With joy, I announce that the Rev. BJ Heyboer will join our bi-diocesan staff, serving as part-time Coordinator of the College for Congregational Development (CCD) in Eastern and Western Michigan. Her new role begins immediately. She continues as rector serving St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Newaygo.
BJ was ordained to the priesthood in 2016 after completing her M.Div. at Sewanee School of Theology. After her ordination, she served as priest-in-charge with St. John’s, Fremont and St. Mark’s, Newaygo, where she was called in 2019 as rector and director of their connected health and wellness center, Vera’s House. Prior to her ordained ministry, BJ worked for more than twenty years in religious book publishing, most recently as cofounder of Brazos Press and senior marketing director at Brazos and Baker Academic. She is a contributor to Common Prayer: Reflections on Episcopal Worship, edited by Joseph S. Pagano and Amy E. Richter. She and her “episcopup,” George Frederick, live in Newaygo.
As Coordinator of CCD, BJ will organize our training weeks, recruit and equip trainers, and recruit and support our participants in the implementation of their new skills and tools within their communities. BJ can be reached by calling either diocesan office and listening for the list of extensions or by emailing ccd@eastmich.org or ccd@edwm.org.
The first offering of our new bi-diocesan CCD program will take place July 23-28, 2023 in Midland, Michigan. The deadline to register your congregation’s team is June 1st (a change from what was previously announced). Click the links to learn more on our websites: Eastern MIchigan and Western Michigan.
Please join me in celebrating BJ’s ministry with us and welcoming her to this new role!
Blessings,
The Rt. Rev. Prince G. Singh
Bishop Provisional
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/victoria-strukovskaya-OAlYImdG1IQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg17062560Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2023-05-30 10:15:392023-05-30 10:15:39Coordinator for the College for Congregational Development
Building on our work in developing the ChurchLands Map of Eastern and Western Michigan, church leaders are invited to join Plainsong Farm and Ministry for a conversation about land use on Sunday, May 21st from 3:00pm until about 4:15pm.
ChurchLands is an emerging initiative to educate and equip Christians and churches about land as an asset for ministry in an era of climate change. Wise land care and use can proclaim the gospel, conserve biodiversity, grow community health, create new relationships, and address historic injustices. The vision of ChurchLands is that churches begin to relate to land holdings in a way that is more faithful to the Gospel: integrating discipleship, ecology, justice, and health. This gathering builds on what Plainsong Farm has learned thus far and begins a Michigan network with the goal to encourage and equip disciples to tend land wisely here.
We’ll reflect on Scripture, learn about one another and the lands we care for, learn about national-level work in this area, and hear about the plans and goals that Plainsong has for a future Michigan ChurchLands network. If you care about practical work to care for creation through tending places and people, this gathering is for you.
Following the ChurchLands gathering, participants are warmly invited to join in Blessing the Fields at Plainsong Farm for the 2023 growing season at 4:30, with refreshments to follow. Learn more.
Questions about this event? Please contact the Rev. Nurya Parish at nurya@plainsongfarm.com.
DATE & LOCATION
Sunday, May 21st
3:00-4:15pm
Plainsong Farm & Ministry
6677 12 Mile Rd NE
Rockford, MI 49341
plainsongfarm.com
RSVP
There is no cost to attend the Churchlands Gathering. Please RSVP by May 20th.
By the Grace of God and with the consent of the People
The Right Reverend Prince Grenville Singh
Provisional Bishop
will ordain
Linda Scheerer
To the Sacred Order of Deacons
in Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
on
Sunday, the Eleventh of June
Two Thousand Twenty-Three
at Three O’Clock in the Afternoon Commemorating the Feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle
at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church
1200 Seminole Road
Muskegon, Michigan
A reception will follow in the Parish Hall.
Your prayers and presence are requested. The service will also be livestreamed on the Eastern and Western Michigan Facebook Pages.
Clergy will process in choir dress with red stoles.
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/unnamed-20-scaled.jpg14402560Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2023-05-16 10:23:072023-05-16 10:23:07Ordination to the Diaconate of Linda Scheerer
request your prayers and presence
as we renew and celebrate our ministry with
The Rev. Shadrack Owuor
on the Twenty-fourth day of May
in the Year of our Lord Two Thousand Twenty-three,
at seven o’clock in the evening
Grace Episcopal Church
1213 Sixth Street
Port Huron, Michigan 48060
A reception with dessert will follow the service.
Clergy: choir dress, red stoles
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/dustin-humes-TwYwHOSLmJA-unsplash-scaled.jpg17072560Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2023-05-02 10:44:492023-05-02 10:44:49Celebration of Ministry – Shadrack Owuor and Grace, Port Huron
Two-part program prepares participants for licensure
We have heard consistent interest in training for licensed lay preachers, especially with so many of our congregations in transition and so many exercising vibrant ministry without a full-time parish priest. To that end, we will again offer our formation program for licensed lay preachers in 2023-24. The courses take place alongside the classes for the Academy for Vocational Leadership, sometimes online via Zoom and sometimes in-person at the St. Francis Center in Dewitt.
To complete the training and receive a preaching license, participants must complete two classes: Bible (ten months) and Homiletics (seven months). These can be completed by participating in both courses over one year, or by taking Bible the first year and Homeletics the second. Participants will join Academy students for worship in addition to meals and breaks.
If you feel a call to be a preacher, please speak to your priest or senior warden and, with their approval, complete the application and submit it before June 15.
Questions about this offering? Please contact the Rev. Canon Tracie Little, Canon for the Southern Collaborative and Coach for Formation, at 810-300-9177 or tlittle@eastmich.org.
SCHEDULE & LOCATIONS
September 8-10
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
October 13-15
Zoom
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
November 17-19
Zoom
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
December 8-10
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
January 5-7
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
February 9-11
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
March 8-10
Zoom
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
Homiletics Course from 7-9pm
April 5-7
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
May 3-5
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
June 7-9
St. Francis Retreat Center
Morning Prayer at 9:15am
Bible Course from 9:30-3:30pm
LOCATION FOR IN-PERSON SESSIONS
St. Francis Retreat Center
703 E. Main Street
Dewitt, MI 48820
www.stfrancis.ws
PAYMENT & APPLICATION
The course fees are as follows and includes in-person session meals:
Our high school and college graduates and those who love them are invited to join our bi-diocesan community to celebrate the closing of a chapter!!
Please join us on Saturday, May 20th from 3-6pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Midland for food and fellowship, celebrating our scholars as they embark on new journeys. A benediction will be offered by our bi-diocesan Regional Youth Missioners at 5pm.
All are invited to attend and celebrate our friends. The graduates being honored are asked to RSVP.
Questions about this event? Please contact either the Rev. Radha Kaminski at rkaminski@edwm.org or Beckett Leclaire at bleclaire@eastmich.org, two of our regional youth missioners.
DATE & LOCATION
May 20, 2023
3-6pm
St. John’s Episcopal Church
405 N. Saginaw Road
Midland, MI, 48640 sjec-midland.org
RSVP
So that we can properly honor our graduates, they are asked to RSVP. General attendees to do not need to register.
Last spring, as we were discussing a few requests that had come into our office asking if we would sponsor local LGBTQ+ Pride events, the bishop had a brilliant idea: “what if we just went out and sponsored every Pride event in our dioceses?”
And we did. Well, the ones that hadn’t passed their deadline yet. And in circumstances where the local congregations were able to show up in person, we gave more, to reach a level that would guarantee them booth space – an opportunity to show up in the world, with the people that we serve, and declare something that they so rarely hear from the Christian church, “you are loved, unconditionally, irrevocably, and just as you are.”
And we’re going to do it again.
June is “Pride Month,” though pride events happen throughout the year. Many communities, especially those in larger cities or county seats, will host Pride Festivals. These celebrations of love and authenticity vary place to place but will often include parades, concerts, lectures, parties, and more as well as space for local organizations to come, set up space, offer solidarity, and connect with attendees seeking affirming companies, nonprofits, communities, and churches.
We are going to continue this year to sponsor every event we can at a basic level, getting the name of The Episcopal Church out in these settings across our state. And – this is where you come in – if you, the local congregation, can commit to showing up in-person–sharing the Good News, the invitation to the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement, to share the love we hold for all people, no exceptions–we will give more, leveraging our sponsorship to guarantee you physical space to be present.
Already sponsoring yourselves? Let’s talk about how we can go further in supporting your efforts. Planning your own event? I want to know about it and contribute as we can. Several congregations from the same area at the same festival? Imagine the impact when the Episcopalians show up!!
We’re also working with a queer designer to create stickers and t-shirts for Eastern and Western Michiganders to wear and give away from their booth. Stay tuned for an opportunity to order.
To let me know that your congregation will commit to showing up in-person (or some other planned engagement with secular Pride spaces), please fill out this request form as soon as possible. Please see the list of upcoming festivals on the form and let us know if we’re missing any you’re aware of locally.
Your response deadline varies, depending on the date of your local festival (and we’ve tried to track those deadlines on the form for your awareness).
I look forward to seeing The Episcopal Church in the Mitten showing up to declare God’s love for all creation. Please be in touch with me with any questions or to talk together about possibilities for your engagement.
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/alex-jackman-_Bk2NVFx7q4-unsplash-2-scaled.jpg25601920Michelle Ruizhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngMichelle Ruiz2023-04-18 11:05:062023-04-18 11:05:06Sponsorship Funding Available for Pride Engagement
Blessed Easter! May the spirit of the risen Christ fill us with hope and joy and keep us curious!
It has been over a year since you called me to join you and I am excited about our odyssey of healing and new life in Christ together.
As we’ve leaned into our life together as dioceses and as our Building Bridges Steering Committee has conducted its work in listening and facilitating our discernment process in our Season of Practice, we have some exciting announcements and updates to share with you as clarity rises from our collective wisdom. Thank you for your prayers and participation in discerning our forward movement together in Eastern and Western Michigan.
Here are some crisp highlights for what’s ahead for us as Easter people:
We are organizing ourselves into three geographic “collaboratives.”
To nurture increased relationship (a rallying cry across nearly all listening sessions earlier this Spring!), starting in May, we will transition our current organizing structures to three geographic “collaboratives” that span across the two dioceses. This way of organizing ourselves will honor our existing relationships and nurture new ones.
Collaboratives will be areas, supported by a canon, where clergy and congregations can support each other. Our goal is that collaborative members can explore ways they might work together for the advancement of mission and ministry in the parish and in the diocese as a whole. Collaboratives will also allow us to experiment with ways that we might effectively structure ourselves in the future.
Due to canonical implications, we are intentionally using the language of “collaboratives” rather than “regions” to help facilitate this practice out of a place of flexibility and curiosity about what we learn.
I invite our clergy to continue praying and attending our Clericus gatherings, the upcoming Clergy Retreat, and to provide feedback as we walk together.
We are celebrating departing staff and preparing to welcome new staff.
Western Michigan’s Canons Missioner, the Rev. Canon Valerie Ambrose and the Rev. Canon Anne Hallmark, will retire at the end of May as previously announced. Please help us celebrate our beloved colleagues as they prepare to depart. We will celebrate Val on May 23rd at Grace, Grand Rapids (RSVP) and Anne on May 31st at Grace, Traverse City (RSVP).
We are in the process of searching for and calling the Northern, Central, and Southern Collaboratives’ staff Canons who bring expertise in congregational development and transitions, while each holding special focus on coaching congregations around (1) Formation, (2) Digital Communities, and (3) Beloved Community and Creation Care. All canons will be shared staff across both dioceses.
The Rev. Canon Tracie Little, current Canon to the Ordinary serving Eastern Michigan, will serve one of these collaboratives with the focus on formation. It is my prayer that the two additional Canons will be called this spring and summer, to be in place by August. We will have exciting news to share about our first new call in May.
We are looking ahead and planning for decision-making about the future of our dioceses.
We have worked in partnership between our dioceses since 2019, listening and sharing, building relationship and developing responsive, innovative ministry together. While the Building Bridges Steering Committee has work yet to do and has not yet issued their final report and recommendation for our future together, they have consulted with our Chancellor and Standing Committees to ensure we remain open and on track with timelines for all possibilities, including potential juncture between our dioceses.
The first opportunity for the General Convention of The Episcopal Church to act on a juncture would be next summer 2024. While holding this reality, the Joint Standing Committee of Eastern and Western Michigan, with the support and recommendation from the Building Bridges Steering Committee, have determined that we will not hold a vote on juncture at the fall convention later this year. Our fall convention will focus instead on continuing to deepen relationship, entering big conversation, and consider more deeply our proposed mission and vision. If juncture is ultimately recommended and our communities are ready, we would anticipate calling for a special convention in the Spring of 2024 to bring a vote of the dioceses.
–
Now let me provide added background for those who desire more information.
Who are we? We are followers of Jesus as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement. (More below.)
Where are we numerically? Numerical growth follows clear and consistent practices of hope. (More below.)
Where are we going? Thanks to the Building Bridges Steering Committee, we have a compelling and hopeful vision. Our vision and mission will help us follow Jesus and grow in spiritual and missional ways into the future. (More below.)
Let us move forward as wounded healers with curiosity, and love in the name of the risen Christ!
With affection,
The Rt. Rev. Prince G. Singh
Bishop Provisional
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan
Who are we?
We are followers of Jesus as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement.
Here’s a snapshot of who we are in terms of current benchmarks of congregational size in our two dioceses. We are:
Four “Program Size” congregations with an ASA of over 150 and a baptized membership of approximately 400
28 “Pastoral Size” congregations: 18 Western + 10 Eastern, with an ASA of over 75 people and a baptized membership of about 150
65 “Family Size” congregations: 32 Western + 33 Eastern; with an ASA of less than 75 people a baptized membership of about 100. Most of our family-size congregation have an ASA fewer than 30.
Four seasonal chapels, all in Western Michigan.
And we have several communities who gather beyond congregation — Plainsong Farm and Ministry, the Order of Naucratius, Camp Chickagami, Episcopal Youth Camp, and Holy Hikes Great Lakes — all are reaching new populations and leading us further beyond our walls.
That’s over 100 worshiping mission stations within our part of the lower peninsula shore to shore.
We are working to build Leadership Teams for each Collaborative to accompany and support congregations that need help visioning and making progress with their vision to thrive in ministry. More on this at this year’s Convention.
Where are we numerically?
Numerical growth follows clear and consistent practices of hope.
We are moving in our discernment to optimize our capacity for growth in mission and ministry. To do this with some clarity, we need to have a grasp numerically using our current but limited benchmarks.
We begin by acknowledging that we are declining dioceses like most dioceses in our area. According to our parochial data, during 2012-2021, we declined by 38% in Eastern Michigan and 31% in Western Michigan. I have noted that decline is not a gospel value. In my opinion, the decline of numbers in the mainline churches is a result of resigning to trends of cultural Christianity. In the words of Harry Emerson Fosdick, our prayer ought to be, “save us from weak resignation…” as leaders.
During this period, while I was serving in the Diocese of Rochester, we declined by only 9.7% in baptized members. We changed the trend of decline with intentional redirection and focused investment in congregational development. It is possible with common prayer and a shared plan.
We are working to build Leadership Teams in partnership with Thriving in Ministry (an initiative based out of Virginia Theological Seminary) for each Collaborative to accompany and support congregations that need help visioning and making progress with their vision to thrive—more on this at this year’s bi-diocesan convention.
We need you and your leaders to join us as confident and collaborative practitioners of congregational development. I urge you to join us for the inaugural session of our bi-diocesan College for Congregational Development this summer. Click here to learn more and start assembling your team.
Where are we going?
Thanks to the Building Bridges Steering Committee, we have a compelling and hopeful vision. Our vision and mission will help us follow Jesus and grow in spiritual and missional ways into the future.
The following draft mission and vision statements were recently presented to our diocesan leadership bodies for feedback, developed by the Building Bridges Steering Committee reflecting what they’ve heard and collected across the last few years and especially in our recent online and in-person series of Listening Sessions. I invite us to live into this vision and mission, remaining open to new learnings and feedback as we continue in partnership.
–
Our Vision: A world transformed, in which all God’s children are unconditionally welcomed, cared for, and loved.
Our Mission: Called by Christ to proclaim and embody God’s boundless love for all creation, we grow:
Collaborative communities of faith, walking the journey together.
Courageous disciples, striving to transform systems of injustice.
We nurture relentless hope for a world longing for mercy, restoration, and peace.
https://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.png00Katie Forsythhttps://edwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/EDWMLogo-01.pngKatie Forsyth2023-04-14 08:30:502023-04-13 17:55:09A POST-EASTER UPDATE ON OUR SEASON OF PRACTICE
With joy, I announce that the Rev. BJ Heyboer will join our bi-diocesan staff, serving as part-time Coordinator of the College for Congregational Development (CCD) in Eastern and Western Michigan. Her new role begins immediately. She continues as rector serving St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Newaygo.
Building on our work in developing the 
St. Francis Retreat Center
May 20, 2023
