Varieties of Gifts: Women’s Ministry—ANEW
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, ECW and much more
Women's Ministry is for all women of the Diocese! Upcoming events include the ongoing ANEW
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Zoom gatherings on the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:00 AM. These last no more than an hour and half and offer a chance to see one another across the miles, hear a presentation and share thoughts. Contact Cindy Davis (
cynthiadavisauthor@gmail.com
) to be added to the list for the meeting link.
In November, we plan to welcome the Rev. Carolyn Metzler for a look at
Wildernesses
. This should be a timely and interesting event. Mark your calendars for November 20-21.
An exciting ECW (Episcopal Church Women) Zoom event is the
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September 12 ECW Province 7 Assembly.
The theme is
Carry the Light of Love
. Cindy Davis is the keynote speaker for this 3-hour event, looking at ways women’s ministry does
Carry the Light of Love
. Register early (
https://tinyurl.com/y8bq9j9e
) as on-line participation is limited to 100. The event video will be available on the Women’s Ministry website after the event.
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The Pandemic:
A prayer from the Community of the Transfiguration
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O God of grace and mercy
, as this pandemic runs its course around the world threatening everyone we know, and everyone we love, and everyone we will never have the privilege of knowing: Grant us inner peace that we may focus on what needs to be done and not done. Grant us grace to surrender that we might let go of non-essentials and choose love. Grant us courage to face with generous acceptance inevitable changes in our lives. Grant us faith to see you at work in the midst of all that is happening. Fill us with trust in you.
Amen
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News from
The Episcopal Church
& the Anglican Communion
(click on the headline to read the story)
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Hábitos de gracia, 7 de julio de 2020:
El margen de la expansión
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Habits of Grace, July 7 , 2020:
The growing edge
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The 4th of July weekend has just concluded and a new week has begun, but the titanic struggles of the old world continue. The struggles to face painful truths of our racial past, the struggles to find ways to fashion a new future, the struggles for racial justice and human equality and true human reconciliation. ...
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Evening Prayer
with the
LGBTQ+ Community
and our Allies
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Sunday, July 12, 2020 at 6:00 pm.
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There will be a service of Evening Prayer for the LGBTQ+ Community and our allies in the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande on
Sunday, July 12, 2020 at 6:00 pm
. This gathering will be held virtually in a Zoom format. The link is below. After the liturgy has concluded everyone is invited to stay in the meeting for some virtual social time. We would love to check in with you and see how everyone is doing. Everyone is welcome to attend. Invite your friends to join us.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 853 0405 8633
Password: evening
This liturgy of Evening Prayer will also be streamed to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Facebook Livestream:
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Are your Brotherhood of St. Andrew Chapters or men's groups meeting with zoom? If so and if invited, Roy Benavides,
roy.benavides@brothersandrew.net
, and Tom Bates,
thomasjbates7@gmail.com
would like to join you. Roy is the BStA Province 7 President and Tom is the DRG BStA Coordinator. Thank you for your support.
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Not a Challenge But a Gift:
Five Resources on Multi-Cultural Congregations
Every month ECFVP offers five resources on a theme. This month we've asked The Rev. Sam Dessórdi Peres Leite, who serves as the Senior Priest at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., to choose five resources that resonated with him.
Over the years, many people have said to me that multicultural congregations are challenging. In response, I have encouraged them to see diversity as an asset, as a new opportunity, and an element of power to enrich the Beloved Community.
And I speak of diversity not only from the cultural point-of-view but intergenerational and social as well. My current parish has the gifts of being multigenerational and trilingual, a diversity that mixes cultures from the bottom of the South American continent and the Caribbean to parts of Europe. It is a congregation that sits in the heart of the nation’s capital and brings together people who want to make a positive change in our society.
The first half of 2020 has become a season for new opportunities, to reimagine church life and its mission in new ways. Here are five articles I found insightful to my ministry and, perhaps, they will be to yours as well.
The Rev. Sam Dessórdi Peres Leit
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Because COVID-19 has changed our way of being church, many of us are still looking for the key elements on which to focus during these days of social distancing. Alan Bentrup on
Evangelism, Connection and Our New (Virtual) Reality
gave us five thoughts on ways to lower our anxieties about how to minister to our churches.
In a multilingual congregation, some misinformation and miscommunication is to be expected. It is hard to know how to react in the current realm of social media, but Annette Buchanan's article on
Misinformation
helps us to speak and share the truth more clearly.
Also from Annette Buchanan’s ministry, I was particularly impressed with her writings about how to engage in the conversation about racial justice in church, which led me to re-read her article,
Responding to Injustice
. This article has helped me in my own ministry and, even though it is not about today’s events, it offers some ideas on what can be done in the virtual realm.
Hey! What about children and teens, right? While March and April were months to understand how to redesign the way we worship and how to respond to the pandemic, we are still trying to find ways to support our children and teens during this storm. Summer has arrived and the article,
A Different Kind of Vacation Bible School
by Liz Perraud, helps us with some excellent ideas for engaging children and their families in conversation about faith without leaving home.
Finally, I highly recommend the article,
Icons: One Thousand Painted Prayers
by my brother/friend Jemonde Taylor. In the past year my parish has been working on what we call “the Icons of Justice”. The rediscovery of the spirituality embedded in the use of icons to voice our Christian beliefs of justice and peace has been transformational. Ancient iconography is here to teach us to pray using relevant language, symbols and skin colors. Liturgical language must be contextual, and its symbolism must contain elements of social justice. It is part of our inheritance as followers of the Jesus Movement to proclaim that the kingdom of God liberates us from all instruments of death and injustice.
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The Rev. Dr. Jeanine Driscoll of St. Thomas of Canterbury provides guidance on:
+ Managing Anxiety
+ Managing Depression
and much more....
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In the Loop is a publication
of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande
6400 Coors Blvd. NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87120
(505)881-0636 www.dioceserg.org
In the Loop is distributed Tuesday for publication Wednesday.
The submission deadline is noon on Monday.
To submit articles for In the Loop send to:
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