News & Messages

Checklists for Vestries

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Checklists from the Commission on Mission and Development
The Commission on Mission and Development has developed some tools for you to use together with your vestries that we're excited to share with you. They are all available on our website

Here are all the checklists and tools as pdfs for you to view. All the files are available as Word docs on our website so you can fill them out and adapt them to your settings.

1. Checklist for Congregations
2. Calendar of Worship and Events
3. Review of Goals
4. Review of Ministries
 
We encourage you to start using these tools with your vestries. If you have questions or need help in any of the above areas, please contact Canon Peggy Bean. We have wonderful people resources across the diocese who can help encourage and guide you.

Prayers for the United Methodist Church

Please keep the United Methodist Church (UMC) in your prayers February 23-26 as they meet in their special worldwide General Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The UMC has struggled for decades with many of the same issues around human sexuality that the Episcopal Church has. This special conference is focused on trying to find a way forward.

The results of this convention could radically change the structure and discipline of the UMC, which will determine the shape of the church that the Episcopal Church is seeking to enter full communion with. The UMC is a multi-national church with voting membership from all over the world. Please pray for our Methodist sisters and brothers as they struggle in much the same way as our own church has over the last few decades.
 
Here’s an RNS article that lays out some of the options.
 
Suggested Prayer:

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel in the Special General Conference of the United Methodist Church. Grant them discernment. Help them in all things to seek first your honor and glory. As there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, help us to support our sisters and brothers in Christ as they seek to be your faithful servants. All this we pray in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen.

The Rev. David Simmons, ObJN
Rector, St. Matthias Episcopal Church
President, Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers

Lenten Resources 2019

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Life Transformed: The Way of Love in Lent and Easter

Visit Lenten Resources 2019 for this and other seasonal resources

The journey through Lent into Easter is a journey with Jesus. We are baptized into his life, self-giving and death; then we rise in hope to life transformed. This Lent, faith communities are invited to walk with Jesus in his Way of Love and into the experience of transformed life.

New Way of Love resources for Lent and Easter include three components; additional resources from partnering organizations and churches are also featured:

Adult Forum: This set of seven Adult Forums, suitable to diverse settings, ties the Easter Vigil readings to the seven practices of the Way of Love. Drawing on the ancient practice of setting aside Lent as a period of study and preparation for living as a Christian disciple (known as the catechumenate), the forums draw participants to reflect on salvation history, walk toward the empty tomb, and embrace the transforming reality of love, life, and liberation. As we stand with the three women at the empty tomb, we hear his call to go and live that transformed reality. Curriculum will be available in Spanish before the end of this month.  

Quiet Day: The Quiet Day curriculum condenses the forums into a single-day journey. Offered as an option for churches and dioceses seeking an alternative to the weekly class.  

Test Kitchen: “Living the Way of Love, Transformed.” After the forty days of Lent, this Facebook-based platform will invite participants into a fifty-day Eastertide “Test Kitchen.” People everywhere will actively “GO” with Jesus from the tomb to bless the world - and then share and inspire each other with accounts of how they are living the Way of Love. Consider joining this closed Facebook group now to receive regular messages of support as you live the way of love through Lent. 

Resources shared by partnering organizations and churches

Way of Love resources from Church Publishing, Inc. (CPI) include Living the Way of Love, a 40-day devotional by Mary Bea Sullivan, along with their recently published Little Books of Guidance – one for each of the seven Way of Love practices.

Coming in early February are a series of sermons based on the Year C lectionary readings offered by St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania as well as video classes that track with the Life Transformed curriculum offered by The Hive.

 Additional seasonal resources include

If your ministry has developed a seasonal Way of Love offering, please share at  . We’d love to feature it on the website and pray for our shared journey into new life. 

Explore the Way. Start a small group. Follow Jesus. Let God’s love transform you and your ministry. Find resources for every liturgical season here:www.episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove.

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