The Episcopal Church

Interested in applying for a Creation Care Grant? Learn more about the program and apply here: iam.ec/creationcaregrants

After you take your My Way of Love spiritual inventory, you can sign up for a free, eight-week, personalized email series offering ideas on how to pray, engage with scripture, and practice the Way of Love in your life. Learn more here.

Becoming Beloved Community Grant applications are due on Monday, April 12! Make sure you submit before then. Applications and more information are at iam.ec/bbcg.

Launching on April 12 and available at iam.ec/evangelismmatters, this year's Evangelism Matters intentionally flips the conference format inside-out with an innovative approach to sharing, learning, and growing the ministry of evangelism among Episcopalians. Learn more about our audioconference and register for free today!

Deadline approaching! Applications for 2021-2022 placements with the Young Adult Service Corps (YASC) are due tomorrow. Apply at iam.ec/yasc.

Acompáñenos en esta experiencia digital gratuita e innovadora para quienes desean compartir, conocer y alimentar la pasión y las capacidades propias y las de la Iglesia por el evangelismo. La conferencia Evangelismo Relevante de esta primavera le invita a apagar la pantalla de su computadora y a sintonizar una audioconferencia, con charlas al estilo podcast sobre las oportunidades y los desafíos que enfrenta el evangelismo hoy en día. Los episodios de podcast contarán con... oradores como el Obispo Presidente Michael Curry, el Obispo Rafael Morales de Puerto Rico, la Sra. Mildred J. Reyes de la Diocesis de Washington, el Reverendo Alberto Cutié, el Reverendo Simón Bautista de la Catedral de Cristo y el Reverendo Scott Gunn de Forward Movement, y muchos más. A partir del 12 de abril, todas las sesiones de Evangelismo Relevante 2021: La Disciplina de la Esperanza, estarán en vivo y podrán escucharse en este canal (feed) de podcast. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/evangelism-matters-2021-re/

Joy to the world! The Lord is come. In your hearts, in your homes, in your lives, prepare him room, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop and Primate Michael Curry said in his Christmas Message 2020. Find a full transcription of the message in English and Spanish at https://episcopalchurch.org//presiding-bishop-currys-chris.

Holding on to Hope - A National Service for Healing and Wholeness

This November, the people of the United States will elect a president and many others to public office. This election occurs in a time of global pandemic, a time when there is hardship, sickness, suffering and death. But this election also occurs in a time of great divisions. Divisions that are deep, dangerous, and potentially injurious to democracy. So what is the role of the church in the context of an election being held in a time such as this? What is our role as individu...al followers of Jesus Christ committed to his way of love in such a time as this? - Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, selected from his Sept. 16, 2020 Word to the Church - "What Did Jesus Do?" Watch the full video below. Resources: Make Me an Instrument of Peace: A Guide to Civil Discourse, online curriculum from the Office of Government Relations - https://episcopalchurch.org/OGR/civic-engagement Learn, Pray, Act: Resources for Responding to Racist Violence, curated by Episcopal Church staff for Racial Reconciliation and Justice and the Office of Government Relations - https://episcopalchurch.org/responding-to-racist-violence Resources from the Center for Racial Healing and the Diocese of Atlanta - https://www.centerforracialhealing.org/ With Malice Toward None, a program designed for churches and groups to provide a way for understanding and healing for all sides of our political divisions for both before and after the November election - https://braverangels.org/what-we-do/with-malice-toward-none/

Have you seen our third episode of Tell Me Something Good, featuring a chat with Rebecca Hall? Join us as we share more about the Good News in our lives. iam.ec/good

Have you listened to Bishop Curry's most recent podcast episode with Archbishop Thabo Makgoba? Listen online or on your favorite podcasting app to hear bits of wisdom like these as we commit to working and praying. This season of the Way of Love podcast is sponsored by Church Pension Group, a financial services organization providing employee benefits, property and casualty insurance, and publishing to The Episcopal Church. Follow CPG on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn to learn how it’s been a stable presence in the Church for more than 100 years.

Today's practice from Journeying the Way of Love, an Advent curriculum and calendar based on the Gospel of Luke and the seven practices of the Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-centered Life. Download our Advent calendar in English, Spanish, or French here: iam.ec/jwolcalendar.

Read and listen to this week's sermon from the Rev. Dr. Andrew Harmon: God's Work with Us. Find free resources, including sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and more at www.sermonsthatwork.org

"We seek, name, and celebrate Jesus' loving presence in the stories of all people - then invite everyone to more." Apply for an Evangelism grant to help support your congregation or ministry as you do the integral and joyful work of evangelism!

From our election prayer resources page: Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will lead Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness, a live-streamed prayer service from Washington National Cathedral on All Saints’ Day, November 1, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. EST. Amid pandemic, racial reckoning, and an historic election, the live-streamed service will gather Americans for prayer, song, lament, hope, and a call to love God and neighbor. The service will feature an ecumenical and multifaith array of voices, musical offerings, and prayers. Using a combination of live and visually stunning pre-recorded elements gathered from across the nation, the service will be live-streamed in English and Spanish.

#AdventWord #Rest God has sent us to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the p...risoners. Even Jesus suggested, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. What surrounds my rest? Am I tired, exhausted even, from the spirit of God being on me, from following and from being sent? Do I deserve this rest? This quiet place? Even here resting, am I anticipating waking to acting with compassion? - Bryon Rushing -- #DESCANSAR Dios nos ha enviado llevar la buena noticia a los pobres; me ha enviado a anunciar libertad a los presos y dar vista a los ciegos; a poner en libertad a los oprimidos. Aún sugirió Jesús, Vengan, vamos nosotros solos a descansar un poco en un lugar tranquilo. ¿Qué envuelta mi descanso? ¿Estoy descansado, aún agotado, de tener el Espíritu de Dios sobre mí, de seguir y ser enviado? ¿Merezco este descanso? ¿Este lugar tranquilo? ¿Aún aquí descansando, estoy anticipando despertándome para actuar con compasión? -- #REPOZE Bondye voye nou pou nou anonse bon nouvèl la bay moun ki nan lapenn yo, pou n' geri tout moun k'ap soufri yo, pou n' fè tout moun yo te depòte yo konnen yo delivre, pou n' fè tout prizonye yo konnen pòt prizon louvri pou yo." Menm Jezi te di, "Vini avèk mwen pou kont ou, map menenn w’ kote trankil epi pou w ka pran yon ti repo." Ki sa ki fè repo mwen? Èske lespri Bondye ki sou mwen an fè fatige, oubyen fè kò m kraze, paske lap swiv mwen e paske li voye m? Èske mwen merite repo sa a? Kote trankil sa a? Menm lè map repoze, èske map tann kilè pou reveye pou m ka al simaye konpasyon?

#AdventWord #Go #WayofLove This is an excerpt of today's meditation, originally published in "Waiting and Watching" by @fwd_mvt. Find the entire meditation on ...www.adventword.org The seven practices of the Way of Love interconnect often. When it comes to the practice Go, we often add words. Go and preach. Go and serve. Go and listen. Go and worship. Go and pray. In our walks of faith following Jesus, we must find the courage to go beyond our comfortable communities and companions into unknown places and spaces. Doing that work takes practice; I don’t know many people who thrive when thrust continuously into unfamiliar situations. ... My heart journey this Advent finds me seeking a baby born into darkness who brings us great light and life. Baby Jesus will soon be here for all of us to hold and lovesome of us in the hush of night as he fusses and cries, and some of us in the bustle of the day when he sleeps. And we will bind him to us to go and share this good news. - Miriam McKenney

Applications for Evangelism Grants are due November 15, 2020. Learn more and apply at iam.ec/2020evangelismgrants

In celebration of Indigenous People’s Month, join us for morning prayer in The Episcopal Church in Navajoland. The Navajo Nation encompasses land in the four-corners region. To learn more, please visit: https://ecofnavajoland.org/

From the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania:

Read and listen to this week's sermon from the Rev. Charles Hoffacker: Have You Been Transfigured? Find free resources, including sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and more at www.sermonsthatwork.org.

Read and listen to this week's sermon from the Rev. Phil Hooper: Emptiness. Find free resources, including sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and more at www.sermonsthatwork.org.

The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church has awarded thirty-three Beloved Community Rapid-Response grants totaling $187,800 to address the racial disparities laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic and for groups responding to racist violence and policing reform. Awards began in late summer and the final round were approved at Council’s October 2020 meeting.

Day four of A Season of Prayer: For an Election. Thanks again to our friends at Forward Movement for this reminder and prayer from the Book of Common Prayer.

New and updated Advent and Christmas resources for congregations, dioceses, and communities of faith are available, with additional resources coming soon. Available now: Preparing to Become the Beloved Community Advent curriculum; Way of Love Digital Invitation Kit; updated Journeying the Way of Love Advent calendar and curriculum; AdventWord 2020; Episcopal Migration Ministries Refugee Prayer Vigil. And be sure to sign up for daily Advent and Christmas emails.

At Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness, we'll have ecumenical and interfaith guests offering prayers of confession, lament, and hope. Join us on November 1 at 4:00 E to see such faith leaders as Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core (IFY), Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Rabbi Shoshana Conover of Temple Sholom, Chicago, and Shane Claiborne, speaker, activist, and best-selling author. Additionally, music from Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis and Washington National Cathedral will help to lift and open hearts. Learn more at iam.ec/hope.

Have you applied for an Evangelism grant? The program which will fund local and regional evangelism efforts is designed to grow Episcopal ministries, resources, and gatherings that energize the Church to boldly and fearlessly share and celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ. Learn more and apply at iam.ec/2020evangelismgrants.

As part of our suite of resources around the Good News of Lament, the Rev. Dr. Tricia Lyons of Virginia Theological Seminary sent us an extraordinary message about finding and sharing faith during times of horror and tragedy. Visit iam.ec/lament to see this wonderful offering.

Day 3 of A Season of Prayer: For an Election, a novena from our friends at Forward Movement.

The Episcopal Diocese of Oregon has received notification from Presiding Bishop and Primate Michael B. Curry and Registrar of General Convention, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, that Bishop-Elect Diana Akiyama has received the required majority of consents in the canonical consent process detailed in Canon III.11.3.

Following the October 9-12, 2020 meeting of Executive Council, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, Executive Officer of the General Convention, has announced that the form for the 2020 Parochial Report is now viewable on the General Convention website.

This week's Bible study was written by Cate Anthony of Yale Divinity School and the Diocese of Chicago. The reading is Matthew 5:1-12. "It may come as a surprise that the text for All Saints’ Day is the oft-quoted Beatitudes rather than a story about resurrection or heaven. However, in the context of the whole lectionary, the Beatitudes affirm the emphasis of today’s readings on what it looks like to be a saint. In these verses, Jesus clearly defines for those who listen the ...character of those who are blessedthe character of the saints. Rather than advocating for wealth or power, Jesus celebrates mercy, meekness, purity, peacefulness, and righteousness. Moreover, these characteristics are not simply static attributes of a single person but are instead calls to a particular kind of action. To truly inhabit blessedness, we are called to be merciful, to practice peacemaking, to protect those who are meek or hungry. We must align these characteristics with how we behave because, as Jesus illustrates in his rhetoric here, the world is not yet as it should be. Jesus’ emphasis on the future tense ('for they will be') reminds us that there is work to be done and that we have no small part in it. This is the activity of sainthood: to make the world better through compassion and caring for those around us." For more Bible studies, sermons, and other resources, visit Sermons That Work.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2021 Roanridge Trust Grant Awards. Dioceses, congregations and Episcopal Church related organizations and institutions are invited to apply.

The next episode of The Way of Love with Bishop Michael Curry is live online and in your favorite podcasting app! In this episode, Bishop Curry talks to Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The two discuss how prayer has been integral to the work of peace with justice in South Africa through ministries and advocacy from the environment to racial reconciliation. This season of the Way of Love podcast is sponsored by Church Pension Group, a financial services organization providing employee benefits, property and casualty insurance, and publishing to The Episcopal Church. Follow CPG on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn to learn how it’s been a stable presence in the Church for more than 100 years.

Day 2 of the novena for A Season of Prayer: For an Election from Forward Movement. Pray for every human heart.

As part of our ongoing ministry from Holding on to Hope, a live prayer hotline in English and Spanish is now open, staffed by Episcopal clergy and chaplains, in... partnership with TryTank at Virginia Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary. The hotline will remain open from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST until November 5. The hotline can be reached at 202-998-3510.

On the final day of Forward Movement's novena, A Season of Prayer: For an Election, pray for our own work for the common good.

Interested in hosting a live-stream of Holding on to Hope for your congregation or ministry? A live-stream embed code is provided and available to any congregation that would like to add the stream to their own website or sharing the Facebook feed from The Episcopal Church. Congregations are invited to host watch-parties as part of their All Saints’ Day observance and Election Day preparations. You can find the embed code by clicking on the "share" in the top-right corner video player at the top of this page: iam.ec/hope. Remember to have a candle nearby - we'll be lighting them together during the service as a symbol of hope!

As polls close across the nation, all are invited to join us for a non-partisan Facebook Live prayer vigil, 5:00pm ET Tuesday 11/3 to 9:00am ET 11/4. We will hold space for prayer and reflection throughout the night and into the morning. You're encouraged to leave a prayer, connect with others, and to listen to messages of love and hope as well as musical offerings throughout the night. Update, 7:00am ET 11/4: Due to issues with a video feed, we have switched to an alternate location. We're glad you're with us.

From our friends at Forward Movement - A Season of Prayer: For an Election. This novena begins today and runs through November 4.