A message from your Region Leadership Team:

Your Southwest Region Leadership Team has begun work to bring shape to our common work and is making a few changes.

First: The regular newsletter will be a collaborative effort of the team as well as points of contact from individual parishes (POCs). Deacon Don Burr will work to farm newsletter content and draft the monthly publication with Erendira.

Second: Plans are in the works for a summer picnic/BBQ and Region Convocation on June 13 (10am thru 2-pm) at Sherwood Island State Park. Details will follow, yet we are looking at a great summer venue; and we are excited to announce plans soon.

Third: One of the best way to drive folks toward participation in events around the Region is to post them here:   https://www.episcopalct.org/Events/SubmitEvent.aspx Please consider adding the events your parish seeks to share them with others beyond your doors.

IMPORTANT DATES

March 12th, 6pm - SW RLT Meeting, Zoom

April 16th, 7pm - SW RLT Meeting, location TBD

April 18th - ECCT Spring Training

June 13th, 10am-2pm, SW Region Convocation Cookout @ Sherwood Island State Park

REGIONAL PHOTO ROUND-UP

Annual Meeting @ St. James, Danbury

Trinity, Nichols; Christ Church and Grace, Trumbull

Erendira's visit @ St. Peter's, Monroe

Children at the Table for Eucharist

@ Trinity, Southport

Erendira's visit @ St. Paul's, Fairfield

Sending of the Washington, D.C. Mission Team @ St. Matthew's, Wilton

ECCT SW Coffee in the Community

Welcoming the newly Baptized @

Christ & Holy Trinity, Westport

St. Paul's on the Green, Norwalk

welcomes Provisional Priest-in-Charge,

the Reverend Daniel Simons

Former Presiding Bishop Griswold

@ St. Mark's, New Canaan

Yoga Mass @ St. John's, Stamford

ECCT SW Laundry Love @ Mission Conference

This year, the ECCT Mission Conference will take place in at St. Paul's, Riverside (part of Greenwich) so it will be extra easy to get there. The March 7 conference will feature one of the featured ministries will be a ministry of several parishes of the Southwest Region. Laundry Love (the ECCT SW Region chapter) has just completed a second year.

Representatives of St. Mark's, New Canaan, St. Luke's, Darien, St. Paul's on the Green, Norwalk, and Christ Church, East Norwalk gather on the first Wednesday of each month to meet at Giant Laundry in East Norwalk to provide laundry resources for neighbors.

All are encouraged to attend this informative and inspiring annual event ECCT MIssion Conference and you may read a 2018 CRUZ article about Laundry Love here: Laundry Love CRUX 2018

Ministry Networks and Region News

Erendira's Column

Friends,

As you've seen above it has been a busy few months continuing to get to know you and your parishes more deeply. These last few months it has become clear to me how important it is to build strong relational foundations before we can begin the work of building a more collaborative Region. Knowing ourselves, knowing we are Beloved, is a prerequisite for becoming a community that enacts God's justice and liberation in the world. We can readily proclaim as true that which we have experienced in our own bodies.

As we enter into this Lenten season I would invite you to bring to God those parts of yourselves, both individual and communal, that keep you from relationship with your neighbors. It may be uncertainty about how to meet new people, fear of how to move forward in the face of difference, or even not trusting in your own Belovedness. Whatever it is, this is the time to place it before God so that it can be refined in the stillness of Lent. Whatever we bring to God in this season is promised to be brought to new life come Easter!

I hold you all in my prayers as we enter this season of fasting and repentance and deep transformation together.

Faithfully,

Erendira

Images from the November 16-17, 2019 Pilgrimage to the Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

Be on the lookout for details of the next trip...

Your RM has already been out preaching at our churches! To know where she’ll be on a Sunday check out her schedule below. Feel free to join on a Sunday and get to know another church in your neighborhood while you’re at it!

Join Erendira out in the community to share stories of what inspires you, challenges you, reveals God to you. Ask me questions about the SW Region or about what my work is (full disclosure: I'm still figuring it out). Brainstorm a new idea about church with me. Drop in or stay a while for conversation. Coffee or a drink is on me!

Due to new calls and self care calendar adjustments, we’re still looking for a few folks to join the team. Do you believe collaborative efforts among parishes and common ministry networks will continue to build the Region? If you do, p lease consider being part of the Southwest Region Leadership Team.

To learn more about what it means to be part of the team or if you would like to join, please contact Erendira [email protected]

Who Needs to Know About YOUR PARISH Events?

Ministry networks and parishes, if you’d like to have an upcoming event or update on what your group or community is doing in your neighborhoods please send a brief description to Don Burr [email protected] who will need it by the 22nd of the month to be included in the next month’s newsletter. This is a great way to invite folks from other parishes to collaborate with you, whether it’s worship, community events, or justice ministries. Let’s get the word out!

And, here's a surefire way to ensure ECCT folks know about your parish events. Erendira has crafted this nifty image which shows you how to add events to the ECCT and SW Region common calendars. Check out how simple it is!