By Susan Russell

Advent – the liturgical season of preparation – offers us the opportunity to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. It also offers us the opportunity to prepare ourselves for family gatherings during the holiday season which – for some of us – bring the challenge of engaging across differences.

This year our diocesan “One in the Spirit” ministry will be hosting a three-part Advent series of virtual conversations structured around “From Many, One: Conversations Across Difference” – the initiative inviting Episcopalians and our neighbors to engage in one-to-one listening and sharing across the many differences that challenge us. Participants will have a chance to see how this framework can enable them to communicate with others with whom they disagree on contentious issues and transform their relationships in the process. Details are coming soon on times and dates.

For more information contact the Rev. Canon Susan Russell, canon for engagement across difference, at srussell@ladiocese.org or 213.483.2040, ext. 223.

My Work To Do is an online affinity group designed to help white people build stamina for discussing racism, systemic injustice, racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in their everyday lives. Black, Indigenous and People of Color allies are welcome with an understanding this is a white-centered, and therefore not always safe, space.

Schedule for the two new sessions of "Getting Started: The original My Work To Do" series is:

Each session begins at 5 p.m. PT

Register here

Each session begins at 5 p.m. PT

Register here

My Work To Do past participant Serena Beeks, executive director of the diocese's Commission on Schools, offers this description of the program:

"For all of us who know we have work to do to become better anti-racists, and for all of us who have ever learned through painful experience that having good intentions is not always enough to keep us from making big mistakes, and for all of us who know just enough to realize that we have a lot more to learn, I can recommend from experience My Work To Do. It's a five-week session with short readings or a film clip to watch, and then guided brief conversations among the participants. It's free, although donations are appreciated. It's not divisive or confrontational, but supportive of the journey. Everyone is welcome, but the intention is to guide people who identify as white to do their own work of learning about racism instead of requesting people of color to explain it over and over."

To learn more, visit www.myworktodo.com

Clergy and lay leaders: Encourage convention delegates, others to read Drawdown to prepare for Margaret Parker lecture

Mary Nichols, whose leadership as chair of the California Air Resources Board has played a key role in guiding statewide environmental advances for five decades, will deliver Diocesan Convention’s biennial Margaret Parker Lecture, set for Nov. 13 in Riverside.

Convention delegates – together with all who will view the lecture via livestream – are encouraged to prepare for the talk by reading the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken, and to consult additional resources posted here. Drawdown is available for Kindle, in paperback and audio CD on Amazon here.

Please encourage your congregants - especially those attending Diocesan Convention - to read Drawdown in order to be prepared for Nichols' presentation, which will also be livestreamed.

Read more about Nichols and the Margaret Parker lecture here.

Is your congregation having a Trunk and Treat or other special Halloween event this year, especially one to which the community is invited? Please let The Episcopal News know (if you haven't already done so): email us at news@ladiocese.org.

[The Episcopal Church – October 6, 2021] Episcopalians can now access analysis of the 2020 Parochial Report data, including multi-year attendance and finance trends for individual churches and dioceses, as well as learn how COVID-19 impacted congregations from a special narrative report of qualitative data.

Data from the Parochial Report – the oldest continuous gathering of data by The Episcopal Church – has been compiled and published on the General Convention website.

Episcopalians can view a variety of metrics on the Research and Statistics pages, including a graph that shows trends over the past 10 years in Sunday worship attendance, finances, and baptized membership for any congregation in the church; data trends across the denomination, provinces, and dioceses; and demographic information of the neighborhood around any church.

While the report is often known for the quantitative metrics of average Sunday attendance (ASA) and “pledge and plate” (funds collected through offerings and pledges), the 2020 Parochial Report was changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic to include qualitative data. Congregations were asked narrative questions related to how their mission and ministry were impacted by the pandemic.

Read more here.

[The Episcopal Church – October 12, 2021] Applications are open for two grant opportunities offered annually by The Episcopal Church – Constable Fund grants, which focus on religious education, and Roanridge Trust grants, which support leadership development in small towns and rural communities.

The application deadline for both is Dec. 12.

The Constable Fund provides grants to fund mission initiatives that were not provided for within the budget of The Episcopal Church as approved by General Convention 2018, with a stated preference for work in the area of religious education. The grants are named for visionary philanthropist Marie Louise Constable, who made a gift to The Episcopal Church in 1935, during the Great Depression, to establish the fund.

Constable Fund applications may only be submitted by: (1) applicants approved by one of the nine provinces of The Episcopal Church; (2) an interim body of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church; or (3) a program office or staff department of The Episcopal Church.

More information on Constable Fund application requirements and the application forms are available in English here and in Spanish here.

The 2021 Constable Fund grants totaled $213,596, distributed among six recipients. Grants ranged from $2,500 to $55,302.

Read more here (in English and Spanish).

[The Episcopal Church] The Episcopal Church offers grants each year to assist with young adult and campus ministries throughout the church. This is a three-step process that includes discernment and planning, writing the application, and online submission. This process is designed to help you discern where and how God is calling your community to serve young adults and whether now is the right time to apply for a grant. We hope this process is an invitation for you and your community to consider how The Episcopal Church can minister with young adults on and off college campuses (including community colleges and tribal college campuses, non-traditional degree programs), in the military, and those who are not in college.

Applications are now open until November 1, 2021. Application documents, information and links are here.

A Q&A webinar about the application process will be held on Monday, October 15 at 12 p.m. Pt (3 p.m. ET). To participate, register here.

[Episcopal Migration Ministries] The fourth annual Border & Migration Ministry Summit, co-hosted by Episcopal Migration Ministries and the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, will be postponed until March 2022.

The work of migration ministry is not without its challenges. The situations our migration ministries respond to can change unpredictably and crucial opportunities to serve our neighbors rarely arrive with much advance warning. In the midst of finalizing conference details for the 2021 Summit, EMM began working diligently to assist arriving Afghan individuals and families through our network of affiliates across the country.

Around the same time, the Immigration & Refugee Ministries of the Diocese of West Texas began responding to the crisis in Del Rio and are providing humanitarian aid to the displaced Haitians traveling through their diocese to family and sponsors throughout the U.S. These humanitarian crises require significant staff attention and time, limiting the co-hosts’ ability to provide the conference originally planned.

After much discussion and in order to honor our excellent keynote speakers, workshop leaders, panel members, and attendees with a fully developed conference, the fourth annual Border & Migration Ministry Summit will now take place March 30 – 31, 2022. To receive conference and registration information in the new year, sign up for EMM’s newsletter.

Is your congregation or ministry applying for a 2022 United Thank Offering grant?

Learn helpful hints on the application and budget process at one of two informational webinars on Monday, Oct. 26, at 9 a.m. PT (12 p.m. ET) or 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET).

Register for the 9 a.m. webinar here. Register for the 4 p.m. webinar here.

Additional webinars will be held in November and January.

Grant application deadline is Feb. 4, 2022.

Every penny given to the United Thank Offering is distributed annually in grant funding to missions and ministries seeking to live Jesus’ way of love. More than $140 million has been awarded to more than 5,300 projects since UTO began in 1880, supporting staff positions, conferences, creation of educational resources, building projects, and much more. Learn more and support UTO here.

Learn more about UTO grant applications here.

We are becoming a new and re-formed church,

the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement —

individuals, small gathered communities and congregations whose way of life is the way of Jesus and his way of love,

By God’s grace …

… WE ARE BECOMING A CHURCH THAT LOOKS AND ACTS LIKE JESUS.

What does this re-formation look like in practice?

We’ll know we’re moving forward when we …

Learn more here.

[Office of Public Affairs – September 24, 2021] Responding to a hunger for deeper discipleship among Episcopal congregations, creators of the My Way of Love initiative announce an upcoming new spiritual journey guide, video and other materials designed for small groups.

“My Way of Love for Small Groups” expands on the individualized spiritual journey laid out in My Way of Love and offers step-by-step guidance, scriptures, prayers, and reflections for nine weekly group gatherings. The resources will be available in early October; a sample can be found here.

Read more here.

[The Episcopal Church – September 28, 2021] U.S.-based Episcopalians interested in helping with voter engagement for the 2022 midterm elections are invited to participate in a new program that was launched Sept. 28, on National Voter Registration Day.

Volunteers in the new Episcopal Election Activators program will work with the Office of Government Relations of The Episcopal Church over the next year to promote and facilitate local, non-partisan voter engagement efforts. Activators will meet regularly to develop and implement strategies, share stories, and build a network across the country to help increase voter turnout and encourage others to take on a greater role in the elections.

Read more here.

[The Episcopal Church – September 15, 2021] Registration for exhibit space at the 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church is now open to all organizations and vendors. This triennial event is scheduled for July 7–14, 2022, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Space is limited, and over half of the floor plan has been reserved.

The General Convention is the largest gathering of Episcopalians from across the church, domestically and abroad. With hundreds of bishops and elected lay and ordained deputies, plus many volunteers, guests, and other visitors also participating, exhibitors can expect thousands of people to pass through the exhibit area.

Exhibits will open at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, and run daily through 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12.

Read more here. Pictured above: Deputy Kathryn Nishibayashi and Alternate Deputy Marjorie Cooley prowl the Exhibit Hall at the 2018 General Convention in Austin, Texas. Photo: Janet Kawamoto

[Episcopal Church Foundation – September 9, 2021] The Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) is excited to announce a new low-cost self-service subscription site, www.ECF360.org, featuring a variety of new templated and downloadable resources for annual giving/stewardship, capital campaigns and planned giving. ECF will continue to expand and enhance all of these self-service tools in the months to come.

The Annual and Capital Campaign resources are a part of Episcopal Stewardship Navigator, a site created by a new collaboration between ECF and the Presbyterian Foundation. Planned Giving tools were developed from ECF’s popular online resources for Planned Giving on Demand which are all now included in this new comprehensive site.

The new site includes many downloadable templates of letters, spreadsheets and resources for conducting various types of Annual Giving campaigns and several resources to enable successful year-long Stewardship efforts such as narrative budgeting, calendar guidelines, document storage and much more.

The site also contains a new step-by-step, self-guided process for conducting a full capital campaign based on ECF’s time-tested three stage method, Discern/Study/Ask, that has been used in hundreds of Episcopal parishes and entities across the country. The new site guides users through considering if they should seek a professional consultant or use the new process and downloadable tools for conducting a full capital campaign themselves.

Read more here.

[The Episcopal Church - July 13, 2021] Three new courses related to safe church policies within The Episcopal Church were released July 14, with webinars planned soon to help dioceses transition to a new learning platform. All new courses will be launched to create a new program called Safe Church, Safe Communities.

Developed by the Task Force to Develop Model Sexual Harassment Policies and Safe Church Training in partnership with risk management vendor Praesidium, the new courses are “Introduction and Theological Background,” “Organizational Rules and Model Policies,” and “Abuse and Neglect.”

“Abuse and Neglect” replaces the following courses: “Meet Sam,” “It Happened to Me,” “Keeping Your Church Safe,” and “Abuse Risk Management for Volunteers.”

A train-the-trainer course will also be available live over Zoom and in person in November, according to Judith Andrews, chair of the task force. In addition, the following courses will be added to Praesidium Academy by the end of 2021:

The new learning modules reflect policies approved by The Episcopal Church in 2017 for the protection of children, youth, and vulnerable adults. Learn more here.

Read more here.

From Canon Andy Tomat, treasurer of the Diocese of Los Angeles:

The diocese and its churches and institutions are covered under The Episcopal Church’s group 501c3 tax-exemption, however only the national church can issue a letter attesting that a local parish falls under the group exemption. Rectors in need of such documentation for legal or donor purposes are asked to contact the finance office at finance@ladiocese.org and include the parish's legal name, address and TaxID/EIN to secure this letter. Letters are typically received within a month. Mission churches are covered as part of the diocese.

[FEMA] The COVID-19 pandemic has brought overwhelming grief to many families. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is dedicated to helping ease some of the financial stress and burden caused by the virus.

Under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, FEMA is providing financial assistance for COVID-19 -related funeral expenses incurred after January 20, 2020.

COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Line: 844.684.6333 | TTY: 800.462.7585

Hours of operation: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

For more information about this assistance, visit COVID-19 Funeral Assistance. Get answers to frequently asked questions about the application process on FEMA’s Funeral Assistance FAQ page. Or watch the video, "Providing Financial Assistance for COVID-19-Related Funeral Expenses."

A flyer with information about FEMA's COVID-19 funeral reimbursement program in Spanish is here.

Un volante con información sobre el programa de reembolso de funerales COVID-19 de FEMA en español está aquí.

h/t Ken Higginbotham and the Rev. Antonio Gallardo

TENS (The Episcopal Network for Stewardship) has launched its 2021 stewardship materials under the theme "Every Perfect Gift," adapted from the letter of James: "Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above" (James 1:17).

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles (EDLA) is a member of TENS, and therefore all its congregations have access to the organization's stewardship campaign materials for 2021.

The resources are on the TENS website here. To start the process, click on "Login to download" and enter the password, which for 2021 is James1:17 (case sensitive).

TENS offers webinars throughout the year to vestries, stewardship committees, dioceses, and provinces to help prepare lay and clergy stewardship leaders for pledge campaigns and to talk about year-round stewardship. To sign up to receive notifications as soon as TENS releases a new event, register here. Recordings of previous webinars and events and information about upcoming events are here.

A Safe Return FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page has been posted on the diocesan website. If you have questions about how to cope with the pandemic in your congregation or institution, please check the FAQ page for answers.

La página de preguntas frecuentes sobre devolución segura está disponible en español aquí.

CISA Houses of Worship Security Self-Assessment Tool from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a branch of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). More resources are available on the Faith Based Organization-Houses of Worship (FBO-HOW) page here.

Essential DPSS, a website giving essential information and resources for individuals and families who need assistance, from the Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services (DPSS)

Episcopal Relief & Development pandemic resources for churches in English and Spanish

Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union COVID-19 emergency cash fund to assist churches and other institutions of the diocese (in English and Spanish)

By John Harvey Taylor

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. The global health crisis has affected the life of each member of our diocesan family – each of us, and all our neighbors. You are all in my prayers daily as you continue to devote yourself to the work of the gospel. Each day, I know, you are caring for yourselves and those you love, serving your neighbor and those most at risk, and continuing to support your church family by praying, worshiping, reaching out to those who are most isolated, and remembering to send in your generous pledge. Read more here.

"Join us in prayer and action. Help us be there in times of uncertainty. Your gift enables us to prepare for emergencies around the world — including the recent outbreak of the coronavirus. With your help, we can equip our partners on the ground with crucial support to assist local communities and meet the changing needs as this crisis unfolds." Click here to contribute.

Please note that the old diocesan post office box has been closed and will no longer receive mail. Please use the street address for mail addressed to offices at St. Paul's Commons (formerly The Cathedral Center): 840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles 90026. Mail addressed to the post office box will be returned to sender.

Any congregation seeking to add an online giving feature to its website can begin by reviewing and comparing available options such as the following which are among various systems in use around the Diocese of Los Angeles and wider church. The following list is only a sampling and comes with no official endorsement by the diocese. Additions to this list are welcomed and may be forwarded to media@ladiocese.org.

Vanco — Fees are said to be reasonable and an app is available for donors to download. Interfaces with CDM database. Can be viewed in place on website of St. James’, Los Angeles.

Square (Cash App)

Givify - As used by All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Vista, Calif. (Diocese of San Diego)

See also 5 of the Best Church Online Giving Platforms

Featuring Tithe.ly, EasyTithe, Givelify, PayPal, Pushpay.

If your congregation is live-streaming services on Facebook, YouTube or other social media, please send us a note and let us know:

Send listings to news@ladiocese.org. They will be included in a page on the diocesan website for the benefit of all who wish to take part in worship.

In addition, The Episcopal Church has launched a Digital Church Guide. You can upload your service information here. You also can add this information to the Episcopal Asset Map (click here.) More information about both these resources is here.

The bank used by the diocese will only accept checks made out to “The Protestant Episcopal Church” or “Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.” Checks may no longer be made to Treasurer of the Diocese, etc. This is due to the Bank Secrecy Act and accompanying regulations ("Anti-Money Laundering rules").

Resource Roundup, a weekly publication for clergy, wardens, church office staff and lay leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, is emailed on Tuesdays. Items for inclusion may be sent to news@ladiocese.org by noon on Monday.