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  • Annual Meeting 2013 – Meet the Keynoter

    The Rt. Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of NC, to Address the 131st ECW
    Annual Meeting

    Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple on her first church visit as a bishop and wearing the vestments given to her by the ECW in NC

    On the morning of June 15, 2013, the Diocese of North Carolina ordained the Rt. Rev. Anne Elliott Hodges-Copple as its sixth Bishop Suffragan and the first female bishop in Province IV. Over 1,400 people attended or participated in the service, held in the historic Duke Chapel on the campus of Duke University in Durham. Formerly the rector of St. Luke’s, Durham, Bishop Hodges-Copple was elected at the 197th Annual Convention out of a field of five candidates on January 25, 2013.

    In her new role, Bishop Hodges-Copple will assist Bishop Curry in leading the Diocese into Galilee by focusing especially on ministry in higher education, young adult ministry, ministry among Spanish-speaking communities, the ordination process for the diaconate, companion diocese relationships with Costa Rica and Botswana, ecumenical and interfaith work and pastoral care of retired clergy and their spouses.

    Bishop Hodges-Copple will be the Diocese’s first bishop suffragan since the Rt. Rev. Gary Gloster retired in 2007. With her historic election, she follows in the footsteps of the Diocese’s first bishop suffragan, the Rt. Rev. Henry Beard Delany, who, when consecrated in 1918, became the first black bishop to serve the Diocese. As the Bishop Suffragan, Bishop Hodges-Copple will assist the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of North Carolina, in leading the Diocese into what he has termed “21st-century Galilee,” or the diverse modern world in which we live.

    Formerly the rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Durham, Bishop Hodges-Copple also previously served as the Episcopal chaplain at Duke University; the assistant to the rector at St. Luke’s; the director of battered women’s shelters in Wake, Orange, and Durham counties; and a community organizer in Massachusetts and Kentucky.

    Her consecrators included the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church; Bishop Curry; the Rt. Rev. Gary Gloster, Bishop Hodges-Copple’s predecessor as Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of North Carolina (1996-2007); the Rt. Rev. Scott Benhase, Bishop of Georgia and former rector of St. Philip’s, Durham; and the Rt. Rev. Susan Goff, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Virginia.

    Bishop Hodges-Copple’s consecration featured many important symbols of her office. Her brightly colored vestments, for example, feature images of water, grain, grapes and wind and serve as expressions of our sacramental life. The handmade walnut crosier she received belonged to the Rt. Rev. Huntington Williams, Jr, Bishop Suffragan of North Carolina, 1985-1989, and is a gift from Bishop Williams’ family.

    The people involved in the service also have special meaning for Bishop Hodges-Copple. Her husband, John Hodges-Copple, presented her with her pectoral cross, and her mother, Joan Daniel Hodges, presented her with her ring. The Rt. Rev. Robert Johnson, 10th Bishop of North Carolina and also a former rector of St. Luke’s, and his wife, Connie, presented Bishop Hodges-Copple with her mitre. Her children, siblings, nieces and nephews all also played important roles.

    Duke Chapel also holds special significance for Bishop Hodges-Copple. She attended Duke University as an undergraduate and sang in the chapel choir. She later served as the Episcopal chaplain at Duke from 1992 until 2005.

  • New Diocesan ECW Board Members

    Announcing Our New
    Diocesan ECW Board Members

    President – Mary Gordon

    \"\"Mary Gordon has been serving as the Interim President of the Diocesan ECW since November, 2015, before her election as President in November, 2016. She has been a communicant for forty plus years at St. Mary’s, High Point. At St. Mary’s she proudly serves as a Stephen Minister, a Eucharistic Visitor, a member of Senior Altar Guild, a member of St. Anne’s Chapter and a Greeter. Her ministry also includes delivering food to Open Door Ministry.

    On the Diocesan level she is a part of the Botswana Companion Link Committee and a part of the Bishop Transition Team. She is a retired educator of thirty-four years, past President of Guilford County Association of Educators, member of Greensboro-Guilford North Carolina Retired School Personnel and President of Chi Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma. A mother of two grown daughters, Kathleen who lives with her husband Tim in Fort Worth, Texas and Christine, who with her husband Jarod and their three children live in Northern California.

    Mary can be reached at president^ecw-nc#org.

    Vice-President – Carolyn Townsend

    \"\"Carolyn Townsend was born and raised in Riverside, CA. She moved to Durham, NC in 1964 where she worked in patient care at Duke University. Later she moved to public health nursing where she served as Regional Nurse Consultant and Program Coordinator with the Division of Public Health until retirement in 2006. She became confirmed as an Episcopalian in 1989 at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Durham, NC. She later transferred to St. Batholomew’s Episcopal Church in Pittsboro, NC, where she is an active member of ECW and is currently serving as secretary. She participates as a Lay Eucharistic Minister, Altar Guild Sector, member of Mary and Martha Chapter of the DOK. She currently serves as Chair of the Durham Convocation.

    Carolyn can be reached at vicepresident^ecw-nc#org.

    Treasurer-Elect – Kathy MacLeod

    \"\"Kathy MacLeod, a retired chemist and quality auditor, joined the Diocesan ECW Board in January 2012 as the Raleigh Convocation Chair. She is a past ECW President of Good Shepard Episcopal, Raleigh, NC, where she has been a member since 1971. She served on the vestry twice and is a veteran Sunday school teacher. Since 2014 she has served on the ECW Diocesan Board Finance committee and has also headed the committee formed by the ECW Diocesan Board in 2015 to revise the constitution and bylaws.

    Kathy can be reached at treasurerelect^ecw-nc#org.

    Director of Church Periodical Club – Patricia Barnes

    \"\"Patricia Barnes is a parishioner of All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Currently serving on the Altar Guild, Acolyte Master, Lay Reader, Chalice Bearer, Outreach Committee and Church Periodical Club and President of the Order of the Daughter of the King.

    Past participation at the Diocesan level: Youth Commission for the Diocese, Diocesan Church Periodical Club, and Historic Properties Commission. Patricia is a retired secondary instructor, serves as a member of Halifax County Arts Council Board, Let’s Read Youth Group-Scotland Neck Library and Meals on Wheels in Roanoke Rapids.

    Pat can be reached at CPC^ecw-nc#org.

    Missions Coordinator – Mary Scholle

    \"\"Mary Scholle is a lifelong Episcopalian. She has served in several parishes as a Sunday School teacher, youth group leader, vacation Bible school teacher, and Lay Eucharistic Minister. At St. Bart’s she has been a Sunday school and vacation Bible school teacher, the social concerns committee chair person, member of ECW, DOK, Altar Guild, and the Vestry. She is pleased to be the ECW Missions Coordinator. “I would like to help serve the diocese following our parish mission statement to seek, serve, and share Christ with all people, throughout the Diocese and world. Supporting missions becomes an example of this.”

    Mary can be reached at missions^ecw-nc#org.

    Coordinator of United Thank Offering – Barbara Longmire

    \"\"Barbara Longmire was born and raised in Raleigh, NC, and has lived in North Carolina her entire life. She and her husband have lived in Durham since 2002, and have attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Durham since 2008. Through her friend, the late Wynn Cherry, she became involved with the St. Luke’s ECW in 2013. From Barbara: “I look forward to the opportunity of serving this wonderful Diocese as the United Thank Offering Coordinator for the Diocese ECW.”

    Barbara can be reached at UTO^ecw-nc#org.

    Lex Mathews Scholarship Fund Coordinator – Heidi LeCount

    \"\"Heidi LeCount joined Good Shepherd after moving to Raleigh in 2000. While at Good Shepherd she has served as an usher, participated in families with young children dinners and events, assisted with the annual Christmas Pageant, provided gifts for the church angel tree, participated in outreach activities such as providing meals for new parents, participated several times in the annual chili cook-off and coordinated a “watch party” for Bishop Curry’s installation where more than 70 parishioners gathered for a pot luck meal and fellowship.

    Heidi has a Bachelor’s degree in Art Education and a Masters degree in College Student Personnel Administration. Currently she serves as the Director of Residence Life at Meredith College where she has been for 17 years and has worked more than 25 years in higher education. Heidi says being able to directly impact students and support their needs while they are in college has been very rewarding for her. She has served on the Lex Matthews Scholarship Fund committee for two years. Serving now as the Lex Mathews Scholarship Fund Coordinator will be a natural blend of her church involvement and professional career.

    Heidi has a 9-year old son who has grown up at Good Shepherd. She enjoys crafting, working on home improvement projects, traveling, visiting local attractions, and biking.

    Heidi can be reached at lexmathews^ecw-nc#org.

  • Six Words

    The Six Word Project

  • Annual Meeting 2009 – Invitation

    What do they have in common?

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    Find out in November

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

    You are invited to the 127th annual gathering
    of the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina
    Hosted by the ECW of the Raleigh Convocation

    Who: All – women and men, laity and clergy – are welcome (You may register at the door, but advance registration is preferred)

    What: Combination Harris-Evans Conference for Social Outreach and Annual Meeting. It’s not about what’s been before. It’s about seeing and doing in new ways.

    When: November 6-7, 2009

    Where: The Church of the Good Shepherd, 125 Hillsborough St., downtown Raleigh

    Give bread to those who are hungry. Give hunger for justice to those who have bread. Amen. (South American table grace)

    Harris-Evans-logo.png

    Every three years the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina host the Harris-Evans Conference, which is dedicated to furthering an educated, faith-based approach to social outreach issues. This year, Harris-Evans will merge with the Annual Meeting for an event focusing on a pandemic: hunger. We believe that physical and spiritual hungers are met through God’s grace and abundance. With this gathering we will provide information and inspiration for those seeking to nourish body and soul.

    Hunger is certainly not a new problem in our country, our state or our communities. It’s well known that hunger is a condition of poverty, and statistics show that states such as North Carolina, with wide gaps between rich and poor, tend to have higher hunger rates.

    However, as the economy has deteriorated the number of people who do not at all times have access to enough food for an active, healthy life – the “food insecure” – is growing in size and scope. The problem is intergenerational, it cuts across all racial and ethnic boundaries, and it’s reaching into the ranks of those once considered middle-class. Consider the following:

    From the September 4th issue of the Financial Times: “The number of working Americans turning to free government food stamps has surged as their hours and wages erode, in a stark sign that the recession is inflicting pain on the employed as well as the newly jobless.”

    From Action for Children North Carolina: “1-in-7 children in North Carolina lives in a household that is forced to reduce food intake, alter normal eating patterns, or go hungry because they lack the money or resources to obtain adequate food.”

    From the July 31st issue of The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area: “On July 24, the [Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina] sent an e-mail message to its more than 400 partner agencies saying that, for the first time in its 28-year history, its cupboard was nearly bare… Growth in demand for food has far outstripped supply… ’We are faced with people who used to be of an income that they could make donations to Second Harvest and other human-service organizations. Now they find themselves needing assistance,’ [Executive Director Clyde] Fitzgerald says.”

    This conference will offer information about the evolving issue of hunger and give attendees very practical tools to address the problem in ways that respect the dignity of everyone. If an individual or members of a parish aren’t actively doing something about hunger in their community, we can help you get started. If you are currently doing something, great. Now’s the time to do something new.

    An empty stomach has no ears to hear with. (Swahili idiom as quoted by the Rt. Rev. Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana)

  • The Rev. Teresa Aduk Jerboam

    The Rev. Teresa Aduk Jerboam

    St. Matthew\’s Cathedral, Renk
    Teacher and Chaplain, Renk Basic School, Diocese of Renk

    \"TeresaTeresa Aduk Jerboam was born in the village of Duk, north of the town of Bor, in South Sudan in 1968. She came to Renk in 1987, two years after getting married, when her husband, Joseph Nyading, was transferred here from Malakal, where they had been living. Joseph is now a brigadier general in the National Police serving in Malakal again, but because of his work and frequent transfers, Teresa has decided to stay in Renk Town on her own.

    Teresa and Joseph have no children, a fact that bears heavily on her. In their Dinka culture, having children is very important. Not having them has ended many marriages, but Teresa and Joseph stay together.

    Teresa, who serves at St. Matthew\’s Cathedral and is both an Arabic teacher and a chaplain at the Diocese\’s Renk Basic School, became a priest because she is a servant.

    \”Of course, I became a priest for God. The life of Christ is a very good life,\” she says, \”and I want to bring other people to Christ. I love to help, to serve Jesus Christ because I am a servant.\”

    She is happy to be a priest, she says, \”because when you believe in Jesus Christ, you find that the way to follow Christ is a good way.\”

    She knows that much of her work as a priest is the same work done by lay leaders and evangelists.

    \”But a priest is more,\” she says. \”There are priestly duties. You cannot go halfway on this.\”

    Before ordination, Teresa, along with the other five women, attended workshops to be trained for priesthood. Some of the workshops were on preaching; some on how to build a small church; some on how to be a leader in church. Among the 30 or so priests in Renk Diocese, Teresa has the best presence in the liturgy, leading quietly but confidently, rarely stumbling over words or pages. She brings to her leadership of liturgy a sense of grace and calm. She would like more training, and hopes to get it through the Renk Bible College.

  • A Letter From Bishop Curry – 2014-2015

    A Letter From Bishop Curry 2014-2015

  • Naming Names – Join the Challenge!

    Enjoy more historical vignettes
    at the ECW Annual Meeting

    NAMING NAMES – JOIN THE CHALLENGE!

    By Lynn Hoke, ECW Archivist/Historian

    For almost two hundred years now, women in North Carolina have been key players in getting many Episcopal Churches organized, built and maintained. Too often the historical accounts mention only a “devoted woman,” “several earnest church women,” or simply “the ladies of the Parish.” When a woman was named it was very often as a “Miss” or as a “Mrs.,” with her husband’s name or initials following. An excerpt from Bishop Cheshire’s 1872 Convention Address offers a good example of generous praise for an anonymous “lady” whose faith, need and perseverance laid the groundwork for Guilford County’s first Episcopal Church:

    “Our flock there was most truly a little one, and never had been otherwise – they never had a minister settled among them or regular services, and no hope of a church; a lady, however, came to live there, who felt it necessary for her own spiritual welfare, and that of her family, to receive the instruction and the ordinances which the Church administers; they were dependent on the exertions of an invalid husband and father, but nothing daunted by all these obstacles she set herself to procure the erection of a church, and obtained a considerable sum for that purpose, and elicited a good deal of sympathy in its behalf. Circumstances, however, made it necessary that this family should remove from Greensboro, and it then seemed as if the work would be suspended, if not altogether arrested; but in the meantime another family moved to the place possessed by the same spirit, and having at heart the same objects.”

    Within two years the new family, identified as that of Dr. Foulkes, and some others had built a new church, duly consecrated as St. Barnabas, which name was changed in 1910 to Holy Trinity Parish.

    What was this “lady’s” name? Beginning with the 2010 Annual Meeting and continuing through our Diocesan Bicentennial Celebration in 2017, you in every parish will be asked for help in “naming names” – first, middle, maiden and married! This long-term project, named By Word and Example: Women Who Have Graced the Episcopal Church in North Carolina, 1817-2017, will rely on people in places large and small throughout the state, including all three Episcopal dioceses. It’s not too early to start digging around in local church, family, library and online records to identify and compile short profiles of our women who served “not only with their lips, but in their lives.”

  • Annual Meeting 2018 Directions

    Directions

    St Michael’s Episcopal Church
    1520 Canterbury Rd., Raleigh, NC

    Directions from points east of Raleigh to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church

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

    2. Travel for 3 miles

    3. Merge onto Capital Boulevard/US 401 S using exit 11A toward downtown

    4. Travel for 2.5 miles

    5. Merge onto Wade Avenue toward RDU airport

    6. Travel 2 miles

    7. Turn right onto Canterbury Road

    8. St. Michael’s Church is on the right

    Directions from points west of Raleigh to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church

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

    2. Travel 4.5 miles on Wade Avenue

    3. Turn left on Canterbury Road

    4. St. Michael’s Church is on the right

    Directions from St. Michael’s Episcopal Church to Fairfield Inn Crabtree Valley

    1. Right out of parking lot

    2. Left onto Banbury Road

    3. Take 2nd left onto Brooks Avenue

    4. Turn right onto Lake Boone Trail

    5. Turn left to stay on Lake Boone Trail

    6. Stay straight when Lake Boone Trail turns into Edenburgh Road

    7. Left onto Glenwood Avenue

    8. Left onto Blue Ridge Road (at the light), stay in left-most lane near median

    9. Left onto Summit Park Lane

    10. The hotel is on the right

  • Trihistory Conference

    From Manteo to the MDGs: Seeking Mission and Justice in the Anglican Tradition 1584-2010

    \"\"The Diocese of North Carolina will host the national Tri-History Conference at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Raleigh on June 21-23, 2010. This event, sponsored by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, National Episcopal Historians and Archivists, and the Episcopal Women’s History Project, will include presentations on the role of women in the church as well as the Millennium Development Goals. Detailed information about registration, programming, lodging and meals, and more, is here…

  • 2015 Branch Pledges

    2015 Branch Pledges

    Dear ECW Branch Treasurers or Presidents/Liaisons,

    It’s budget time again. The Diocesan ECW Budget for the year beginning January 1, 2015 will be presented at the ECW Annual Meeting at St. Mary’s Church, High Point, on  November 7-8, 2014. Prior to that time, the ECW Board needs to hear from you concerning the amount of your Branch pledge for 2015 so that we will know how much money we will have to work with in the coming year. These funds help to carry out the work of women’s ministries throughout the Anglican Communion, our country, our province (IV), and our diocese.

    It is not always easy to make a pledge so early in the year when you probably don’t know what your branch income for 2015 will be. However, I am asking you to make your best estimate and return the pledge form by November 1. If you must wait later than that date for some reason, please let me know that there will be a delay.

    Our Constitution and Bylaws state: “To have voting privileges (at the Annual Meeting) a Branch must have paid a pledge to the Diocesan Church Women’s Budget for the current year.” Those branches current with their pledge are entitled to send up to five voting delegates to Annual Meeting. Your Branch should have paid at least 50% of your pledge amount by now. Any balance due on your pledge should be sent no later than November 1, 2014.

    If you have questions about the amount of your 2014 pledge, the balance due, or other information, please call me at 919-682-4647 or e-mail me at treasurer^ecw-nc#org.

    Thank you for returning the pledge form promptly. I hope to see you at the Annual Meeting in High Point on November 7-8. Information about the Annual Meeting, can be found on this website.

    Sincerely,
    Mary E. Hawkins,
    Treasurer

    Downloadable 2015 Pledge Form

    Please note: Anyone who belongs to a church that does not have an ECW Branch and would like to participate in the Annual Meeting as a voting member can pay a pledge of $10 in the name of her church and be entitled to be a voting delegate.