By Deacon Mary Delancey
Earlier this month I had the privilege to be part of “It’s All About Love,” a churchwide festival of worship, learning, community, and action for the Episcopal Church. The event was organized around three Jesus Movement festival “tents”: Evangelism, Racial Reconciliation, and Creation Care. We had wonderful evenings of revival worship; during the day there were speakers, workshops, panels, and practice opportunities around these “tent” themes.
I attended as an alumna of the most recent Sacred Ground Circle in our diocese. Sacred Ground is film-based dialogue on race and racism with the goal that all people are “honored and protected and nurtured as beloved children of God, where we weep at one another’s pain and seek one another’s flourishing.” (If you would like to hear more about Sacred Ground, I would love to talk with you. Just let me know.) Attending this festival was an opportunity for me to discover what others in the Episcopal Church are doing to make this Sacred Ground goal a reality. I also was able to hear about evangelism successes around the church.
There were displays and venders from outside and inside the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church offers a range of programs and resources, many that I never knew existed! Did you know we have the Episcopal Service Corp, a program for young adults, like AmeriCorps, that provides opportunities to learn as they serve? Or that the Office of Government Relations offers a toolkit to help congregations encourage their communities to register and vote? Episcopal Migration Ministries that assist with refugee resettlement and offers resources for congregations to be involved? The Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing? Creation Care grants that support local and regional eco-ministry efforts? And that is just a few.
Being a part of this community was a powerful experience and gave me immense joy. This excerpt from the prayer for the festival expresses my hope for us as we go forward.
O God of wondrous power and still more wondrous love, you who have borne us from chaos to creation, from dry bones to dancing flesh, from death to life: Renew and revive your Episcopal Church…. Send your Spirit to set us, our ministries, and our communities ablaze, so that the world might come to see and know us as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement – bold, open-hearted bearers of Good News, repairers of the breach, and stewards of creation who truly look, live, and love like Jesus. We make our prayer to him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, our loving, liberating, and life-giving God. Amen.
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