129th Annual Council: A virtual "Council Week"

The 129th Annual Council will be entirely virtual with "Council Week" from February 22-27. Rather than spend a day and a half on Zoom, our Council Week will begin on Monday, Feb. 22, offering you daily on-demand reports and live events via Zoom. On Friday evening, please plan to join us for an engaging presentation by Jerusalem Greer, Staff Officer for Evangelism for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Jerusalem will be pointing the way to how we can answer the demands of our third Baptismal Promise, “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of Jesus Christ?” The title of her presentation is “Rooted in Love: Where Good News, Spiritual Practices and our Baptismal promises meet.” Council Week will culminate with the business meeting of clergy and lay delegates on Saturday morning. Complete information about Council Week can be found at www.bit.ly/diosova129.

Presiding Bishop Curry’s Word to the Church: Who shall we be?

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has issued a Word to the Church. Text and video available here.

On January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invited Episcopalians and people of faith to turn and pray on behalf of our nation. Read more here.

From Many, One: Conversations Across Difference

Starting January 18 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), The Episcopal Church launches "From Many, One: Conversations Across Difference,” a campaign urging Episcopalians and our neighbors to engage in the spiritual practice of listening and honest conversation across the many differences that separate us, starting with four simple questions: What do you love? What have you lost? Where does it hurt? What do you dream? Read more here.

The Episcopal Church launches 2021 Absalom Jones Fund Campaign to assist Episcopal Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invites Episcopalians to deepen their participation in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation by dedicating offerings at observances of the Feast of Absalom Jones (February 13) and making individual donations to support St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, NC, and Voorhees College in Denmark, SC, two historically black Episcopal institutions of higher education. Click here for more information.

Episcopal Church Young Adult Service Corps: Application open for 2021-2022 placements

Deadline: February 19, 2021

Applications are now being accepted for 2021-2022 placements with the Young Adult Service Corps (YASC), the international missionary program of The Episcopal Church. YASC offers Episcopalians ages 21-30 the opportunity to follow the Way of Love deeper relationship with God and the global Anglican Church while spending a year living and working with communities around the world. Click here for more information.

Project Resource offers Spring 2021 Stewardship Training

Giving of oneself financially unlocks a part of our hearts where God can do incredible work, both in us and through us. As part of our baptismal covenant, we believe we are called to reconcile ourselves to one another and to God. Fundraising is not a means to an end. Rather, fundraising as ministry is a radical act of reconciliation; a process that can both draw the giver closer to God and repair an unjust world. Project Resource provides the tools to inspire radical generosity and engage faith communities in this life-changing work. Join us on the journey of changing a culture of stewardship in The Episcopal Church.

Project Resource's Spring 2021 Training will be offered on six consecutive Sundays, April 18 to May 23, 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. Project Resource trainings equip stewardship teams to plan and develop year-round stewardship ministries that can be replicated and adapted for years to come. An ideal church team would consist of at least three members including the clergy person, stewardship committee chair, and other committed lay leaders. Click here for more information and registration.

During times of national unrest, a reminder that God is in charge

A message from Bishop Haynes

January 6, 2021

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Before God created, there was only God. Otherwise, there was a formless void, and a thick impenetetrable darkness. However, along with that darkness, there was movement. That movement was God’s breath, pushing and stirring through the darkness and into the voids. Into the emptiness. That breath powered forth the generative words of God which said, “Let there be light.” Light. God’s first creative act. Light that penetrates, illumines, and generates. And it is GOOD.   It might be safe to assume that most of us experienced the events of national turmoil from yesterday as a time of darkness…a frightening time that threatened to jettison us into an empty void. Faith leaders all over the country called us to prayer. Prayer is indeed essential and the one sure way that we can join with the life-generating Light of God. And so yes, let us indeed pray!   When we pray, we are reminded of who God is. God is the One who was there in the beginning. God is the One who will be there in the end. And God is the One whose spirit moves even now through our current darkness and into our empty voids. God’s breath pushes and stirs, even now, to generate life. Our prayers help us to join with Him in His Kingdom-generating voice.   Please consider this as an invitation from your Bishop to turn off the disturbing scenes of your television and social media and open your Books of Common Prayer, your Bibles, and your devotional books. Make contact with the Light of Christ and then turn and be that Light to someone else.   O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for Mission from Morning Prayer II, Book of Common Prayer, p. 100)   O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Guidance, Book of Common Prayer, p. 832)   O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer, p. 832)   Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose of the way of your servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by your gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Protection, Book of Common Prayer, p. 832)