Digital Learning

Imagine with me. You’re a brand new vestry member and relatively new to the Episcopal Church. You would like to learn more about what it means to be on the vestry. You are excited for your role and want to learn the role of the vestry, the kinds of decisions you will help make, and how the vestry works with the rector. You happen to get The Bulletin in your email and notice that the School is offering a course called Vestry 101. “Perfect, you think. I’ll sign up! That will help me learn!” Only then you discover it’s being offered once this fall, in person, in DC on a Wednesday night. For those who live in Southern or Northern Maryland, driving into DC can take 90 minutes or more. On some nights, driving 5 miles even within DC can take 90 minutes! So you can’t attend, therefore starting your tenure as a vestry member knowing less about what you’ve agreed to than you’d hoped. 

The other possibility is the course is offered online, via zoom, and recorded. It’s on a Saturday at 10:00 a.m. but your kid has a soccer game. So you miss the online session. You go back to watch it after the fact and realize there are all kinds of questions that didn’t get answered but now you’re watching the recording and don’t have an opportunity for a real-time Q&A. 

The mission of the School for Christian Faith and Leadership is to inspire, equip, connect, and empower the people of God for faithful life and leadership. If we want to do that effectively, we have to get innovative. We have to be forward-leaning and outward-looking. 

The School’s new digital learning hub provides us the opportunity to do just that. Starting this fall, you will find courses online that are both live and on-demand. If you miss a live course, you’ll have the opportunity to take it on-demand whenever and wherever you want, and still be able to connect with others in ministry. Our learning hub doesn’t just deliver information, it builds community. (By the way, you can sign up for the on-demand Vestry 101 course here.)

The Role of the Pandemic in Shaping Online Learning 

Pushed by the pandemic, digital learning has swept the globe over the last 18 months. Individuals, families, schools, companies, and faith communities have adapted beyond our imaginations. This global crisis has exposed our vulnerabilities, laid bare our societal inequalities, and increased our capacity for creativity as we sought to adapt in real time. Churches turned to technology to make worship, formation, and committee meetings accessible, making church far more available to those near and far.

In their March study, the Barna Group discovered that among what people missed most about church during the pandemic included “socializing with other churchgoers before and after services” and the “chance to connect with like-minded people.” People simply want to gather. They want to gather and socialize, gather and learn, gather and serve. Embracing digital learning provides the opportunity to gather online and build community in and beyond the diocese.

Digital community has been looked down upon as fabricated. But as my friend and colleague, the Rev. Jim Keat reminds us, “Virtual is not the opposite of real, it’s the opposite of physical.” When we approach digital learning with the innovation of a digital learning hub, so much more is made possible in our efforts to equip and connect the people of God. 

So then, what about this learning hub? 

We invite you to try out the School’s digital learning hub at learn.edow.org. It is designed with you in mind. It is easy, streamlined, and collaborative. Our learning hub meets the needs of a variety of learning styles–whether you learn by reading, watching videos, engaging in conversation, or practicing. And there will be the opportunity to participate in live as well as on-demand learning opportunities. 

Our digital offerings last year have become known for their digital toolboxes chock full of resources to support you in applying what you have learned to your context. We continue this practice. Each course has a section dedicated to resources to which you can return again and again. 

You can participate from the comfort of your own home which makes this particularly useful during the pandemic, or anytime you’d prefer to learn from home or office. The School is committed to growing your capacity for baptismal living and faithful leadership. Our goal is to become your go-to place for best practices in ministry. We want to provide you access to the riches within the diocese on topics that matter, such as stewardship, creation justice, prayer practices, Wardens 101, and more. 

Our new learning hub will allow us to share resources widely and readily. After your course is complete, you can maintain your connection to that course and continue the conversation with other participants about topics you learned or ideas they shared, increasing the overall collaboration across the diocese to build communities of practice. 

We know that not everyone is tech savvy. When you find a sticking point or run into an issue, support is readily available with a course that orients you to how the learning hub works. Plus, we are here to support you as you explore, learn, and grow. 

We are so excited to be able to offer you the School’s new learning hub for ongoing faith and leadership formation in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. 

To learn more about the diocese’s new learning hub and how you can use it in your congregation, attend the School’s Open House on August 31, 12:00-1:00 pm. (Register). Or, take a course about the learning hub on your own time with this Learner Guide.

The Rev. Emily Snowden
Program Coordinator for The School of Christian Faith and Leadership
and Tending Our Soil Thriving Congregations Initiative

Celebrating the Official Launch of the School for Christian Faith and Leadership

Celebrating the Official Launch of the School for Christian Faith and Leadership

Above: A screenshot of what you’ll see when you click on the School’s new online learning hub


“[S]peaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.”
Ephesians 4:15-17  

Today, we celebrate the official (hard) launch of the School for Christian Faith and Leadership with an online learning hub that hosts both on-demand and live courses and an ever-growing set of congregational formation series to support congregations in their ministry of formation and leadership. 

In the fall of 2020 we launched with a suite of online learning opportunities. In the early months of the School, a team of leaders met to discern the School’s mission and vision. Over the summer we convened an Advisory Board to guide the future of the School. This official launch comes after a yearlong “soft launch” the School hosted more than 40 courses, serving over 2,000 people from the Diocese of Washington and beyond. 

On the learning hub, you will find courses to take as an individual such as the Bible’s Books of Wisdom (click to learn more) and courses for congregational leaders such as Strategic Pyramid and Ministry Alignment (click to learn more) as well as formation series for your entire congregation to take together such as Discover (click to learn more).

Finally, we have designed a clear path of discipleship that every congregation can adopt to guide individuals in taking their next step in faith. Read about the path of discipleship here.

As you explore the offerings, you will notice that the School has drawn on the rich gifts of leaders in the diocese. For these gifts, we give thanks. 

We’re excited by the great potential of the School and its joyful reception. We invite you to join us as we continue to grow in every way into Christ and build up the body of Christ. 

The Rev. Jenifer Gamber
Director of the School for Christian Faith and Leadership
and Tending Our Soil Thriving Congregations Initiative

The Story of Your Life

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Then the religious authorities began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
John 6:35, 41-41

Good morning, friends of St. Thomas’ Church. It’s wonderful to be with you. Special thanks to your good rector, the Rev. Lisa Ahuja, and members of the vestry for inviting me to preach. 

The working title of this sermon is “The Story of Your Life,” an exploration of recurring themes and patterns that you might come to recognize over time, and how you can discover, to your amazement, “The Gospel of your Life,” that is to say, the ways that God, through the loving presence of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, shows up for you, and the ways you are uniquely wired to experience God and to be a witness for Christ simply by living your one, unique life. 

Let me begin by asking you to think of times when you’ve heard either yourself or someone else say, “Well, that’s the story of my life.” 

Casually, it’s a way we describe how luck seems to fall for us; in my case, for example, why it is that whenever I choose a check-out line in a grocery store, I always seem to wind up in the slowest line. I don’t know why, but it’s the story of my life. A friend once told me of her husband’s “parking karma,” because he always seems to be able to find a parking spot in the most crowded part of the city. It’s the story of his life.

In these arguably superficial yet uncannily true ways, we experience a significant part of who we are. “I never win at anything.” Or “I always seem to win.” “I’m a glass half-empty kind of person.” “I’m a glass half full.” 

Our younger son, Patrick, was rather accident prone as a kid, to put it mildly. By the time he reached high school, his friends began to refer to what they called PRIs, or Patrick Related Incidents. In his case, it was more than simply bad luck, although he had plenty, it was also reflective of the fact that he had so much going on in his head at one time that his situational awareness suffered. Accidents became a big part of the story of his life. 

These stories we tell about ourselves, or others tell about us, are powerful. They help account for recurring patterns–the things that just seem to happen, time and again, for good or for ill. Once a pattern is ingrained and the story is set in our minds, it takes real effort to change it, even if the data supporting them is suspect, or when what was once true about us is true no longer. One of the liberating aspects of moving to a new place or a new job, actually, is that we get to start over with the story of our life. While some of these patterns and stories are harmless and tend to be exaggerated, others are highly influential, with real implications for how others relate to us. 

As I’ve been talking, I wonder if you’ve thought of an example from your life or someone close to you that is akin to what I’ve been describing? Are there any narratives that you’d like to change or you feel are changing? We’ve all been watching the fascinating storyline shift at the Olympics this year, with the highly unusual decision for world star gymnast Simon Biles to withdraw from competition at the final hour, citing concerns for her mental health. She and others like her are insisting now on a new narrative, one that takes into account for sportsmen and women the entirety of their lives, not simply the moments when all eyes are on their performance.  

Let’s go deeper now to consider that part of your story that encapsulates, attempts to describe what you love best about you–what you love to do, the things that cause you to lose track of time because you’re so engaged in them, the people who make your hearts sing, the places that speak to you of home, or adventure, or joy. Another way to identify this part of your life is the deep sense of purpose you feel when what you’re doing matters to you, the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction you feel whenever you sense that the gifts God has given you are being put to their use, even when, or perhaps especially when, the effort involved requires real sacrifice on your part. Your dreams are also a big part of this storyline–what you hope for, what you really want for yourself and for others, so much so that you’d give up a lot of other things for that one pearl of great price. 

Now that part of yourself–whatever it is–is sacred. It’s your personal connection to the creative, life-giving spirit of God. I would say that God really cares about that part of you. More about that in a moment. 

But first I’d like to briefly consider the story of Jesus’ life, not the overarching narrative from birth to death, but rather the animating energy that drove him, the things that people knew about him—the Jesus Related Incidents, if you will. There are several to choose from, but one story about Jesus always rises to the fore–his passion for food. 

Jesus loved food, and most especially, to share meals with other people. He’d eat with anyone–tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees–he didn’t care. He loved parties, and at one of them, he personally made sure that more wine flowed freely (and really good wine) after the host’s supply ran out. 

It mattered to Jesus that people had enough food, which helped explain why so many were drawn to him. For Jesus walked among people who were almost always hungry–subsistence farmers, fishermen whose livelihoods and often next meals depended upon their night catch. Famine was common in Jesus’ day, as it is now in drought-stricken or war-torn parts of our world. 

One of the most cherished memories about Jesus’ ministry was the time (and perhaps it was more than once) when he made sure that a hungry multitude did not leave his presence without being fed. As you may recall, he worked with what he had, what people gave him–a few loaves and some fish–to create a banquet enough for many to eat their fill, with food to spare. It’s one of the few stories about Jesus that shows up in all four written accounts of his life, which biblical scholars agree makes it a really big deal. 

The other meal recorded in all four accounts was the most intimate one, the one we reenact every Sunday when we gather around this sacramental table–the last supper he shared with his closest friends on the night before he died. It was a time of final words and of reassurance that after he was physically gone, whenever they gathered together to break bread, his spirit would be with them. 

What all this focus on food tells us about Jesus is that he really cares about human beings. He knows that we need food–good nourishment for our bodies–to be fully alive. He also cares about feeding souls. For all his love of actual food, he would also remind people that we do not live by bread alone, that there are other kinds of hunger. It mattered to Jesus, and it matters still, that souls are fed. Because we cannot realize the best, most true story that is our life without soul food, that which feeds and sustains the part of us that animates, our spirit and energy, passion and purpose. We can’t run on empty and live that part of your life. 

So the first thing I hope you take with you from this sermon is the non-negotiable commitment Jesus has to your physical and spiritual well-being, and not just you, but every child of God on this planet. Anyone called to be a follower of Jesus will be invited into a life of first receiving the food that nourishes body and soul, and then ensuring that others are equally fed, no matter who they are. 

You may remember a story about the time Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection while they were fishing on the sea of Galilee. They saw him from the boat and made their way to him. And the first thing he did was invite them to eat the breakfast he had prepared for them. Then he took Simon Peter aside for a private conversation to help Simon Peter to get past the guilt he felt for having denied him three times on the night of his arrest. You remember how he asked him three times, “Simon Peter, do you love me?” and Simon Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Each time, Jesus gave him this exhortation, “Feed my sheep.” Feed people. Give them food–nourishing food, for body and soul–in my name. 

The second message of this sermon is a bit harder, although equally, if not more important. For it has to do with how Jesus can show up for us in those times when, in the story of our life, a part of us–a really important part–is going hungry. I’m not speaking about physical hunger now, but rather the other ways that we feel the ache of emptiness and lack. He knew it would happen to us; it happens to everyone; it happened to all him: disappointments and failures; dreams lost and roads not taken. 

You heard and have printed in your bulletins a reading from the reading from the Gospel of John in which Jesus speaks of himself as the bread of life, even going so far as to say that whoever comes to him will not go hungry and whoever believes in him will never thirst. He’s clearly not talking here about physical hunger because any human being alive will experience physical hunger and thirst. It’s the way our bodies work. So what is he talking about? 

First we have to consider the text itself. You may know that there is a radical shift in tone in the Gospel of John as compared to the other three accounts of Jesus’ life–in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke. In the other three, Jesus almost never speaks of himself in the first person. He’s always talking about what the Kingdom of God is like, calling people to follow him in a life of radical service to others. 

In John, by stunning contrast, written at least a generation after the other three, Jesus can’t stop talking about himself. He talks about himself all the time. “I am,” he says, “the light of the world.” “I am the Way, the truth, and the life.” “I am the bread of life.” In fact, John devotes two chapters to this one idea of him being bread, Jesus being our bread, our soul’s food. This is an extended reflection on the very story of Jesus feeding the multitudes with a few loaves and some fish, as if to say, “Don’t just pay attention to your bodies here. Let Jesus, let me be food for your souls, and food for your souls in the very places where you may not be getting what you want or what you need.” 

Do you hear that? Jesus is meeting you in that place of want or need, and recognizing that what you want or need may not come to you in the ways that you desperately pray for. And this, as you know, is a significant shift in the life of faith. Historically, it’s the result of the passage of time, and the realization among Jesus followers a couple generations after the resurrection that whatever it meant for Jesus to return in glory, it wasn’t going to bring about a change in their life circumstances anytime soon. At the same time, they had the sense, a growing  sense, of Jesus’ presence with them. It hadn’t gone away; in fact, it had grown stronger with time, albeit in a more mysterious, mystical way. It was as if they didn’t have to wait for Jesus to come back. Maybe he was already here, with them already in spirit and in truth. Whatever that meant for them, it had something to do with Jesus’ presence, in itself, being food for their souls–less focused on what changed externally and more centered on their inner life. 

That’s the kind of food Jesus offers still. It’s not that he doesn’t care about the things that we want and need. But he also offers, where we need it most, sources of strength, resilience, forgiveness and grace that can sustain us even when, or especially when, we are experiencing emptiness and hunger in parts of our lives where our needs aren’t being met in the ways that we hope or want. 

It’s a challenging shift. I wish it wasn’t necessary, that we could always have our needs met, but it is. The shift involves acceptance and letting things go, experiencing the emptiness inside, and allowing Jesus to meet us there and fill that space. It’s a different kind of food, and we may not want it, at first. We may want to hold out for the fulfillment of our desire. There’s nothing wrong with that. I hold out for as long as I can. But what Jesus says to me and to you, when we’ve run that course is, “Let me feed you in other ways.”

Here is a concrete example of this kind of food. Dear friends of ours, now in their 70s, married young and, as most young couples do, they wanted to have children. It was not to be. Their grief was real and long lasting, but by grace and with time, they found a path as a couple that has filled their lives with children for whom they are a blessing, including our two sons who love them fiercely. One of the couple told me years ago that in conversation with other childless couples, their story isn’t always well received. “They don’t want to hear that it’s possible to live a fulfilling life without children, because they still want children,” my friend told me. “How well we understand that.” As people of faith, they never minimized their grief, or pretended that their longing for children wasn’t real. But God gave them another path, another way to live fully. That’s the kind of food we hear Jesus offer us when we need to find another path and experience fulfillment in a different way than what we had hoped, and even when a part of us remains empty. 

The African American theologian Howard Thurman writes powerfully of this kind of spiritual food in his book, Jesus and the Disinherited. Writing as a black man in a deeply segregated, unjust America, in 1949, he asked the haunting question, “What on earth does Jesus have to say to the people whose backs are against the wall–to the poor, the disinherited, and the dispossessed?”1 He was far less interested in what Jesus had to say to those with power and privilege about sharing their resources and helping those in need. He wanted to know what Jesus had to say to them. He wanted answers for the people for whom this world is constant struggle, perpetual hunger, and stolen dreams. In Jesus, Thurman finds his answers–not in Christianity, but in Jesus, and his promise of inner strength, inner clarity, inner conviction of worthiness and power that enables those oppressed by others to live according to a different narrative, a different life story, born of the unshakeable conviction that they are beloved of God. With that  story, they stand up to those who would tell them otherwise and work toward the fulfillment of God’s dream for all. Their immediate hunger for equity and justice may, as yet, go unfulfilled, yet a deep knowledge of their belovedness in God’s eyes, that Jesus is there for them, is food enough to see them through and, to quote Ghandi, a man Thurman deeply admired, “to be the change they wanted to see in the world.” 

I  leave you with the invitation with which I began: to consider the story of your life. Smile at the more quirky aspects, consider the narratives you are ready to change, and most especially, cherish the deeper story that speaks to the animating energy that is you. It is your gift to all of us, your sacred, God-given, God-inspired life. Jesus longs for you to have all the food you need to live your dreams and gifts into the world. But when they can’t be fully realized in the ways that you hoped, there he will meet you with the Gospel of your Life, the way he meets you in your empty place, holds it with you, and gives you, if you let him, the food of  love and mercy, strength and deep assurance that you are beloved child of God. And that my friends, is enough food to live the life that is yours alone, and to live it well.  

May it so for you, and for us all. Amen. 

~~~
1 Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (First published by Abingdon President, 1949).

Vital Stories Everywhere

When Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord.
Acts 11: 22-24 


The Parish Vitality Working Group

The verse above comes from a longer passage in Acts 11:19-30 that describes one of the high points of the early church. In Acts we can find lots of passages about the struggles of the early church, but there are also passages like this one which relate stories of the early Christians thriving. In a recent meeting of the Parish Vitality Working Group–a collection of diocesan leaders and staff working to advance our strategic plan around vitality–we spent time sharing the same kind of stories of where we’ve seen congregations thriving. 


Identifying Vital Signs in Scripture

In that meeting we read the longer Acts passage and identified the vital signs in their story. We heard “Compelling Mission and Vision” in Barnabas’ exhortation for the people to remain faithful to the Lord. We heard “Inspiring and Capable Leadership” in how Barnabas was described as a “good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith.” Although the passage didn’t specifically mention worship, we saw “Inviting and Uplifting Worship” and “Welcoming and Connecting Ministries” present in the rejoicing and exhorting. 

In other parts of the passage, we noticed “Blessing of the Community” as they sent help to those who were suffering from famine and “Faithful Financial Practices” in how they determined what they could send. This exercise showed us how the seven Vital Signs can serve as touch points to see where a Christian community is doing well. 


Using the Vital Signs to Share Stories About Our Own Recent Experiences and Innovations

Locating the Vital Signs in the Acts passage became a jumping off point for us to share stories of how we saw the vital signs at work in our own parishes, especially in the last 18 months of our pandemic journey. The stories soon took on a recognizable rhythm: Members of the working group would identify a need or challenge that arose at their parish, explain what was done to address the issue, then share the outcome, relating each story to a Vital Sign. 

It was an energizing, informative, and inspiring conversation–and when we shared our takeaways at the end, each member of the working group offered an encouraging or empowering insight:  “Stay creative.”, “Let’s keep shaking it up!”, “Surfacing people’s gifts”, “Meeting people where they are”, and “Moving from our building dependence”


An Invitation to the Diocese

This fall, the Parish Vitality Working Group will invite the whole diocese to share stories about the ways in which our parishes have experienced vitality in the last 18 months, framed by the seven Vital Signs. 

In addition to being a great opportunity to cross-pollinate ministry ideas, this Zoom gathering will allow us to document the creativity and innovation demonstrated by our congregations during a time of immense challenge. The Rev. Dr. Anne-Marie Jeffery, Canon for Congregational Vitality will facilitate. 

Have questions about the Parish Vitality Working Group or how to use the seven Vital Signs to help with storytelling? Contact the Rev. Canon Anne-Marie Jeffery.

Bishop Chilton to Serve as Assisting Bishop in Chicago

Dear Friends,

 

As our beloved former colleague Paula Clark continues to recover, the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Chicago, with Paula’s full support, has decided to call an Assisting Bishop to begin serving this fall. With the support of our Presiding Bishop, the call was extended to me and I have accepted.

 

In a way, this is coming full circle for me. I served several congregations, and was on the Diocese of Chicago staff for 10 years, until being elected Bishop of Maine in 1997. I want to say that I have been happily settled with you, and only this kind of unique situation would draw me away. This absolutely feels like God’s call.

 

My ministry as Assisting Bishop of Washington will conclude on September 30th, and I begin serving the Diocese of Chicago in early October. I will maintain my current residence, commuting between Maryland and Chicago; I am grateful for all these months of learning how to do ministry remotely.

 

It has been two and a half years since I joined the diocesan staff in EDOW. Even with the immense challenges of the recent period, this has been a grace-filled time for me. I will write some longer reflections on our time together shortly before we say farewell. For now, my gratitude, love and prayers are offered in fullest measure.

 

+Chilton

 

The Rt. Rev. Chilton R. Knudsen

Assisting Bishop of Washington

 


 

Dear Friends in Christ, 

 

While we share Bishop-elect Paula’s disappointment that her consecration in Chicago must be delayed, we can give thanks to God that she is surrounded by love and care on every side as she continues to heal. 

 

 And while we in the Diocese of Washington are sad that Bishop Chilton will leave us, how good it is for one who is both beloved of the Diocese of Chicago and who loves Bishop-elect Paula to serve as Assisting Bishop at her side. 

 

As Bishop Chilton writes, she feels called by God to serve the Diocese of Chicago and Bishop-elect Paula. I spoke with the Rev. Anne Jolly, President of the Standing Committee in Chicago, and she is overjoyed that Bishop Chilton has accepted the call. “Her presence will be a tremendous gift to the entire diocese.” she told me. We know this is true, for Bishop Chilton has been a great gift to us.

 

The time to say goodbye is not yet upon us. Bishop Chilton will be on vacation in August and here for the month of September. Her responsibilities will be reassigned to members of the diocesan staff, as we take stock in the weeks ahead and discern our way forward. 

 

Mark your calendars for Wednesday September 29, 5:30 p.m. We’ll gather Washington National Cathedral (both in-person and live-streamed) to offer prayers of thanksgiving and blessing for Bishop Chilton. In the meantime, please take every opportunity to thank her for saying yes to the Diocese of Chicago now, and yes to us so whole-heartedly for the last two years. 

 

Thank you for your continued prayers for Bishop-elect Paula. She continues to pray for us all. We are united by our prayers.

 

Faithfully in Christ, 

 

Bishop Mariann

 

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgard Budde

Bishop of Washington