The Global Episcopal Mission Network (GEMN) honored Gini Peterson for her contributions to the global mission partnerships of The Episcopal Church during their annual mission conference. Gini and her husband Reid are members of St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Snellville, GA. The conference was held May 24-26, 2017, at Camp McDowell in the Diocese of Alabama, and its theme was “Reconciliation: God’s Mission – and Ours.”
A former board member and president of GEMN, Gini said her calling to mission began as a child.
“The early imprinting of awareness about mission began before I started school as our pastor and his wife were Armenian refugees. Church school and mite boxes in the Diocese of Southern Virginia kept me aware of the needs of others,” Gini said.
In her long volunteer ministry with the church, Gini has served as an agent of God’s Reconciliation in prominent roles for various organizations across the globe. A few include representing The Episcopal Church at Partners in Mission Consultation for the Anglican Church of Kenya, serving as national president of United Thank Offering and National President of Episcopal Church Women, and serving as a founding member and first convener of Episcopal Council for Global Mission and later Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission as well as long time chair of the Diocese of Atlanta’s Global Mission Commission.
Other contributions that Gini has made over the years include participating in Anglican Women’s Encounter in Salvador, Brazil at the end of the Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women and participating in Touching Sisters, Touching Shores in Honduras, a gathering of Episcopal Women from the Global South.
GEMN is a network of dioceses, congregations, seminaries, individuals, and organizations committed to energizing global mission in the Episcopal Church. The 2018 Global Mission Conference will be hosted by the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary, April 11-13.