Meet the Keynoter

Petero Sabune was born in Uganda. The son of a priest, he came to the United States through the American Field Service (AFS) exchange program in 1969. He returned to Uganda 1970 and, fleeing the ruthless dictator Idi Amin, came back as a freshman at Rutgers University in 1972 where he joined his brother who was then attending Rutgers Law School. Idi Amin killed his brother in 1976 and his sister was killed by one of Amin’s men in 1977. Another brother died in Nairobi, Kenya after a narrow escape from Amin’s men.

Sabune transferred to Vassar College in New York where he earned a BA and graduated from Union Theological Seminary with an M.Div. He was ordained in May 1981.

As a parish priest, Sabune served churches in two Episcopal dioceses: four in the Diocese of New York: Grace, White Plains; Saints John, Paul and Clement, Mt. Vernon; Trinity Parish and St. James (both in New York City); and two in the Diocese of Newark: Incarnation, Jersey City; and Trinity and St. Philip”s Cathedral as Dean.

He has visited 28 African countries and 10 of the 12 Anglican Provinces on the African continent. As Dean of the Newark cathedral, he hosted Anglican leaders from Africa for a symposium on Islam in Africa, including the primates of Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

Additionally, for the Diocese of New York, he was the dean of Institutional Clergy and chair of both the Immigration Network and the Commission on Congregational Life and Mission. He also served as a member of Diocesan Council.

In the Diocese of Newark, he served on the Standing Committee, Diocesan Council and as chair of the Diocesan Companion Relationship Committee.

He is a former member of Executive Council, where he served as The Episcopal Church representative to the Anglican Church of Canada.

He was also the chair of both the Province II Immigration and the Prison Ministry Networks.

He was a General Convention deputy in 1994 and 1997.

Internationally, he is a trustee of the Episcopal Seminary in Haiti, was a founding board member of the Business and Technology Institute of Haiti, and was chair of the Forgiveness and Reconciliation Project.

He was a board member of Forward Movement Publications and contributed to two books. He has lectured and led retreats extensively, including the Absalom Jones Annual Lecture at General Theological Seminary and the Mosley Memorial Lecture on Urban Ministry at Trinity College, Toronto, Canada.

Among his awards and honors, he received the Minorities in Criminal Justice Leadership Award, the NAACP Community Service Award, and the Caribbean American Families Inc. Community Service Award.

In 2007, Sabune was named a Trinity Fellow by Trinity Parish in New York City. A $20,000 grant enabled him to focus on the Forgiveness and Reconciliation Project with prisoners and pastors who participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda; as a part of the project, Sabune visited 10 African prisons between 2007 – 2009.

In April 2010 he joined the mission team at The Episcopal Church as the Africa Partnership Officer. Prior to that time, he was pastor and Protestant chaplain at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in New York.

He and his wife Dr. Maureen Fonseca have four children and they are also the “adopted” parents of the children of Sabune’s deceased siblings: his sister’s daughter and his brother’s son.

National ECW

The Episcopal Church Women as an organization functions at four levels: National, Province, Diocese and Parish.

At the national level, the board meets three times per year. It is comprised of the President, Vice-President of Program, Vice-President for Information & Communication, Secretary, Treasurer, Member-at-Large for Social Justice, Member-at-Large for Multi-Media, and one representative from each of the nine provinces.

The National Board does not exercise authority or control over provincial, diocesan, or parish ECW groups, but acts as the organizational entity which binds together the women of the church and offers ideas for best practices.

Communication between the board members and women at all levels throughout the church helps the National Board to fulfill their stated mission – to support all women in their ministry. Specifically, the board plans the Triennial Meeting, and oversees programs such as Women of Vision and Women to Women.

The national Triennial Meeting of the ECW takes place in parallel to the Episcopal Church’s national General Convention. That is, they occur at the same time and in the same place. Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina are always represented at Triennial by a group comprised of Diocesan Board members and an at-large delegate elected at the Diocesan ECW Annual Meeting immediately prior to a Triennial year.

Take this link to the National Board’s website.

Agenda

135th Annual Meeting + Spiritual Retreat

Episcopal Church Women – Diocese of North Carolina

November 3 & 4, 2017

Hosted by the women of the Durham Convocation

Receiving Grace

All events except the service of Holy Eucharist will be held in the Parish Hall, adjacent to St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, 403 East Main Street, Durham, NC.

Friday, November 3

Noon-1:00 pm: Registration check-in, exhibits and bookstore open, pre-ordered boxed lunches available
1:00-2:00 pm: Call to Order and Business Session I
2:00-2:15 pm: Break – exhibits and bookstore open
2:15-3:00 pm: Business Session II
3:00-3:15 pm: Break – exhibits and bookstore open
3:15-4:00 pm: Convocation Meetings
4:00-4:10 pm: Break – move to the main sanctuary for Holy Eucharist
4:30-6:00 pm: Holy Eucharist with the Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman, Diocesan Bishop of North Carolina
6:00 pm: *** Travel to The Hilton Durham, 3800 Hillsborough Road, for dinner ***
Before dinner Friday evening, may we suggest:

• Enjoy a beverage in the bar, which individuals may purchase.

• Mingle in the area outside of the banquet room.

7:00-8:30 pm: Dinner and entertainment – “Kidznotes of Durham” – Trinity Room (RSVP required)

Saturday, November 4

Check out of hotel before returning to St. Philip’s Parish Hall for Morning Devotions

8:15-8:45 am: Continental breakfast at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall (RSVP required)
9:00 am: Welcome and introduction of retreat leader
9:10-9:30 am: Morning Devotions led by the Rev. Lauren Winner
9:30-10:15 am: Part I: Gravedigger, Cardigan Sweater, Magnolia Tree: How God and God’s Grace Appear to Us
10:15-10:25 am:  Break
10:25-11:00 am: Part II: Gravedigger, Cardigan Sweater, Magnolia Tree: How God and God’s Grace Appear to Us
11:00-11:25 am: Individual Spiritual Reflection
11:25-11:35 am: Break
11:35-12:10 pm: Part III: Why Do You Worry About Clothes? Questions God Asks Us
12:10-12:30 pm: Small Group
12:30-12:45 pm: Blessing and adjournment

When: Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4, 2017

Where: St. Philip’s Episcopal Church,
403 East Main Street, Durham, NC

Holy Eucharist: The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman,
Diocesan Bishop of North Carolina

Lauren F. Winner is an ordained Episcopal priest, teacher of Spirituality at Duke Divinity School, lecturer and author of numerous books. Winner is one of those gifted teachers who slips in some wisdom along with the sweet stuff on the spoon. We take our medicine from the ancients, the Christian mystics and the scriptures while tasting the “sweetness of her narrative”, says Christian Century magazine about her book, Still, which was the winner of the Christianity Today book award for spirituality.

Lauren grew up in North Carolina and Virginia. She was born to a Jewish father and Southern Baptist mother. She was raised Jewish before converting toChristianity. 

Lauren writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Her books include Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, a study of household religious practice in 18th-century Virginia, A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, and, most recently, a book on overlooked biblical tropes for God, Wearing God. She is completing a book called Characteristic Damage, which examines the effects of sin and damage on Christian practice.

She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has served as a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today, and her essays have been included in several volumes of The Best Christian Writing.

Dr. Winner’s aim is to foster a real encounter between each woman present and her deepest, truest self. She does not want to give people a “Spiritual To-do List” to take with them, but to create a space for encounter with the Holy during our time together.

Dr. Winner, an Episcopal priest, is vicar of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Louisburg, NC.

Pledging To Make It All Possible

The constitution and by-laws of the ECW of North Carolina state, “To have voting privileges (at the Annual Meeting) a Church must have paid a pledge to the Diocesan Church Women’s budget for the current year.” These funds help to carry out the work of women’s ministries throughout the Anglican Communion, our country, our province and our diocese.

While our yearly gathering is open to all, those churches current with their pledge are entitled to send up to five voting delegates to Annual Meeting. Anyone belonging to a church that does not have an ECW and who would like to participate in the Annual Meeting as a voting member can pay $10.00 in the name of their church and be entitled to voting delegate status.

The diocesan ECW treasurer, Mary Hawkins, has mailed statements to current pledging churches. Contact her at treasurer@ecw-nc.org or (919) 682-4647 if you didn’t receive your statement or have questions about it.

Going Green in 2018! Communication with churches will be via electronic format. Requests for printed statements and/or documents will be available for $10.00 per year, beginning Wednesday January 31, 2018

Be a Part of Helping Neighbors in Need…

Each participant at the ECW Annual Meeting is invited to bring any of the items listed below to be contributed to Urban Ministries of Durham that offers Food, Shelter, and A Future to Neighbors in Need (located across the street from St. Philip’s Episcopal Church). They serve approximately 500 households each month. Look for the donation box at the registration table.

Donation items: Shaving cream, deodorant, coffee, tea, rice, canned meat, toilet paper, laundry detergent or pods, powdered or shelf stable milk, canned pasta, pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, canned corn and NEW underwear for men, women and children.

THIS YEAR’S HISTORY FOCUS

“Bridges of Hope:
Churchwomen At Work in the Mill Mission Era” 

Between 1895 and 1930 more than 30 “mill missions” were added to the list of Episcopal churches in North Carolina. An important feature of the successful missions was the presence of paid (not much!) women workers, from both North Carolina and beyond. Many were deployed and paid by the United Offering, as it was known until 1920. In addition to the official United Offering Workers, others were recruited and paid by the local diocese or sponsoring parish. These workers identified closely with this era’s settlement work movement which sought to improve all aspects of life among newly displaced groups: education, recreation, hygiene, personal development, and religious training. Their work was complimented by the dedicated spiritual, physical and financial support offered by many Woman’s Auxiliary groups throughout the state.

In addition to a short introduction by Lynn Hoke, ECW Archivist/Historian, we will also have an exhibit documenting the history of several mill missions. And – you will hardly be able to miss seeing a multitude of table cards, as seen below, each with a short description of how a different woman or group was engaged in “bridge building” during this era of dislocation, disorientation, and sometimes despair.

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“A Great Deal of Social Service Work is Done”

At All Saints’ Church in Roanoke Rapids the women are organized into four circles of the Woman’s Auxiliary and a branch of the Ladies’ Guild. The first circle, the regular parish auxiliary, meets every week. The first week in the month is given over to study. A great deal of social service work is done and great enthusiasm is shown in the study classes. Weekly study classes are held in Lent. The second circle is composed of young business women, who are busy in the banks and mill offices all day and do their Church work at night. They do a good work in supplying the clothing for an orphan at the Thompson Orphanage. Their parish worker reads The Spirit of Missions at every meeting. The two circles of the women who work in the cotton mills are purely missionary in character.

The Rev. Lewis N. Taylor, “A busy Parish Among the Cotton Mills of the South” Spirit of Missions, March 1925, p. 171

Annual Meeting 2015 – Book of Remembrance

In Remembrance

Reading from The Book of Remembrance is a cherished tradition at the annual meetings of the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina.

All ECW branches are invited to submit a list of members who have died since the previous Annual Meeting for inclusion in The Book of Remembrance.

If you have a name or names you want enrolled in the book, the requests may be brought to the Annual Meeting on November 7th.

A Book of Remembrance enrollment form can be downloaded below. You may submit multiple names, but please put only one name on a form.

While they will not be read at the meeting forms for inclusion in the book can also be mailed to:

Gertrude Murchison
3025 Airport Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27105-4058

Questions? Contact Gertrude at (336) 767-4635

Download the form in Adobe PDF format

Download the form in Microsoft Word format

Annual Meeting 2010 – Lodging and Directions

Lodging: Each person is responsible for securing their lodging. A block of rooms has been reserved for the ECW on Thursday, November 11th (for those who want a more leisurely arrival) and Friday, November 12th at the Marriott in downtown Greensboro. The hotel is located at 305 N. Greene St.

The rate for both single and double rooms is $92; with taxes the total comes to $104.65. When making a reservation, make sure to say you are with the Episcopal Church Women. The deadline for the special group rate is Friday, October 29th. Reservations: direct at (336) 379-8000 or toll free (800) 228-9290. The website for the hotel is here.

Food: Lunch is on your own on Friday, November 12th. Remember, registration and exhibits open at 12:30 pm. The meeting begins at 1:15 pm.

Dinner menu for Friday evening: Chicken in champagne cream sauce, wild rice mix, French-style green beans with almonds, wheat roll, mixed green salad with mandarin orange slices and raspberry vinaigrette, lemon tart. Please check the box on the registration form if you would prefer a vegetarian alternative.

A Continental breakfast will be offered at the church on Saturday, November 13th.

An optional boxed sandwich lunch will be available on Saturday. The offerings include turkey and cheese on croissant or a veggie croissant—please indicate your choice on the registration form.

Directions to Holy Trinity:

Holy Trinity is located in downtown Greensboro, 607 N. Greene Street. The meeting will be held in the Parish Hall, also located on Greene Street to the left of the sanctuary.

From the East I-40 or I-85: Take 29N (towards Reidsville) to Wendover Ave West. At the third traffic light, Cridland St., get in left hand lane and turn left (there is an Exxon and Dunkin Donuts on the corner). Continue straight on Cridland for two blocks ending at Fisher Park Circle. Take a right onto Fisher Park and continue going driving by the park on the left. At the large Presbyterian Church, the street name changes to Greene St. Holy Trinity is on the right in the block after the Presbyterian Church on the left.

Park across the street from the Parish Hall in the Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home parking lot. There is also parking behind the church, entrance off of Fisher Ave.

From the West: take I-40 to Greensboro and exit at 214B – Wendover Ave East. Continue for about 5 miles to Cridland on your right. Follow directions above.

From the North: take Hwy 29 south and exit at Wendover Ave West. Or From North 220, enter Greensboro on 220/Battleground Ave. Continue to downtown where it turns into Smith Street. Holy Trinity is on the corner of Smith St. and Greene St. The church property is on the left, turn left on Greene St.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread:
Fighting Hunger in Our Own Backyard

Workshops

Each workshop will last 45 minutes. All four will be held concurrently. You will attend one workshop during the first session on Saturday and another workshop during the second session.

When registering for Annual Meeting + Harris-Evans Conference, please indicate your first, second and third choice of a workshop. Every effort will be made to place you in your top choices, but understand the workshop organizers may have to assign workshops based on space constraints. Your workshops will be announced at Annual Meeting.

Here are the how-to workshops, whose information is designed for sharing with your fellow parishioners. The size of a congregation doesn’t matter; all communities have hunger.

Backpack Buddies: Backpack Buddies is focused on school children who depend on the school breakfast and lunch programs for the majority of their food during the school week. This program involves filling backpacks with healthy foods and taking them to a school, where they are given to the children so they’ll have nutritious meals for the weekend. Linda Dohme, member of the ECW branch at St. Michael’s Church in Raleigh, will lead this workshop. She has helped organize and run Backpack Buddies at St. Michael’s for over a year.

Community Gardening: Participants will explore the various types of community gardens, and the benefits and the challenges associated with each. The presenters will be Wren Blessing and John Hughes from Anathoth Garden in Cedar Grove, NC. This community garden is a faith-based garden devoted to restoring peace to a community and good food to those who need it. It is a church-supported, member-based garden that encourages the development of community ties, the production of food and an understanding of the “theology of eating.”

How to Set Up a Food Pantry: Staff members of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle will explain how to establish or expand a food pantry all the while keeping community needs and municipal laws in mind. Staffing with volunteers and stocking a pantry with must-haves will be covered.

Nutritious Meals on a Budget: Inter-Faith Food Shuttle staffers will also lead this group in the particulars of their organization’s newest initiative. Called Operation Frontline, it involves helping people lead healthier lives by sponsoring classes about nutritious meals and snacks for families with limited incomes. Topics covered include budgeting, menu planning, shopping and tasty, creative cooking.

Lodging

Hotel reservations must be made by Thursday, October 4, 2018, 5:00 pm
to get the ECW group rate. (Hotel deadline)

Each person is responsible for securing their own lodging. A block of rooms has been reserved for the ECW on Thursday, November 1 (for those who want a more leisurely arrival) and Friday, November 2 at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Raleigh Crabtree Valley, 2201 Summit Park Lane, Raleigh, NC 27612. (See directions below.)

The rate is the same for a single or double room: $133.64, which includes all taxes, free parking, and hot breakfast. There can be up to 4 persons per room for this rate.

NOTE: The deadline for the special group rate is Thursday, October 4, 2018.

For Online Reservations: Use the link below to book your room. You will need to enable the link.

Book your group rate for Episcopal Church Women Diocese of North Carolina

For Phone Reservations: Call Fairfield Inn and Suites Raleigh Crabtree Valley: 919-881-9800 and ask for the Episcopal Church Women Diocese of North Carolina Special Rate.

Directions from points west of Raleigh to Fairfield Inn

1. From I-40, after passing the RDU airport, take exit 289 onto Wade Avenue toward I-440/US 1 N.

2. Travel 3 miles.

3. Merge onto I-440/US 1 N toward Rocky Mount/Wake Forest.

4. Merge onto Glenwood Avenue/US 70 W using exit 7 toward Crabtree Valley Mall.

5. Travel .5 miles.

6. Turn left onto Blue Ridge Road.

7. Turn left onto Summit Park Lane.

8. The hotel is on the right.

Directions from points east of Raleigh to Fairfield Inn

1. From US 64 W/US 264 W, merge onto I-440 W using exit 419 toward Wake Forest/US 1.

2. Travel 7 miles.

3. Merge onto Glenwood Avenue/US 70 W using exit 7 toward Crabtree Valley Mall.

4. Travel .5 miles.

5. Turn left onto Blue Ridge Road.

6. Turn left onto Summit Park Lane.

7. The hotel is on the right.