Welcome to Episcopal Village
REGISTER for the EPISCOPAL VILLAGE WEST MISSION EVENT !
Ancient wisdom proclaims 'It takes a village to raise a child.'
What if this wisdom were applied to the church? What if we cultivated 'mission shaped dioceses' across the Episcopal Church, prepared and excited for the labor of birthing new and fresh expressions of church, and raising up next generations pioneer missioners to help lead us within the 'great emergence'?
Episcopal Village is a community that exists to provide support for 'a village approach to mission' to be cultivated and resourced in TEC.
Purpose
'Episcopal Village' is a wholistic, grassroots 'community and initiative,' supporting Episcopal dioceses, parishes and leaders in 'mission shaped' and 'fresh expression' outreach, church planting, ministry starts and leadership development, drawing on the giftings of the Anglican ethos and using a 'village' (diocesan approach).
Brian McLaren has said this about our Episcopal Village (EpV) vision:
It's interesting to imagine how differently history would have unfolded if John Wesley and the Methodist movement had been welcomed and given space for needed long-term innovation within the Anglican communion. The Episcopal Church in the USA, by wisely and courageously charting a path of breadth and inclusion in recent years, is well-placed for a kind of historical "do-over" now, at this "kairos" moment. In the coming years, hundreds, hopefully many thousands of new faith communities will be born. Could space be created for them, within the great tradition represented by the Episcopal Church, to form, experiment, innovate, grow, and serve? The EpV could be a catalyst for exactly that sort of possibility to be realized.'
We have also learned from President Obama and other community organizers that grassroots organizing builds community and ownership. Grassroots mission development within our dioceses is an egalitarian approach that is sustainable and empowering for all ofour parishes, as when personal ownership of mission happens in a village, movements are born and transformation happens.
We are very much in need of and seeking out support from others in the Episcopal Church (diocesan Bishops, Foundations, Endowed Parishes and 815...) who are excited to invest in the future of our church. The average Episcopalian is around 62 years old. The average American ciitzen is around 32 years old. There is a huge gap that needs to be bridged and the kairos for this is now. A large part of the solution is to cultivate, seed fund and plant new and fresh expressions of church that are 'native' to emerging postmodern culture.
We are hopeful that grasroots, emerging leaders within the Episcopal Church will be trusted to incubate new missions and ministries and trusted with oversight of financial resources to seed and cultivate new ministries that will reach out to today's generations 'peer to peer.'