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  • Altar Guild Festival \’09: Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary

    View photos from the festival here

    “…Grant that as we adorn and make ready your altar we may learn greater love and reverence for all that belongs to your service, and through all these outward symbols come to a clearer vision of the inward and spiritual truth taught by them.”
    (From the Altar Guild Prayer)

    On Wednesday, May 6th, 45 women and men from across the diocese gathered in the gymnasium at Haw River State Park’s Summit Conference Center in Browns Summit for Altar Guild Festival 2009.

    The festival, a triennial event sponsored by the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina, was organized by Vivian Edwards, who as Altar Guild Coordinator for the diocese sits on the Diocesan ECW board. Its theme was, “Flowers Rarest, Blossoms Fairest: The Altar Through the Liturgical Year.”

    Leading the program was Hal Peck, a floral arranger and interior designer who helped found and co-chairs the flower guild at his home parish, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rocky Mount. Drawing on natural wit and years of experience, Peck offered humor, cost-saving tips and practical how-tos in equal measure as he created a stunning assortment of on-the-spot arrangements for the liturgical year, beginning with Advent.

    Bishop Michael B. Curry, the celebrant at Holy Eucharist during the festival, put the work of altar and flower guilds in theological perspective throughout his sermon. The guilds, he said, carry on a tradition in the Christian church that date to the story of Mary Magdalene and the other faithful women who rose early and with spices and oils in hand went to Jesus’ tomb to prepare his body for burial.

    “There’s a lot that’s ugly and mean and hurtful in this world. One of the jobs of the Altar Guild is to transform what’s ordinary into something of beauty and holiness. That is in a real way the stewardship of creation,” said the bishop. He added, “Your faithfulness in this stewardship is a witness to the Church.”

    Tips from Hal

    First and last: Do not stress out about floral arrangements. Preparing the altar should be fun. “Only Jesus was perfect. The altar and altar flowers don’t have to be perfect; everything doesn’t have to exactly match.”

    Be inclusive. Allow an altar or flower guild to be intergenerational. At the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rocky Mount, members of the Flower Guild range in age from 13 to 80. Newcomers and younger members start by spending a few Saturdays observing how things work, and then first contributing to arrangements for, say the narthex.

    Use what’s available and affordable. It’s perfectly acceptable to use greens and flowers from the church yard, your own yard, the roadside, or to buy these things from Wal-Mart or a grocery store like Harris Teeter.

    Likewise with containers. Be creative. Use what’s on hand such as clear glass or cut glass or lined woven baskets or even terra cotta pots. These can be very effective, even on more formal altars. Containers don’t always have to be brass or silver.

    To add texture and some fragrance, which helps eliminate a musty smell, use fresh eucalyptus. This greenery can then be dried and put in arrangements for another season. Use cedar at times other than Christmas.

    Asymmetrical designs allow for different textures within an arrangement.

    To dry greens, leave them sitting in a bucket in the corner of the kitchen.

    On Palm Sunday save the palm branches, which are often expensive, for use in other arrangements.

    To make purple flowers or other dark colors show up better, especially against a darker altar, back them with lighter colors such as yellow.

    “A small fortune can be spent at Thanksgiving for all the gourds and pumpkins. It’s overkill, really, for what’s usually a sparsely attended service. Instead, when trying to convey ‘bounty’ use fruits and vegetables readily available at your local grocery.”

  • 2016 UTO Grant Application Timeline

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    The national UTO has announced the timeline for the 2016 granting cycle. NOTE: All questions about grants and all grant requests from the Diocese of NC should first be directed to the diocesan ECW interim president.

    2016 United Thank Offering Focus and Criteria, Fifth Mark of Mission:

    “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”

    Monday, January 4, 2016:  All UTO grant information available on UTO website.

    NOTE: the Diocesan ECW is responsible for all statements and signatures from the bishop’s office. Please do not contact the bishop’s office directly.

    Included are focus, criteria, hints for grant writing and the application form (see links below)

    Monday, February 8, 2016:  Submission deadline for individual parish UTO grant applications.

    The applications will be reviewed by the diocesan ECW review committee. All grant applications should be submitted directly to ECW Interim President, Mary Gordon, by e-mail (interimpresident^ecw-nc#org) or by regular mail, 1211 Watermark Ct., High Point, NC 27265

    You may be asked to re-submit your application with the committee’s recommendations.

    Monday, February 22, 2016:  Submission deadline for edited versions of the selected applications for final submissions.

    Friday, March 4, 2016 (5:00 PM):  Deadline for ECW to submit selected UTO Grant applications from the Diocese of NC to the national UTO office.

    Here are links to all the forms:

    2016 Grant Application Process Form (PDF) Please note this critical information!

    Grant Application Sample Budget #1 (PDF)

    Grant Application Sample Budget #2 (PDF)

    United Thank Offering 2016 Grant Application Form (Word)

  • 2017 UTO Grant Application Timeline

    2017 United Thank Offering Grant Focus and Criteria

    Evangelism-Reconciliation:

    Following Jesus’ way of creating loving, liberating, and life-giving relationships with God, each other, and all creation.

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    Friday, February 3, 2017:

    Submission deadline for individual parish UTO grant applications.

    The applications will be reviewed by the diocesan ECW review committee. All grant applications should be submitted directly to ECW United Thank Offering Coordinator Barbara Longmire by e-mail (UTO^ecw-nc#org) or by regular mail:

    1818 Hideaway Lane

    Durham, NC 27712 

    You may be asked to re-submit your application with the committee’s recommendations.

    Friday, February 17, 2017:

    Submission deadline for edited versions of the selected applications for final submissions.

    Monday, February 20, 2017:

    ECW to get to the Bishop for signature on applications.

    Friday, March 3, 2017 (5:00 PM):

    Deadline for ECW to submit selected UTO Grant applications from the Diocese of NC to the national UTO office.

    Links to all forms:

  • 2018 United Thank Offering Grant Applications

    Focus:
    Becoming Beloved Community: Racial Healing, Reconciliation and Justice

    \"\"Friday, February 9, 2018:
    Submission deadline for individual parish UTO grant applications.
    The applications will be reviewed by the diocesan ECW review committee. All grant applications should be submitted directly to ECW United Thank Offering Coordinator Barbara Longmire by e-mail (UTO^ecw-nc#org) or by regular mail:
    1818 Hideaway Lane
    Durham, NC 27712

     NOTE:  An email submission may speed up the Committee review process

    You may be asked to re-submit your application with the committee’s recommendations.

    Friday, February 16, 2018:
    Submission deadline to UTO coordinator of edited versions of the selected applications.

    Monday, February 19, 2018:
    ECW to submit selected applications to the Bishop for final signature.

    Friday, March 2, 2018 (5:00 PM):
    Deadline for ECW to submit selected UTO Grant applications from the Diocese of NC to the national UTO office.

    Links to all forms:

     

  • Stopping Traffic Starts Here, Now

    At its convention in November of 2014, the ECW of the Diocese of NC voted to make human trafficking a ministry focus for the 2015-2018 triennium. The ECW of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Pittsboro, with the help of the parish’s Health and Environment Committee, is beginning to address this global scourge by helping to educate people of the Durham Convocation about the ever-growing problem of human trafficking in NC. Speakers for a public meeting this comingTuesday, June 23rd, at St. Bartholomew’s will include representatives from Pittsboro’s Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center, the Siler City Police Department, and the Salvation Army’s Project FIGHT. The flyer below offers more information. Feel free to share. All are welcome.

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  • Convocation Chair Carolyn R. Townsend: In Her Own Words

    Carolyn R. Townsend, RN

    Born and grew up in Riverside, California. Enjoyed Girl Scouting and traveled with the regional troop to the 1956 first National Girl Scout Round-up in Michigan. Earned a B.S. in Nursing from UCLA. First public health nursing job was with the Los Angeles County Health Department. Earned an MPH in Public Health Nursing from UNC-CH School of Public Health.

    Moved to Durham, North Carolina in 1964. Worked in patient care at Duke University Medical Center, then in public health with Operation Breakthrough antipoverty program. Continued in public health nursing with the District Health Department-Caswell, Chatham, Lee, Orange, and Person Counties. Later served as a regional nurse consultant and Program Coordinator with the Division of Public Health until retirement in 2006.

    Religious Life: Grew up in the Congregational Church, confirmed Episcopalian in 1989 at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, Durham, N.C. Transferred to St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Pittsboro. Active member of Episcopal Church Women, serving as President of the St. Bartholomew’s ECW. Participates as a Lay Eucharistic Minister, Altar Guild, Lector and clerk to the vestry. Received into the Mary and Martha Chapter of The Order Daughters of the King in January of this year.

    Active volunteer in the community serving as an ombudsman with the Chatham County Community Advisory Committee for Adult Care Homes and Assisted Living, Circles Chatham, and the St. Bartholomew’s Care Team.

    Awards and honors: Recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine the state’s highest civilian honor for meritorious service. Recipient of the first Carolyn R. Townsend Rail-Trail volunteer award after having served 19 years as volunteer administrator and chair of the North Carolina Rail-Trails board of directors.

    Married and mother of two daughters and grandmother of one granddaughter.

  • NC’s ECW contribute $500 to Unified Gift

    The ECW of Diocese of NC adopted the Millennium Development Goals as a mission point in 2007. We were integral to the success of the Diocese of NC’s 2011-2012 NetsforLife campaign, actively serving on its steering committee and donating $7,200 to the effort. 

    And now, with ECW Triennial, the focus is again on the NetsforLife Inspiration Fund, a program of Episcopal Relief and Development. Here in Indy, thanks to the generosity of Kathy MacLeod, Raleigh Convocation chair of the Diocesan ECW; the women of Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Charlotte; and the Diocesan ECW board, we gave $500 to help the National ECW reach the $12,000 goal of the Unified Gift. In all, more than $17,000 has been raised. 

    One specially treated bed net can prevent up to three people from the bites of malarial mosquitoes.

  • 9. Faith in Action

    Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
    James 2:15-17 (NIV)

    The Mother’s Union, active throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion, is one of two primary women’s ministries in the Diocese of Botswana. The Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of North Carolina has unique relationships with both these groups as they focus on different things at different times. Based on its name alone, the MU, as it’s commonly known, is concerned with conventional family life and strengthening it in a Christian context.

    The woman pictured here, carrying her son in the traditional way, attended the Diocese of Botswana’s annual MU conference in August of 2010. Mother and child had shy smiles and sweet dispositions, and both were endlessly patient with the long days of the conference, which ran nearly a week. Memories of them are such pleasant ones. But it’s people just like these who are the most susceptible to malaria: 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa (a zone that includes Botswana), and malaria strikes women and children disproportionately. According to the World Health Organization, an African child has 1.5 to 5.4 episodes of malaria fever every year. The NetsforLife campaign of the Episcopal Church, which the Diocese of North Carolina has joined through its parishes, mission, schools, and ministries (such as Episcopal Church Women), asks that we put our faith in action by donating to the cost of at least one $12 mosquito net. Each net will cover one bed, and one bed holds up to three people. Prevention is much easier than a cure.

  • A Relentless Focus on Mission

    The Very Rev. David du Plantier, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans, visited the ECW plenary along with Bishop Duncan Gray of the Diocese of Mississippi and Bishop Charles Jenkins of the Diocese of Louisiana. Their central message was this: \”Thank you for your constant and relentless focus on mission and ministry, not just since Hurricane Katrina but since your founding.\”

    Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, echoed that when she spoke to the ECW delegates earlier this week: \”The ECW are unfailingly a group that keeps your eye on the prize – the world as it should be, the way God made it. Thank you for reminding us that we are a part of something that passes all understanding.\”

    We all have a place in this beloved Church of ours, and I do believe that, yes, in ways seen and unseen we, the Episcopal Church Women, are most directly about mission.

    Here\’s just one example. Every Triennial the National ECW Board works to make sure ECW connect with and address the needs of the underserved residents of the area where Triennial/General Convention is being held. This year the \”Community Connection\” gift recipient is Project Dignity, based in Garden Grove, California. Project Dignity works with perhaps the most misunderstood of all the homeless: people, un- and under employed,  living in low-income residential motels. Currently they\’re working with 500 families spread among 23 motels best described as fleabags. And given the state of the economy, the numbers are rising.

    A table set-up in a corner of our meeting hall in the convention center was the collection point for donations to Project Dignity, which has 1 1/2 staff people and operates on a shoestring budget. In less than a week the large table was overflowing with towels, washcloths, socks, personal hygiene and grooming items, and school supplies. Cash donations for things like bus passes came to $1,201, and there hundreds of dollars more in giftcards for meals and such. On Thursday it was all boxed up and ready for pick-up and distribution.

    Many, many thanks to those members of North Carolina\’s diocesan ECW board who made contributions to this effort. I was proud to add those donations on your behalf.

    The theme of this Triennial was grace. One definition we received was, \”grace is love at work.\” Episcopal Church Women wanted to make sure we didn\’t just take from our hosts but that we gave back, leaving Orange County, California a little better than we found it.

    There was grace.

     

  • Seen

    Some North Carolinians taking care of business in Anaheim:

    \"\"The Rev. Kevin Matthews of Greensboro

    \"\"The Rev. Lawrence Womack and the Rt. Rev. William Gregg of Charlotte

    \"\"The Rev. Timothy Kimbrough of Chapel Hill

    \"\"The Rev. Lisa Fishbeck of Chapel Hill/Carrboro and the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry

    \"\"The Rev. Lorraine Ljunggren of Raleigh with her son Jake Melynk, who\’s part of the Youth Presence at GC

    \"\"… and then when it all gets to be a bit too much there\’s Barnabas with his human, Mike. Every morning Mike offers people heading into the convention center an opportunity to give the big pooch a pat and scratch behind the ears. As the sign says, \”it\’s therapeutic.\” No word from Barnabas how he feels about the situation.