program. Bishop Savoy delivered the closing address:

On behalf of the International Community of Christ, let me express my sincere condolences to all of my Muslim brothers and sisters. I am very honored to be here at this service of prayer, solidarity and coming together in the face of violence against people of faith and in the name of religion. But I am also very sad. I’m upset. I am sad, of course, about why we are gathered here today. But I am even sadder at what I see happening in our world today.

It seems that no place on earth, save Antarctica, is safe any longer from this creed of hate which has achieved a new life on social media. Muslims were attacked and killed last week in New Zealand. Four days before that, 52 Christians were attacked and killed in Nigeria and 153 of Christian homes burned to the ground. Last October, Jews were attacked and killed in Pittsburgh. And it goes on and on.

We should all be outraged. Let me say that again: we should all be outraged! Because the key to understanding today’s terrorist threats are not merely to be found in the online underground, which has become a breeding ground for contemporary extremists of all kinds, but to understand the profound and blatant evil and darkness manifesting in today’s world in great magnitude. Let’s make no mistake about it: What we are witnessing the world over is evil and Darkness.

Is this the world in which we want to live? Is this the kind of place we want to bequeath to our children? It will be, as long as we turn a blind eye to the vast amount of pain and suffering that goes on in the world around us. We can no longer choose to remain silent or be oblivious to this profound evil and darkness that is permeating the world. And that is what this is. Let’s make no mistake about it. This simply is profound evil and darkness. And it is now targeting people as they go into their places of worship – their sacred and quiet places. There will be no place for refuge any longer if we continue along this path. What is next? Our homes?

But, we come together to offer hope. We come together to say that we will not be driven from our places of worship – none of us. Let us be reminded that the spirit is strong in the human race and sometimes we, each and every one of us, needs to be reminded of the immense power we have to do good or to do evil. If the peoples of the earth were to realize this, they would turn from the ways of ignorance and submission to evil and darkness and embrace the good and the light with all of their might.

And that, perhaps, is what we are here to do: to encourage people to break from the hold of evil and darkness. If we see it, don’t turn a blind eye. If you hear it, don’t be silent. Life is too precious and time is too short for the human family to play this deadly game of unending strife, war, instability, and hate.

The peoples of the earth cry out for peace. But peace begins with the individual who lives god’s way. When we collect together in peace, of whatever religion or spiritual community, we then become people of peace and fellowship with one another.

My heart, my thoughts, and my prayers go out to everyone who has suffered from this evil and darkness. Thank you for having me.

As Bishop of the International Community of Christ, our thoughts and prayers go out to our Jewish brothers and sisters who senselessly perished, were injured and who are affected by the terrible act of Darkness at Tree of Life Synogogue yesterday in Pittsburgh. We will lift up our prayers for the next seven days.

The Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr.

Nevada Interfaith quilt mounted on display in the Interfaith Chapel PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr

The Renown Spiritual Center and Interfaith Sanctuary celebrated its grand opening on Monday evening, March 19, 2018. The event was attended on behalf of the International Community of Christ by Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. and his wife Radheka Patel.

The renovation project entered its initial planning stage in 2015. (See the article posted in August 2015 for details.)  Now, after nearly three years, the project has come to fruition.

The Giving Tree on the wall of Renown’s Interfaith Chapel PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr.

The Church was a $1000 sponsor of the renovation and received a plaque in memory of Gene Savoy Sr., which was placed on the chapel’s “giving tree.”

Gene Savoy Sr. sponsor plaque PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr.

In addition, Reverend Mother Elizabeth Reece provided to additional panes of stained glass to make the original design a triptych.

Stained glass triptych designed and constructed by Reverend Mother Elizabeth Reece PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr.

The 30th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration, this year titled “Remember Reflect Renew” and presented by the Northern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness Society (NNBCAS), was a two-hour dinner program of speakers and awards. The event was held at 7:00 pm on Monday, January 15, 2018 at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa.

Keynote speaker was journalist Dr. Sherri Williams, an assistant professor in race, media, and communication at American University. Proceeds from the dinner benefit youth programs and cultural events planned by NNBCAS throughout the year.

Rev. Robert Petrovich attended on behalf of the International Community of Christ Church, taking a place at the Nevada Interfaith Association table, along with nine other members of the organization. This year for the first time, the Onie Cooper Achievement Award was delivered as part of the NNBCAS dinner program rather than in a separate event.

Visit the NNBCAAS web site.

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. and Dean William Stromski after the installation ceremony

Bishop Gene Savoy and his wife Radheka Patel Savoy attended the installation of the dean at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, the Very Reverend Dr. William Stomski, on December 9, 2017 as well as the dinner reception in his honor.

The International Community of Christ and Trinity Episcopal have a long relationship together going back to the 1980s with the formation of the interfaith movement in Reno.

Rev. William is a member of the Nevada Interfaith Association and is on the Board of Directors of the organization.

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. delivered the invocation to open the annual breakfast of Volunteers of America held at the El Dorado Hotel on Thursday, November 9, 2017. Bishop Savoy serves on the advisory board, and as a table captain brought to the event ten donors to help support the “Shelter from the Storm” breakfast fundraiser.

Darryl Feemster & son

City of Reno Youth and Senior Services Manager Darryl Feemster, 55, died on November 19, 2017 at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. He never regained consciousness after a stroke. A Reno native, he was a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and had currently been serving on its executive committee.

Mr. Feemster himself, as well as his mother Delores and brother Lonnie, had been active for years in the local interfaith scene and as well as on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission.

A memorial service conducted on Friday, December 1st at Sparks Christian Fellowship, Sparks, Nevada, was attended by two members of the International Community of Christ, the Reverends Amanda Buchanan and Francine Petrovich. The Reverend William C. Webb officiated.