In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo chats with the Rev Canon Jaime Edwards Acton. Fr. Jaime is the rector of St. Stephen’s Church in Hollywood. When he arrived, he knew that they had just a few years of money and that traditional methods of church financing would not work. Here, he tells us the story of how social enterprise made the difference.

Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton has been the rector at St. Stephen's for over a decade and has helped build the parish into a vibrant, thriving ministry in Hollywood. More comfortable in jeans and Doc Martens than dress slacks and loafers, Rev. Jaime approaches the story of Jesus as an opportunity to share insight and to begin a conversation. After each sermon, parishioners at St. Stephen's are welcome and encouraged to respond and introduce interpretations of their own - creating a vibrant and multi-faceted spiritual interaction each and every week. 

More in-depth: https://www.trytank.org/hollywood.html 

Website: https://www.ststephenshollywood.org/

The Delaney Wright Fine Arts Preschool

Email for Jaime: [email protected] 

In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo chats with Fr. Jason Prati about bringing about culture change in a congregation. This is Fr. Jason’s return to the podcast. He was with us for episode 8“On Doubling Down.” Here is a link to the book mentions, “Christian Proficiency” by Martin Thorton

https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Proficiency-Martin-Thornton/dp/1608996638/

Website:http://allsaintsnewalbany.org/

Email for Alive:[email protected]

Here’s how Fr. Jason describes himself:

My name is Fr. Jason Prati. From a very early age, I felt called to serve our Lord as well as His Church. Entering seminary after High School, I received my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy as well as my Masters of Divinity from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. I was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in May of 2002 serving as Parochial Vicar of four parishes, Assistant Director of Vocations, Chaplain of a High School and Coordinator of Pontifical Liturgies. In 2008, God moved in my life and I found my way into the Episcopal Church being received as an Episcopalian by Bishop Kenneth Price in May of 2009 and as a priest by Bishop Thomas Breidenthal of the Diocese of Southern Ohio in April of 2013. I am a teacher by nature, loving to share the Good News of Jesus Christ by my life and witness not only as a priest, but as a Christian on fire! I come from an Italian-American family, so people, faith and love are my passion! I am beyond blessed to be called to serve as Rector of All Saints. I hope you find this parish as the loving, warm and caring parish that I too have found! May God bless you in your journey!

In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo once more chats with the experiment managers for the “Being With Clergy” experiment which sought to combat the large number of young clergy who are leaving ministry a few years after ordination. The Revs Rachel Field and Mo Lederman tell us about how clergy can be more resilient in the work of ministry.

Rachel Field is an Episcopal Priest living on a small hillside along with mosses, strawberries, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, beavers, and ravens. She spends much of her time wandering the neighborhood with her horses, Tom Bombadil and Radagast the Brown. She is the co-owner of Heartberry Hollow Farm & Forest in Randolph Vermont and the Earth Liturgist for The Retreat House at Hillsboro. Her ministry focuses around imagining and facilitating places of connection between people and the sacred earth.

Rev. Mo Peitler-Lederman is a native Nutmegger and serves through the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. She is a graduate of Providence College, BA Theology and a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School. Ordained in 2004, Mo served as the Associate Rector and Chaplain of the Day School at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church in New Haven, CT for nine years. She became the Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Guilford, CT until June of 2021. She has served the diocese as a member of the Commission on Ministry, Chair of the South Central Leadership Team, Chair of the Women’s Ministry Network, a Camp Washington Chaplain and Retreat Leader, and Chair for the Committee for the Formation of All the Baptized. Currently she is a diocesan consultant, working with newly ordained clergy.  She leads retreats for parish groups and vestries, is a liturgist for the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, and recently finished working with the Ekklesia Ballet Company on their work, “Body and Land.” She is pursuing a Certificate in Communications and Digital Media through the Center for New Media at Middlesex College. When not serving parishes or taking classes Mo enjoys spending time with family, baking, singing in a community choir, and blending and drinking tea. Her website is molederman.com

Links:

https://being-with.org/

In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo chats with the experiment managers for the “Being With Clergy” experiment which sought to combat the large number of young clergy who are leaving ministry a few years after ordination. The Revs Rachel Field and Mo Lederman tell us about what they learn and how you can benefit from this work.

Rachel Field is an Episcopal Priest living on a small hillside along with mosses, strawberries, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, beavers, and ravens. She spends much of her time wandering the neighborhood with her horses, Tom Bombadil and Radagast the Brown. She is the co-owner of Heartberry Hollow Farm & Forest in Randolph Vermont and the Earth Liturgist for The Retreat House at Hillsboro. Her ministry focuses around imagining and facilitating places of connection between people and the sacred earth.

Rev. Mo Peitler-Lederman is a native Nutmegger and serves through the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. She is a graduate of Providence College, BA Theology and a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School. Ordained in 2004, Mo served as the Associate Rector and Chaplain of the Day School at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church in New Haven, CT for nine years. She became the Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Guilford, CT until June of 2021. She has served the diocese as a member of the Commission on Ministry, Chair of the South Central Leadership Team, Chair of the Women’s Ministry Network, a Camp Washington Chaplain and Retreat Leader, and Chair for the Committee for the Formation of All the Baptized. Currently she is a diocesan consultant, working with newly ordained clergy.  She leads retreats for parish groups and vestries, is a liturgist for the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, and recently finished working with the Ekklesia Ballet Company on their work, “Body and Land.” She is pursuing a Certificate in Communications and Digital Media through the Center for New Media at Middlesex College. When not serving parishes or taking classes Mo enjoys spending time with family, baking, singing in a community choir, and blending and drinking tea. Her website is molederman.com

In this episode Fr. Lorenzo talks about the TryTank anniversary and the change to becoming a research institute. Then he has a behind the scenes conversation with Brian Ide the director of the upcoming film “A Case For Love.” The episode finishes with a conversation with Sarah Bentley Allred about the upcoming Forma conference and how – in an experimental way – it’s “radically hybrid” this year. 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ACaseForLove

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/acaseforlovemovie/ 

In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo chats with Ken and Jacob about EpiscopalPulse, a TryTank experiment that is now its own ministry. EpiscopalPulse is launching in January 2024 as a monthly micro survey which aims to provide reliable, timely, and actionable data to the church. 

You can find out more or join at https://www.ecf.org/programs/adaptive-ministries/episcopal-pulse 

For the pilot questions and responses visit www.EpiscopalPulse.org

The Rev. Ken Howard is the founder and president of The FaithX Project, a faith-based nonprofit consulting, research, and resource development practice. Founded in late 2016, FaithX's mission is to help congregations and the judicatories that support them survive and thrive in challenging times through data-grounded discernment and strategic missional planning. FaithX has developed a number of ground-breaking resources for assessing vitality and sustainability in congregations and judicatories, identifying missional opportunities and challenges in communities, and assisting congregations in leveraging their strongest areas of vitality to engage the greatest missional opportunities. An ordained priest in the Episcopal Church for 30 years, Ken has planted two congregations, and in his spare time has written two books and several research papers. 

Jacob is the Program Director for Adaptive Ministries at the Episcopal Church Foundation. His work focuses on supporting the ongoing and burgeoning programs at ECF that enable the congregational vitality and sustainability of communities throughout The Episcopal Church. He hails from Chicago, where he worked as a Research Consultant at a marketing research consultancy for several years. In the Fall of 2022, Jacob moved to New York City to dedicate a year to living in community and supporting the outreach work at Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan (via the Episcopal Service Corps). His work focused on key areas: prison reentry, food insecurity, education access, mental health, housing, and emergency response. He also organized formation for a small parish in the South Bronx; creating and leading liturgy for bilingual prayer services and a children's formation program to facilitate church growth and community engagement.

In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo talks with the Rev Dr Sam Wells, Vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Central London. They talk about a Theology of abundance. What is it? Where does it come from? What does it mean for ministry? And, perhaps most importantly, how we can change our mindset to have a posture of abundance in our work.  

From the podcast

Great Sacred Music: https://soundcloud.com/greatsacredmusic

St Martin-in-the-Fields: https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/

Vivaldi as Social Enterprise: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/blogs/article/vivaldi-and-social-enterprise

Revd Dr Sam Wells has been Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields since 2012. He has served as a parish priest for 25 years – 10 of those in urban priority areas. He also spent 7 years in North Carolina, where he was Dean of Duke University Chapel. Sam is also Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College. He is a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He has published 44 books, including works on Christian ethics, mission, ministry, scripture, liturgy, and preaching. Sam is married to Jo Wells, who is Bishop for Episcopal Ministry in the Anglican Communion. They have two adult children.

In this episode Fr Lorenzo chats with James Fawcett. James is the head of the Being With program from St. Martin in the Fields in London. As you will see, Fr. Lorenzo is a big fan. They discuss the program and also about God’s desire to Be With us and how you too can use the program. It’s a fascinating conversation about an innovative framework that allows people the opportunity to build deep relationships.

www.being-with.org

Bio: 

James is Head of Being With leading on sharing this wonderful, life changing and innovative resource world wide. He has broad experience in the Charity sector working within and outside the Church starting up new projects. He values honest, deep conversations with a healthy mix of humour and delight - trying not to take himself too seriously. Loves a coffee in the morning, favourite cocktail would be a Negroni in the summer and an Old Fashioned in the winter. 

TryTank discovered an interesting insight about growing congregations: they have robust faith formation programs that ask MORE of members. In this episode, Fr. Lorenzo chats with Fr. Jason Prati from All Saints Episcopal Church in New Albany, Ohio about their faith formation program, Alive. This is a growing congregation which has doubled down on faith formation and is reaping the rewards.

From an very early age, Fr. Jason Prati felt called to serve our Lord as well as His Church. Entering seminary after High School, he received my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy as well as my Masters of Divinity from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.  Fr. Prati was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in May of 2002 serving as Parochial Vicar of four parishes, Assistant Director of Vocations, Chaplain of a High School and Coordinator of Pontifical Liturgies.  In 2008, God moved in his life and he found my way into the Episcopal Church being received as an Episcopalian by Bishop Kenneth Price in May of 2009 and as a priest by Bishop Thomas Breidenthal of the Diocese of Southern Ohio in April of 2013. Fr. Prati is a teacher by nature, loving to share the Good News of Jesus Christ by his life and witness not only as a priest, but as a Christian on fire! Fr. Prati comes from an Italian-American family, so people, faith and love are his passion! He is beyond blessed to be called to serve as Rector of All Saints. 

Website: http://allsaintsnewalbany.org/
Email for Alive: alive@http:allsaintsnewalbany.org

Hailing from Saint Louis, Whitworth has made a splash in the Indie pop scene as a unique addition to an otherwise radio friendly genre. Producer and lead Singer Owen Ragland has spent years working behind the scenes with talent from around the world launching Whitworth as an Avenue to showcase his own artistry. Together with fellow musicians Elijah Melvin, Julian Cotom, Dominic Mauro, and Ross Spellman, Ragland has created a community of young artists aimed at furthering messages of love and unity in a time of dominant divisiveness.” 

Handles
IG @_Whitworth_ 

All links here 
www.whitworthmusic.net