Mission Focus
Congregations need to rediscover their spiritual centers"What do you need most from your church?" In one typical survey, four out of five Episcopalians replied, "I want food for my spiritual hunger." nother study discovered that, although many people volunteered to serve on their vestries hoping to enhance their spiritual growth, at the end of their terms they frequently went away di...
'NetsforLife' a sign of hope in fighting killer diseaseFor Melito Panzo, the long white mosquito nets hanging in the Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) booth in the Lambeth Conference marketplace, are signs of hope....
Teaching toolsOne of the most frequently visited areas on the Episcopal Church's website is Lesson Plans for Small Congregations. Parish educators will find sets of lesson plans that follow the Revised Common Lectionary for the entire year. There is a set of three lesson plans for each Sunday: one for young child...
Service is the mantra for youth at Union of Black Episcopalians conferenceThis year's conference and meeting of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE) found the youth participants not only engaged in strengthening their faith, but in being of service to others....
'Mama' to many Sister Jane Mankaa was 16 when she joined the Sisters of Emmanuel, a contemplative order in her native Cameroon. But something was missing. "I've always found some emptiness in my heart," she recalls. "I knew I had to do something, but I didn't know exactly [what]." The answer da...
Prayers requested for Lifting Women's Voices: Ending Poverty through Prayer and ActionMorehouse Publishing, an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated, has launched a campaign urging women to &Quot;say a prayer, change the world" by submitting prayers for possible inclusion in the upcoming publication, Lifting Women's Voices: Ending Poverty through Prayer and Action. According...
First New England Beijing Circles Conference set for September at Episcopal Divinity SchoolOn September 26 and 27, Episcopal Divinity School will host the first New England Beijing Circles Conference, sponsored by the Episcopal Church. All are welcome to attend this important event. The conference is part of a growing national movement to promote and share information on the plight of wom...
'Hairy' testimony leads to bald truthThe Rev. Steven Strane offered a "hairy&Quot; witness to his St. Timothy's, Danville congregation, by boycotting the barbershop during his three months sabbatical. But then the effort grew -- and grew -- until lopping off a year's worth and an estimated 10 inches of locks translated into bald t...
Ignited by MDGsDuring the Eucharist of the 2006 convention of the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota, Bishop Michael Smith articulated three major mission initiatives: a continuing mission to Native Americans, a continuing mission to the Sudanese immigrants in the Fargo-Moorhead area, and a new mission to college c...
Episcopal Relief and Development announces winner of Emergency Preparedness Plan Competition Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi is the winner of Episcopal Relief and Development's first ever Emergency Preparedness Plan Competition. LES will receive a $25,000 grant to implement the winning plan. A second prize of $10,000 was awarded to the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. The Epi...
Going deeper: Outreach at St. Timothy's feeds hungry in Iola, KansasSt. Timothy's Church, Iola, might be small, but it's really cooking up a storm. Literally. Its parishioners' efforts to provide food for people in their southeast Kansas town — and lots of it — have earned them a nickname. "We're known as the church that feeds people," said the Rev. Ja...
Mar Thoma Church celebrates heritage, looks into the futureA recent festive Eucharist honored the legacy of the retired Primate of the Mar Thoma Church, the Most Rev. Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom and marked the first official visit to the U.S. of his recently consecrated successor, the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan. The June 1 event drew more ...
Sharing songs -- and lifeTwo seemingly different groups in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, recently began building relationships with the help of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. The first is the children who live with parents or guardians at the St. Vincent de Paul Transitional Housing Center in Coeur d'Alene. Each Monday evening, a sma...
A greenhouse grows mosquito netsWhen Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori visited St. Hilda's and St. Hugh's School on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City to bless their greenhouse in January 2008, she inadvertently planted the seeds for a very successful fundraising campaign on behalf of Episcopal Relief and Develo...
Church Publishing Inc. acquires exclusive worldwide rights to Godly PlayChristian formation and education leaders will have a one-stop-shopping point for all Godly Play resources -- including print products, artifacts, and registration for Godly Play training events -- through Morehouse Education Resources, a division of Church Publishing Inc (CPI). Godly Play materials...
Restoration of New Orleans focus of annual Recovery Ministries conferenceThe devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and its subsequent long-term recovery process, served as a back drop for the annual gathering of Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church, Inc. For three days, May 8-10, 58 people attended "Blending addiction recovery with recovery along the Gulf ...
Anglican Churches in the Americas plans February mission gatheringThe first large-scale gathering in the Anglican Churches of the Americas will be a February 2009 conference on "mutual responsibility and mission."...
Into the Sacred CircleSan Juan Mission, also known as the New Mexico Region of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, focuses on the ministry of the baptized, and thus all members participate in ministry. San Juan, as in all of the Navajoland Area Mission, functions under the philosophy of the Hooghan Learning Circle -- a f...
Lainya diocese, ERD partner to support Sudan's returning refugeesThe Diocese of Lainya in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) is partnering with Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) to support vocational training programs for returning refugees in southern Sudan, one of the primary challenges of the post-war conditions in Africa's largest country....
Virginia Seminary Celebrates Earth Day with Kreitler Environmental LectureIn celebration of Earth Day, Virginia Theological Seminary launched the first Kreitler Environmental Lecture on April 22, featuring biblical scholar and environmentalist Dr. Ellen Davis, professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School, speaking on "Becoming Human: Biblical Int...
Ecumenical conference in Washington D.C. seeks path to 'peace in Jerusalem'Promoting a peaceful, two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict has seldom been more discouraging or difficult, delegates to the annual Churches for Middle East Peace Conference, held in Washington, D.C., April 20-22, heard from a variety of experts. But this work is more important than ev...
Earth-honoring, Earth-healing are topics of ecumenical meeting on climate changeWhen the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Church assembled at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico, April 11 and 12, Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary, New York City, challenged representatives of the five denominations gathered to devel...
What's on the menu?The link between the health of our planet and of ourselves comes into focus when we consider our food system. School lunches, school gardens and even school composting play an important part in that system for children at Episcopal schools...
Green education: Episcopal schools move toward sustainabilityA little more than a year after moving into their new school building, students at St. Philip's Academy in Newark, New Jersey, not only have a much bigger, brighter science lab, but they also have a building that itself serves as a teaching tool. Elements of the structure, as well as meters and gaug...
NCC Eco-Justice Program challenges congregations to address climate changeThe National Council of Churches (NCC) Eco-Justice Program challenges "congregations to take action to address climate change" in their resources for Earth Sunday 2008, "The Poverty of Global Climate Change."...
Small church, big heartI recently told our mission congregation of St. Francis of Assisi (San Francisco de Asís) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that we are the small church with a big heart. I am very convinced of this. There are no "buts" in the phrase. We are not the church that is small but that has a big heart. ...
IOWA: Swaziland companion relationship deepens; clean water and evangelism efforts for 2008As the Anglican Communion prepares for the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, Iowa Episcopalians are growing deeper into a companion relationship that was born at the bishops' gathering 20 years ago. This year the Diocese of Iowa will help the Diocese of Swaziland commemorate its 40th anniversary wit...
Anglican delegation to UNCSW issues statementWomen who gathered from across the Anglican Communion to provide input to the annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), meet with other NGOs, and meet amongst themselves, have issued a statement...
Financing for gender equity explored by Anglican leaders, scholarsAnglican Women's Empowerment's (AWE) week-long series of activities geared toward the Anglican understanding of gender equity and its relationship to human and social development, culminated on March 1 at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City with a panel presentation themed "The Intersec...
Living Stones Partnership endorses Ministry Developers' Collaborative action initiativesAction steps to advance the development of baptismal ministry was the focus of the Living Stones Partnership when it gathered February 16-19 in Des Moines, Iowa. While devoting most of their time together to reflect on one another's baptismal ministry case studies, members also took time to review a...
Vision before fund raisingLate last year, I read that Americans spend $20 billion a year on ice cream while the United Nations figures it would take $14 billion and 10 years to provide clean water and basic sanitation and health care for the whole world. These statistics made me think immediately of life in the small church,...
EYE Design Team will welcome church's youth to San Antonio this summerWhen nearly 1,500 young Episcopalians arrive in San Antonio, Texas this July, they will take part in a five-day gathering that has been meticulously planned by a group of youth and adults from around the church....
From riots to rebirthThe past and future of Newark, New Jersey, is rooted, in part, in the Episcopal Church. There is no better place to get a sense of those roots than to stand outside the back of Trinity and St. Philip's, the Episcopal cathedral in downtown Military Park. While Anglicans worshipped in Newark from the ...
Glimpses of HopeLast Spring, three members of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Chester, Vermont -- Susanna Grannis, Belinda Whipple-Worth and I -- traveled to South Africa and Rwanda. We are all board members of Children Affected by HIV/AIDS (CHABHA), and we visited the orphan-support projects the organization funds ...
Seamen's Knit 4 Lent initiative to serve mariners working in Gulf CoastEpiscopal knitters and groups across the country are invited to include "Knit 4 Lent" as part of their Lenten discipline. The Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) is hoping to gather 4,000 of the very popular hand-knit or crocheted hats in the 40 days of Lent for mariners working in the Gulf Co...
Eco-Palm Project makes environmental, social justice part of Palm Sunday celebrationsJesus' entrance into Jerusalem, accented by the jubilant waving of palm fronds, is re-enacted each Palm Sunday in Christian congregations worldwide as the observance of Holy Week begins....
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