Coffee Hour at The Commons

View Details

Season 8 of ECCT's podcast continues with our new co-host, the Rev. Stacey Kohl, and a special guest co-host, the Rev. Shancia Jarrett. Stacey and Shancia are joined by the Rev. Chuck Hoffman, as he remembers and reflects on his experiences at the first Mass Poor People's March in 1968 and looks to the future of the second Poor People's March, coming up on June 18, 2022.

Learn more about the Poor People's Campaign & the upcoming Moral March: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/

Register to be on one of ECCT's buses to the Poor People's March on June 18: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poor-peoples-campaign-march-on-washington-registration-320191179437

View Details

Season 8 of ECCT's podcast starts off with a meet and greet with the Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews, ECCT's Canon for Mission Advocacy, Racial Healing & Reconciliation. Learn about what drew Ranjit to the Episcopal Church and where he finds God in the work of racial healing, justice and reconciliation.

View Details

In this episode, Jasree is joined by guest cohost ECCT Racial Justice Resource Coordinator Kelli Ray Gibson and Dori Dumas and Antoinette Badillo of the NAACP Greater New Haven Branch. They discuss the history of the branch, the current work they are involved in, and ways listeners and participate in this much needed work in our own communities.

To sign up to become a member of the NAACP, please visit https://www.naacp.org/become-a-member/

View Details

On this episode, Alli and Jasree are joined with Chris Sikkema, the Manager for Special Projects in the Office of Communication for The Episcopal Church. Chris works with the Way of Love, Becoming Beloved Community, Episcopal Revivals, Sermons That Work, and the Episcopal Asset Map.

Learn more about Traveling the Way of Love here.

View Details

On this episode, Jasree and Alli interview the Rev. Carrie Combs and the Rev. Adam Thomas about their own podcast "A Podcast for Nerdy Christians." Carrie and Adam talk about the "Nerd Canon," and how they have been able to explore topics such as redemption, mentorship, and reconciliation in Star Wars, Marvel movies, Harry Potter, and other "nerdy" pop culture stories. At the end of the episode, listen to a few minutes of their episode on Way-finding in the Church and the Disney movie Moana. Find their podcast wherever you find ours and like their page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nerdychristians/.

View Details

In this episode, Jasree chats with Architect Duo Dickinson and the Very Rev. Miguelina Howell, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford about the ongoing renovations to the cathedral. Duo shares the design, challenges, and timelines of the renovation. Dean Howell shares what she hopes for the community in the new space.

View Details

On this episode Alli shares her experience at the Laundry Love of Greater Danbury at the White Street Wash in Danbury. Alli met with Denise Holl to learn about the ministry and where Denise sees God at work.

Learn more about Laundry Love at Laundrylove.org. If you would like to get involved with the Laundry Love of Greater Danbury, contact Denise at drholl @ yahoo.com.

LLGD is run by volunteers and funded by philanthropy. To keep costs and organizational functions to a minimum, St. James’ Episcopal Church functions as fiduciary for Danbury’s Laundry Love. Donations should be sent to St. James (25 West St., Danbury, CT 06810), and directed to Laundry Love of Greater Danbury.

View Details

Welcome to Season 7! We kick off this season by chatting with Bart Geissinger, Executive Director of Camp Washington. We learn more about Bart's journey from camper to director, the improvements done at camp, and what camp looks like in the time of COVID-19.

We are excited to be back for another season, and will be releasing episodes every other Friday this season.

View Details

Today Alli and Jasree welcome the Rev. Tuesday Rupp, the Rev. Norman MacLeod, the Rev. Rachel Thomas, and the Rev. Erin Flinn to discuss Creation Tenebrae, a service lamenting and praying for the state of creation.

More information and resources at CoffeeHour.org

View Details

Alli and Jasree are joined by Alan Yarborough, the Church Relations Officer in the Office of Government Relations for The Episcopal Church. Alan talks about why it is important for all to participate in the U.S. Census, the relationship of faith and politics, and the upcoming elections.

FROM ALAN --

Update on COVID19 and the 2020 Census: Since this podcast was recorded, the reality of daily life in the U.S. has changed. Regarding the U.S. 2020 Census, what is most important to keep in mind is that it is still moving forward, and it is easier now more than ever to fill out the census, online, over the phone, and by mail, all without having to see a census worker. Beyond that, the Census Bureau is working with health professionals to adjust their operations as needed and to keep the census data collection on schedule.

Additionally, some suggestions in this podcast involve in person interactions and messaging. As we temporarily shift many church activities to online platforms, let us know the creative virtual ways you plan to message about the 2020 Census within your community.

Alan also shares the resources available for Episcopalians for the 2020 Census, 2020 Election, and a Civil Discourse Curriculum, all of which can be found here.

View Details

In this episode, Alli and Jasree talk with Robin Hammeal-Urban and Deb Kenney, two ECCT staff members, about the upcoming Spring Training on Saturday, April 18 from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at Berlin High School.

Read more at CoffeeHour.org

View Details

I must be honest before I read the bios for our three guests, these are their words from the “Meet the Region Missionaries”info booklet from ECCT. I just paraphrased them. Okay here we go! ERENDIRA JIMENEZ - SOUTHWEST REGION MISSIONARY Erendira is a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School. She is originally from San Diego, CA and Louisville, KY — which is where she first made the Episcopal Church her home. Her professional work history includes social work, college chaplaincy, and congregational development. She has great passion for those who find themselves on the margins, both of the world and of the church, and working to create equitable, just, and loving communities. She believes in the power of storytelling, imagination, creativity, failing, and sometimes succeeding. She is also passionate about rock climbing, weaving, and hosting people for homemade meals. In her words, "I join you bringing a heart to listen—to ourselves, to our neighbors, and to the Spirit—and to discern together where God might be calling us to move from death into life, from darkness into light, and from indifference into love.” DYLAN MELLO - NORTHWEST REGION MISSIONARY Dylan is a postulant for the priesthood and just finished a two-year internship at Trinity, Brooklyn before accepting this role in the Northwest Region. Dylan’s background is in sports medicine, working previously as an athletic trainer at the University of Connecticut and EO Smith High School. He is originally from Massachusetts and has lived all over the East Coast before landing in Connecticut with his wife and two young daughters. His hobbies include traveling and exploring new places as a local. In his words, "I’m excited to connect and collaborate as we, together, explore what God is up to in this neighborhood and beyond.” GEORGE BLACK - SOUTH CENTRAL REGION MISSIONARY George is a New Haven native and a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University, who majored in English. For the past 15 years, George was a youth worker and advocate focused on the advancement and development of Black and Brown young people. Most recently, he was the Chief Dream Director for the city of New Haven with The Future Project. His vision and hope is to see young people, and all people, live into their fundamental identity as worthy of love and belonging from God and others, and their fundamental responsibility for the healing of the world. His passions include theology, spoken work poetry, the Black community in America, youth development, and boardgames. George joined the Episcopal Church in 2017, and since then it has been home for him. In his own words, "I am ready to discern the movement of God in this region and partner with God in making that movement a reality.” Alli begins the conversation asking the RMs "What drew you to this role?” Dylan said it was the use of the word “connection” in the job description. For Erendira, she is interested in working in the church at a larger sense, and excited to connect people. George said this was the first position that actually allowed him to do the work he loves and has been doing but root it in his faith. Alli asks that after one week in, what are some expectations and observations the RMs have had about ECCT and their region. Dylan said for him there is a bit of a change going from the Northeast Region, where he has been for the last seven years, to the Northwest Region. He said the position is still morphing, but is already witnessing the fluidity that exists between regions in ECCT. George said that he has seen his role to be a bridge to work with young people in the community in the South Central region. So far for his role in ECCT, he is still discerning how to dive into how this institution thinks about race and how to have those conversations. Something he feels a pull and call from God to have those conversations, despite the fact that it may be uncomfortable for other people. Erendira said that after this last week of on boarding - or “the holy dunk” - so there is a lot of information and conversations that has happened to help learn more about the motivation behind the RM role. What stuck out to her was that in those conversations, ECCT does not necessarily name justice, power, race, and other -isms that make up who we are ECCT. She is excited to do the work in her job description and bring to ECCT the push to transform as people and communities to work towards justice and the transfer of power. Alli said that she has witnessed that the standard in New England (similar to her home in DC) that the tendency to deal with injustices is to write a check. And while this is helpful, Erendira said, it is still keeping a distance between “us” and “them,” something she wants to help bridge. For George, this reminded him of a recent conversation with his brother around the definition of faith. Faith is what we do because we believe — it is the manifestation of what we believe. The next question Alli asked was around age — she makes an observation that they are all young, or young-enough, and having a conversation about religion, which can be counter-cultural. Alli asks how they see themselves as a young adult in leadership in the church. Erendira said that while she is a millennial, she is not a part of the youngest generation and unintentionally loses the pulse of the those young people and younger adults. She said she finds herself as a bridge and not the person will “all the answers;” but to connect with those who are 18 - mid-twenties where the energy is. Dylan said he still views himself as young-enough, and he also sees himself as a bridge between the younger generation to the older generation in the church. In this position, he feels like he can connect with younger people and older generations too. The collaboration efforts for the RMs is not necessarily between parishes but between generations as well. George says that the main difference he has witnessed has been the skepticism from young people of certainty with regards to spirituality and religion. Erendira said that in her work with college students, she has witnessed the same skepticism of certainty especially with regards to the inability to name and own the injustices that are a part of our church’s history. George talks about how the inability to own the injustices within the church has also driven people of color away from the church and the potential community. There is a lot to be thought through about how the church owns the truth that shows remorse and heart of God. Collaboration [between churches in ECCT] isn’t possible without acknowledging who we are, Erendira said. Erendira related the need to uncover the history of the church to therapy and the internal work that is done in therapy. Alli’s final question to the RMs was asking about what is something they do that fuels their soul? For Dylan, it is travel, and watching The Office. For Erendira, it is rock climbing. For George it is reading and boardgames.

View Details

My guest today is our very own Karin Hamilton! That is right I am interviewing Karin! Karin Hamilton is the Canon for Communications and Media for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. Karin has worked for the ECCT for 25 years. Before coming to ECCT, Karin worked for 8+ years at a local parish. Karin has an MS in Journalism, and her background is in sociology, which provides her with a well-rounded view to her work in communications. Karin is also an avid runner and lover of the Wild Wild West — mainly Utah. Her Friday afternoons are spent tending to horses at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding center in her home of Old Lyme. Karin has a unique and progressive approach to diocesan communication and the church at large. For example, her dream of hosting a diocesan podcast focused on the ministry and work of every-day Episcopalians is what launched this very podcast. Karin has also been the editor of the annual print magazine CRUX, which showcases the various corners of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut focused on a central theme that develops throughout the process. Karin will retire at the end of June, and by the time this podcast airs she will have already been retired for a week! The Episcopal Church in Connecticut and I truly honor and respect and thank you for the work you have done, Karin. Welcome Karin! Alli firsts asks Karin,What was the diocesan communications world like when you first started? Karin said it was very print-based and included a 6-time a year newspaper. This was a very lengthy and time-consuming process including many steps, actual cutting and pasting. Karin created ECCT’s first website in 1995. Karin said that one of the more shocking moments was earlier on in her career when the staff at that time were unwilling to engage with the media, including one time when a highly controversial person name to Connecticut. This is not how Karin approaches the media, she encourages churches and communities to reach out to ECCT if they have been featured in the news. Karin also remembers when Bishop Desmond Tutu came for Bishop Ian Douglas’ consecration and the Associate Press couldn’t show up. This was “Karin’s time in the sun” sending a few lines covering Bishop Tutu’s visit to the Associated Press. In her tenure here at ECCT, Karin has also written for a number of other publications. Alli asks Karin what other dreams have come true for her within the communication here in ECCT and what dreams does she have for ECCT's communications going forward. Karin says getting the diocese set into the digital communication world, and transitions the staff from one medium to another. Karin also tweeted the election of Bishop Douglas in 2009, which was a first for the church and for Karin. Karin says she has always wanted to have more focus on supporting and encouraging parishes with communication, and storytelling. Looking forward, Karin would love to see more churches take communication more seriously, and engaging their community in deeper conversations. Karin and Alli talk about the importance of the diversity in telling stories — image, text, video, audio, etc. and how those are adapted to the various platforms on which they appear. Karin hopes that the church will continue to realize that communication is important and will support it and help it grow. Alli asks what are some communications regrets you wish you had time to complete before retiring? With some humor, Karin says she wishes she was a bit more organized. She said her strength was in launching new ideas forward and not so much in recording or cataloging them once they were finished. Also, Karin regrets the lack of time dedicated to working with more churches individually. Alli asks Karin how this work has been for her spiritual life and her relationship with God. Karin said this work has been challenging. It has always encouraged her to ask where God is in her life, in the media, how is God using the work we are doing? Karin says it has been hugely spiritual for her. When she is stuck on a deadline or doesn’t know what to write, she asks “Okay God, help.” It has been a very faithful expression of how Karin is with God and how God is working in the world. Karin has been continued to grow — including recently chasing the understanding of what is the Cosmic Christ, which was introduced in the most recent CRUX issue. Karin says that her relationship with Christ is very much alive and very much beyond the church building. Alli talks about her experience working with Karin as a mentor and her encouragement for Alli to focus on her professional, personal, and spiritual work. Finally, Alli asks about Karin’s favorite “mis-communication” moments. Karin didn’t come up with any specific moments off the top of her head, but did mention that in her editing has come across some interesting misses — several coming from Alli herself. 🙂 Karin ends with thanking all the staff people she has worked with and who have supported her over the years, to the whole of Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and the Episcopal Communicators group. To read the letter of thanks to Karin Hamilton for her faithful work to ECCT, please visit EpiscopalCT.org.

View Details

Today our guest is the Rev. Jack Gilpin. Jack was ordained in 2012 and is currently the rector of St. John’s, New Milford.

Jack is also a professional actor who has starred in over 35 feature films and has been in many shows on and off Broadway and in regional theaters around the country. Shows including Law and Order,Kate & Allie, and movies including Funny Farmwith Chevy Chase, 21, and Adventureland. Most recently, you can find Jack on the Showtime series Billions playing the character Sean Ayles.

Jack is originally from Roxbury, CT. Jack also recently assisted with the lay preaching course in the Northwest Region. Jack is a graduate from Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University. He lives in Roxbury with his wife and they have three grown children.

Welcome Jack!

Jack starts off our conversation discussing how he got into acting— starting from his first gig as the Easter Bunny when he was 5. The feeling of connection and mutuality he felt with the audience, while on stage, has stayed with him since then. During his sophomore year at Harvard, Jack made the decision to pursue acting as his main career. He moved to New York City and worked several years off-off Broadway.

He talked about his early work in theater then about the first real play, which launched his career. That was “Beyond Therapy,”directed by Christopher Durang.

He was ordained a deacon in June 2012 and immediately went off to do two plays, which have been his last two plays. He then got a call to New Milford for a part-time position.

Jack grew up in the Episcopal Church and was given a King James Version bible from his Godmother at his confirmation. Though he didn’t attend church services often, whenever he felt anxious through his high school and college years he would turn to that KJV bible, which had Jesus’ words in red, and he found comfort and grounding.

In 1982, Jack walked in to Grace Church in Manhattan and within six weeks was attending regularly. He said what he was learning through theater, and about life, was best articulated and most truthfully presented in Christian terms in the church. He and his family moved to Roxbury after their third child was born, and he became a licensed Lay Preacher and attended Union Theological Seminary just to get a degree – not intending to pursue ordination.

After his third child went off to college, Jack preached a sermon in Roxbury and was handed a card from a woman who heard the sermon. It asked him: “What are you going to do about this because you have a calling?” He decided to go to a Priest Information Day.... and as he explained, one thing led to another.

Karin asks about Jack’s relationship with acting and the word of Jesus, which he alluded to earlier on. Jack mentions one specific incident in 1979 at the Eugene O'Neill TheaterCenterin Waterford, CT, at the National Playwrights Conference working on new plays. Jack was offered a spot in the conference as the lead and he said his performance was terrible. He knew his focus had been on himself.

In those days he turned to John chapter 3:20: “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” This is what he opened the Bible to and he saw the metaphor “come to the light” and the need to “come to the truth.” Truth is an essential component in acting, he explained. He went out the next time and “told the truth” – and it went much better.

Alli asks how Jack marries his role as a priest and as an actor. Jack says that he has had roles within television and movies that only require a couple days spread across a couple weeks rather than a play which requires more time. He mentions how his parish is understanding of his two careers, and they find it fun to see him on television.

He shares ways the two are similar, and “each feeds the other.” One of the main crossovers between the two professions is the attention to listening, which is endless food for the spirit, he says.

Karin asks Jack to talk more about what actors mean by “telling your truth” and might be the same or different from what that might mean to a Christian or even a priest. Jack quotes a conversation between Agnus de Mille and Martha Graham which highlights what “the truth” means to him. This is the quote:

During their conversation, de Mille told Martha Graham about her frustration. “I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be.”

Graham responded by saying, “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

Karin asks about whether his experiences as an actor have helped him step into leadership roles in the community. Jack said he’s used to getting up in front of people and he’s not afraid of making a fool of himself. He feels very passionate about his life and about the Baptismal promises. He brings all that to his role of a community leader.

Jack remembers a time 20 years ago, way before his ordination, when he played the role of a priest in a role. He witnessed the response people gave to the collar: they slumped and felt ashamed and judged. Today, as a priest, he loves to disabuse people of the notion that’s he’s here to judge; rather, he wants them to realize the joy that they are invited to experience with Christ.

Alli asks if there are other stories of worlds colliding with his spirituality and his acting. Jack told a story about the Bible he kept in his dressing room. Colleagues quietly and cautiously expressed curiosity and, when no one else was around, they’d ask him about it, and about his church attendance. Jack shared another story about working on Billionswith fellow actors who were cautious about working with a priest.

Both jobs feed each other, he said. He’s not limiting himself, he said, he’s increasing his database ... on both sides!

View Details

Today’s guest is the Rev. Lee Ann Tolzmann, who currently serves on the staff for ECCT as Canon for Mission Leadership, and we’ll talk about what that means.

Lee Ann grew up mostly in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but graduated from Glastonbury High School in Connecticut. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and General Theological Seminary. Lee Ann was ordained in the Diocese of Maryland, she served as the Assistant Rector at St. Andrew’s, Glenwood (Howard County, Maryland), and Rector of the Church of the Messiah in Baltimore. Lee Ann came to Connecticut in 2008 to serve as the Rector of St. Paul’s Church, Riverside. In 2015 she accepted the position of Canon for Mission Leadership for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. Lee Ann’s main role is working with parishes in transition and helping to find proper placements for clergy in transitions. She also helps to break down the misconception of what “ministry” looks like — mainly that it doesn’t look like a full-time rectorship anymore.

She is married to David, owner of the Labyrinth Company and one of our first guests on the podcast. They live in Berlin, CT and have two grown daughters.

Welcome Lee Ann!

Alli starts with a tough question: What does ministry look like right now and how has that shifted over time, and is it the same in other dioceses? Lee Ann jumps right in to tell us about the changes and how churches are responding. It’s not as bad as it could be ...

She describes the difference in the various titles ECCT uses for parish priests, primarily between rector and priests-in-charge, and ECCT variants of those priests-in-charge.

We talked about the challenge of finding priests who can serve as missional priests-in-charge in particular, defined as less than half time. Some are only 10 hours a week – the minimum needed. Retired priests are less likely than in prior years and decades to take on these jobs, and training and formation is slowly adjusting to allow more people to be ordained who will also have other employment, generally secular. The need for more part-time clergy is increasing and the number of available priests isn’t really keeping pace with that need.

Alli asked if enough young people are being ordained to replace all the current Baby Boomer generation priests who are now retiring; Lee Ann gave more statistics and noted that in the 1980s and 1990s bishops chose not to ordain younger people, and while this has now changed, that affected both the supply of priests and prevented the church from receiving the charism that younger clergy bring.

But the fact is, she said, we don’t have, and aren’t going to have, enough priests in ECCT for every parish to have its own priest, and the change in model is very difficult for many lay leaders to accept – even though that model was an anomaly in the Anglican Communion and in The Episcopal Church.

We switched topics, and Karin asked Lee Ann to share how she came to be a priest, herself, about living in Baltimore, and about her time serving in parishes in Baltimore and later, in ECCT. She arrived in Riverside right after the financial crisis hit, in 2008, and found preaching to be especially important in that community at that time.

We asked for her reflections on the future of the church, and she’s hopeful – as long as the focus is on what God is doing, and following that -- and not on “growing the church.”

View Details

Our guest today is the Rev. Catherine Amy Kropp. She is a newly ordained priest of the Episcopal Church from the Diocese of Maine. Before pursuing ordination Catherine Amy worked as a former high school teacher and she is also a Maine guide. For the past year she's been pursuing her Master's degree in Sacred Theology degree at Yale Divinity School, focusing on the Cosmic Christ, and also serving as the liturgical coordinator of the University Church in Yale. Last fall the magazine for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut had a big spread on the Cosmic Christ and an interview with Catherine Amy, so today we're going to find out what she's been up to since then.

We started by asking about whether her studies were over and learned that she had just finished! She shared that she had focused on the Cosmic Christ, and why that matters for parish ministry, how people understand ministry, mission, social justice, and spiritual formation - the practical applications of the Cosmic dimensions of Christ as based in scripture, especially for our world today.

She helps us understand the "Cosmic Christ" and how that is the same and different from the human Jesus, and what it emcompasses (hint: Everything). Embracing the Cosmic Christ calls us into a bigger story that we often see or understand, and calls us into a greater sense of God's presence, and intimacy. And if that's true it draws people into a deeper connection with everything and everyone in the world around us.

On a practical level, she described some of the work she did at St. Peter's, Cheshire as a seminarian and later a transitional deacon, talking about how they saw themselves as followers of Christ and their response to the world around them as followers of Christ - the earth, and the people in it.

Alli asked what pursuing this has meant for her own spiritual life, and she talked about seeing a new luminosity in the world, and learning a new way of being present.

Karin asked about connections between her current pursuit and her time spent as a Maine guide, and Catherine Amy talked about her time in the forests of Maine and her experience of being present in the land.

We also talked about "thin places,"and how the Cosmic Christ offers an opportunity to dwell in that space. She shared an experience of running in the dark as part of that conversation.

Karin shared that she'd gone to Iona and a few things learned there about Celtic Christianity; it turned the conversation to suffering and God's presence in it, and how that understanding has a practical application. (And it wasn't Julian of Norwich, it was Hildegard of Bingen, who talked about the two wings.)

Alli asked about how being a science teacher and her spirituality and work with the Cosmic Christ, and she talked to us about those insights.

Are there more "Cosmic Christ-ers" out there? Alli asked, and Catherine Amy shared some of the current and recent theologians and writers and leaders who are focused on the Cosmic Christ - and similar explorations outside the Christian tradition. (See below)

When thinking about practical applications for a parish, Catherine Amy's work is still unfolding, she said. She's learned the importance of the parish context, the particularity of place, and how that particularity will influence how she'll approach parish ministry in any particular place. It will also help a parish understand itself in a larger way, and help them understand see, and respond, in ways they may not have had before.

At the end, we asked how people could learn more and here are a few suggestions:

CRUX magazine interview, fall 2018 (as reprinted w permission on the BDS site)
REFLECTIONS magazine, " Reaching for Radiance," spring 2019
Teilhard de Chardin (see American Teilhard Association
Thomas Berry, (and particularly his book, Dream of the Earth)
Kathleen Duffy, SSJ
Ursula King
Catherine Amy's Yale advisor, Mary Evelyn Tucker

View Details

Today we have with us Pat Cage and Ana Arellano, both of the Friends of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. And today we’re going to learn about that grassroots organization. We held the interview in the Annand Room of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, in New Haven and Pat joined us by phone.

Patricia, or Pat, Cage, is from Saint Luke’s in Darien. She was one of the founders of Friends of the Episcopal Church of Cuba 2016 and serves as their executive director. Before that Pat served as director or president of several non-profits in Connecticut including Person to Person and A Better Chance. Pat has a degree in business marketing from Cal State University.

Ana Arellano is Cuban American and an active member of St. Peter’s, Cheshire. She is also an artist and a journalist, specializing in Latino news, photographer and freelance writer, webmaster and social media afficiado, and earlier, a bank vice president. Ana has a BA from Yale and lives in Cheshire. She’s been involved in Friends of the Episcopal Church in Cuba since its creation and oversees their Facebook page

Friends of the Episcopal Church of Cuba is a US-based volunteer organization working with Bishop Griseldo to help her and her team in Cuba. They have a website and Facebook page, friendsofeccuba.org.

We began with Pat telling us how she got involved in this, a story that started with her home parish of St. Luke’s, pursing possible mission partnership opportunities. She and her husband visited in 2016 with a group from the parish, and were hosted by Bishop Griselda of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. Bishop Griselda shared her vision with the group, and shared a small strategy document. That inspired Pat and her husband to offer their expertise in developing a larger strategy document and business plan that could be used to approach large philanthropic organizations, for example. They also learned the bishop wanted a U.S. based support organization, and that became the genesis of the Friend of the Episcopal Church in Cuba. The priorities come from Bishop Griselda and respect the Cuban Episcopalians’ creativity.

Ana then shared how she got involved in the organization. It was at an ECCT conference that she first heard about the opportunity for the mission trip to Cuba; prior to that she hadn’t thought much about reconnecting with her homeland.

Karin asked what the priorities of the Friends are now, and Pat said that Bishop Griselda is focused first on providing food and water in many communities. People line at the Cathedral to get water, Pat said.

Alli asked about the number of parishes, and while Pat gave a number, Pat and Ana shared the impact of the Cuban revolution and its aftermath on churches. While the Episcopal Church in Cuba is relatively small, they both saw that in many of them, the first few rows are reserved for children.

Before we ended, Pat and Ana talked about the historic vote last year, 2018, by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church to readmit the Episcopal Church of Cuba into the full embrace of the Church, and the efforts by the Friends organization to generate support, and some of the committee meetings that led up to the vote. Ana talked about what it meant to her as a Cuban American Episcopalian.

Visit: https://www.friendsofeccuba.org/ for more information!

View Details

Today’s guest is Kelli R. Gibson, a YDS student, who was hired in early May to serve as ECCT’s Racial Justice Resource Coordinator as authorized by Annual Convention 2018. Kelli is a native of New Haven who attended the city's public schools. She completed her undergraduate studies at CCSU with a dual major in psychology and criminology. Currently she is in a Masters of Arts in Religion (MAR) program at Yale Divinity School, with a plan to concentrate in ethics. She's also a part of YDS' Black Church Studies certificate program, with expected graduation dates in 2020. Kelli has work experience in municipal and regional policy administration, sales, group home residential program management, and development consulting. She is the president of the Black Graduate Network at Yale, a leader in New Haven's "Pinky Promise" network, a ministry sponsorship director, a member of New Haven's NAACP Legal Redress Committee, and a New Haven Promise alum.

After reviewing Kelli’s bio, and how the position came into being, Karin asks Kelli what she studies at Yale University. Kelli says she is interested in the intersectionality in trauma, faith, and human flourishing. She just finished up her first year of her two year M.A.R. degree. She is also a part of the Black Church Certificate program at Yale.

Kelli was attracted to the position was the bold language used for the Racial Resource Coordinator and ECCT’s dedication to racial healing, justice, and reconciliation. Kelli says this aligned with her spiritual, moral, and personal values. Karin asks what are resources for this work or what is the scope of resources that could become available from this position. Kelli says when she thinks of resource she thinks of tools — everything in one, to become an essential tool.

However the understanding of what resources are, how to gather them, etc. is still being worked out. Kelli currently is working on a request form that will become available at episcopalct.org.

Kelli says that right now she is the most interested in taking the temperature of the diocese and where parishes are, and seeing where God is and what could be done.

Karin asks if there is a specific order to address Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation. Kelli brought up the important question of “healing for whom?” What audience are we reconciling or healing? Alli points out that there is a tendency to assume that the healing within Racial Healing could be absorbed by individuals waking up to their white privilege and then seeking to be consoled. Kelli says that there needs to be an awakening, yes, but then with that awakening there needs to be a reconciliation, healing, and most importantly a change. The change is essential to the healing of all.

Karin and Alli mention how great a gift it is that Kelli is not an Episcopalian, and has the ability to come in and change what ECCT has been doing. Kelli says that she is not interested in the surface-level things to check off a box, but to shake up the homeostasis.

Alli asks if Kelli is interested in creating resources or finding and using resources are already there. Kelli says it is a combination of both, because some resources that work somewhere else may not work here in Connecticut. Kelli hopes to help build up leaders from the community, and embracing each other as resources.

Alli, Karin, and Kelli then talk about why Kelli is on the Communications team rather than other departments within the diocese. This allows an opportunity to root all communication from the diocese in the lifestyle of Racial Healing, Justice, and Communication, rather than allowing it to become a box to check off.

Kelli mentions the difference between diversity and inclusion: diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance. Kelli wants to focus on the intentionality throughout this season and lifestyle.

A year from now, Kelli hopes this will go be a monumental moment that the ground is shifting, and the work continues on. And, to help change the culture of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.

Kelli roots her life and work in Romans 12:2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

View Details

Our guest today is the Rev. Canon Nicholas T. Porter. Nicholas, former rector of Trinity Church in Southport. He is the Executive Director and Founder of Jerusalem Peacebuilders: jerusalempeacebuilders.org. He is the re-founder and past director of the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem as well as the founder of Anastasia Pilgrimages in France. Nicholas holds advanced degrees in Middle East Studies, Theology, War Studies, and Conflict Transformation. A two-time graduate from Yale University, he served on the board of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, initiating key projects in theology and in Jerusalem. In 2016 Dwight Hall at Yale awarded him the Curran Prize for distinguished public service. Jerusalem Peacebuilders (JPB) is an interfaith, non-profit organization with a mission to create a better future for humanity across religions, cultures, and nationalities. Integral to that mission is the belief that the future of Jerusalem is the future of the world. To that end, JPB promotes transformational, person-to-person encounters among the peoples of Jerusalem, the United States, and the Holy Land. JPB’s interfaith programs focus on uniting Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans and providing them with the opportunities, relationships, and skills they need to become future leaders for peace in the global community. A passion for peace drives our mission and partnerships power our program. Welcome Nicholas! Alli asks in Nicolas’ own words to describe what the Jerusalem Peacebuilders is. Nicholas says the primary mission is to promote peace through education. The first session started with 11 people, and this summer it’ll be over 100 young people. JPB started off with offering summer programs focused on leadership. While there are fun camp things like canoeing and ropes courses, these young people also focus on hard conversations and interfaith dialogue. Next step was to introduce experimental-learning courses in school in Israel, Palestine, and the United States (especially in Houston, TX and in CT, VT, MA) which became a 4-year curriculum. These courses are geared to four areas: understanding their identity, communication skills, recognizing conflict, and conflict management. JPB uses Critical Youth Empowerment, a program to work closer with young people to become instruments of change. This focuses on providing three specifics things to flourish the growth of young people: providing a safe environment, a low-power asymmetry, and working towards a realistic contribution by the group. This final part usually results in a project the young people work towards in their community. Alli asks where JPB receive the funding for these programs and how are the young people able to participate. JPB receive fund from individual donors, Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem, and mission funds in ECCT. It costs about $3,000 to being over a young person from the Middle East to participate in the peace-building programs. Nicholas says that what is fundamental for change is the removal of oneself from the environment they are in. Therefore it is essential to peace-building to gather together outside of their current environment and community, and return back. Nicholas shares one particularly spectacular story of a young person that has gone through the JPB program. Nicholas stopped by The Commons on his way to New Haven and then on to New York. One of the five programs JPB offers is based in New Haven and hosted by Christ Church, New Haven. The group of 20 young people spend the first half of August working with IRIS - Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, visiting the United Nations, meeting with Ambassadors. An exciting new initiative the group in New Haven will be doing this year is happening on Thursday, August 8 a service learning program. JPB with the Muslim community in New Haven, the Mishkan Israel in Hamden, and Christ Church, New Haven are hosting a city-wide interfaith service day. All day long there will be groups working in parks, a feeding station, working at IRIS, and with Habitat for Humanity. This event is open to anyone who is interested and would like to attend. To wrap up, Alli asks how this work has been spiritually for Nicholas. He said both the conflict and peace-building reside within his family history and within himself, which he didn’t realize would take hold until he went to Jerusalem himself. Nicholas said that his faith and life were traumatized by 9/11. On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Nicholas and his wife decided to work towards the future — peace.

View Details

In this special edition of Coffee Hour at The Commons, Alli hosts conversations with various people who make up the community and congregations at our Cathedral in Hartford.

She begins with a conversation with the Very Rev. Miguelina Howell, Dean of our Cathedral. They talk about the Centennial season this year, 2019, and all the wonderful events happening at our Cathedral throughout the year. A couple of years ago, our Cathedral was invited by the bishops into a discernment about the role and mission of the Cathedral in Hartford. This celebration of Christ Church Cathedral’s Centennial is an expression of our Cathedral’s identity and what they are embracing as a congregation and as a spiritual home for all of Connecticut.

This episode you will learn about the congregational life of our Cathedral, the various committees associated with Christ Church Cathedral, Church by the Pond, Church Street Eats, and Music Moves Hartford.

Alli first interviews the Rev. Canon Jorge Pallares, Canon for Congregational of Life at Christ Church Cathedral. She asks Canon Pallares to describe the life of the congregations that meet at our Cathedral. Canon Pallares says the life of the five congregations here are active and dedicated to ministry. The congregations meet throughout the week, including one congregation that meets beyond the walls of the Cathedral. Canon Pallares shares how he became involved in this position, and how the congregations are involved in the city of Hartford.

Next, Alli interviews Jilda Aliotta, the Chair of the Congregations Committee. Because the Cathedral is made up of multiple congregations, there is no vestry, so the Congregations Committee fulfills that role, in some ways. Jilda has been a member of Christ Church Cathedral for 30 years, and has been a member of the committee for four years. The committee is becoming more programmatic, organizing the programs and events at our Cathedral.

Alli then talks with individuals about the various ministries happening in, at, and by our Cathedral. She meets with Andrew May and Nancy Jacob to talk about Church by the Pond, again with Nancy Jacob to talk about Church Street Eats, Kevin Bishop to talk about Music Moves Hartford - and you’ll hear a clip from the practice - and finally with Theresa Greaves to talk about the Wednesday Wellness and the Zumba classes. Alli also grabs some Zumba Music to get you moving this Friday afternoon!

This episode wraps up with asking Canon Pallares how folks can pray for the congregations and the life of our Cathedral.

View Details

Today our guests are Eliza Marth, Northwest Region Missionary and Anne Hall, Junior Warden at St. John’s in Pine Meadow. Both Eliza and Anne were both participants in the first region based lay preaching course last Lent in 2018. The second round just finished up on March 3. Twelve people participated from five parishes and communities. The course met for four weeks. We begin our conversation talking about what is lay preaching. Anne says that it is not only the lay members of a congregation that preach under the guidance of colleagues and the priests, but it is also a deeply formative practice for adults. Alli asks how the lay preaching class came to be. Eliza shares the genesis of the class from the basement of Trinity, Torrington and the desire for a part-time priest wanting more diversity in the pulpit. As Region Missionary of the Northwest region, Eliza took a leadership role with two other leaders and 12 lay preaching students. The classes in the first round of the classes first concentrated on bible passages that were sermons as examples. Anne says that one thing that had been very valuable for was spending time talking about the difference between preaching and public speaking. Preaching, for Anne, requires an openness of her own faith. Alli asks why Anne and Eliza both said “yes” to participating in the first course. Eliza says she said “yes” because was very drawn to the process of wrestling with the text and then sharing how the Gospel has transformed in her life. Eliza also says that lay preaching is practical in order to free up some time for priests, and to bring more lay voices into the pulpit. Anne says it has helped to build community within the congregation and in the region, representing all types of backgrounds. Anne said “yes” because she thought it was an interesting challenge. The second round of lay preaching classes finished up in March. Alli asks Eliza what the differences were between the first and second rounds of classes. First, Eliza says, the Rev. Peter Stebinger, who created the first course curriculum, moved away. Those classes were recorded and are offered as resources for those in the second class. Other priests have stepped in to lead the second class, sharing more insights and resources in response to the feedback given from the first course. Alli asks if the vulnerability that is required with preaching has translated to their non-preaching life and relationships. Anne shares that this process has opened her eyes to the difficult job that priests have to be that vulnerable each week. It has, for Anne, helped her open up about and articulate her faith to others. Eliza says that this has helped integrate the Gospels into her daily life, and articulate how God has moved in her life. Eliza shares about how the lay preaching courses has expanded to other regions. In the Northwest Region, there is a desire to have continuing education for lay preachers. On Saturday, June 22, the Northwest Region will host their Region Convocation, which will have a Revival including lay preachers and testimonials.

View Details

Today we are doing something a little bit differently. The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens will be leading us in a prayerful meditation/reflection on Good Friday. We invite you to utilize this time for some quiet. It might not be the best podcast to listen to in the car, but rather take 15 minutes out of your day to sit with God and pray. There are intentional pauses throughout the recording, please utilize them for times of prayer and personal reflection. Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

View Details

Today we have two guests with us, Dom Gautrau and Boris Sigal. Boris works to make sure the Community Purchasing Alliance (CPA) has the capacity to provide a great experience for member institutions and vendors alike. That includes building out operational systems to accommodate an increasing number of members and service offerings, benchmarks that maintain financial strength, and strategies to continue to grow cooperative purchasing and social impact opportunities. Dom is a long-time member of St. Francis in Stamford. Dom has served several terms as vestryman at St Francis. He currently sits on the diocesan Property Committee. Five years ago he started a fuel buying program called Faith Fuel Initiative for 4 parishes in Fairfield County that has saved them thousands of dollars annually. Alli asks how both Boris and Dom got involved in the Community Purchasing Alliance and this initiative here in Connecticut. Boris shares that he began this work in DC with several non-profits joining together to make a group purchase to lower their electricity bill. His thinking was “what can we do together that we cannot do alone,” and a CPA was a result of those informal conversations. Dom tells his story of getting involved in a CPA in Connecticut, which he felt was a natural extension from his 2015 Faith Fuel Initiative to include other non-profits nearby on a group purchase. A few weeks ago, 36 organizations - including 21 ECCT parishes, mosques, schools, and temples - have purchased electricity together. Alli asks how parishes have reacted to this opportunity. Dom says the 21 parishes have been very excited to participate, particularly about the saving potentials with a group purchase. There is another opportunity in September for parishes who did not get in on the first way of community utility purchasing, Dom hopes this will be enticing for other parishes facing financial difficulties and looking for a chance to save on utility bills. Boris shares that this also offers an opportunity for collaboration between multiple faith-based organizations and non-profits. CPA offers stepping stones, Boris says, and this allows for organizations to open up to working closer together on other topics as well. Dom adds that the positivity and encouragement in the conversations between the organization is hopeful for the future. Alli asks Boris and Dom to walk through the steps for a parish to get involved. Boris shares that the first step is to send a copy of the parish’s or organization’s utility bill, right now CPA is working on heating bills. Next there will be a conference call for the organizations to ask questions, share what is important, and solidify a commitment. Next a steering committee is formed organically in the group. So the next steps for parishes is to submit parish and non-profits fuel bills to CPA to begin the process. You can send those latest utility bill and recent contract to: boris@CPA.coop. For heating, send the heating tank size and how many, and other information. Dom shares that folks can reach out to him personally as well. Alli asks if this is something communities and neighborhoods could do. Boris shares that while it would be possible, the size of the purchase is important to negotiating a lower cost. Boris says that this coop and working together is an opportunity to protect individuals and non-profit organizations who are not laser focused on the details of their bills. To wrap up, Alli asks Dom and Boris how this work has been for them, spiritually. Dom says that watching parishes working together joyfully has been spiritually fulfilling. Boris says that this is very spiritual for him, as an immigrant/religious refugee, this work that focuses on working together is the American dream, for him. To get involved in this collaborative community utility purchasing alliance, send the latest utility bill to Boris@CPA.coop by the end of April. There’s no commitment until contracts are signed.

View Details

Today's guest in Greg Farr, archivist for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut since last October. His office is at The Commons.

Greg is not entirely new to ECCT, as he helped transport and set up the archives at The Commons in Meriden from the old Diocesan House in Hartford in 2016.

Before working for ECCT, Greg ran the medical library and archives of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA, a hospital celebratings its centennial this ,year that sponsors one of the largest - and some say finest - psychoanalytic libraries on the east coast. Greg first got into archival work at Monticello, working on the presidential catalogue of Thomas Jefferson.

Greg received his Masters in Library & Information Sciences from Drexel University. In the article introducing Greg to ECCT, he said he was looking forward to advocating the history and value of archives and the knowledge maintaining history provides, especially here in Connecticut.

Beyond ECCT, Greg likes to read theology and play guitar. He lives with his wife in Colebrook, which he calls the "icebox of Connecticut," and they have three grown children.

Greg starts out by saying how much he enjoys being in his current position, and how he likes that ECCT's history parallels U.S. history. He talked about what's in our archives, the different types of media, and how much space it takes up.

Greg shares his thoughts about how the Anglican Church, later to be The Episcopal Church, contributed, as an organization, to the development of the US. He thinks of the Church as like a quilting point.

Next he shares some of the interesting finds from his work in the ECCT archives, some of which have come through requests from researchers. (Was the sexton of a St. Paul's in New Haven murdered in the 1850s? Was there an African Mission Society in the 1830s and was Frances Scott Key really on its board?)

Some of Greg's work is now to convert our holdings to accommodate digital access, he said, but he still works with paper a lot. In response to a question from Alli, Greg says that there are many ways that the archives and his role as archivist can assist parishes — from providing founding documents to blueprints. He is also available to visit parishes and assist with keeping records and preservation. He suggests to parishes to keep all minutes, records, etc.

Greg talks about his work with Monticello and how he went from a ticket salesperson to working on President Jefferson’s retirement library. One thing that really stood out to Greg was Jefferson’s copy of the French Encyclopedia, one of the firsts of its kind. After his work with Monticello, he went to grad school in Boston and worked with Elie Wiesel, which shaped his understanding of memory and identity. His love for archives came from a project he worked on at Episcopal Divinity School.

View Details

Today our guest is the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carol Gallagher, Regional Canon for the Central Region of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Previously, Bishop Gallagher served as the assistant bishop of the Diocese of Montana, where she developed a close relationship with Indigenous leaders and communities, trained clergy and lay leaders on issues of race, gender, and inclusion, and led the Task Force on Native Issues. Before Montana, Bishop Gallagher served as the assistant bishop in the Diocese of North Dakota, Diocese of Newark, and Diocese of Southern Virginia. Developing strong relationships with Native tribes and communities, as well as educating Episcopal communities on the significance of the intersection of race, culture, gender, and class, has been a focus of her ministry for a long time.

Bishop Gallagher is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She has served on numerous committees, task forces, and boards, including the Episcopal Church Council on Indian Ministries, the Anglican Indigenous Network, Anglican Peace with Justice Concerns, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Episcopal Divinity School Board of Trustees and the United Way of America National Board, to name a few.

Alli sits with Bishop Gallagher while she was visiting New Haven, CT as a keynote speaker at Yale Divinity School for “Fully Native Fully Christian: Converging Rivers and Indigenous Canons” conference. Bishop Gallagher’s father was a Presbyterian minister, and her mother was a Cherokee woman. Bishop Gallagher tells Alli about her call to ministry from a young age and the significance of her consecration as the first female native bishop.

Bishop Gallagher discusses the relationship of The Episcopal Church and Indigenous communities, stating that the relationship ebbs and flows depending on who is in leadership within the church. In her ministry, she has traveled around the country to train lay leaders within Indigenous communities as a way to empower all individuals in the church. Bishop Gallagher shares a story that has really stuck with her in her work with native people. When she was traveling in New Zealand she learned the importance of “making things your own” from the Maori people.

She shares ways to get involved and empower local Indigenous communities, from visiting the Mashantucket Pequot Museum to learning about the local communities’ history, and truly listening to stories of native peoples.

Within her current work in Massachusetts, Bishop Gallagher shares that she works closely with parishes and clergy in transition. One thing that is exciting in the next year, 2020, will be the 400 anniversary of the landing on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. Bishop Gallagher plans to work with the community in Plymouth, the Wampanoags, and Indigenous folks in Virginia to better understand the complexities of the story and how the church participated - both helpful and destructive and everything in-between.

This work has been both a spiritual blessing and challenge for Bishop Gallagher. She refers to it as a balancing act, but God has always provided. Bishop Gallagher shares that the conference she is at, which brought her to New Haven at Yale Divinity School, is helping to form a community on the East Coast for Native folks within the church.

To close, she asks for prayer for the church to be open and to embrace the multiplicity of expression as a gift.

View Details

Today Coffee Hour at The Commons is on the road again, in Bristol, at Shepard Meadows Therapeutic Riding Center. It’s on land donated to the Episcopal Church in Connecticut to be used for ministry, which is an expression of God’s love, and that’s certainly what’s going on here. The vision for the use of the property and some of its buildings for a therapeutic riding center started in 2004 and the center officially opened a year later with two horses and a pilot program for three children with special needs.

Today it is a premiere accredited center, one of six in the state, accredited by PATH International, the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship. It has seven horses in its herd, lots of volunteers, and a staff of five. Today we’ll be talking with its executive director, Shelly Whitlock-Pope, who’s also a PATH-certified instructor, and Dave Demarais, a long-time volunteer with the center, Vice-President of its Board of Directors, formerly on the staff of ECCT for property management. That was after retiring from serving as the Deputy Fire Chief of West Hartford. (Here’s a link to a story about Dave from when he retired from ECCT staff.)

Shelly was appointed to her position last August. She has degrees in health administration, elementary education, educational leadership, and administration and policy; a background in healthcare, finance, education, and programming, and has worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the NYC Department of Education, Pegasus Therapeutic Riding and Manhattanville College. In addition to being a PATH-certified therapeutic riding instructor, she is also an equine specialist in mental health and learning, a mentor and site evaluator, and Special Olympics Equestrian Coach. She was trained and rode English for years and even patrolled NYC’s Central Park with the Mounted Auxiliary but says her true loves are riding trails Western, and her two American Quarter horses.

View Details

Today is International Women’s Day, so today we’re going to talk about an upcoming United Nations session focused on women and girls. Our guest is not only an active lay Episcopalian but a leader in a historic and international Episcopal organization serving girls and women. Lois Frankforter attends Grace & St. Peter’s in Hamden. She is a lawyer at a Connecticut law firm and also a girls varsity lacrosse coach. Lois is a leader in the Girls Friendly Society, GFS, and currently serves as president of the GFS/USA. In addition to serving on the national level, she leads GFS on the local, diocesan, and province levels. Last spring, Lois attended the meetings of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, sometimes referred to as UNCSW, as the delegate from Province One, the New England dioceses, for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. The event takes place at the UN headquarters in New York City. This year’s UNCSW is being held March 11-22. The gathering will review the conclusions from a prior year’s session, on women’s empowerment and the link to sustainable development, and address this year’s theme, which is “social protection systems, access to public services, and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Charlotte Healy, a youth member of Trinity, Southport, is the Province One delegate this year, and she’s promised to share her experience with us on social media (which we will share on our Instagram @episcopal_ct). Lois starts our conversations off by telling us a little bit about what the UNCSW is and how this two-week session works. Much like the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, there are delegates and event that are happening specifically for delegates and representations, as well as parallel events happening. People come from around the world to attend this gathering. The Episcopal Church is recognized as a non-government organization, and 20 people at a time are granted access to the session and mingle with ambassadors, delegates, etc., and sit in on the opening ceremony. Attendees from The Episcopal Church choose topics to follow throughout the two weeks, and try to handout copies of the Presiding Bishop’s statements on various topics. The broad topics of UNCSW highlights how interconnected all topics related to women and girls really is: gender, food insecurity, poverty, environmental concerns, etc. The work Lois does with UNCSW influences her work with the GFS — always seeking to provide safe space for women and girls to grow. “The mission is global, but the work is local,” was one of the most significant take-aways Lois took from her work with UNCSW. Lois walks through the application process and what it is like to represent The Episcopal Church at UNCSW. Applications are usually published in September, are chosen in October, and meet regularly on the phone until the gathering in March. Lois reassures that UNCSW celebrates all the work has done and the progress that has been made in the realm of support for women and girls. The focus is not solely on the work that need to be done. Each gathering, the UNCSW will have a review session on a topic from years past to follow up on what countries, governments, and organizations have done in response to previous years. Alli asks what it is like for Lois to coach girls lacrosse, a very localized work. Lois says that sports are an incredible way to support women. Coaching, for Lois, is a lot like what she does for the GFS, empowering girls to become good leaders, friends, and well-rounded individuals. Lois reflects on the recent Nike advertisementhighlighting women in sports. Lois states how important that ad is as it shows that with great passion comes great emotion. Lois mentions that there are many commissions in the United Nations on a variety of topics (indigenous peoples, environmental initiatives, etc.) throughout the year and the topic of women and girls is interconnected with many of them. Lois says that it is also important to remember boys when talking about women and girls, that one cannot make progress in gender equality without including men and boys in the conversation. There are men at the UNCSW bringing their perspective as they are in the minority at the commission. Karin asks if Lois’ participation in the GFS and the UNCSW had an impact on her own personal spiritual life. For Lois, GFS is her personal check-in: if one works with young people working on developing their faith, it requires you to work on your own faith. Lois says that her work has taught her that you can bring a faith-based perspective to the work of social justice. Lois asks all to pray that people come with an open heart and mind, and for guidance for the commission. Follow the UNCSWonline.

View Details

Today our guest is Jerusalem Greer, member of the "Way of Love creation and leadership team with The Episcopal Church. Jerusalemis an author, public speaker, multi-hobby enthusiast, and blogger on her website jerusalemgreer.com. She is the leader for the upcoming Episcopal Province of New England Faith Formation Leaders Gathering all about the Way of Love. She was also just named staff officer for evangelism for The Episcopal Church.

For Lent, The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in Connecticut are embracing the Way of Love, encouraging folks to Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, and Rest.

Welcome Jerusalem!

Jerusalem calls us in from her farm in Arkansas. We begin our conversation about the Way of Love and Lent by asking what is the Way of Love and how she became involved in the creation and leadership. Jerusalem says that it is not a program, first and foremost, but rather it is a Rule of Life, similar to that of a monastic Rule of Life, with seven spiritual practices. It came out of the Presiding Bishop’s launch of the Jesus Movement and people’s reflections on how to participate. RenewalWorks later wrote a white paper based on its research showing that Episcopalians have a deep hunger for a deeper spiritual life.

The Way of Love started with two questions: "how can we help disciple our people in practical ways?" and "how what does it mean to be a part of the Jesus Movement?”

Alli asks how Jerusalem got herself involved. Jerusalem is very involved with FORMA and The Episcopal Church’s Evangelism team, and was asked to help come up with this initiative. They were in a room in Virginia Theological Seminary for many hours looking at various monastic traditions and writings, and came up with six practices to which they gave one-word names: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, and Go. The Presiding Bishop came up with the seventh, Rest. Although the Presiding Bishop starts with Turn and ends with Rest, Jerusalem assured listeners it's ok to begin and end wherever.

For Lent, which begins on Wednesday, there are curriculums and various resources available at Episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove. One curriculum works through the seven words and practices and can be applied to small groups, bible studies, etc. There is also a curriculum dedicated for silent days and reflective days, perfect for Lenten retreats. It is also possible to look for resources on the website by word as well, and narrow it down by desired audience and media.

Jerusalem said that the two Way of Life practices that she has felt God “pressing in,” are in Rest and Bless. She explains that she feels that Rest is really about posture and how we define Rest — treating yourself and true soul rest. She asks what practices can help her establish a resting soul rate, like a resting heart rate. For Bless, Jerusalem views it as Evangelism and how that looks like as a blessing, which is different than Go, which is more like Outreach.

During Lent, the Episcopal Church in Connecticut will offer weekly reflections following the Way of Love from our Region Missionaries on all our social media platforms! All of this information will also be available on the ECCT’s weekly eNewsletters which you can subscribe to here.

View Details

Our guests today are the Reverends Carrie and Nik Combs. Carrie is the full-time curate at Trinity in Newtown. Nik, who's originally from Idaho, is a part-time priest-in-charge at Trinity in Torrington and works part-time at Class Cycles in Southbury. Carrie, who grew up in Cheshire, was ordained a priest in 2018 and Nik was ordained a priest in 2017. Carrie and Nik, who are married, met pursuing their Masters in Divinity at School of Theology at Sewanee. Carrie and Nik were married in 2016 at St. Peter’s in Cheshire, Carrie's home church. Carrie is 29 and Nik is 32, which matters as we are going to talk about what it is like for them as a young married clergy couple.

We start our conversation talking about their time at Sewanee as a young engaged couple, and how they came to Connecticut. They moved to Connecticut without any jobs, they decided together to have Carrie find a full-time position in an established parish in a more traditional curate role. Carrie and Nik, although they work in two separate parishes, they have discussed the possibility of collaboration (something they have done for Christmas services) and what that would look like serving together in one parish, something other clergy couples have done.

Karin asks how ministering to folks of various ages is for Nik and Carrie being young adults. Nik jumps right in stating that it is something he has thought about a lot, and that it isn’t so much ministering to different generations but rather ministering to people in different places of their life. Nik states that the pressure he has felt is that there is a stereotype that the voices of Millennials (he identifies as one), especially Millennials in leadership, are not heard. He also says that there is a major complication of disseminating communication across generations.

Nik discusses how he tackles that challenge through a communications portal. Carrie talks about her experience as a curate and the difference between that and a priest-in-charge position.

Alli asks what it is like to manage this full-time curate position and a part-time priest-in-charge one, which is almost like a reversal of traditional church and gendered roles. Both Nik and Carrie said they are still drawing what a diagram of managing this lifestyle is like. Nik states that it is like looking into another world of other priest roles.

Carrie and Nik talk about what their prayer life is like in their relationship, including sometimes reciting morning prayer together and singing together in their cupola. Collaboration is very much a part of their marriage and positions as priests in Connecticut.

View Details

Today our guest is the Rev. Tuesday Rupp, Rector of St. Paul’s in Woodbury.Tuesday describes herself on Twitter as a “musician turned Episcopal Minister” with “ears tuned to the holy since 1975.” Before serving as Rector of St. Paul’s, Tuesday was the Assistant Rector for Formation and Arts Ministry at Church of the Heavenly Restin New York City, where she served for five years. She graduated with an Mdiv. from Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music in 2013, and holds a bachelors in Music from Boston University and a Masters in Music focused on conducting from Portland State University. She was ordained a priest in October of last year. Welcome Tuesday! We begin our conversation with Tuesday asking about what it means to be a "musician turned Episcopal Minister” with “ears tuned to the holy.” Tuesday shares that she grew up both in the Catholic Church and the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church; she learned music looking at her grandmother's hymnal. While she was in graduate school in Oregon, she worked at a Presbyterian church and her “real formation began in earnest.” She found a deep theology through her music. She said she always came to the church through the choir door, something that happened again when she attended the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale Divinity School. Tuesday reflects on her experience of coming from a large parish — Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City -- to a smaller parish in the “most charming town” in Connecticut: Woodbury. While she misses the collaboration that comes in a large parish with multiple moving parts, she does find the close-knit community of Woodbury and the Episcopal Church in Connecticut to have a strength all its own. Tuesday ends by singing us a congregational music piece called Arise, Shineby her friend Ruth Cunningham, published in Music that Makes Communityliterature.

View Details

Today our guest is the Honorable Steven Mullins, President of the Southern Connecticut Chapter of UBE (Union of Black Episcopalians) and Commissioner of Planning & Zoning and a Justice of the Peace in the city of West Haven. The Union of Black Episcopaliansis a successor organization continuing a tradition "of more than 200 years of Black leadership in The Episcopal Church." Locally, there is a chapter in Hartford and the Southern Connecticut Chapter which was formed in 2013, following the merger of the New Haven and Bridgeport Chapters. Steven is the chapter's first president following this merger. The focus of the Union of Black Episcopalians is to serve as an organization of predominately Black clergy and laity that advocates for Black Episcopalians and commemorates the lives and ministries of Black saints in the Episcopal Church. Steven was born in Glenwood, Alabama and came to Connecticut at the age of 5. Steve is an active member of the Holy Spirit, West Haven. He is married to Jean and they have two extraordinary children, both actors Nora and Christian. We begin our conversation learning about Steven’s history with the Union of Black Episcopalians, beginning in 1966. His introduction to UBE was at a celebration at Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford celebrating the feast day of Absalom Jones, which the church remembers on February 13, the first Black ordained Episcopal priest. Steven says the hallmark of his participation with UBE thus far has been the 2013 burial of Mr. Fortune, an enslaved man in Waterbury who died in 1798 and whose body was used for scientific research without the family’s nor Mr. Fortune's consent for years after his death. Steven, and the UBE Southern Connecticut chapter, helped arrange a wake at the Connecticut capitol and the burial at the Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury. Steven shares that although The Episcopal Church does have a Black presiding bishop, and the Episcopal Church in Connecticut has had a Black bishop diocesan, there is still more work to be done. He says it is the goal of UBE to make the black Episcopal presence known in the church and to encourage more Black leadership — particularly lay leadership. The Southern Connecticut chapter of UBE hosts a number of events, including their annual Martin Luther King Jr. memorial service and their Celebration of the feast day of Absalom Jones, which will be held at 3:00 p.m. on February 24, 2019 at Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford. Steven provides us with a “Cliff's note” biography of Absalom Jones, a full biography is available here. Karin asks what Steven’s goals or dreams are for the future of UBE, to which he responds to make sure people of color are in leadership roles in the Episcopal Church. If you are interested in joining the Southern Connecticut chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians, or learn more about what they are up to, Steven encourages you to email him at smullinsjpwh@aol.com or see their Ministry Network page.

View Details

Today we’re airing a special episode to coincide with the first day of Black History Month, although you can listen on any day of the year. Our four guests today are intentionally from the Black diaspora, which Wikipedia describes as a “worldwide collection of communities descended from African peoples.” They were all recorded separately.

Here’s the outline for the episode, including the bios of the guests, except for the interview which you’lll hear later, then we’ll get started. There will be a prayer, three poems, an interview, two more poems, and another prayer.

The Rev. Rowena Kemp, priest in charge at Grace Church, Hartford, will read a confession that’s part of the recommended liturgy for Episcopalians in Connecticut on February 10, a Sunday that was chosen by its members at their Annual Convention last fall to be a Day for Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation, part of a Season of Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation. Rowena will close the episode with a prayer as well, reading a collect from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

In addition to serving as Priest-in-Charge at Grace Church in Hartford, Rowena is chaplain for the national Girls Friendly Society USA. She is a member of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut’s Standing Committee and numerous other groups, and serves as co-leader of the Episcopal Church’sRacial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation Ministry Network. She has a Master's in Clinical Research Administration and a Master's of Public Health, Health Policy and Management from New York Medical College. Before her work with the church, Rowena worked as a program manager for Yale University School of Medicine and is skilled in molecular biology, biochemical research, DNA sequencing, and biomarkers. Rowena graduated with an M.Div from Yale in 2013 and was ordained that year. She then served as a priest for the Middlesex Area Cluster Ministry, then assistant rector at Trinity on the Green in New Haven, and has been priest-in-charge at Grace since 2016.

Dr. Eleanor Q. Tignor, a retired English professor who organizes an annual African American Read-in at her church, Trinity on the Green, New Haven, when people from the church and community take turns reading from African-American literature. She will read three poems, two in the beginning and one at the end. The first is, “On Being Brought From Africa to America.” It’s from the 1770s and was written by an enslaved woman. The second is “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the original poem by James Weldon Johnson that was put to music and is known as the “Negro National Anthem.” The third is by Dr. Maya Angelou and called, “Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem.”

Dr. Tignor is a retired English professor, Professor Emerita, of LaGuardia Community College (City University of New York). There she taught African American Literature and other English courses for 29 years, as a follow up to having taught at two colleges in Baltimore, Maryland, namely Morgan State College (now University) from which she received her B.A. in English and Coppin State College (now University). She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Howard University, Washington, D.C. Both graduate dissertations are on African American fiction writers. Active over the years in professional organizations in English, she served as president of the historically black College Language Association and on various committees of the National Council of Teachers of English. It was as a member of the Black Caucus of the NCTE that she became interested in introducing the African American Read-In at Trinity.

Our interview today is with Enola G. Aird, Esq., an activist mother and lawyer, who talks about the Community Healing Network, which she founded in 2006 at her church, St. Luke’s, New Haven. CHN has continued to expand and now has a global impact. It has a visionof "a world in which all Black people have moved beyond surviving to flourishing, and are enjoying life in all its fullness, in body, mind, and spirit" and a mission"to mobilize Black people across the African Diaspora to heal from the trauma caused by centuries of anti-Black racism, to free ourselves of toxic stereotypes, and to reclaim our dignity and humanity as people of African ancestry."

Enola G. Aird describes herself as an activist mother. A former corporate lawyer, she has worked at the Children’s Defense Fund, leading its violence prevention initiative and serving as acting director of its Black Community Crusade for Children; is a past chair of the Connecticut Commission on Children; and was a visiting scholar at the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Barnard College and earned her law degree from Yale University. She was born in the Republic of Panama, of Caribbean heritage, and attributes much of her vision and passion for the movement for emotional emancipation to stories passed down in her family about her great-grandfather, Samuel Alleyne, a loyal follower of Marcus Garvey.

Our fourth guest is Marc-Yves Regis, a Haitian-born photojournalist, author and poet, who will read us one of his poems giving tribute to Rosa Parks, and another poem about his personal experience, which he titled, “My Face.”

Marc was born in Haiti and spent his earliest years there, learning to love photography; he immigrated to this country and became a citizen in 1996. He earned a degree in photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and worked as a photojournalist for the Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, and the Hartford Courant, and as a freelancer. He is the author of five books about the people of Haiti and their ongoing struggles. He is also the founder and director of Camp Hispaniolathat provides annual summer camps in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, serving over 150 at each site. He frequently works as a photographer for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, covering many of its significant diocesan occasions and events of the past nearly two decades, and also provides major photography for its annual magazine.

View Details

Today's gnarly episode is with Connecticut's surfing priest, the Rev. Matt Lindeman, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Milford. He is originally from Nebraska, and both his parents are Episcopal priests. In eighth grade he moved to San Diego, California where he cultivated his love of surf and church. Matt came to Connecticut in 2009 and began working with the youth group at Trinity, Southport in 2013 while serving as director of family ministries there. Matt lives in Milford with his wife, two children, and multiple surfboards. He is a returning guest to Coffee Hour at The Commons. Read a New Haven Register article about the surfing priest. We talked about surf boards; how he started surfing as almost "morning prayer" before Algebra class, how he eventually got better (after falling and falling and falling), and all of the lessons he learned from his experiences. For Matt, finding God in the wilderness sometimes means paddling into the open water with San Diego or New York or Connecticut behind you. A few years into his relocation to the east coast, he got back into surfing through his work in Southport, which lead to creating a larger youth group surfing trip ever October, where he still teaching! He has found new places to go surfing (he likes to go toward Rhode Island and the Cape). Built up relationships with east coast surfing shops in Narragansett, which rented out wetsuits and boards to the youth group. Now, in Milford, he still takes advantage of days off to head out with a board or two, or sneaking in a few hours before or after a friend's ordination to hit the water, and uses plenty of metaphors from surfing in his sermons.

View Details

In this episode we dive into JJNMA - what? We find out about a pilot program for a new missional project in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut to help parishes and individuals deepen their spiritual life and raise financial resources for engaging God's mission. With us today are the Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, bishop diocesan of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) and Tiffany Reed, Assistant Vice President at CCS Fundraising, a strategic fundraising firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. (more bio below) We started by exploring where the idea came from and whether joining the spiritual component with the fundraising component is new or unique, and how it particularly makes sense for Connecticut at this time. The bishop took us through some of the past history in ECCT, with its "Living Local Joining God (LLJG)" initiative for parishes, and some of the related resolutions that led to working with CCS. He also talked about what it means to "Join Jesus" and what the "New Missional Age" is all about. Tiffany then helped us look at what this looks like on the practical level, which includes reaching out to parishes, and how CCS works with clergy and lay leaders to help develop a culture of generosity. We talked about what parishes might want to raise new money for, and what fundraising for ECCT and Region initiatives might include. We ended with each of them sharing how this work is a spiritual practice! If you're interested in learning more, you can contact Tiffany Reed, Consultant to Joining Jesus in a New Missional Age, at treed@episcopalct.oro About our new guest: Tiffany Reed, Assistant Vice President at CCS Fundraising, a strategic fundraising firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. At CCS, Tiffany provides operational and strategic support to a team of 15 directors and works with client partners, planning and implementing programs that achieve fundraising goals and mission impact. Her work focuses on feasibility studies, assessments, and comprehensive campaign efforts. Prior to joining CCS, Tiffany spent ten years in the education sector as a teacher, administrator, and nonprofit program manager. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, where she earned an A.B. in Political Science and Mathematics.

View Details

Today we're having a conversation with Rich Stein about the Global Philanthropy Leaders (GPL) initiative that works in churches with small groups of motivated, reliable, and curious youth to help them make microloans to those who wouldn't otherwise have access to capital.

Rich lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut with his wife and they are members of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Ridgefield. Rich is a co-founder of the GPL initiative, along with St. Stephen's rector the Rev. Whitney Altopp and their youth coordinator, Jane Lindenberg.

Rich has worked as a private investor for the past two decades. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA in Marketing & Strategy from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University. In addition to being a member of St. Stephen's he now chairs their investment committee, and he also serves on the board of trustees for the investment funds of the Episcopal Church of Connecticut, or ECCT.

Rich joined us by phone, from Chicago.

We began by trying to understand what GPL is all about. (It is NOT related to the free software license also called GPL!!) “It’s about offering youth the opportunity to make a tangible difference in people’s lives half a world away by making microloans to help [them] start or expand a business ... “ he said. They’re also learning how faith helps them inform those decisions.

We got into some of the details of how it works. He talked about what he’s looking for in the young people – high schoolers - who are selected to be part of the initiative, and teaching the guidelines for making the microloans. He later shared that each youth receives $200 to make the loans and is asked to add $25 of their own money.

We also talked about what constitutes a microloan and he provided the example of a farmer who wants to buy a cow for $500 – a huge amount to the farmer, but too small for a bank. And there’s no collateral. Rich explained microfinance work. He works through Kiva, an international nonprofit, and said available loans are listed on the Kiva website. That’s where the GPL youth leaders find their opportunities.

While Rich teaches some of the guidelines and practices that have helped him over the years in making microloans, St. Stephen’s rector wanted to add an explicit component for faith. They incorporate the practice of “Dwelling in the Word” of scripture at their meetings.

Whether we like it or not, money is an exchange of value, Rich said, so we have to be willing to discuss money on a spiritually mature basis.

Rich said the initiative has already spread from St. Stephen’s, Ridgefield to St. John’s, Bridgeport and Saint Luke’s, Darien. To expand further, GPL recently applied for and received a grant for $11,000 from ECCT’s Sustainability Development Fund,which addresses any of the 17 U.N. Sustainability goals (microloans address 13 of 17). The idea is to find additional parishes that want to host a GPL initiative and are willing to match a grant of $1000 with $1000 of their own.

Toward the end of our podcast, Rich explained how he got into microfinance, and how his involvement in microfinance as a spiritual practice. He appreciates that he’s been able to help some of the youth not only learn about economics and microfinance, and to see how it intersects with their faith.

On February 9, 2019, from 1-2 p.m., following the Southwest Region Convocation at St. Matthew’s, Wilton, Rich will do a “Come and See” presentation about what it would take to start a GPL initiative at their parish. More info here.

View Details

In this episode, Coffee Hour at The Commons is on the road again, back at Camp Washington, the summer camp and year-round conference center of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and located on 300 acres in the northwestern hills of the state. Technically, they’re in Morris but their mailing address is in Lakeside. The topic is inspired by a resolution passed at last summer’s General Convention, A010, which called attention to the role that these diocesan camps play in the work of caring for creation. It also asked them to plant groves of trees. (See the resolution for details).

Our guests are two camp staff members and a trustee on the board: Bart Geissinger, Executive Director of Camp Washington since 2015 whose previous work had been as development director at several private schools and foundations; Ben Thompson, the chef and food services director at Camp Washington for nearly two decades; and the Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan of Connecticut since 2007. Laura oversees several environment ministry networks and serves on the Camp’s board of directors.

We started by talking more broadly about the very first part of that resolution, where it states the importance of Episcopal camps and conference centers in environmental stewardship and care for creation, and heard how Camp Washington does this.

Bart talked about infrastructure (energy efficiencies and consideration of solar power); Ben shared how he goes about selecting vendors when considering food supply, often choosing local and organic food sources. They’ve also put in some raised bed gardens. Not only have these produced great vegetables, but it’s included as part of the summer program for children attending camp. They love to weed! The n chaplains also use the gardens as an opportunity for teaching about God’s creation.

Ben has also started tapping maple trees to make syrup to use at the Camp. They talked about the Christmas tree farm they’ve planted; what they’ve learned from it; and how they hope to use it as a draw for some related events in the future.

Laura talked about how the “practical” is also the “sacred” – The physical beauty of the setting at Camp invites people into a sense of spirituality that people may not find in other places, she said, and it’s why she likes to hold meetings and other events at Camp.

Next we talked about the land and its features, including water, trails, and trees. Bart mentioned their outdoor camping program, and their outdoor chapel. Ben, who’s lived on the property with his family for about 17 years, gave more insight into its history and some of the animals he’s seen.

Bart said that there’s a sense of relief when people arrive, they still complain that it’s too far to travel to get to the Camp. They’re working on how people prepare.

Laura returned to the idea of the outdoor chapel as a place where she feels particularly at peace and Bart talked about other ways they use the outdoors as a place for worship.

We turned back to the resolution again and its call for Episcopalians to plant trees. Camp Washington is open to it, if there’s energy for it, and we discussed Region Confirmation events at Camp as a possible opportunity. Laura wondered if it was something that could be done in a local context.

We ended with final questions to each of them about how they see God at Camp and how their experience of God’s creation, at Camp, contributes to their spiritual life. You need to hear these answers!

View Details

Our guest today is the Rev. Ann Perrott, a specialist in prison ministry who has facilitated healing courses in four different prisons.

Ann comes to us from Massachusetts, though she lives in southeastern Connecticut now. She earned her first degree in speech pathology from Emerson College and her first career was as a social worker with developmentally disabled adults. After discerning a call to ordination, she attended EDS in Cambridge, Mass, graduating with an M.Div. in 2013, and was later ordained to the priesthood. She has served several interim positions and in January 2019 will begin serving as conditional priest in charge at Christ Church, Middle Haddam. In this episode, however, Ann will talk to us about prison ministry, and her work as president of New Life Ministry of Southeastern Connecticut.

We began with finding out what “New Life Ministry of Southeastern Connecticut” is – it’s a program for women coming out of York Correctional Institution, in Niantic. They providing transitional housing via some apartments they have – that’s critical - and lots of mentoring – and that’s the other critical component. It’s a selective program and the ultimate goal is for women to become independent of any person or program, reconnect with their families, and be a productive member of society. Most women are able to move on after about six months.

Ann talked about how the program was started about 20 years ago by Tom Moriarty and a group from Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Old Lyme.New Life Ministry is a successor organization, which they navigated collaboratively. Ann’s been with them for two years so far.

We talked about the challenges for the women coming out, including their fears, and heard how Ann and the mentors work with the women to address those. It’s a balancing act, she said.

Ann has been involved with prison ministry for 11 years, both in Massachusetts and in Connecticut. She started with the healing course for men in prison, and described that process; then talked about how she got started with the re-entry program and later, took over as president. Her role has grown to include a current focus on fundraising. (link hereto donate and for other ways to offer support)

Then we went back to more conversation about the women coming out of prison, then the mentors, particularly their sense of hope. She thinks they’re all amazing.

We ended by talking about how this work has an impact on her own spiritual life, and how she sees God in it. And, for ways that people can join in prayer for the women, and the mentors.

View Details

Today’s guest is the Rev. Rowena Kemp, priest in charge of Grace Episcopal Church in Hartford. She is also a member of ECCT's Standing Committee, chaplain for the national Girls Friendly Society USA, and participates in or leads numerous other committees and groups including one we'll be talking about today, the Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation Ministry Network.

Her first two advanced degrees came from New York Medical College: She has a Master's in Clinical Research Administration and a Master's of Public Health, Health Policy and Management. Before her work with the church, Rowena worked as a program manager for Yale University School of Medicine and is skilled in molecular biology, biochemical research, DNA sequencing, and biomarkers.

Rowena graduated with an M.Div from Yale in 2013 and was ordained that year. She then served as a priest for the Middlesex Area Cluster Ministry, then assistant rector at Trinity on the Green in New Haven, and since 2016, as priest-in-charge of Grace Church, Hartford.

Rowena started us with prayer, then we jumped right into conversation about the Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation Ministry Network. The name of the ministry network is long but it describes their intention, she said. The network started after the 2016 Trinity Institute as a follow-up to that, and grew over time in partnership with other groups addressing the issues.

Currently the RJHRMN is helping ECCT to get involved in the Season of Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation, called for by a resolution of ECCT’s annual convention, and other related initiatives. (More on this page.) Rowena said that the hope for the Season is for it to be a time of education, of safe space for healing and reconciliation to take place, and there would be opportunities for each of us to look at how we’re complicit.

We talked about others engaged in this work including a working group from the Leadership Gathering, which merged with the ministry network earlier this fall. There was a Planning Summit recently at which different groups met to look at the tasks involved in rolling out the Season and providing related resources and opportunities.

One of those early opportunities was to attend a play in October at the Ivoryton Playhouse, “The Queens of the Golden Mask,”a story about the women of the KKK. Two hundred tickets had been made available to Episcopalians across the state. Rowena talked about the impact of watching that show, and particularly how it impacted her as a person of color. And, how it provided an opportunity for conversation.

Over the Season there will be more opportunities for Episcopalians to -- as Rowena said -- “sit together in uncomfortable spots and at the end be able to hold each other and love each other and be able to see each other for who God calls each of us to be.”

We talked about the planning summit held Nov. 28. She described the six areas of work that the RHJR Ministry Network had identified, and the work of other participating groups.

Rowena shares some personal experiences, and invites us all to participate in the Season, as true allies.

View Details

Today we have five of the six founding members of YAE spelled, “Y A E” Young Adult Episcopalians, in the South Central Region. The group launched in fall 2017 and has held several events for young adults in the New Haven area and larger South Central Region.

The Rev. Elise Hanley is the Assistant Rector at Trinity Church on the Green in New Havenand an Assisting Priest at the Episcopal Church at Yale. She has been ordained for two years, and is originally from New York.

The Rev. Paul Carling is the Chaplain for the Episcopal Church at Yale,a position he has held for five years. Before Yale he served in a variety of parishes in Vermont and Connecticut and was a professor of Psychology for many years.

Mary Beth Mills-Curran is a candidate for ordination with the diocese of Massachusetts and is in her third year at Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School. She serves as the program director for the Episcopal Church at Yale.

The Rev. Rachel Field, a returning guest on our podcast, is the Region Missionary for the South Central Regionof ECCT. She has held this role for just over a year and a half, and is a key supporter of this collaborative ministry between various parishes and ministries in New Haven.

Alli Huggins, serves not only as our co-host for Coffee Hour at The Commons, but also the Digital Communications Associate for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.

The sixth member, who could not make it, is the Rev. Keri Aubert the priest-in-charge at St. Thomas Church in New Haven.

We met in the library and office of the Episcopal Church at Yale, and Alli wore headphones, so she sounds all subdued, slow, and smooth compared to the rest of us. Actually we’re getting new equipment soon, which will include headphones for everyone, so she’s practicing.

We began with how YAE began; the Episcopal Church at Yale was the spark behind it. Young adults at Yale (or Yale/Berkeley) have opportunities for formation and fellowship, but there wasn’t much for young adults in congregations. Mary Beth said she was part of a similar model in the Diocese of New York

They started in New Haven and have opened it up to other churches in the South Central reason; it claims an Episcopal identity but doesn’t want to be exclusive. It leans toward engagement beyond the divinity school but everyone is welcome. “Young adult” is considered 21-35.

ECY received a grant for their ministry to fund events, identifying young adults as a “mission field.” The grant supports food for fellowship events.

There’s no agenda for the future; the call has been to be present in the community; to gather and talk about what it means to be a Christian now, so people 21-35 can ask questions, or know they’re not alone.

Bruch is like the main thing that church conflicts with, said Mary Beth, adding that it’s an encapsulation of how a life of faith is in some ways swimming against the stream of what our culture calls us, encourages us, to do. The church calls us to be a different type of community, she said, then asked: What does that mean for my friends, and how I experience my life socially? Being a Christian and going to church will disrupt the pattern; ministries built on the “skeleton” of building fellowship first and foremost are the most important and allow the Christian life to be sustainable; not to be lonely, she said, and others agreed.

YAE can show people how to do that, to make space for young adults to have full lives in the church.

The group talked about a few of the events they’ve had so far; they try for one event a month.

We closed by hearing each of them share how this has impacted their own personal spiritual life, and their insightful reflections on its importance and implications.

View Details

The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens is bishop suffragan for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT). Laura is a graduate of Princeton University and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and has a D.Min. from Hartford Seminary. She was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in Massachusetts and served two parishes in Massachusetts before being called to Saint Luke’s, Darien and later to St. James’, Danbury. She was elected as bishop suffragan in 2007 and consecrated later that year. Laura has been to the Holy Land twice, and is a co-leader for the upcoming 2019 pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The Rev. Harrison West, rector of Christ Church in Guilford. A native of Oregon, he received in BA from Carleton College in Minnesota, and studied architectural history at the University of Oregon, and earned his M.Div. from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and after his ordination served parishes in Maryland, Oregon, and Tennessee before taking the position in Guilford in 2010. Harrison has taken one trip to the Holy Land so far, over New Year’s in 2013, and it snowed that year.

Our primary focal point for this episode was the upcoming ECCT pilgrimage, June 9-19, 2019, with an optional three-day extension. (Check out the previous episode, #25, interviews with John Lent and Heidi Shott of the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem).

We talked about where the idea for the pilgrimage came from (learn about the “Holy Landers” group), and how going on a pilgrimage is different from going as a tourist. On a pilgrimage you really enter the geography and connect with the people, Harrison explained. Laura added that as a pilgrim, you also create space for prayer. The on-site pilgrimage leader, Canon Iyad Qumri, a lay canon of the Cathedral in Jerusalem, creates special opportunities for prayer, connected with specific events described in the Scriptures.

They talked about the itineraryand about preparations (practical and spiritual). Once the group is finalized, the pilgrims will gather several times in the upcoming months to get to know one another better and study and prepare together.

The pilgrimage will include visits to parishes, Episcopal institutions, and opportunities to meet Anglican/Episcopal leaders there.

Harrison and Laura each shared what it was about the Holy Land that drew them back: being where Jesus lived topped the list. Both talked about how their earlier pilgrimages had changed their prayer lives, making them richer.

The pilgrimage group, which will be shepherded by a licensed, experienced guide, will see the places and hear about the people connected with Jesus’ time; they will also see and experience life there now. Laura talked about how it was important “to be praying for all the people that live there, and working with people to explore a hope-filled future.”

We ended with reminders about where to find more information including a video, and get a registration form, available here: https://www.episcopalct.org/holyland2019/

They’re looking for a commitment and a deposit by December 14, 2018.

View Details

Today we sat down with two people who work for a Connecticut-based organization that works across The Episcopal Church, the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, AFEDJ. These were John Lent, AFEDJ's executive director, and Heidi Shott, their communication director.

John was appointed in June 2018 after serving as deputy director since 2016, then acting executive director after Anne Lynn retired in January 2018.John is an experienced non-profit, education and corporate leader who started his career as a teacher and worked in educational publishing for many years. He served as Executive Director of a national non-profit that recruits and trains school leaders in partnership with many of the largest urban school districts in the country and previously served as COO of an educational technology company. John is active in his Episcopal parish, where he has served in numerous leadership roles.

Heidi is AFEDJ's first communications director. She came on board in September 2018 and credits her three trips to the Diocese of Jerusalem over the past two years as playing a key role in discerning her call to work for them. Before her current gig, she served for 10 years as Canon for Communication and Advocacy in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, and before that, she was the communications director for a statewide community development loan fund. Heidi is a popular, award-winning writer whose news stories and features about the church and essays about faith in daily life have appeared in Episcopal Cafe, Episcopal Life, The Witness, Trinity (Wall Street) News, and other publications.

Our conversation started with an explanation of AEFDJ, its founding (in 1988) and its clear mission to raise money and awareness and support in the United States of the 30 humanitarian institutions in the Diocese of Jerusalem - which stretches across five countries -- and include schools, full-service hospitals, medical clinics, and centers for children with disabilities. There are only 5500 members and 27 parishes in the entire Diocese of Jerusalem. The institutions are open to and serve people of all faiths.

The institutions offer high quality care and education and while they don't proselytize, they operate on Christian values, said John and Heidi, which they said include treating people with dignity and respect, and teaching acceptance, love, tolerance, and reconciliation.

We also talked about their fundraising and some projects (including one right now to raise money for an ambulance). Later, they talked about how they were each drawn into working for AFEDJ, based on their experiences in the Holy Land and awareness of the tiny but important Christian population there.

They feel safe when they travel there, each said, and talked about additional on-the-ground realities such as how travel restrictions, or access to electricity, impacts the institutions. Pilgrimage is essential, said John, for the spiritual experience of visiting the holy sites as well as learning about life there; Heidi added the importance of experiencing their hospitality and hope.

We ended with John and Heidi sharing how this work for AFEDJ has had an impact on their spiritual lives.

There's lots more information about the organization at their website, afedj.org. including a link to sign up for their newsletters, and a list of some upcoming pilgrimages. The bishops of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, with ECCT’s “Holy Landers” Ministry Network, are also leading a pilgrimage June 9-19, 2019. More info including a video and registration form here.

View Details

Sharon Pearson is currently the Christian Formation Specialist with Church Publishing Incorporated, or CPI, and supports congregations through consulting and workshops. Also an editor and writer, she brings new initiatives in formation to the wider church through publications. She has 40 years’ experience in Christian formation at the local and church-wide levels including her home parish of St. Matthew's, Wilton and for a number of years, working on the staff for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. She is on the Mission Council and helped them develop resources for their conversations and ongoing work addressing racial justice, healing, and reconciliation.

She has a blog, Rows of Sharon: Thoughts of a Christian Educator and was a founder of the very popular blog, Building Faith, now owned by Virginia Theological Seminary. She contributes to Episcopal Teacher magazine; and has published 10 books. She specializes in teacher training and leading workshops and has experience as an Education for Ministry mentor and a Godly Play teacher; she has served on church-wide design teams and on several church-wide boards and forums.

Sharon is the go-to person for identifying, collecting, developing, curating, and distributing resources.

We started out by talking about the “Christian education” and the broader, “Christian formation.” What’s the difference? Education is about information; formation might include education as well as liturgy, engagement with the community, prayer and worship, and more. CPI, and the blogs, will have resources for both. Churches still look for “academic program year” curriculum, but a lot of them create their own, using program resources. Sharon enjoys learning about these, and shared a story about Emily Given’s program that uses storytelling with Legos. CPI is about to publish Given’s second book on this.

Then we turned the conversation about book publishing because people send Sharon ideas, and even completed manuscripts! She also discovers potential books on her own. She talked about the editing process and questions they’ll ask. (Pro tip: Work on your social network!!)

Next we asked her about her path to her current job, which she described, and shared about a book she’s currently working on by Herbert O’Driscoll.

We jumped back to resources for parishes and she talked about FORMA, a source for Christian education/formation resources, which you can find here. She also recommends VTS’ Build Faith blog, as well as her personal blog Rows of Sharon, both referenced above.

And we ended with a question about how her work impacts her spiritual life. Evidently having access to lots of resources is helpful!

View Details

Today’s guests come from no further from The Commons: Both work here. And when they’re not here, they do interesting things like quilt and paint. In a way, these are spiritual practices – but for very different reasons given by our two guests. Maybe your experiences are more like one or the other - or something entirely different.

Karolyn Nicolaides works in finance and operations for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut where she’s responsible for accounts receivable. She’s had that position since August of 2012.

She’s very active in her home parish of St. John’s in North Guilford, loves surfing and sailing, and has two grown children and two grandchildren.

Karolyn has painted for 35 years, studying under the same teacher, in the same studio, with the same group of women. “Doreen’s Artist Club," Karolyn's art group, thanks the Rev. Mo Lederman for welcoming our artists to paint in Keisel Hall at her home parish, St John’s North Guilford, where the ‘natural light shines bright on our canvases’. For the first 15 years they worked on decorative folk art; and are now studying trompe l'oeil, a technique to trick the eye into perceiving a painting as three-dimensional.

Debby Kenny works as the administrator for safe church and ordination processes in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and has had that position since March of 2010.

She is also very active in her home parish, which is St. Paul’s in Southington. She did Christian formation there for 26 years, the first 10 with younger children and the last 16 with the youth. After all this time she’s now semi-retired, and helps out with the confirmation class.

Deb started quilting about 30 years ago, took a break while her two children grew up, and now, with three grandchildren, has taken up quilting again.

We start, after running through basic bios, talking with Karolyn about painting. It’s therapeutic and enjoyable to hang out with the group of women, she says.

Deb quilts to relax after a day of work and meetings; it also gives her a feeling of accomplishment. She talks about how much quilting changed from when she started 30 years ago when everything was done by hand.

We asked them to remember and talk about their first quilt/first painting, which they did, then we talked with Deb about how she collects or chooses fabrics. It led her to talk about what her husband teases is her “million-dollar machine” (which didn’t cost a million dollars).

Karolyn talks about the two different kinds of painting she’s done, the decorative folk art and the trompe l’oeil methods. She talks about the processes, or stages, in painting, saying it requires a lot of patience!

Alli recalls the verse from Isaiah 64 about God being the potter; and asks them more about their work, which they do with their hands. Deb sees her creativity as a gift from God for herself as well as to share with others. She loves how all the variety comes together into a single quilt; she also mentions how it helps her to be grounded. Karolyn dwells fully in the project and in the objects she’s painting, and she talks about gratefulness.

We end by finding out how one of Deb’s grandchildren is learning to sew!

View Details

On this episode, Alli sits down with the Rt. Rev. Anne Dyer, bishop of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Bishop Anne shares her story coming from her home parish and the encouragement she received from her vicar to serve in the church, before women were ordained. Bishop Anne has been a first in many things: she was in the first group of female deacons, first group of female priests, and first female bishop. She talks about the push back she has experienced, as well as the support she has received and how she maintains balance in her life.

Bishop Anne talks about the importance of “resetting her compass” and sabbath in her ministry as a bishop and as Christians, something she hopes to become a model for her clergy—that rest and renewal are critical to ministry. She also discusses the impact art has had on her spiritual and prayer life, she tries to be in an art gallery a week. She has brought this love of art to ministry as a bishop by starting a Monday morning blog post called “Picturing Prayer” on the Diocese’s Facebook pageand website, offering a picture, reflection, and prayer.

Bishop Anne’s visit to ECCT is purely out of building personal relationships and mutual interest, as the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and the Scottish Episcopal Church have a longstanding relationship going back to the ordination of Samuel Seabury… whose mitre sparked a theological conversation between Bishop Anne and Bishop Douglas just before the podcast recording!

Alli and Bishop Anne discuss what God is up to in the secular country of Scotland and in the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney. She is known in Scotland as the “Bishop on the bus” choosing to take public transport around the town and on her visitations, including visitations to far off islands at the tip of the country.

Bishop Anne talks about what she has seen and has taken away so far from her trip to Connecticut, and asks for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut to pray for the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney.

About our guest:

The Rt. Rev. Anne Dyer is the bishop of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church. (Check out: https://aoepiscopal.scot/) She was elected by their College of Bishops in November 2017 and consecrated in March 2018. "Bishop Anne," as she is called, is the first woman bishop of that diocese and of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The diocese covers the historic county of Aberdeenshire, and the Orkney and Shetland Island groups.

Originally from England, and the Church of England, Bishop Anne was educated at Bradford Girls' Grammar School, and later studied chemistry at St. Anne's College, Oxford, where she earned a BA and an MA degree. After that she worked as a business and systems analyst at a corporation. She trained for ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford before her ordination, and later at Kings' College in London.

Anne was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1987 and priest in 1994. She served in the Diocese of Rochester in various parish ministry positions, she also served as their associate advisor for evangelism and later their ministry development officer.

In 2004 she became the warden, or, principal, for Cranmer Hall, Durham, an evangelical Anglican theological college, and served there until 2011 when she was appointed rector of a church in the Diocese of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church. She continued her academic connections there by serving on the council of the Scottish Episcopal Institute, the theological college of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Anne was elected bishop of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in 2017 by the House of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church after that diocese failed to choose its own bishop. She was controversial not only because of her gender and the way she was chosen, but also because of her support for same-sex marriage in a diocese known for being more conservative. Two senior clergy including their dean resigned.

Bishop Anne's visit to ECCT is another sign of the continuing relationship between our two dioceses that stretch back to the late 1700s when Samuel Seabury was elected by a small group of priests in Connecticut and sent overseas to be consecrated as bishop for the diocese of Connecticut, first bishop for this new country, and, it can be argued, first bishop outside of the Church of England in what became the global Anglican Communion.

View Details

The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas is the bishop diocesan for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. He keeps talking about the "new missional age." What is it? What isn't it? He explains!

View Details

The Rev. Adam Yates is the rector at St. Stephen’s, East Haddam and the Secretary of Convention for The Episcopal Church in Connecticut. This past summer he took a sabbatical and biked the East Coast Greenway beginning in Greenwich, CT along the coast and ended in Calais, Maine. He has been ordained as a priest for 8 years, and is originally from Virginia. He came to Connecticut via Wisconsin and Chicago. He lives with his partner Matt and their beagle Daniel in Andover.

View Details

In 2016 the Episcopal Church in Connecticut decided to reorganize itself into six geographic Regions. They hired missionaries to help the churches connect and collaborate. In the first season we met three missionaries, and now in the second season we're talking to the other three. We talk about lay preaching, Laundry Love ministry, youth philanthropy leaders, and the role of the missionary in helping make connections that support the existing leaders. "We get to connect what is already growing!" said Eliza. We don't have to do it ourselves, added Maggie, who talked about Celtic services, centering prayer, and eco-justice ministries in her Region. If you've wondered what missionaries do, this will help explain it. You can hear the similarities and the differences among the missionaries, and the Regions. Eliza suggested that it might be about breaking down isolation, saying that parish ministry can be isolating, said Eliza for both clergy and lay leaders. So she thinks of her work and ministry as breaking down isolation, or as she calls it, "providing a circulatory system for the Body of Christ." They also talk about how they meet as a group, and when, and what they do on those occasions. And they talk about hopes for their Regions and its leaders. This is an incredibly hopeful and hope-filled conversation. It's not about conflict, scarcity, survival, or death, which is how some people want to talk about church. And even though the times we live in are uncertain, what these missionaries see is hope and life and energy, even joy. Our guests today were Eliza Marth, the Rev. Carlos De La Torre, and Maggie Breen. Eliza Marth is the Region Missionary for the Northwest Region. Before ECCT, she lived in Boston and served with the Episcopal Service Corps called Life Together, living in an intentional community. She lives in Torrington and brews kombucha and grows okra.

The Rev. Carlos de la Torre is the Region Missionary for the Southwest Region. He also serves as curate at Christ Church, New Haven and program director for St. Hilda’s House, a program of Episcopal Service Corps. Carlos lives in New Haven with his poodle, Ozzie.

Maggie Breen is the Region Missionary for the Northeast Region. Maggie is originally from the Vernon/Tolland, CT area. She has worked in finance and has been a music teacher before coming to ECCT. Maggie lives on a farm in Chaplin, with her husband Michael and four, count them, four sheep and a dog.

View Details

Our guest for this episode is Carolyn Clement, the Digital ministry passionista at her home parish of Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville, Connecticut. She is an innovator, singer, teacher, mother of three, wife, digital ministry advocate, and Episcopalian!

In her day job, Carolyn works on the product development and innovative team for a financial services organization.

When she is not tweeting over at @singingcarolyn, you can find her in Simsbury singing in her home with her two standard poodles and helping her daughter plan her wedding. When she’s available, Carolyn leads sessions on Social Media at ECCT’s Spring Training and Gathering, held in Meriden annually, usually on the first Saturday in April.

We know Carolyn best as the creator of Social Media Sunday (#SMS18, this year), which began in 2013 as a movement to help parishes and worshiping communities use social media to spread the gospel—encouraging folks to take their smart phones out and tweet the sermon, snap a selfie, or just share that they are at church that morning.

In this episode she explains how it got started and what that first Sunday was like, and how it spread out from Tariffville around the world, got millions of impressions, and moved from June to September. (One thing she mentions was a “church in social media chat” known as #chsocm (which is evidently pronounced as: cha-SOCK-em).

She talks about the “why” behind it as well as the “what.” And she gives some advice about #sms18 as well as about social media and churches (and people who go to church). Even if you’re the only one at your church on social media you can be the “army of one,” she says. Don’t forget how important it is to click! Click, Like Comment, Share (in that order of increasing importance, she says) is essential. It all increases the value, thus, the reach, of the day.

Carolyn was introduced to Facebook years and years ago and immediately saw its power. She likes all kinds of digital media, though, so we spent some time chatting about Facebook (she loves that they collect the images and share the memories), Snapchat, and other options, and how she continue to support people at her church in her community to use social media and share God’s love.

Social Media Sunday is September 30, 2018 this year so use #SMS18. Find resources on the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SMS15/ including links to compilations of resources elsewhere.

View Details

The Rev. Katharine “Katy” Piazza, rector of Emmanuel, Weston and the Rev. Kevin Olds, rector of St. Timothy’s, Fairfield talk about the new worship service they’re planning to launch fall 2018, “Special Grace.” It’s designed for children with special needs, their families, and friends and supporters. Both have children with special needs, and they share that towards the end of our conversation.

Both Katy and Kevin are relatively new to ECCT (Katy in 2015 and Kevin in 2017) and both knew they wanted to get involved in special needs worship services here in ECCT. Kevin explains how they happened to meet at ECCT’s “Spring Training & Gathering” and connect over a possible shared ministry.

Over the last program year, St. Timothy’s sponsored a “Grace2Go” service led by an outside person. Katy created and leads Christmas service at Emmanuel for children with special needs and their families. It’s designed especially for children who get overwhelmed by even regular children’s services. Kevin went with his son to the service at Emmanuel last Christmas.

The new bimonthly service, “Special Grace” will be led by Katy and Kevin, and alternate between churches. They are still debating how much they will get to be just a parent, versus the clergy authority, when they are at each other’s churches. They also talked about the possibility of offering a special needs VBS next summer.

Katy talks about how the special needs ministry isn’t separate, but an outgrowth of all the other ministry taking place in church. It allows families to have their own space and hopefully integrate into the larger community as well. Kevin adds that it gives an opportunity for volunteers to learn more about children with special needs, and their families.

Alli asks about a quote from Katy about enjoying ministry to teens with their doubts, and Katy’s reply carries it to the challenges of presenting the Christian story to special needs children, who can be very literal.

They talk about their hopes for a possible VBS, and the importance of getting to know the emerging community before they can make definitive decisions.

They’re planning to reach out to families in their own churches, of course, but also the wider community. Kevin says there’s an active Facebook page.

“Why can’t The Episcopal Church become the church that’s known as the church for being particularly welcoming to families with special needs?” asked Kevin, declaring his hopes.

“I want every child – especially my own – to have full membership in the church community,” said Katy, explaining her passion.

If you have questions, contact them through their respective churches for now; there could be a website and/or Facebook page later.

Sttimschurch.org
Emmanuelwestonct.org

View Details

Today’s guests are some of ECCT’s elected deputies and alternates who went to Austin, Texas for nearly two weeks in early July to be part of the triennial General Convention of The Episcopal Church. They share their reflections and some of the highlights from their time as official participants there.

The General Convention of The Episcopal Churchtook place July 5-13 in Austin Texas and ECCT was among more than 100 dioceses that sent their bishops and elected deputies (and alternate deputies) to participate, listen, pray, discern, and vote (in either the House of Bishops or the House of Deputies) on what turned out to be more than 500 resolutions. True, a good number came “bundled” together for a single up or down vote. Other considered one at a time garnered more press, notably the revision of the Prayer Book, welcoming the Church in Cuba back into The Episcopal Church, and approving marriage rites and expansive language liturgies. Still more set policies to form the basis for advocacy in Washington, D.C. while dozens of others made small changes to the canons (church laws) that will reshape the way we act, and respond, as an institution. (Direct linkto official Summary of Actions for a list of resolutions and their final status; direct linkto the Virtual Binder for the text of the resolutions in final, adopted language.

There were legislative committee meetings and hearings, a series of resolutionsas well as a poignant service of Lamentthat emerged out of the #metoo movement, public witnesses by Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a visit to stand in solidarity with womenat a residential immigrant detention center, daily worship including a revival, vendors and exhibitors telling their story or selling their products and services, gatherings (seminaries, affinity groups, partnership members, provinces), three topical convention-wide conversations, an invitation from our Presiding Bishop into the “Way of Love,” and so much more.

Episcopal Church in Connecticut's Deputation to General Convention 2018:

Bishops: the Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas and the Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens
Lay Deputies: Suzy Burke; A. Bates Lyons; Alli Huggins; Don Burr. Lay alternates: Shirley Wick; Ted Mollegen
Clerical Deputies: The Rev. Molly James; the Rev. Tracy Johnson Russell; the Rev.Linda Spiers; the Rev. Carlos de la Torre. Clerical alternates: The Rev. Sandra Cosman; the Rev. Jonathan Folts

View Details

Today’s conversation is an interview with our regular co-host Karin Hamilton and our colleague the Rev. Molly James. The General Convention of The Episcopal Church begins next week in Austin, Texas. It runs July 5 to July 13, with pre-convention events and preparation taking place July 2 - 4. So this episode will be General Convention 101! Karin Hamilton, Canon for Mission Communication and Media has gone to seven General Conventions, making this year her 8th. Karin reports from General Convention to the Episcopal Church in Connecticut in a daily newsletter. She follows topics and debates, interviews individuals from CT, and generally gives folks at home a taste of what has gone down each day and what is to come (sign up here). The Rev. Molly James, Dean of Formation for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, will be serving this year as a Clergy Deputy from Connecticut. This is her third General Convention and her second as a deputy. She will be serving as Chair of the Legislative Committee on Ministry. During the last three years - since the last General Convention in Salt Lake City in 2015 - she has served as the Secretary of the Standing Commission for Structure, Governance, Constitution, and Canons. She also serves on Sub-Committee on Title IV and Training for the Special Committee on Sexual Harassment and Exploitation, appointed by the Rev. Gay Jennings, President of the House of Deputies. The interviews begin by asking: What is General Convention? Why should people care? In their answers Karin and Molly mention parliamentary procedure, democratic process, and the breadth of The Episcopal Church, which has more than 100 domestic dioceses and more than a dozen beyond the U.S.. That means lots of translated material in Spanish and French, especially. Karin and Molly also talked about how resolutions get submitted and then move through General Convention (see handy resource for that, here). Next, we talked about the issues or resolutions they’re looking forward to, and discuss some of the related events. While they did, they also said that there’s a lot more taking place than legislation. For example, Molly notes how powerful it is to worship with thousands of Episcopalians. (Link here for the worship bulletins) Karin admits she’s joining a group of Episcopal Communicators one evening to go see the famous bats in Austin. General Convention passes essential legislation our church needs: Some allows our Office of Governmental Relations to advocate on Capitol Hill, and others have a real impact on people in the pews, their ministry passions, and sometimes their personal life. Changes in canons can seem abstract and distant for some, but may have significant effects on bishops, priests, and deacons and all who work for the church. We all noted that there’s an official media hub that will provide livestreamed, and on-demand, viewing of both Houses, the three joint conversations (on racial reconciliation, evangelism, and care of creation), and worship, plus other resources for those in Austin, and back at home. Molly ended us with the reflection that you never really know what might happen at a General Convention - there could be an issue that takes precedence there, which no one had expected. It’s the prayer and allowance for the Holy Spirit to work. And that will set us up for a follow-up podcast episode later this year. This is our final episode before we take a break for the summer! In Coffee & Christ, Karin & Alli

View Details

Today our guests are from New Haven’s refugee agency, IRIS, which stands for Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services. The agency was founded many years ago by Episcopal churches, and now works with our federal government to resettle refugees in the State, with the help of faith communities and other groups and individuals. World Refugee Day is June 20and IRIS is sponsoring a festival on June 23, from 2-6 p.m., at Trinity on the Green in New Haven, with world cuisine tasting, world music, and more.(Ticketedevent! Get one at http://www.irisct.org) Back in March, we went to an event sponsored by the Episcopal Church in Connecticut’s Women’s Ministry Network, held at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, which was followed by joining a public witness against gun violence at the Capitol. The morning program was about celebrating the gifts of women and hearing about challenges, and it asked everyone who attended to think about how we’re called to participate in the work of equipping and empowering women. Two of the speakers were from IRIS, one a young refugee woman, who shared her experience in playing soccer. She found it empowering. We’re going to learn more about that today. With us are Ashley Makar, Leslie Koons, and Gladys Mwilelo. Ashley is the Outreach Coordinator for IRIS, and Leslie is their Health Promoter. Leslieand Ashley and colleaguesstarted the women’s soccer club. Gladys is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but spent most of her life in Burundi. Some of you may have seen Gladys if you’ve been through New Haven recently, as her face is one of the GIANT images on the Green in New Haven, installed as part of the“WEARE: A Nation of Immigrants”photo installation this summer. She was also a speaker at the opening event for the photo installation. But today we talked about soccer! There seems to be some agreement, at least by Leslie and Gladys, that soccer is life. We start out by asking questions about the women’s soccer club, started in 2015. She talked about how it got started, how it works, who can participate, and the like. We learned that Gladys’ mother, who was NOT a soccer player, now loves it and won’t miss a session if at all possible! That inspired Gladys, who is currently a student at Central Connecticut State University, and was already a skilled soccer player, to join it as well. Gladys told us the amazing story of when she used to play soccer in Burundi, dressed as a boy. And when she got a little older, and the boys and others realized it … To this day she hadn’t told her parents. This podcast will be the“bigreveal.” Ashley helped us see the soccer club as part of the many wellness programs by IRIS for its clients, all of which help build community. IRIS’s core services include all of the work of welcoming and resettling refugees, and provide additional support services. It’s not just“serviceprovision,” she said, it’s a community where people empower one another. We dipped into a few other questions about clothing and creating a safe space, and ended with more about the World Refugee Day Festival sponsored by IRIS on June 23 in New Haven.

View Details

The Dadsode: Conversation with priest/dads the Revs. Matt Lindeman and Adam Thomas

In honor of Father’s Day, we had a conversation with two Episcopal priests who are also fathers. This is somewhat of a partner podcast of the one with“Reverend Moms” we did for Mothers’ Day.

Our guests are the Rev. Matt Lindeman rector of St. Peter’s , Milford. He was born in New Haven, grew up in Nebraska, a teenager in San Diego, and lived in many places. He has an M.Div from Yale Divinity School and was ordained priest in 2015. Matt is the father of Jonah, 6 and Ruth, 2

The Rev. Adam Thomas is rector of St. Mark’s in Mystic. He’s from everywhere: he’s lived in 11 states so far. He received his M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained a priest in 2008. Adam is the father of twins Charlie and Amelia, who are 4.

All four of the children are “PKs” and the two dads are both “PKs” (PK = Preacher’s Kids) BOTH of Matt’s parents are Episcopal priests! So, we talked about that a bit. Matt said he thought he was rebellious - but he was there every Sunday. Adam didn’t think he’d follow, either, but once he was older and out of his “sphere of influence,” the call became clear.

They talked about their own dads a bit and shared some stories about themselves, and their children, and how they’re already incorporating church into their imaginative play.

We asked if people in the congregation talk with them about their children, and their parenting. They said they don’t get a lot of nuts and bolts comments about parenting. Adam described the rector’s schedule as either super flexible, which accommodates shared child care, or completely inflexible (funerals,crisis visits to the hospital).

We talked about how they talk to their children about God, They both recommended Desmond Tutu’s book of bible stories. Adam wrote a book on the Lord’s Prayer, prompted by a discussion with his children. Matt said the Star Wars stories, and an experience with a nest of birds, have prompted some good conversations. Godly Play has inspired a questioning approach.

At the end of the episode we asked about titles: Calling a male priest, “Father,” is really common in the church, regardless of whether they have children. So our guests are “fathers” and also “fathers.” But for women clergy who are mothers, it’s not common to use “mother” - or “father.” We talked about that. They acknowledged the double standard.

The episode ended with some dad jokes, and last minute comments.

The Lord's Prayer: Learning the Words Jesus Taught

View Details

The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews: Going Deeper in the Realm of God

Today’s guest is the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, rector of St. James’, New London, where he’s been for about a year now.

Ranjit was born in Brighton, Mass. to immigrant parents who came to the U.S. in the 1970s. He grew up in Sharon, Mass., majored in business administration at George Washington University, and received his M. Div from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. As a seminarian he served at St. Mary’s in Harlem and studied abroad in Bangalore, India. Ranjit was ordained deacon in 2006, and priest in 2007, both in the Diocese of Massachusetts.

His father, the Rev. Koshy Mathews, is also an Episcopal priest, who has been serving as rector of St. Peter’s in Phoenixville, PA for more than a decade. (Ranjit’s middle name is Koshy, after his father.)

Before coming to Connecticut, Ranjit served on Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s staff as the Partnership Officer for Africa. Prior to that he was associate rector of St. Luke’s, Long Beach, California a bilingual parish where he worked to build connections between the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking community members, and led the youth group. It’s where he developed a relationship with the hip-hop community that he’s carried with him.

He’s also served as theology lecturer at the Msalato Theological College of St. John’s University in Tanzania, and assistant rector of St. Michael’s in Milton, Mass.

Ranjit and his wife, Johanna, have a young son, Dhruv, who is six. They live in New London.

We began with a conversation about hip hop: He loves the genre so much that he made it part of his Celebration of New Ministry last fall. He talks about his experience in California working with an organization, “Hope in Hollywood,” that brought in young adults from across LA to St. Stephen’s, Hollywood once a week. There was a meal and a DJ, and the youth would dance or rap for hours, while the leaders took the opportunity to build relationships. Some of the youth were able to come to the church during the week, as well, to talk about life, school, and family.

After Ranjit was called to New London he began to meet some of the young adults in the hip hop community in New London. That led to their inclusion in the Celebration of New Ministry. Ranjit rapped, they danced. The grant will allow them to expand that, and go deeper.

Next, we talked to him about the city of New London, known for the submarine base, Electric Boat (that builds submarines), the Coast Guard Academy, Mitchell College, Connecticut College, the Hygenic Art gallery and performance space, and so much more.

He calls it a fabulous city, sharing that a parishioner calls it “juicy.” What he likes in particular are the way it’s all connected, that incongruent communities and people can find congruence in places like its coffee shops and – he hopes – at St. James. The church used to host the city’s homeless hospitality center, which has since moved to its own space. Now it hosts a refugee agency, a group that works with families who are poor, and other works. He hopes to increase the number of groups that meet there.

“I’d love for St. James’ to be a convening place for incongruent,” he said, adding that his “single and only focus is on the realm of God however that manifests itself in New London.”

While he says the parish is “popping” now with organizations that are about the work of Jesus Christ, he talks about how he sees the opportunity to build relationships, go deeper, and lean more intentionally into the work.

The conversation then moved to more personal matters. Ranjit, and his wife Johanna, were raised in the Mar Thoma Church (brought to India by the Apostle Thomas). Ranjit’s great grandfather served in that church, and was a renowned healer; his father, Koshy, decided to follow that example. After emigrating to the U.S., Koshy found a connection to The Episcopal Church, was ordained in that tradition, and raised his children in it as well.

Ranjit then shared some of the ways his father encouraged him to think more deeply about his engagement in social justice, his early experience with a more conservative faith group on campus, and, his amazing spiritual lesson learned from two girls with leprosy whom he encountered in a cathedral in India. “She broke me open and taught me about vulnerability; that gives me the passion for the work that I do,” he said.

Our final question was about where he sees God now, and about his family and his thoughts for the future. He acknowledged the need that he and his family have for their own nourishment, and reiterated how much is “popping” in New London. There’s some pushback, he said, and change is hard, yet he believes there’s integrity in walking with that pushback and resistance: “We’re paying attention to where God is leading, and sometimes that’s hard,” he said. But they’re going deeper in the realm of God.

View Details

Today’s guest is Kathryn Slattery, better known as Kitty, who is a longtime contributing editor of Guideposts, a monthly publication with short, inspirational and Christian faith-filled stories. It was founded by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale in 1945. Today as a nonprofit with the same name it offers a wider array of resources. 365 Bible Answers for Curious Kids is Kitty’s latest book, published last fall, and we focus on that in today’s podcast. She’s also written several other books for children, in addition to a memoir, a book on Christian faith in emotional healing, other books of stories. She’s been a contributing author to other books, and has ghostwritten cover stories for Guideposts by a number of celebrities. And she’s written for other magazines. And up until last fall, she lived in New Canaan - where she used to teach Sunday School at St. Mark’s - but she now lives in New Hampshire. So, this is our first podcast with a remote guest, and her energy and enthusiasm carried well across the miles! 365 Bible Answers is a daily a devotional for children as young as four years old, when read with adults as a family devotional, up through middle school age, although adults will certainly learn from it. Kitty’s heard that some confirmation classes use it. It asks a question every day, and there’s an extra in case it’s a leap year. There’s an extensive index in the back, organized by the type of question, e.g., Old Testament, New Testament, Church, Christianity, etc. We started by reading the question, and answer, for the day, which was May 22, and talked about some of the book’s organization and its index. Then, we asked some questions that we’d received from 7-year-old Katherine, to whom we gave the advance publicity copy (with her mom, Molly, who’s on staff at The Commons). Katherine wanted to know, how did Kitty think of the questions? And, why did she think it was important for kids to think about these questions? We learned a lot about some of the events in Kitty’s life that had a life-long impact on her, affected the way she taught fifth-grade Sunday School at St. Mark’s in New Canaan, and continue to resonate in her life. We learn she’s a new grandmother! Katherine’s mom, Molly, had submitted a few questions as well, which led to Kitty telling us about some of the answers that were the most fun (hint: It has to do with the moon), and the most challenging, to write. At the end we ask about her next project. She’s a bit guarded because it’s still in the germination stage, which is understandable. However, she does tell us that she’s recently memorized the 23rd psalm, and shares how it’s taking on new life and meaning as she looks out over her green lawn and the pond beyond, in her new home in New Hampshire. Maybe those reflections are what will come next.

View Details

Today's podcast was recorded in Plantsville, Connecticut, at the annual meeting of the Episcopal Church Women. Becca Stevens, founder of Thistle Farms, was the guest speaker. They have a fabulous website and extensive social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. Check them out (and shop for great stuff and to support their work): https://thistlefarms.org/

Before her presentation, ECCT's Bishop Laura Ahrens delivered a sermon at a celebration of the Eucharist. We decided to package the sermon and the talk together. The sermon comes first and is about 13 minutes) followed by Becca's talk, about 30 minutes, including some great music.

Bishop Laura's sermon was taken from the Gospel passage about "abiding in God's love." She began by sharing an experience while out on a run in New Haven: She she met a homeless man who recognized her as a runner, and shared some of his karate moves with her. The way he recognized and affirmed her ("you're a runner!) reminded her of how Jesus sees people - welcoming all, getting to know them and include them as companions. It encouraged her to be curious about the stories of others and see the world as God sees it. Then she talked about diners and the many kinds of people and conversations that take place there. What she had learned from Becca Stevens, she said, was that a diner can also be a place where a person might come to rest from their trafficking life. She asks, "I wonder how ... our participation, in God's mission, calls us to share God's love with others, so that they might abide in safe shelters and restful places, as well as the loving arms of God."

Becca Stevens talk, which follows the sermon on the podcast, started by showing a TV interview by Jenna Bush, which we didn't include because of audio quality, length, and copyright. In the podcast we start where she says hello to everyone and shares that she was born in Milford, Connecticut, living there very briefly before her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee.

Becca begins by expressing her thanks and admiration for the Episcopal churchwomen, and in particular, for their annual church fairs. "I know it was the women of the church that gave me such strength, and faith, in my life," she said, adding that everything she needed to learn about running her multi-million-dollar organization she she learned at church bazaars, run by Episcopal Church Women. You need to listen to how she explains how they work and why it's life-giving! It's much more than raising money - it about an "economy of love" - and the Church Women taught her that.

Then she went on to describe how she used those lessons as she started to work with the women who are "survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction." From getting a safe place to live and healthy food, to meaningful work. Thistle Farms is known for its many products - bath and body lotions in particular - created by its residents. "The Episcopal Church Women reminds us that justice is the platter upon which our worship needs to be served," Becca said.

You may not be able to attend or consider another gathering of Episcopal Church Women in the same way, after hearing this! Becca, who is an ordained Episcopal priest, is married to songwriter Marcus Hummon. Their son, Levi Hummon is also a songwriter (you need to hear why he chose than instead of priesthood).

Becca plays a song he wrote, and performed with Alison Krauss,"Love Heals," which is a tribute to the women of Thistle Farms. (We include it with her permission). Or find it here on YouTube.

The podcast end with a witness and a song by a Thistle Farm-er, a survivor named Doris who now works with the organization. You can find it here, too, on YouTube.

We think you’ll not only enjoy this podcast but be blessed as well, and inspired by the work of church women, Becca Stevens, Levi, and Doris, and so many others.

View Details

Our guests today are the Rev. Canon David Cannon (Canon Cannon), vicar emeritus of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Poquetanuck (aka Preston) and the Rev. Ron Kolinowski, a former vicar of St. James, Poquetanuck now priest in charge at St. Peter’s, Hebron.

David shares his memories and his reflections on two Native American tribes that live there and operate huge casinos: Foxwoods Resort Casino, established by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and first opened in 1992, and the Mohegan Sun, established by the Mohegan Tribe, and first opened in 1996. They were bound by the same contract with the State of Connecticut, but had different histories and approaches

David Cannon was born in 1937 and this year will celebrate the 55th year of his ordination. In 2013 a local newspaper did a feature on Fr. Cannon. The writer described how the '60s shaped David as a young man; how he, with his wife, Ann-etta, remained active in the community, particularly in education; and how he spent nearly all of his ministry at St. James in Poquetanuck, located near the casinos in southeast Connecticut. David lived and raised his family in a house on the edge of St. James’ property. He retired from St. James in 1999 and after a few years was invited back as “vicar emeritus,” which went against the wisdom and advice of the bishop and diocesan staff, but it worked there. His beloved wife died in 2009 and his eldest son, also named David, died from illnesses in 2010. Father Cannon,” as he’s usually known, has two other children, plus grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He recently has moved to assisted living in Groton.

He was joined for this podcast by the Rev. Ron Kolinowski, one of the priests who later served with him at St. James’, and who remains a colleague and friend.

During the podcast David also talks about another former vicar at the parish with whom he worked, the Rev. Jaclyn Sheldon, whom he refers to as, "Amma Jackie."

We asked him to share his memories, as filtered by time and experience, and recognize there are other people with other perspectives.

He starts by talking about his visits to the Mashantucket Pequot reservation with a Roman Catholic nun in the days before the casino. Skip Hayward was the grandson of the guardian of their tradition. "Never leave the reservation," was her mantra.

He didn't name her, though it's likely this was Elizabeth George.

The precedent for gambling in Connecticut was set by the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, David says, because we were allowed bingo and also lotteries to raise funds. (David and Ron reference Bishop Williams and the 1938 hurricane but we couldn't find links to documents. We did find, however, a history of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut (aka Cheshire Academy) by Lucy Cushing Jarvis, published in 1902, among the Project Canterbury documents. It said the Episcopal Academy needed to raise funds and petitioned the General Assembly for a lottery. It states that: "In 1802, an act was finally passed, granting a lottery, to raise the sum of $15,000." http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/lcjarvis1902/34.html)

Because of that, the legal sticking point for the casinos wasn't gambling per se, he said, it was the slots.

When Ella Grasso served as governor, the legislature promised that if she approved the casino, they'd only use the income for education. But that didn't last long at all.

The casinos certainly led to jobs for tribal nation members, and, to controversy and conflict in the community. David experienced a difference in the way the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans approached the casinos and the expansion over the years, and he sounds disappointed that the "get rich quick" mentality still pervades.

View Details

In honor of Mother’s Day, which is coming up on May 13 this year, we have four moms with us and all of them are priests who are serving at different Episcopal churches in Connecticut. We wanted to know, how do they combine being a woman priest and being a mom? It’s easy to say you’re going to have good, strong boundaries between the personal and the professional, but it’s harder to actually do that. And then there’s the matter of judgment: Potentially the whole congregation where they’re serving might feel entitled to judge their child-rearing ability, and their child or children, by what they see or don’t see on Sunday mornings when mom is at work. Then we had a side question: Do they want everyone to call them, “Mother” ? (which is listed in the current online version of “Rules of Address” from the Church Pension Group, although they do recommend asking for preferences ... ) Or just their children? There are special challenges and blessings of their unique role. Today’s guests include: The Rev. Tracy Johnson Russell is rector of St. Monica’s Church in Hartford. She is originally from the Midwest, received her M.Div from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and was ordained deacon in 2003 and priest in 2004. Her son Thaeyer Charles is 7 and is in the second grade. The Rev. Rebekah Hatch is rector of St. Alban’s Church in Simsbury. She is a native or Georgia, received her M.Div from Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained in 2004. Her daughter Ruth is 12 and in the sixth grade, and her son Elias is 8 and in the second grade. The Rev. Stacey Kohl is curate at St. Mark’s, Mystic. She received an MA from Bethany and an MA from Yale Divinity School and was ordained in 2017. Her son Henry James is three months old, and he was with us today (you’ll hear him on the podcast). The Rev. Charlotte LaForest, assistant rector of St. John’s, Essex. She was raised in Florida, received her M.Div from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and was ordained in 2015. She has a son, August, who is 4, and 8-month-old twins Rowan and Evelyn. Charlotte also writes a blog (when she has time) called Gather Up the Crumbs: A Life in Sacrament and Sippy Cups (gatherupthecrumbs.wordpress.com One of the first topics we discussed was whether their child-raising was more public, part of the life of the parish, or private, and separated. There was no clear preference: Some children were fully integrated in the parish, and Sunday services, while others weren’t - and there were different reasons. “Church is always going to be a complicated place,” one said. A mom who’d recently been pregnant talked about how people in the congregation felt it was ok for them to make comments about her changing shape and status. It’s an issue for most all women clergy, regardless of whether or not they’re a mom. And just being pregnant in parish ministry is physically challenging! A mom with older children talked about setting up a network of women from the parish who could step in and help out when there was a pastoral emergency that needed her presence. Sometimes the moms feel guilty for the time they have to spend with the congregation. Tracy talked about the tugs that happen between needs of her own family and those of the family of God that she shepherds. As far as a title - no one preferred “Mother” as a title for themselves. “Rev” got a thumbs up and yes, they know it’s not a grammatically correct usage. And the children? These “preacher’s kids” range from enjoying church and wanting to be ordained themselves to rejecting it all (at the moment, at least). Regardless of what direction their children are leaning, all of the moms agreed that having children has taught them more about God’s unconditional love and their ability to see God in more moments of life.

View Details

Duo Dickinson is an architect who lives in Madison, Connecticut. He’s a graduate of Cornell and has had his own architectural practice since 1987. (His website is here, and includes his full resume, projects, writings, contact info, etc.) Duo is licensed in 10 states, has received more than 30 awards and honors; he is a book author and contributing writer or editor to many publications and journals; he teaches and he serves on design juries; he is a popular guest, host, or co-host of broadcasts including radio and podcasts; and he has worked for years with various non profits including religious institutions. He is also an active and involved member of Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green in New Haven.

In the wider Episcopal Church in Connecticut, he serves on its governing Mission Council, its property committee, and on the task force overseeing the Annual Convention resolution, “Assessing our resources for God’s Mission,” which is currently engaging in a needs assessment. In the even wider faith community, he’s part of Mockingbird, writing for their website and presenting at their conferences.

His emphasis over the years has been on residential houses, so we started by talking about his home in Madison. “It captures the essence of why I have a family, why I’m an architect, why I even write about it, because it’s deeply human,” he says. “The connection between homes and humanity is essentially cultural in America … but it has deep meaning when you make your own home. ” He believes that the home is a spiritual extension of a human being.

Duo has a long career of working with Habitat for Humanity and other organizations working with the homeless, serving on boards and receiving lifetime awards. He talks about how his faith informed his decision to get and stay involved. “Making things” is part of who he is, he explained, and when they asked, he said yes. Organizations such as Habitat are the “ground zero” of one of the essential human needs, he said.

“There’s shelter, food, and clothing and the shelter part is every bit as important as eating and clothing yourself, and unless there are people essentially do it [the architectural work] for nothing, they get what they can; they don’t get what they deserve.” He talk about the values involved in the work.

Duo has also designed and built sacred space for summer camp chapels, churches, synagogues. When the Episcopal Church in Connecticut moved its administrative offices and chapel out of a three-story mansion into leased space in a former factory building, he drew the designs, adhering to values of openness, flexibility, and accountability. So we talked with him about how institutions manifest their values to the world through their buildings, and the relationship between the architect and the client.

Duo talks about how he brings his faith into his work. “The element of Christianity in my work is the essential realization is that I’ve earned none of it and that everything has been given to me, 100%. If the heart’s not beating, I’m not doing this.” He shares a recent health incident that underscored this.

Because more and more churches are struggling with the ongoing expense of maintaining old buildings, we asked directly: Does a faith community need a building? Check out his answer!

View Details

Jane Hale grew up in the northeast corner of Connecticut - aka the “Quiet Corner.” It’s still her home base, where she lives and works. And where she’s learned about the power of stories. Jane attended Christ Episcopal Church in Pomfret, which sponsored her for ordination to the priesthood and supported her during that long process. She was ordained in 2016. Then Jane, who has a bright smile, easy laugh, lots of energy, and a willingness to think creatively, took on not one but two jobs; one of those a brand-new, yet-to-be-fully-defined, somewhat create-as-you-go deal. The job she started first is part-time missional priest in charge for the historic Trinity Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, which dates to the late 1700s. She’s there on most Sundays to preach and preside at the Eucharist, and during the week, to offer ordained leadership as possible within the agreed-upon hours. Her other job is a “tri-town missional curate.” (“Curate” is a churchy word for a person invested in the “cure of souls.”) The job title is often given to the newly ordained, whose first job had traditionally been to assist more settled priests. This is a new use for the term. Once a month Jane leads the Sunday worship at nearby St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Danielson, and once a month she leads Sunday worship at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, also nearby, in Putnam. She also spends time walking the neighborhoods of all three towns (that’s the “tri-town” part) to listen to people and listen for God speaking through them. More recently, she’s been working with a small team from people from each of the three parishes. They’re walking around the three towns, together. * The team spends time together in prayer and in a type of Bible study called “Dwelling in the Word,” which requires no seminary training, only openness to hearing God while reading through and considering the scripture. (Listening with your heart instead of your head, Jane explains.) When they go out, the team stops at diners and other places in the towns, engaging in conversation - primarily listening - trusting that they will hear what God wants them to hear. They pray when people ask them to. Then they come back together and talk over what they heard and saw. It’s a stretch for people who are used to a traditional model of church to see this as a valid way of “being the church,” Jane explained. Slowly, she said, the group is being transformed by their experience. Of her own walks through the towns, Jane said, “I’ve met so many amazing people, heard all kinds of stories, what lights people up, and gets their heart going, what brings people joy, where people are struggling, where whole communities are wrestling with certain issues. I never know who I’m going to encounter and what story I”m going to get. The beautiful thing is, the Holy Spirit always shows up and I always learn something,” she said. Whether it’s Jane, solo, or the team, there’s no agenda; no handing out tracts asking if you’re saved, no plan to convert people to Christianity or even to come to church. No monologue. No talking points. No end result in mind. No goal. No trying to outdo someone else’s story, or to convince them about something. Holding someone else’s sacred story is much harder than you’d think - it takes practice, Jane says. Listen to her explain this new way of being the church, and of this sacred practice of listening, and how it’s changing people. And listen to some of the stories she shares. Our culture is hungry to be heard, she says. Go out. Listen.

View Details

About three years ago the Episcopal Church in Connecticut decided to "reimagine" the way it was organized and governed so it could be better at encouraging people in churches to work together and to support their participation in God's mission. Part of what it did was to re-organize into six geographic Regions, and then it hired six three-quarter-time missionaries, one for each of the six Regions, to help. Today’s episode is a conversation with three of these Region Missionaries about their work: the Rev. Rachel Thomas (Southeast Region), the Rev. Rachel Field (South Central Region), and Erin Flinn (North Central Region). Rachel Thomas is originally from Georgia and originally from the Methodist Church. She's been ordained to the priesthood for 26 years - making her the elder, by age only, among the Region Missionaries. She's has served at camps and conference centers, in college campus ministries, and at parishes in Connecticut. Rachel Field is from Maryland where she worked as a research biologist and environmental educator. She is a graduate of Yale Divinity School, she is also an ordained Episcopal priest. Erin Flinn is originally from New Hampshire. Her first career was as assistant lighting designer for the Lyric Opera Company in Chicago and she also worked in administration at Northwestern University and as program director for the Episcopal Church at Yale. She has an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School. Our first question was about unpacking what “participating in God’s mission” meant to them and to their work. They talked about Christianity as a way of life, not as a “spectator sport,” and how God is already present, and about how it’s an invitation. Next, they each talked about their job and about the Regions where they serve. In their official job descriptions, their role is to assist the parishes and worshiping communities in “their” Region to catalyze, connect, convene, and build capacity/capability. They spend a lot of time driving from place to place and listening to people, learning about great ministries and partnerships. They share stories. They talk about God and about community. They face what one called “beautiful challenges,” including geography and old habits; they encourage people to try new things; they ask questions. As the role of the church in today’s culture and society changes, Region Missionaries can be like midwives to the process, reminding people to breathe … they are also experimenters, and builders of the Kingdom of God that God needs now. And, they have “tremendous faith that God will always have the church that God needs.“ To a person, they love their work, see it as ministry, and feel called to it. As we concluded the session, we asked about their personal spiritual practices and how those have been influenced by their work as RMs. They all spoke about the importance of their shared time together as RMs: learning, praying, spending time with scripture — becoming a community. Sung chant is one of their spiritual practices (learning about different ones, and singing them) and they agreed to close our session today with one of these, “To the hills I will lift mine eyes.”

About the chant: Here’s how another of the RMs (you’ll meet her in a future episode!) describes the chant: “This chant was written by a contemplative Christian activist and has been integrated into social justice action, particularly in resistance of pipeline construction. It has been used to find courage in preparation for disrupting systems of greed and sin. May all who sing it in community find courage to resist the ways of sin that lead to death and in singing, may we join all those who are creating a taste of God’s dream for the world.”

View Details

Today’s episode took place at Camp Washington, a summer camp and year-round conference center that is part of ECCT, located in the northwest hills of Connecticut : “Coffee Hour To Go.” We listened in on some spiritual meditations, and a Eucharist, on Tuesday in Holy Week, and recorded the teachings and the sermon. Every year, the bishops, priests, and deacons come together on Tuesday in Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter Day) for rest, renewal, and retreat; to renew their ordination vows; and to replenish the oil in the small vials they use during the year for spiritual anointing. Leading this year’s meditations were Mark and Lisa Kudolowski, wilderness guides and retreat leaders, who had led the 40-day pilgrimage down the Connecticut River last year. Bishop Douglas was one of the participants in that pilgrimage. Mark is an oblate of Saint Benedict, a wilderness guide, and a retreat leader. His work focuses on recovering the Christian contemplative tradition and on the role of nature as a path of deeper union with God. Lisa is a professional baker who started the artisan bakery LeFevre Bakery, and wilderness guide. She has worked in campus ministry and directed a community house for spiritual discipleship. "Metanoia of Vermont" is the name they gave their ongoing work and programs and state that their mission is "to support all people to know and enter into Divine Life, bringing body, mind, and spirit into Union with God.” We began with conversation with ECCT’s bishops: Bishop Laura Ahrens talked about what the renewal of ordination vows means to her, and Bishop Ian Douglas shared why he invited Mark and Lisa to lead these meditations. Mark and Lisa gave two presentations, each leading to an outdoor spiritual practice. Each presentation began with silence, scripture, song, and a reading, followed by the teaching, then more detailed instructions for the practice. Most everyone went outside afterwards, keeping a holy silence. We recorded the teaching portion of the two presentations. The first one was called “Awakening to Life” and the practice was called, “Coming to our Senses.” It was about bringing your senses to the natural world: coming out of your head, coming out of abstractions, leaving all the worries about the future and the past, and instead, using all five of your senses to experience the outdoors. The second was called “Dying without End.” The practice was called “The Passion of Creation.” This time people went outside to find something that’s in the process of dying. There were four steps: looking at it empirically with their senses, looking at its connections, considering it as a metaphor, and finally, just being present with it — and maybe even having a conversation with it. If they’d chosen to observe a smaller item, which was portable, Lisa invited the clergy to bring it back with them to place on the altar. At the Chrism Mass, where clergy renewed their vows and received Holy Oil for the next year, Mark and Lisa gave the sermon. It was about the call to come and die, and about dying into life without end.

View Details

The Very Rev. Miguelina Howell is Dean of the Cathedral for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, located in downtown Hartford. She was born and raised in the Dominican Republic where she was an active lay leader in the Episcopal Diocese of the D.R., planting two congregations, before being ordained. She has worked in youth and young adult ministry for her diocese, province, and for the Presiding Bishop. As a priest, she served at a camp and conference center in the D.R. before taking a call to a parish in New Jersey, and was soon recruited to come to Hartford in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. She’s held many church-wide leadership positions and is currently a chaplain for the House of Bishops.

In today’s episode, she recounts her early years and her recruitment by Connecticut. She had a comfortable position at a parish in New Jersey, but ECCT persisted. She and her husband Daniel prayed over it and decided the Holy Spirit was indeed calling, and accepted as vicar. That was in 2013 and by 2015 she was elected by the Cathedral Chapter, and appointed by the Bishop, to serve as Cathedral Dean. She was installed in February 2016. In the meantime, the Bishop had given the Cathedral a charge to reimagine its identity and role for the 21st century. The Rev. Harlon Dalton, who was serving as priest in charge of the Cathedral, oversaw the task force while Lina worked with the congregations. Here are the eight purposes of a cathedral, which were then approved by ECCT at its annual convention:

Embody and enhance our common identity as Anglicans within a particular geographic region
Maintain and preserve it as a house of prayer and devotion open to all
Maintain excellence in the quality of worship
Assist the bishops in their role as the public face and voice of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut
Provide sanctuary and a serve as a public meeting ground
Engage with other faiths, religions, and wisdom traditions
Embody and extend the bishops’ apostolic call to make Christ Jesus known and manifest in the world
Collaborate as a center for theological learning and spiritual growth
(Click here to read the specific recommendations, based on the purposes.)

While the progress may be slow, the recommendations are holding solid.

Toward the end we talk briefly about what it’s been like as a Latina cathedral dean. It turns out that being a woman dean is still challenging to some people. We end up talking about her new role as a mom: She and Daniel are in the process of adopting two young boys, and she is also expecting a biological child. It’s all bringing great joy as well as changes.

When asked what she’d like ECCT to pray for the Cathedral, she suggests the Prayer of Jabez, from 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, praying that God would bless them, and “enlarge [their] territory.”

More about our guest:

She is a native of the Dominican Republic and grew up across the street from an Episcopal church and school in Santo Domingo, and was actively engaged in both of those. Originally she thought she might want to be a nun, but her parish priest dissuaded her. We are most grateful to him! She has degrees in psychometrics and clinical psychology, as well as a degree from seminary.

Miguelina, who sometimes goes by "Lina," served as the diocesan young adult ministry coordinator in the DR and later as coordinator for youth ministry for all of Province IX, while she was still a lay person. After she was ordained a priest, in 2002, she served at a camp and conference center in the Dominican Republic. She took her first position outside her country at a church in New Jersey. She was actively recruited to come to the Cathedral in Hartford first as its vicar in 2013, and was later elected its 10th Dean. She was installed in early 2016 as the first Latina dean of an Episcopal cathedral in The Episcopal Church.

She's been very active in The Episcopal Church, serving on its staff, on the Taskforce for Reimagining The Episcopal Church, on a council of advice for the President of the House of Deputies, as a faculty member for a clergy wellness program, CREDO, as Chaplain for the House of Bishops. She was a collaborator in the church's "Strategic Vision for Reaching Latinos/Hispanics" in 2009 and remains active in the church's Latino Ministries. And there's probably a lot more we didn't even mention.

View Details

David Tolzmann, currently a resident of Connecticut, is the founder of the Labyrinth Company (R), which calls itself the "world's premiere meditation space creator" with over 5,000 completed.

In addition to being the founder of the company, and what they call its "chief geometer," David still personally manages the design and business aspects of the firm and employs a highly efficient and professional work crew. For those who want to do it themselves, the company has a "Paver Labyrinth Kit" which has been featured on cable television's DIY Network.

Since some people get “labyrinths” mixed up with “mazes” David explains the basic difference: “You get lost in a maze: it usually has walls, it usually has dead-ends; and you find yourself in a labyrinth,” he said.

Labyrinths work like a left-brain jamming device, he explained. As you walk the pattern, your logical, rational, sequential left brain tries to figure out the complex labyrinth pattern and keep you on track, and it gets occupied. So your right brain – your creative, intuitive, spiritual side -- can free-associate for a while without being told by your left brain that you’re not on task.

That’s why he calls a labyrinth a “walking meditation device.”

Over the years David has seen labyrinths help many people to find answers to life’s difficult questions. He’s heard of them helping rebuild relationships, and helping autistic children as well as adults with Alzheimer’s. His company has built labyrinths at hospitals not only for patients and family members to use, but for the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff, as well. There are both public labyrinths and private ones.

Labyrinths may get associated with “New Age” practices, yet they’re actually ancient. They’ve been around for about 3,500 years, on multiple continents.

A “seed” pattern, which creates a labyrinth when the dots are connected in a certain way, is the oldest design. The most famous design currently in Episcopal Church circles is the one from Chartres Cathedral, dating to 1200. David’s website currently features 46 designs.

Labyrinths can be painted on canvas to make them portable, or permanently installed in interior and exterior spaces. They can be made from pavers, rocks, limestone, and other natural material.

One of the most photographed is at Avalon Park & Preserve on the north shore of Long Island where David said he’s seen up to a hundred people walking it before they head off to work in the morning (pictured above).

A favorite of his is in Bandon, Oregon, in a clearing in an old growth forest of Douglas Fir, at the Bandon Dunes golf resort. (Golf News Network video here.)

View Details

In February of this year, at the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of prayer, fasting, and self-denial leading up to Easter, the Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies of The Episcopal Church called the church to a Day of Prayer. It was “...devoted to meditating on the ways in which we in the church have failed to stand with women and other victims of abuse and harassment and to consider, as part of our Lenten disciplines, how we can redouble our work to be communities of safety that stand against the spiritual and physical violence of sexual exploitation and abuse.” In March, the President of the House of Deputies appointed a 47-member special committee to “draft legislation on sexual harassment and exploitation for this summer’s General Convention (business session of the church that can set churchwide policies and guidelines).”

In this first episode of Coffee Hour at The Commons, Alli and Karin talk with Canon Robin Hammeal-Urban about that call to prayer, the special committee, the “#metoo” movement, and how sexual harassment, exploitation, and assault are present in the church. We talk about her work with the victims and perpetrators, and about how she’s helping church communities become safer physically, emotionally, and spirituall----more----

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

Robin is the Canon for Mission Integrity & Training for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT). She oversees the clergy disciplinary process for ECCT, known as “Title IV,” shorthand for the section of the canons (church laws) of The Episcopal Church that address clergy professional standards, accountability, and church discipline (PDF here, scroll down on left to “Title IV”). She is a recognized leader across The Episcopal Church in explaining the Title IV process and author of the book, Wholeness After Betrayal: Restoring Trust in the Wake of Misconduct (Morehouse, 2015, also on Amazon).

Robin also oversees “Safe Church” policies and training in ECCT for ordained persons as well as parish staff and lay leaders. Beyond Connecticut, she is chair of the Task Force to Update Sexual Misconduct Policies, established in 2015 by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church to develop new model policies by 2018 for the whole Episcopal Church. That Task Force recently released its proposed new comprehensive model policies for the protection of children and youth, and for the protection of vulnerable adults.

Robin is also an appointed member of the Anglican Communion’s Safe Church Commission, which has a global membership and reach.

Wholeness After Betrayal: Restoring Trust in the Wake of Misconduct

View Details

In this teaser Episode O: The First Pour, hosts Karin and Alli discuss how this podcast came to be, the significance behind the name "Coffee Hour at The Commons," and what their hopes are for the podcast. Learn a little bit more about your hosts, Karin and Alli, as well as their vision for this podcast.

You can find this episode and others on our website coffeehour.org. Be sure to like us on Facebook, and give us a follow on Instagram and Twitter.

In Christ and Coffee,

Karin & Alli

Coffee Hour at The Commons: Recent Episodes

Coffee Hour at The Commons