1/1/2024 0 Comments A11 - Partners for Formation and Leadership: How Seminaries are Responding to the Deployment Challenges in the Church TodayThis workshop will take up the question of the clergy shortage so many have described and consider how seminaries are working to lift up leaders for today's church. It will be useful for diocesan leaders involved in discernment for ordination as well as parish leaders serving on search committees. We'll begin by exploring the challenges of deployment today, pulling from recent articles laying out a clergy shortage in the church. Next, we'll examine some of the challenges seminarians face and consider how seminaries are working to address these barriers. Finally, we'll work together on steps parishes, dioceses and seminaries can take to help address the need for clergy.
Presenter: Hope Benko, Seminary of the Southwest
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In this workshop we will present video/audio/in person testimonies by young people of color (18-30) who are involved in church or church-adjacent activities in response to the following questions:
—Introduction: what is your current connection with the Episcopal Church? —Do you feel able to bring your whole self to church or do you feel you have to leave something behind? —What would a church look like that you and your friends would want to attend? —Social justice activities —Fellowship activities —Other Locations / Times Besides the Church on Sunday Mornings —Different music or prayers —How (if at all) are your spiritual needs currently being met? The workshop will focus on demonstrating two things: how to host and curate conversations with young people of color to transform negative experiences into positive visions, and how to promote accountability in conversations across racial, generational and other boundaries. Practical outcomes for the church might include: —A sense of what actions it might take to: —Host further conversations —Make concrete changes in unwelcoming structures and practices —Foster community (across the diocese or the province) and opportunities to network among Young Adults of Color —Possible Resolution(s) for Parish Meetings/Diocesan Conventions/General Convention Presenters: Felicity Thompson, Dismantling Racism Network, Michigan M.E. Eccles Adrienne Dillon Terri Bays Michael Fowlkes In summer of 2022, lay and ordained leaders from the Diocese discerned that while we are vocal in our support of LGBTQ+ youth, we were not actively engaging or supporting this community in tangible ways. The Divine program grew out of that desire.
This formation program offers LGBTQ+ youth and their caregivers opportunities to receive support, build relationships, and explore Christian faith in an inclusive and affirming atmosphere. Participants in the Divine program are empowered to see themselves as made in God's image, and are wrapped around with spiritual and social support. Their families are provided access to resources and relationships that help them to better advocate for their children, especially as related to the intersection of gender, sexuality, and religion. In this workshop, participants will have opportunities to explore the Divine curriculum. They will be able to hear the inside scoop from the Divine leaders about what worked, what didn't work, and what new insights the program generated. This workshop will be "hands on" and will also provide space for participants to think about how to leverage the unique assets of their parishes/dioceses to support LGBTQ+ youth and their families. Presenters Olivia Hamilton, Calvary Episcopal Church, Divine Program, Southern Ohio Mike Johnson Take a moment to name all of the disabled people you can think of in the Bible. Go on, try it! This workshop description will wait.
Now, how many of those on your list did you actually have names for, instead of say, “the woman who bled for 12 years?” How many of them were prominent people? Did your list include Moses, who had a speech impediment? What about the Apostle Paul with his chronic pain? Or Jacob/Israel, who limped? What about Jesus? The story of Christianity without disabled people is only half the story. Despite the fact that disabled people were the original members of the Jesus movement, the modern Church frequently refuses to see them as full members of the Body of Christ. While it celebrates stories that involve Good Samaritans caring for the disabled, the Church itself still so often leaves disabled people by the wayside, using expense, hassle, and tradition as excuses to do so. And in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus and the scriptures, the Church habitually denies the truth about disabled people: that they are fully made in the image and likeness of God and loved exactly, wholly, inclusively as they are. In this workshop on Disability Justice in the Church, we will work to transform our perceptions so that we might become a better, more inclusive and accessible, beloved community. Presenter: Bekah Scolare St. Francis House Episcopal Student Center, EpiscoWisco Camp, & ECCC, Fond du Lac This workshop adapts the principles of Asset Based Community Development to create more bandwidth for ministry within small congregations. Asset-mapping and appreciative inquiry are trusted tools of community engagement, but they can also be taught as spiritual practices that support communal discernment, collaborative leadership, and creative formation and worship. In this hands-on workshop, we will field test models for sharing these practices widely in a small-church setting.
Presenter: Nandra Perry, Seminary of the Southwest 1/1/2024 0 Comments B2 - All Creation Sings! - Worship experiences in the great outdoorsWild Church, Foraging for Advent, Holy Hikes and MoreAt the end of 2021, a poll entitled "Jesus in America" examined American opinions and habits regarding religious life. One surprising piece of data revealed that most everyone, regardless of religious profile, identified being outdoors or in nature is spiritually fulfilling. The majority of those surveyed named it as the MOST spiritually fulfilling activity in their lives. So what does this mean for the church and how we gather? Do we continue to wait for people to come through our doors, or do we go where they already are- in nature? Join Lanni Lantto of U.P. Wild Church, Beckett Leclaire of Holy Hikes Great Lakes, and Jerusalem Greer Interim Executive Director of Procter Farm and Camp, in conversation around creative practices of gathering for worship in the great outdoors – the place where evangelism, creation care, and discipleship can grow together.
Presenters: Beckett Leclaire, Holy Hikes Great Lakes Lanni Lantto, U.P Wild Church Jerusalem Greer, Proctor Center If you've ever watched a natural disaster unfold on the news and wanted to make an immediate, hands-on impact, this may be the session for you!
TeamRubiconUSA.org is a volunteer, non-profit disaster response organization, providing immediate, hands-on assistance, helping the vulnerable on what may be the very worst day of their lives Efforts are focused on helping communities and individuals that are traditionally underserved and socially vulnerable, free of charge to those served. One of Team Rubicon's cultural principles is "Everyone has a Role - Know It". We're not all young, strong, and able-bodied; and we don’t all run chainsaws! Everyone truly does have a role, whether deployed in the field on the scene of a recent disaster or participating and supporting events closer to home. All are welcome to join and get involved. This session will cover Team Rubicon's history, structure, recent responses, and opportunities to get involved. If you are built to serve, and want to help others after disasters strike, come learn about Team Rubicon! Presenters: Suzette Reynolds, St. Paul's, Cleveland Hts, Ohio Lea Ruscio Melissa Boncimino Leonard Buchanan, St. John’s, Grant Haven Kathy Gahan Picture books offer an excellent way to discover, discuss, and share our stories about race. With these stories, we can address challenging topics crucial for dismantling racism as we work to repair, heal, and see God in each other. Miriam will share her methods using picture books in small group discussions that work well in person and online and that she employs in dismantling racism training in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.
Presenter: Miriam McKenney, Formation, Southern Ohio As Christians, we - individually and collectively - are on a life-long, life-wide, and life-deep journey that deepens our relationship with God, God's people, and all of creation. Sometimes the path is clear as we meander through life's labyrinth; other times it seems illusive. Fortunately for those of us who want help navigating our way, a group of Christian Educators and Ministry Developers created a type of guidebook that identifies recognizable signs of maturing in our relationship with God as well as thresholds we can cross as we accept increasing responsibility to proclaim God’s loving, liberating, life-giving Good News (evangelism) and to help others to find their path as we pass on our faith (faith formation). We will review A Christian Life of Faith: Signs and Thresholds along The Way and explore how individuals and communities can use it as a process for personal discernment as well as a guide for vestries and commissions on ministry as they provide faith formation opportunities.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNoyGd_F20zst2LpQQB2nL6aycKyj4xD/view Presenter: Julie Lytle, Director of Distributive and Lifelong Learning Initiatives Guns to Gardens/Guns to Grace allows faith communities to live out the words of the prophets – beating swords into plowshares, guns into garden tools and art. It brings new life to a community by reducing the risk of gun violence and gun crime related to unwanted, unsecured, unsafe firearms and turning instead to life-giving tools: growing food, greening neighborhoods, and feeding faith.
This workshop introduces resources to develop gun violence prevention ministries in the parish. Benefits include community partnership, violence reduction and peace promotion, artistic expression, deep healing, and living into the Way of Love. Presenters: Rosalind Hughes, Missioner for Peace, Diocese of Ohio Matt Wahlgren, Rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fremont, Ohio |
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