Clergy will process in choir dress with red stoles.
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.png00Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2024-01-23 10:21:212024-01-23 10:21:21Ordination to the Priesthood
This email contains reminders and information about the following time-sensitive items:
The diocesan Parish Annual Report (formerly called “Congregational Data Sheet” for Eastern Michigan and “Elections Report” for Western Michigan), due February 15
The churchwide Parochial Report, due March 1st
Please note that this information is being emailed to the treasurers, wardens, and parish administrators that were reported on your previous congregational data form or election report. If you are no longer serving in this role, please forward to the person who is now serving. This form is how we update this contact information. Thank you for your assistance.
Parish Annual Report
The 2024 Parish Annual Report is now available for parishes to submit the names of their newly elected vestries and delegates to the diocesan convention. The submission of this report is the method by which we get the new contact information for your parish leadership for the new year. This information is essential to the diocesan center staff.
With the upcoming special convention on March 16, 2024, it is imperative that we receive the names of all new delegates as soon as possible after your annual meeting so that mailings and information can be sent to the correct recipients. Please make every effort to submit your Parish Annual Report as soon as your annual meeting is complete.
The form is also available on the Business & Administration resourcepages of our diocesan websites, under “Parish Reporting” or at the following links: Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan.
For questions about the Parish Annual Report, please contact:
Eastern Michigan – Angela Krueger, Assistant to the Bishop at akrueger@eastmich.org; or,
Western Michigan – Catherine Cameron-Heldt, Diocesan Office Administrator at ccameron@edwm.org.
The deadline to submit the 2024 Parish Annual Report is Friday, February 15, 2024.
Parochial Report
The filing site for Parochial Reports for the Episcopal Church is located at reports.dfms.org.
The Episcopal Church Center sent an email to all parishes with filing information in December. They reported that “…no major changes have been made to the 2023 Parochial Report. Only a few questions have been modified to allow for congregations to provide more information.”
When you file your Parochial Report online, I automatically receive a copy. There is no need to mail a hard copy to our office.
Please contact me with any questions or if you need your log-in email address reset. My email is sphilo@eastmich.org or sphilo@edwm.org.
The deadline to submit the Parochial Report is Friday, March 1, 2024.
Thank you,
Sara Philo
Chief Financial Officer and Benefits Administrator
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan sphilo@eastmich.orgsphilo@edwm.org
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.png00Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2024-01-23 10:15:042024-01-23 10:15:04Annual Parish Report and Parochial Report
Opportunities to Review and Provide Input on Proposals
The following invitation to further public conversation and feedback was sent to the dioceses in early December. The documents for review and feedback during these sessions are now available and posted to the diocesan websites (see links below). Please register to add your voice to this important process and share broadly with your congregation.
—
It’s been a busy and complex many years in the Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan. Since Eastern Michigan first issued the invitation to discernment in 2018 and Western Michigan responded with “yes!” in 2019, together we’ve navigated a pandemic, two cases of bishop discipline, and a rapidly changing church. These years and moments have been spirit-filled and not always easy nor perfectly lived, but we’ve navigated them well with deep care for one another, the communities we tend, and for the future of our beloved church.
With a March Special Convention on the horizon, we are in the last few months of our discernment process as partnering dioceses and we need YOUR help!!
At our recent diocesan convention, our Building Bridges Steering Committee offered an extended report about their work over the last several years: what they’ve done, what they’ve heard, what they’ve learned, and – based on those things – what this all tells us about opportunities present for us as Episcopalians in this place. Their report, titled “Better Together” articulates the “why” of their recommendation to move forward seeking “juncture” – the creation of a new diocese out of our combined body.
As articulated in the report, the Building Bridges team is hard at work, gathering leaders and drafting documents that are required for the Agreement of Union – the set of materials which will be submitted to the Special Joint Convention on March 16th in the vote for juncture. Should our joint convention act for juncture, the Agreement of Union would be submitted to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church for affirmation. The Agreement of Union includes:
The Draft Constitution and Canons for the new diocese (The canons would then be presented for adoption – with amendment possible – at the first convention of the new diocese in October.)
Summary of the financial resources and means of funding the mission and ministries of the new diocese
Broad timeline and basic plan for the election of the first bishop diocesan of the proposed new diocese
Name of the new diocese
We’ve been working on these drafts to present in full to the pre-convention meetings and Special Convention of the dioceses, however before we finalize them, we need your input and feedback on several areas of recommendation: apportionment calculations, regions/collaboratives, the make up of diocesan councils and standing committees, etc. During these upcoming Feedback Sessions, our committee will walk participants through these recommendations, identifying what the current canons of each our dioceses say, what the committee recommends for a new diocese and why. Your input will directly influence the final, content of the Agreement of Union as it will be submitted to the Special Joint Convention and this critical step in developing our canons and structures.
Your input can also help us identify what we may be yet missing, additional areas of concern, and more. While the canons can be adapted and amended up until their formal adoption at the first convention in October (and in all conventions that follow), we want them as complete as possible when we vote on juncture in March. We aren’t seeking perfection, but have worked hard to develop a good foundation on which a new diocese can begin, get a healthy start, and evolve over time.
NEW: Those draft proposals are now available for review ahead of your registered feedback session.
These documents are also available on the Building Bridges pages of the diocesan websites. Visit Eastern Michigan or Western Michigan.
We need your voice on this – yes, yours – to present the best of our collective wisdom, expertise, and experience. Please join us for one of five upcoming online and in-person Feedback Sessions (dates and RSVP links below). Your participation is essential to this process! Please share this invitation widely with your congregation.
Questions about this event? Please contact Katie Forsyth, Canon for Evangelism and Networking, at kforsyth@eastmich.org or kforsyth@edwm.org.
DATES & RSVP
Tuesday, January 16 from 1-3pm on Zoom (Clergy) – All Clergy Call (No RSVP Required)
Calling all weekend warriors, DIY divas, and interior decorating legends! Join us at the site of the soon-to-be AuSable Inclusion Center for a day of renovation, repainting, and redecorating to spruce up our interior space to serve our mission in the community.
The AuSable Inclusion Center is a New Episcopal Community in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan seeking to officially launch in June 2024. It will provide programming for rural LGBTQ+ people and those marginalized by their economic status, organized around four pillars: social/emotional support, material support, spiritual support, and education/advocacy through both online and in-person programming. They also envision resourcing parishes in the dioceses seeking to deepen their own invitation to this population through education, advocacy, and potential collaborations. A more detailed report on the Center and its mission is included in the 2023 Convention Booklet, on page 92.
There are projects for a wide range of gifts and talents, but volunteers with a gift for woodworking and painting would be especially helpful for accomplishing our vision for the space.
Supplies, snacks, lunch, and a killer playlist will be provided. We’ll be working from 9-5pm, come for the whole day or as long as you can!
Questions about this event? Please contact ministry developer, the Rev. Beckett Leclaire, at bleclaire@eastmich.org or bleclaire@edwm.org.
Unable to contribute labor but would like to support the new Ausable Ministry Center in other ways? Please check out our building wishlist and library wishlist. Financial donations are welcome also! Please write checks out to “The Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan,” marked for “The Ausable Inclusion Center” and mail to the Diocese of Eastern Michigan, 124 N. Fayette St., Saginaw, MI 48602.
LOCATION
The AuSable Inclusion Center Signage remains for the former St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church
789 Ryno Rd.
Mio, MI 48647
RSVP
Please RSVP by February 24th so that we can plan for food and projects.
There is no cost to attend; we’re grateful for your contribution to the planting of this new ministry!
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/unnamed-2-scaled.jpg14402560Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2024-01-10 09:52:112024-01-10 10:04:20Ausable Inclusion Center Work Day – The Great Indoors
Join with other preachers across the diocese to dig into the rich texts of Holy Week and Easter, together considering our ministry of proclamation in the liturgy.
Our bi-diocesan office of Adult Formation will offer a one-day continuing education workshop geared toward already-licensed lay preachers and clergy. We will consider themes of the seasons and begin crafting possible outlines for sermons, together preparing to proclaim the word this season. Our facilitator will be the Rev. Tracie Little, D. Min., Canon for Adult Formation and the Southern Collaborative.
This workshop meets the requirements for already-licensed lay preachers’ expectations for continuing education. Learn more about licensing – Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan.
Questions about this event? Please contact the Rev. Canon Tracie Little, D. Min, Canon for the Southern Region and Adult Formation at tlittle@eastmich.org or tlittle@edwm.org, or at 810-300-9177.
DATE & LOCATION
Saturday, January 27, 2024
10:00-2:00 pm
St. John’s Episcopal Church
206 W. Maple Street
Mount Pleasant, MI 48858 stjohnsmtpleasantmi.com
REGISTRATION
The cost to attend is $25 per person.
Please register by January 20th. Space is limited and may fill before the deadline.
Christmas greetings dear Michiganders East and West.
As we approach the Feast of the Nativity I remind us of a reading from the Letter to Titus as one of the propers appointed for Christmas Day:
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all”. Titus 2:11
I sometimes think that God is afraid I won’t get it. One year, twenty minutes before a Christmas Eve service was to begin, a woman and her two small children showed up at the church to ask for food. Another year, a young woman of 17 called me on Christmas Eve to tell me she was pregnant and terrified to tell her parents. Then there was another Christmas Eve when I drove into the church parking lot, to find a young man standing on the parish hall landing, who had just been released from prison and had no money to get home.
Based on such circumstances, perhaps you are thinking that I am going to say that Christmas is about helping people. Well, yes, but it is much more and goes far deeper. It seems that God is trying to tell me that the truth of the Manger is found precisely in people like the three I mentioned, and the sermons this preacher needs to hear or see are those right in front of me. The “grace of God has appeared” in these broken, vulnerable people. They are the presence of Christ, are Christ, and it is as if God is saying, “If you cannot see me in them, then neither will you see me in the Manger.”
In the Manger, God becomes touchable and seeable, flesh and blood. It also means that becomes woundable and killable, thinking ahead to Good Friday. Yet, taking that risk, God has appeared and does appear in broken bread and a cup of wine, in a newborn child or a family feast, in a kind word spoken or in Holy Scriptures, in a pregnant teenager, a man just released from prison, or a hungry family.
The Manger proclaims that God loves us in our full humanity and is, for us, in brokenness as well as joy. My hope is that we will be willing to touch the Christ, however they appear, knowing the Christ-Child who first comes to touch us. Secure in God’s embrace, we embrace the world he came to save, wherever and however God shows up.
A holy and blessed Christmas to all.
Bishop Skip
Saludos navideños estimados Michiganders del este y oeste.
Al acercarnos a la fiesta de la Natividad, recuerdo una lectura de la Carta a Tito como uno de los apoyos designados para el día de la Navidad:
“Porque ha aparecido la gracia de Dios, que trae la salvación a todos”. Tito 2:11
A veces pienso que Dios tiene miedo de que no lo consiga. Un año, veinte minutos antes que comenzara un servicio de Nochebuena, una mujer y sus dos hijos pequeños se presentaron en la iglesia para pedir comida. Otro año, una joven de 17 años me llamó en Nochebuena para decirme que estaba embarazada y que le aterrorizaba decírselo a sus padres. En otra Nochebuena, entré en el estacionamiento de la iglesia y me encontré a un joven en el rellano del salón parroquial que acababa de salir de la cárcel y no tenía dinero para regresar a casa.
Basándose en tales circunstancias, quizá esté pensando que dirá que la Navidad consiste en ayudar a la gente. Bueno, sí, pero es mucho más y va mucho más allá. Parece que Dios está tratando de decirme que la verdad del Pesebre se encuentra precisamente en personas como las tres que he mencionado, y los sermones que este predicador necesita escuchar o ver son los que tengo delante de mí. La “gracia de Dios se ha manifestado” en estas personas rotas y vulnerables. Son la presencia de Cristo, son Cristo, y es como si Dios dijera: “Si no puedes verme en ellos, tampoco me verás en el Pesebre”.
En el Pesebre, Dios se hace tocable y visible, de carne y hueso. También significa que se convierte en herible y matable, pensando en el Viernes Santo. Sin embargo, asumiendo ese riesgo, Dios se ha aparecido y se aparece en el pan partido y en la copa de vino, en un recién nacido o en una fiesta familiar, en una palabra amable pronunciada o en las Sagradas Escrituras, en una adolescente embarazada, en un hombre recién salido de la cárcel o en una familia hambrienta.
El Pesebre proclama que Dios nos ama en nuestra plena humanidad y está, para nosotros, tanto en el quebranto como en la alegría. Mi esperanza es que estemos dispuestos a tocar a Cristo, aparezcan como aparezcan, conociendo al Niño-Cristo que primero viene a tocarnos. Seguros en el abrazo de Dios, abrazamos el mundo que Él vino a salvar, dondequiera y comoquiera que Dios se manifieste.
Una santa y bendita Navidad para todos.
Obispo Skip
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100191 Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Opportunities to Review and Provide Input on Proposals
It’s been a busy and complex many years in the Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan. Since Eastern Michigan first issued the invitation to discernment in 2018 and Western Michigan responded with “yes!” in 2019, together we’ve navigated a pandemic, two cases of bishop discipline, and a rapidly changing church. These years and moments have been spirit-filled and not always easy, but we’ve navigated them well with deep care for one another, the communities we tend, and for the future of our beloved church.
With a March Special Convention on the horizon, we are in the last few months of our discernment process as partnering dioceses and we need YOUR help!!
At our recent diocesan convention, our Building Bridges Steering Committee offered an extended report about their work over the last several years: what they’ve done, what they’ve heard, what they’ve learned, and – based on those things – what this all tells us about opportunities present for us as Episcopalians in this place. Their report, titled “Better Together” articulates the “why” of their recommendation to move forward seeking “juncture” – the creation of a new diocese out of our combined body.
As articulated in the report, the Building Bridges team is hard at work, gathering leaders and drafting documents that are required for the Agreement of Union – the set of materials which will be submitted to the Special Joint Convention on March 16th in the vote for juncture. Should our joint convention act for juncture, the Agreement of Union would be submitted to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church for affirmation. The Agreement of Union includes:
The Constitution and Canons for the new diocese (The canons would then be presented for adoption – with amendment possible – at the first convention of the new diocese in October.)
Summary of the financial resources and means of funding the mission and ministries of the new diocese
Timeline and basic plan for the election of the first bishop diocesan of the proposed new diocese
Name of the new diocese
And more!
We’ve been working on these drafts to present in full to the pre-convention meetings and Special Convention of the dioceses, however before we finalize them, we need your input and feedback on several areas of recommendation: apportionment calculations, regions/collaboratives, the make up of diocesan councils and standing committees, etc. During these upcoming Feedback Sessions, our committee will walk participants through these recommendations, identifying what the current canons of each our dioceses say, what the committee recommends for a new diocese and why. Your input will directly influence the final, content of the Agreement of Union as it will be submitted to the Special Joint Convention and this critical step in developing our canons and structures.
Your input can also help us identify what we may be yet missing, additional areas of concern, and more. While the canons can be adapted and amended up until their formal adoption at the first convention in October (and in all conventions that follow), we want them as complete as possible when we vote on juncture in March. We aren’t seeking perfection, but have worked hard to develop a good foundation on which a new diocese can begin, get a healthy start and evolve over time.
We need your voice on this – yes, yours – to present the best of our collective wisdom, expertise, and experience. Please join us for one of five upcoming online and in-person Feedback Sessions (dates and RSVP links below). Your participation is essential to this process! Please share this invitation widely with your congregation.
We’re still finalizing these recommendations as we incorporate feedback from our diocesan leadership that met just a few weeks ago. Once available, this information will be emailed to registered participants and posted publicly to the Building Bridges pages of our diocesan websites – Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan.
Questions about this event? Please contact Katie Forsyth, Canon for Evangelism and Networking, at kforsyth@eastmich.org or kforsyth@edwm.org.
DATES & RSVP
Tuesday, January 16 from 1-3pm on Zoom (Clergy) – All Clergy Call (No RSVP Required)
Saturday, January 20 from 2-4pm at St. David’s, Lansing* (Lay and Clergy)
Sunday, January 21 from 1-3pm on Zoom (Lay and Clergy)
Thursday, January 25 from 6-8pm on Zoom (Lay and Clergy)
Saturday, January 27 from 2-4pm at St. Francis, Grayling* (Lay and Clergy)
*In the event of dangerous weather, our in-person gatherings will transition to Zoom and participants will be notified.
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/unnamed-scaled.jpg14402560Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2023-12-12 12:04:382023-12-12 12:04:38Feedback Sessions with Building Bridges
It seems appropriate that on this Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, and right on the cusp of Advent, that I send you a word of greeting in the name of our Savior, Jesus.
It is with a grateful heart that I have accepted the invitation of each diocese’s Standing Committee, and will walk with you once again for a time as your Assisting Bishop. When I was ordained a bishop in 2001, then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold gave me a framed statement from St. Augustine. It reads:
“For you I am a bishop, but with you I am a Christian; one is an office, accepted; the other is a gift, received. One is danger; the other is safety. If I am happier to be redeemed with you than to be placed over you, then I shall, as the Lord commanded, be more fully your Servant.”
It is with such an attitude that I seek to walk the way of faith with you these next months. You are a remarkable people who have endured much. I want to honor the faith that is clearly present among you and in you. My hope is that we will have the opportunity to celebrate well all God in Christ is doing, and will be doing, among us. When given the opportunity, I seek to call forth that grace so abundantly present, name it when I see it, and with you, stay rooted in gratitude that springs forth in joy and hope.
Below you will find a short reflection that I offer, hoping it grounds us in the work we have before us.
Blessings and peace,
The Rt. Rev. Skip Adams
Assisting Bishop
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan
St. Andrew the Apostle
November 30, 2023
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” So says Matthew 4:19 in the Gospel appointed for this Feast of St. Andrew. Some would call him the first missionary in the company of disciples. One of the two main images for mission and ministry in the New Testament is that of fishing. The other is that of a shepherd.
I am drawn to the fishing metaphor in the context of remembering St. Andrew, whom we know along with his brother Peter, was a fisherman. It will not be a surprise for some of you that I find the image of fishing compelling, as I am a passionate fly fisher. If you need evidence, all you need to know is that a rainbow trout appears on the front panel of my green set of Eucharistic vestments.
What may be a surprise, however, is that when my mind goes to fishing, it also goes to grace, that unmerited, undeserved gift of God. Norman Maclean, in the novella “A River Runs Through It,” says it best: “My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”
When I wave a bamboo fly rod in the wind, made from a living grass by loving hands through a process of drying, splitting, milling, sanding, gluing and varnishing that takes 300 to 500 hours of crafting; cast a fly that I wrapped and tied to a hook through the manipulations of my own fingers; use feathers and hair from animals of God’s creation that once had blood coursing through their veins; and watch a sleek muscular trout rise to take it, that I am told has been virtually unchanged in the gene pool for 2 million years; that is grace, it is art, and it is never easy.
We pray in the Collect for this day that we would have the same grace given to Andrew to readily obey the call of Jesus Christ. Christian ministry is pure grace, it is an art and it is never easy. Yet it is joy, for it is the self-emptying way of the cross bringing hope to all.
Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your Holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/unnamed-29-scaled.jpg14402560Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2023-11-30 14:07:442023-11-30 14:07:44A Word from Bishop Skip for the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan plan to host four services of Confirmation, Reception, and Reaffirmation in 2024, the Rt. Rev. Skip Adams, assisting bishop, presiding.
All are invited to join in celebrating and praying for the Church’s newest Episcopal leaders as part of these services and throughout this year, whether in person or via live stream.
Candidates (those being confirmed, received, or reaffirmed in The Episcopal Church) must be registered ahead of time by their church. Please see details below.
Clergy are asked to process in cassock and surplice with red stoles.
Photo: A member of St. Martin’s, Kalamazoo is confirmed during the final confirmation of 2023 at St. Timothy’s, Richland.
DATES & LOCATIONS
Saturday, April 13th
Registration deadline – March 30
2:30 Rehearsal
4:00 Service
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church
1523 N. Oak Rd.
Davison, MI 48423
All candidates must be pre-registered by their parish to participate in the service and receive their signed certificate. Individuals should not register themselves.
Please register all participants two weeks before the service.
Opportunities in 2024 for lay leaders seeking licensing
Worship is a powerful place – a place that transforms and empowers. What we do when we gather is so much more than reciting words set down in an approved collection of liturgies. This is the place where we may find ourselves awakened by God and stretched to reach new depths of faith, new ways of connecting what is going on in the world with how we might faithfully respond. This is the place where we encounter God as we meet our own lives. This is the place where we are challenged to do more than simply sit through a “surface meeting with God”. It is in worship that “we should be lashed to the pews because God just might awake and draw us out to new depths.”
(“Worship as Theology: Foretaste of Glory Divine” by Don Saliers, page 22).
Have you felt the tiny nudging of God to be a part of putting together and officiating powerful and transformative lay-led liturgies? Have you heard that tiny whispering to learn more about leading worship? Have you been invited by your church to become a licensed Lay Worship Leader? Or perhaps you’ve been a licensed Worship Leader for a while and you’re looking to expand your knowledge and capacities?
Here’s your chance! Our office of Adult Formation will offer several opportunities for training in 2024.
Licenses are sometimes perceived as an administrative burden at best and a means of gatekeeping at worst. We see them, however, as an important opportunity to demonstrate the importance of a ministry and the work people are doing by investing time and resources into ensuring they are properly equipped and recognized for what they do.
Worship Leaders are laity who regularly lead public worship in the absence of clergy. Training for this license takes place at the diocesan level or in another setting pre-approved by the Canon for Adult Formation. Individuals seeking renewal (EM – Advent 2026, WM – Advent 2027) are expected to participate in continuing education.
Please read below for dates and registration, including the most immediate basic-level training coming up on Saturday, January 13th.
Photo: Anne Davidson leads worship at St. Mark’s, Coldwater; three worship leaders are celebrated and blessed at St. Paul’s, Bad Axe.
Questions about this event? Please contact our trainer, the Rev. Paul Brunell (Christ Church, Owosso) at pbrunell_grayling@hotmail.com or at 989-723-2495.
OUR FIRST SESSION:
BASIC WORSHIP LEADING
Saturday, January 13, 2024, 10 – 2 pm via Zoom
Our “Basic Worship Leading” training is the introductory session offered to all seeking licensure as a Lay Worship Leader. It will provide an overview of the Book of Common Prayer and specific instruction for planning and facilitating Morning Prayer.
Participants should have a copy of the Book of Common Prayer that you can write in with you as you participate in the session. Before we begin, please flip through the entire book to get a sense of the depth and breadth of what the book contains.
This class will provide the background you need in order to complete the Lay Worship Leader licensing test.
UPCOMING DATES:
2024 TRAININGS
Saturday, January 13, 2024 via Zoom – Basic Worship Leader Training
(Registration deadline: January 7)
Saturday, February 3, 2024 via Zoom – Lent and Holy Week*
(Registration deadline: January 28)
Saturday, May 4, 2024 at St. Andrew’s, Gaylord – Basic Worship Leader Training (incl. lunch)
(Registration deadline: April 28)
Saturday, September 14, 2024 via Zoom – Funeral Preparation*
(Registration deadline: September 8)
* Continuing education sessions require participants to have already completed their license to serve as a Worship Leader.
REGISTRATION
The cost to participate is $25 per session, which helps to cover trainer time, materials, and other associated expenses.
If the cost to attend is a barrier to your participation and you are unable to recieve financial support from your congregation, please contact Canon Little at tlittle@eastmich.org or tlittle@edwm.org.
Please read the list of dates above for registration deadlines.
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” So says Matthew 4:19 in the Gospel appointed for this Feast of St. Andrew. Some would call him the first missionary in the company of disciples. One of the two main images for mission and ministry in the New Testament is that of fishing. The other is that of a shepherd.
the Rt. Rev. Skip Adams, assisting bishop, presiding.
Have you felt the tiny nudging of God to be a part of putting together and officiating powerful and transformative lay-led liturgies? Have you heard that tiny whispering to learn more about leading worship? Have you been invited by your church to become a licensed Lay Worship Leader? Or perhaps you’ve been a licensed Worship Leader for a while and you’re looking to expand your knowledge and capacities?
Worship Leaders are laity who regularly lead public worship in the absence of clergy. Training for this license takes place at the diocesan level or in another setting pre-approved by the Canon for Adult Formation. Individuals seeking renewal (EM – Advent 2026, WM – Advent 2027) are expected to participate in continuing education.