As part of the ongoing framework, Elements of a Contemplative Reformation, Grace Episcopal Church will offer a three-session Contemplative Summer School.  On Sunday evenings, June 24, July 22, and August 19, we will gather from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm in the Parish Hall. Together, we will explore core elements of contemplative spirituality as well as ways that our practice can nurture and encourage a compassionate embodiment of Christ's love in the world today.Participants are encouraged to purchase and read the five key books, which will help contribute to the ongoing conversation all...

Episcopal Relief and Development has launched a new, improved version of the Asset Map. In addition to collecting information about worshiping communities, schools and ministries of The Episcopal Church, site enhancements empower Episcopalians to better share information about their communities. Anyone can add information to the site, but once added information goes through an approval process before it's published. The site collects information and stories (videos and news/blogs) about Episcopal Communities organized around Dioceses and Networks. Go here to check out the...

Our clergy and laity gathered this week for their Renewal of Vows in the sanctuary of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father and grandfather preached.Bishop Robert C. Wright sought permission to use the site because of its connection to the civil rights movement leader and the recognition of the humanity of all Americans. “Being that we are all Georgians now, and that Martin’s and Coretta’s earthly remains are laying just outside, it seems good to stop here and remember, and maybe even borrow some of their resolve for service,” Wright said,...

We must ask ourselves to do what is right even when it is difficult. On February 15, Bishop Wright joined special guests – among them faith leaders, lawyers, and a retired Georgia Supreme Court justice – for a discussion on the death penalty in our country.During this discussion, Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun from Louisiana provided her perspective from the front lines advocating for the abolition of the death penalty since 1981. She shared how seeing her first execution, “set her soul on fire, a fire that burns in me still.” The author of the international best-selling book, Dead Man...

By Don PlummerWritten from their personal experiences with both the victims and perpetrators of murder, the authors of A Case for Life: Justice, Mercy and the Death Penalty share intimate details of the experiences that led them to conclude executions do not provide a safer society nor closure for the surviving victims of terrible crimes.Episcopal Bishop Robert C. Wright says for much of his life he rarely thought about the death penalty. “I heard the announcements of executions on the news or read them in the paper, but I was indifferent, or, whatever the word for indifferent to...

The Vocational VestryWhen we think of vestry service as a vocation, we transform ourselves from a group of leaders performing important tasks to an invigorated, fulfilled and transformed group that in turn enlivens the congregation and the community at large. In The Vocational Vestry, Alissa Newton provides three ways to start this process.Five Things Every Vestry Member Should KnowAre you a new vestry member or a long-time veteran? In Five Things Every Vestry Member Should Know, ECF President Donald Romanik shares ideas based on his experience and observations as a vestry member and warden...

How will you challenge yourself to love like Jesus? Representatives from our diocese’s 114 worshiping communities were asked that at the 111th Annual Council, hosted by the Northeast Georgia Convocation, Nov. 10-11 at First Baptist Church in Gainesville. In his speech to attendees, our bishop, the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Wright, put forth ideas for how to go about living into this part of our diocesan purpose statement.“We must look at every tradition and convention we have adopted as ministry groups, vestries, individual churches and clergy and ask ourselves and one another, does our current...