This year’s annual diocesan Spring Learning Event on Saturday, March 5 will be part of a larger local “Episcopal Village Mission Event” focusing on reaching new communities and sharing the Gospel in new ways. A five-part Epiphany study is available to help everyone get ready. Find it here.
What if “mission-shaped” dioceses were cultivated across the Episcopal Church, with “pioneer missioners” in each? It’s one of the grassrootsy kinds of questions that the people of Episcopal Village will be bringing to the diocese in March for this year’s annual Spring Learning Event—part of a larger “Episcopal Village Mission Event” focusing on reaching new communities and sharing the Gospel in new ways.
Episcopal Village describes itself as both a community and an initiative, focused on “resourcing” Episcopal dioceses, parishes and leaders “for emerging/fresh expression mission with an Anglican ethos and ‘village’” approach.
Organizers say the March 5 event aims to explore how Anglican heritage, when given fresh expression, can uniquely speak to “postmodern” seekers. Participants will have a chance to share their experiences with others and receive training and practical resources for proclaiming the good news of Christ, reaching out to youth and young adults and strengthening congregations, as well as for mission leadership and for worship, music and liturgy.
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston will host the day-long Saturday, March 5 event; a pre-event lunch conversation with the keynoter, the Rev. Ian Mobsby, will take place on Friday, March 4 at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge.
Mobsby is an author and missioner of the London-based Moot community. Event leaders joining him will include Karen Ward, Episcopal Village’s director and the vicar of the Church of the Apostles in Seattle; the Rev. Stephanie Spellers of The Crossing, the emergent church congregation at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; Tom Brackett, Program Officer for Church Planting and Redevelopment for the Episcopal Church; and journalist and author Becky Garrison.
To help Learning Event-goers prepare, a five-part “Epiphany Papers” study series is available here. The study includes readings and questions from the book Ancient Faith, Future Mission: Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition, edited by Steven Croft, Ian Mobsby and Stephanie Spellers.