Episcopal Church Foundation offers Winter 2012 webinar series on developing leadership and financial resources 

As part of ECF's on-going efforts to assist congregations in developing their leadership and financial resources, we are offering a wide range of webinars for clergy and lay parish leaders this winter. There is no cost to participate in any of these webinars and all lay and clergy leaders are welcome to participate.

Webinars offered include: Basics of Planned Giving, Basics of a Parish Capital Campaign, Vestry Leadership 101, Basics of a School or Joint Parish-School Capital Campaign, Basics of Endowments, and Making a Planned Gift to Benefit Your Congregation. For a complete description of each webinar please visit the website here.

All you need to participate in one of our webinars is a computer (PC or Mac) with an internet connection and a telephone. If you have a headset and microphone, you can also participate over VOiP from your computer without the need to call in on the phone.

There is no charge to participate. Once you have registered, ECF will email you call-in instructions and instructional materials for the webinar.

Please note that registrations are managed on the Go To Training website, where you will also go to log in to participate in the webinar.

If you have any questions, please email the ECF at ecf@episcopalfoundation.org or call them at (800) 697-2858.

Lesson on love for this Epiphany season

Counselors, Counselors-in-Training, and Campers enjoy a hay ride at All Saints Summer Camp

Applications sought

All Saints Summer Camp now excepting summer staff applications

By Brian Kinnaman  

As summer approaches the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky Youth Program is beginning their search for summer camp staff.

Positions include: Assistant Director, Program Directors, Art Director, Healthcare Provider, Childcare Provider, Lifeguard/Program Assistants, Male and Female Counselors, and Junior Counselors. Applications and information can be obtained here on the Dio KY Youth Program website.

As a male counselor last year, let me say what a wonderful experience it was to work with our diocese's youth. It brought me new friends, memories I will cherish forever, and mostly closer to God. I highly encourage anyone interested to read more about the positions available and to contact Beth Bojarski, Camp Director, at bethb@episcopalky.org or (270) 202-0920.

Grace Episcopal in Paducah hosts organ dedication concert and reception with Walter Strony  

Summary by Brian Kinnaman   

Workers help to install the new organ at Grace Episcopal Church in Paducah, KY

Concert organist, recording artist, and Allen Organ Voicing Specialist Walter Strony will be performing at Grace Episcopal in Paducah to help voice their new organ after their last one was destroyed by lighting late last year. The service will include the dedication of the organ to the glory of God, a gala concert by Mr. Strony, and a reception to follow. 

Mr. Strony has performed across the globe and has been recognized multiple times for his style and performances across the years including being the only living organist to have been voted "Organist of the Year" twice by the American Theatre Organ Society. 

Please come and join them this Sunday, January 29th at 4:00 pm in their worship space on 820 Broadway, Paducah, KY 42001. 

Read the original article here

By The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

Summary by Brian Kinnaman   

On December 28th the Episcopal Church launched their newly redesigned website, www.EpiscopalChurch.org. Since then more than 55,000 viewers have visited more than 84,000 times. 

The new experiential website is more welcoming, eye-appealing, and easy-to-navigate. Home page features include: What we believe; What we do; Who we are; Ministries; Multimedia; and Calendar. Within the website new features are also available including: Prayer for the day; Worship; Prayers of the people; Find a church; and Social media.

Daily dozens of readers submit prayer requests in the Prayers of the people section knowing that a community is praying for and with them. 

If your congregation has not done so yet, check out your parish's information in the Find a church section, and make sure that all church information is up-to-date. This small step is incredibly important since that page is the top visited out of the entire website. Anne Rudig, Episcopal Church Director of Communication, stated "Keeping church information updated on the website is an important evangelism tool" and "we invite all churches to check their listing."

One of the most exciting new features and opportunities to broadcast local mission in action is for dioceses, congregations, provinces, and people like you to post videos and photos. 

The website is available in both English and Spanish.

Read the original article here 

Dimensions of Faith: workshop with Rev. Tom Ehrich to grow and vitalize your congregation   

This is our time! After decades of decline, Episcopal congregations are poised for growth and vitality. The way forward is clear. It's also affordable and doable. In this workshop, we will look at practical steps we can take to move our congregations forward. Building on our strengths, embracing some fresh ideas, we can take some of these steps right away and see positive impact. Others will take a bit longer to implement. None is beyond our reach. 

Topics to be covered include: overcoming invisibility, looking outward, rethinking affiliation, rethinking stewardship, stopping the power struggles, outcome-based decision making, communications that work in the 21st Century, and new leadership.

The Moving Forward: Turnaround Strategies for Your Church workshops are going to be held on Friday, March 2nd 7:00-9:00 pm and Saturday, March 3rd 9:30-2:30 pm with lunch served.  

To register online, please visit dimensionsoffaith.com with a registration fee of $15.

Applications sought for the Lilly Summer Discernment Institute 

Republished from Theology Monthly, e-newsletter from Sewanee School of Theology

The Lilly Summer Discernment Institute is now accepting applications from undergraduate students at colleges and universities across the nation interested in exploring careers in ministry and/or service for the summer. The program, which has space for 12 students, will run from June 4-July 28, 2012. All applications are due by March 1, 2012, and must be submitted online. Students interested in exploring vocations in ordained ministry or service with non-profit organizations are encouraged to find full-time placements with substantive exposure to the type of work that interests them. The program provides a $2,400 stipend for their work and some travel support. Past internships have been in parishes, shadowing clergy, leading youth ministry, studying monastic life, working with disabled adults and children, the homeless, rural medical care, orphanages, refugee assimilation, and more. 

Applications and more information can be found here

The Episcopal Church offers new advertising program to churches 

 The wider church 

New generation explores intersection of faith, service, community 

Saint Hilda's House interns have been serving as chaplains for Occupy in New Haven, Connecticut. They have held services, especially compline, regularly and helped organize others to offer different types of spiritual support such as meditation.

By Episcopal News Service

Sharon Sheridan | January 9, 2012

Jordan Trumble fell in love with learning about religion at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. But after awhile, she realized studying the topic wasn't enough.

"So much of what I was learning in the classroom didn't mean very much unless it had some practical application in my everyday life," she said. "I was learning so much about what it means to be in community with others and to serve the poor and to serve in solidarity with the poor. It's not that easy to do that when you're going to a private, liberal arts university in a wealthy suburb. There was more to the world than what I had experienced."

Her desire to put those lessons into action led Trumble to spend a year as an HIV counselor with homeless youth through the Episcopal Urban Intern Program in Los Angeles. She then became an urban intern at Saint Hilda's House in New Haven, Connecticut, spending a year doing parish administration at Christ Church and now dividing her time between a community soup kitchen and a food pantry and clothing closet.

"I am currently in the process of discerning how I feel God is calling me to minister in the world around me - specifically, do I feel called to ordained ministry - and this is a really good community, both in the parish and in New Haven in general ... to be considering that," she said.

 Read more 

Churches worldwide observe week of prayer for unity  

By Episcopal News Service

ENInews Staff | January 26, 2012

Churches around the world observed a week of prayer from Jan. 18-25, holding special worship services and gatherings that emphasized what Christians hold in common.

This year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity centered on the scriptural theme, "We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ," from the book of Corinthians (15:51-58). Celebrated in some areas at Pentecost, the week is sponsored by the Catholic church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC).

Materials for celebration and reflection this year were prepared by churches in Poland, sharing their history of partition and victory over oppression, the WCC said in a news release.

In the Philippines, where people have been faced with governance crisis, churches took the lead towards national unity in setting aside their doctrinal differences. Together they marked the week by praying for change and peace.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland stressed the significance of change as an integral part of theology and unity among the churches. "Change is also at the heart of the ecumenical movement. When we pray for the unity of the church we are praying that the churches that we know, and which are so familiar to us, will change as they conform more closely to Christ," they said.

Read more