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Checking in: September 26, 2020 |
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Eliza Marth, former NW Region Missionary, taught us this chant that is heard in this week's BLT. She learned it as a part of her participation in the daily ritual with the Standing Rock Sioux as they fought the Dakota Access Pipeline. That pipeline endangered their only source of drinking water.
Some of the Standing Rock Sioux are 5th generation Episcopalians. They sang this chant as they made their way each day from the Sacred Fire to the River, remembering their baptismal vows.
This recording was done by Eliza with Rachel Field, Erin Flinn, and Maggie Breen in 2019. Photos from the Abenaki land of what is now Georgetown, Maine.
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For Future BLT's: I'd love to hear stories especially from parishes who have not yet been represented...do you know who you are? (I do). Please be in touch and we can talk what and how! Don't hide your light under a bushel basket!
If you do have a video in mind, please: use the landscape rather than the portrait format (eg horizontal rather than vertical) and please ask for a "File Request" from me to be able to easily load a HD 720 resolution video to a Dropbox link. (If that sounds complicated, it's not really!)
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ALSO: ECCT's Digital Storyteller is glad to share your stories. Please send an email to storytelling@episcopalct.org to be considered. Please keep it under 600 words (a Word Doc preferred) and any photos or images you'd like included.
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SE Region Convocation:
Moving beyond Complicity
NEXT SATURDAY!
October 3,
9 a.m. -11 a.m.
via ZOOM
Featuring Jenifer Frank, one of the authors of Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery.
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Ms. Frank will talk about the process of doing this research and writing about it, the response at the time, and how it changed her life. And we'll have time to talk about what all of this history has to do with us and racial injustices today.
What's the next step we can take to help create a more just and equitable world, a Beloved Community?
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The Rev. Stacey Kohl will be sharing a special video presentation reminding us of our baptismal vows. We need your help for this: please share photos of water in your life to this Dropbox link by September 25.
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Presiding Bishop Curry’s Word to the Church: What Did Jesus Do?
And now in the name of our loving, liberating and life-giving God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
This November, the people of the United States will elect a president and many others to public office. This election occurs in a time of global pandemic, a time when there is hardship, sickness, suffering and death. But this election also occurs in a time of great divisions. Divisions that are deep, dangerous, and potentially injurious to democracy. So what is the role of the church in the context of an election being held in a time such as this? What is our role as individual followers of Jesus Christ committed to his way of love in such a time as this?
Allow me to offer a text from the Acts of the Apostles. The introduction to the Acts from the first chapter. Luke writes, “In the first book,” referring to the Gospel of Luke:
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up into heaven.
“In the first book . . . I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught.” All that he did, all that he taught: Read more or watch it here.
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#VoteFaithfully Toolkit
This a resource from The Episcopal Public Policy Network that offers prayers, scripture, tips for advocacy, and action steps for casting your vote and helping others vote as well. Check it out in English and Spanish.
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Being Disciples and Apostles: learning to be Anti-Racist |
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Resources from the
Racial Healing, Justice and Reconciliation Ministry Network
To learn more about the season and Ministry Network of Racial Healing, Justice, & Reconciliation, visit our website here.
September 29, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
A Time for Reflection and Prayer
In June the Racial Healing, Justice and Reconciliation Ministry Network hosted a Time for Reflection and Prayer in the wake of the tragedy of George Floyd's murder. There was interest in having another similar offering. We therefore invite you to join us for another time of reflection and prayer.
September's event is again in collaboration with the Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation Ministry Network. It will be moderated by the Rev. Tracy Johnson Russell and Rev. Linda Spiers. Bishops Ian and Laura will join us for the evening. We hope that you will also!
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Building your Racial Justice library?
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement, ECCT has partnered with the Black owned Connecticut based Key Book Store as our main provider for print and digital educational text. USE SPECIAL CODE: (ECCT) at CHECKOUT FOR 15% OFF YOUR PURCHASE!
Need help discovering specific resources? Fill out this form to connect with Kelli Ray Gibson, our Racial Justice Resource Coordinator.
To learn more about the season and Ministry Network of Racial Healing, Justice, & Reconciliation, visit our website here.
How textbooks taught white supremacy: An historian steps back to the 1700s and shares what's changed and what needs to change. Harvard Gazette
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Watch the NY Mets and Miami Marlins take the field then walk off, leaving just a Black Lives Matter shirt behind
The Mets and Marlins jointly came up with the plan to take the field, remove their caps, stand in silence for 42 seconds in honor of Jackie Robinson, then walk off the field, leaving only a Black Lives Matter shirt on home plate, on Thursday evening, August 28th. This was the only one of seven Major League Baseball games Thursday not postponed that day in protest of social injustice. The impetus for the walkout was Mets outfielder Dominic Smith, though Miguel Rojas came up with the last-minute plan. "We wanted to do something special," he explained afterward. Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you’ll appreciate the message.
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Being Apostles of the Good News of Jesus:
Evangelism Grants available
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Application deadline is November 15, 2020
Grants award up to $2,000 for an individual congregation and up to $8,000 for multi-church, diocesan and regional collaborations.
The grants committee is seeking proposals that will:
- Create and spread resources that equip Episcopalians and churches to become evangelists and to share and receive faith stories in daily life.
- Create opportunities for people who are not part of a faith community to build their own loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with God in Christ.
- Aim for lasting, broad impact.
- Employ innovation and creativity.
- Promote church-wide learning, understanding and practical application.
Groups receiving grants are expected to make significant financial contributions toward their projects, and to report what they have learned to the wider church.
Funds will be distributed in early 2021.
The grant application, criteria, and additional information is available on The Episcopal Church website here.
A 12-minute informational webinar about the Episcopal Evangelism Grants Program is available here. The webinar features: The Rev. Devon Anderson, chair of the Executive Council Episcopal Evangelism Grants Committee; the Rev. Canon Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, member of the Executive Council Episcopal Evangelism Grants Committee; Jerusalem Greer, staff officer for Evangelism, The Episcopal Church; the Rev. Kammy Young, member of the Executive Council Episcopal Evangelism Grants Committee.
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Questing:
A way of love in Global Mission
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Please note: Airmeet works on Laptop/Desktop computers using a browser – Google Chrome is the preferred browser. It does not work on phones and tablets such as iPhone, iPad, Android phones and Android tablets.
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Living as disciples and apostles:
seeking the welfare of our communities, country, and world
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As I read newsletters from parishes and other nonprofit organizations, I can't help but be aware of the profound deed for "volunteers" -- a few of those "volunteer opportunities" are listed in the following sections.
Noticing this had led me to reflect on what it means to volunteer, and to be a volunteer. At the center of the word is the naming of something that is of one's own choice or desire. Alas, as we all know, that is the cat-herding nature of depending on volunteers.
And then I think about the prayerful plea of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Not my will, but yours, Lord." I think of Jesus living out his call and life before God with a sense that what he needed to do went beyond his own will and choice: in fact, that will and choice had to die, had to be given over to his Father's love for the whole world.
His prayer offers us a lens for looking at all the ways we can use our time, our abilities, our hearts: where do we sense such a call and such a love, that we are willing to give up our own will, so that God's work of healing and restoration may be done?
Rachel
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Disciples and Apostles feeding the hungry |
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Meal Site Leaders and
Coordinators Needed
for Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries
St. John's, Essex would like to re-open as a meal site, providing meals on Tuesdays. To do this, they need the help of more people who would be willing to either prepare food at home and bring it in for distribution, or help in the distribution - maintaining masks, physical distancing, and sanitizing procedures. If you are interested, please contact Ellen Pfarr.
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Disciples and Apostles offering hospitality for all |
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Friends, if you want to share in the gritty, practical, front-line work of racial healing, consider volunteering at the New London Homeless Hospitality Center. NLHHC has a very diverse staff, and our guests are disproportionately Black and Brown. As a volunteer, you will share in the suffering and joy of our guests and be a witness to the suffering and resurrection of Christ in the world; you will be the hands and feet of Jesus in this place. Clergy might find that the NLHHC experience is enormously
grounding and refreshing. Our COVID protocols are robust, but you should not volunteer if you have particular vulnerabilities. For more information, contact Deacon Ron Steed ronaldsteed@gmail.com, (860) 326-9576
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Middlesex Habitat for Humanity
The new site at 382 Hammock Road North will hold open volunteer days throughout the build, which will occur on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm.
Look for special weekends to build with folks from other faith groups - October 17 & 24.
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Urgent need
for rental properties
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Your help is needed to connect us to property owners with apartments for rent. Please contact Ann Faust at (860) 346-8695 for further information..
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On Monday September 15, parishioners in Saint Ann's, Old Lyme delivered these welcome baskets to St James Church in New London. The Homeless Hospitality Center places clients in their first apartments and uses these baskets to provide essentials to help folks get settled in their new homes.
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Disciples and Apostles caring for creation |
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The Friends of Whalebone Cove (FoWC, Facebook page) have a few Paddle and Pull dates in Hadlyme's Selden Cove.
What do they paddle? canoes or kayaks. What do they pull? The invasive water chestnuts. If you can help on any of the followings for the "Paddle and Pulls" in Hadlyme’s Selden Cove, please contact fowchadlyme@gmail.com:
Tuesday 9/29 - 9AM (Rain Date: Wed. 9/30 - 10 AM)!"
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Event from the Inter-Religious Eco-Justice Network |
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Can We Align Our Diets for Good Nutrition & Sustainability?
- Thursday, October 1
Join us for a 90-minute webinar on how we can create a dietary plan that is sustainable and climate-friendly, while also providing good nutrition. Our presenter will be Rebecca Boehm, PhD, Economist with the Environment & Food Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Presenter: Rebecca Boehm, PhD, Union of Concerned Scientists
Date: Thursday, October 1
Time: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
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Building Capacity as disciples and apostles:
our lives as leaders in parishes
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Budget of Convention - on Zoom
- two dates remaining!
Join the Mission Finance & Operations team as they discuss how the 236th Annual 2021 Budget of Convention was shaped and will continue to serve God’s Mission in ECCT.
October 1, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m
October 6, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
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Safe Church Training Fall 2020:
All ECCT Safe Church Training (SCT) includes an online course followed by a 3-hour live session on Zoom. New online courses are designed to reflect whether you have previously participated in SCT, whether you currently have oversight responsibilities for events, programs or others engaged in ministry, and ministerial roles. This training is grounded in our call to seek and serve Christ in all persons and respect the dignity of every human being. It offers an opportunity to increase and enhance our ability to live out our Baptismal Covenant within our communities of faith and in the world beyond.
There is no fee to attend. Parish leaders are responsible for tracking attendance of laity who need to participate in SCT as specified in Appendix A of ECCT's Model Safe Church Policies. Registration for SCT is through Eventbrite. To register, click on one of the dates below for a live follow-up Zoom session. These sessions are limited to 20 participants and registration closes one week before the Zoom session or when capacity is reached, whichever comes first. Additional training sessions will be added as needed.
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Episcopal Warden Private Facebook Group
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Being and forming disciples & apostles: in the home |
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Parenting in the Wilderness:
Monthly at 9:00 a.m.
ECCT invites you into a sacred space of compassion, grace, and fun, hoping to provide some support and fellowship to those of us struggling to make it all work, as we care for children. Gather with clergy and lay facilitators to hold one another up. Join the Zoom conversations here!
Please be sure your name in your Zoom “square” displays your name & your parish affiliation, so that we can safely be in conversation.
Upcoming leaders:
· Tracy Johnson Russell on October 8
· Rebekah Hatch on November 12
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Fed by Word and Sacraments:
Midweek opportunities for worship and study
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Sundays
Tuesdays
St. Stephen’s, East Haddam, 8:00 a.m.
St. Ann's, Old Lyme, 10:00 a.m. Morning Prayer via Zoom
St.John's, Essex, 8:30 p.m. Compline
Wednesdays
St.Mark’s, Mystic, 11:00 a.m. St. Mark’s Live - a grab bag of classes and conversations
St. Ann's, Old Lyme, 4:00 p.m. Prayers for the Season of Creation (outdoors in Memorial Garden; bring a cushion.)
Thursdays
Grace, Old Saybrook, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.: Zoom bible study of John's Gospel on 1st and 3rd Thursdays. Contact gracechurchrector@gmail.com for zoom link.
password 246835 Meeting ID: 662 330 272
One tap mobile +16465588656,,662330272# US (New York)
St. John's, Essex, 8:30 p.m.: Compline
Fridays
Deacon Ron Steed is hosting a weekly, guided healing-prayer meditation on Fridays at 8:00 am on zoom."I lead you into a safe and quiet space with silence and storytelling, then guide us through some healing prayer for whoever is on your heart.We should finish in about 30 minutes with a little time for reflection." Contact Ron for the link.
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Connected to the Wider Body of Christ |
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It's Coming! ECCT Annual Convention!
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The World Cafe Conversations will take place October 14, 15, and 16 and will be free of charge.
Convention Art Display: We Are the Body of Christ
We need your help producing a digital mosaic art installation as a part of this year's Convention. All we need is for you to submit an image of yourself--and hopefully get others from your congregation to do the same. Please send an image of yourself or, with their permission, another member of the ECCT to WeAreTheBodyofChrist2020@gmail.com.
Please send only JPEG, TIFF, or PNG files. Please be certain you have the rights to any image you send. Individual images will be very small, but there will be a lot of them, so lower resolution is preferable. Head shots are preferred to minimize cropping. Clergy are asked to send a shot in clerical collar. Full color images of Church buildings, interior or exterior, are also most welcome. There is no guarantee that any particular image will be included. Images of people will have top priority for inclusion.
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Digital Office Hours with Jasree and Alli! Every Thursday, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm. What a treat! Register here.
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Speaking of being connected to the wider body of Christ...
Are you signed up for the ECCT eNews?
CLICK HERE to get it delivered to your inbox! The body of Christ extends beyond the Southeast Region- Imagine!
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STAY CONNECTED WITH SE REGION |
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