EPN 2027
The Church is stronger when it gathers. EPN 2027 is where that happens.
The work of leadership calls for clarity and commitment — and both come more readily when you are in the room with people who understand the work. EPN 2027 brings together more than 800 clergy and lay leaders in Denver for the largest annual gathering in the Episcopal Church: three days of connection, learning, networking, and inspiration designed to send you home ready for what comes next.
Hosted at the Grand Hyatt Denver, in partnership with St. John’s Cathedral Denver, Church of the Ascension Denver, and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church Colorado Springs, EPN 2027 will bring leaders from across the Church together for a dynamic and collaborative experience.
The Church is shaped in moments of gathering, but it is sustained in what happens when we return. EPN is designed to support both.
Join us in Denver. February 23–26, 2027. Where the Church gathers.
Hosted By
EPN 2027
Main Stage Conversation: Wednesday, February 24 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Leading Through Change: Faith, Adaptation, and the Church’s Future
For more than forty years, Episcopal Parish Network has gathered leaders from across the Church to learn from one another, build lasting relationships, and return home better equipped to serve their congregations and communities.
Next February, that tradition continues with what promises to be an extraordinary conversation. EPN is honored to announce that Ron Heifetz, one of the world’s foremost leadership thinkers and the architect of adaptive leadership, will join Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe for the opening keynote conversation at EPN 2027.
Few individuals have influenced leadership in the Episcopal Church as profoundly as Ron. His work has helped generations of bishops, clergy, and lay leaders understand how faithful leadership differs from simply solving problems—how communities can grow through change, navigate uncertainty, and discover new possibilities together.
For more than three decades, adaptive leadership has shaped the language and practice of leadership throughout our Church. Now, the person who developed that framework will join us in Denver for a conversation about the opportunities and challenges facing those in ministry today.
Ron’s participation extends well beyond the keynote. During his time at EPN, he will also spend extended time with our Rectors & Deans and Canons to the Ordinary during their pre-conferences, creating opportunities for deeper engagement with leaders from across the Episcopal Church.
Speakers:
The Most Rev. Sean Rowe
28th Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church
Biography
Ron Heifetz
King Hussein bin Talal Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership
Harvard Kennedy School
Biography
Main Stage Conversation: Wednesday, February 24 | 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Courage, Belonging, and the Church’s Public Witness
What does courageous Christian leadership look like in a world reshaped by questions of belonging, identity, justice, and faith?
At EPN 2027 Denver, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford in the Church of England, joins EPN member the Very Rev. Winnie Varghese, Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, for a Main Stage conversation on faithful leadership and the Church’s witness in a changing world.
Their journeys are distinct, but both have shaped how they understand faith, leadership, and the Church’s place in public life. Together, they’ll explore what this moment asks of Christian leaders—and how the Church can respond with courage, hope, and a compelling witness to the Gospel.
Two Leaders. Distinctive Journeys.
Born in Iran, Bishop Guli came to the United Kingdom as a refugee at age 14. She studied music and worked for the BBC before entering ordained ministry, becoming the first Bishop of Loughborough in 2017 and Bishop of Chelmsford in 2021. Her ministry has been shaped by questions of displacement, belonging, and faith across cultures. She holds a doctorate in theology and cross-cultural mission and has authored several books; her most recent, Listening to the Music of the Soul, was the Archbishop of York’s 2025 Advent Book.
Dean Winnie Varghese is the 12th Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. She previously led two EPN member parishes—St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta and St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in New York—building a reputation as one of the Church’s most direct voices on faith, justice, and public life. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary, she is the author of One Single Act: Gestures of Kindness, Compassion, and Courage That Change Us and the World.
Speakers:
The Rt. Rev. Guli Francis-Dehqani
Bishop, Diocese of Chelmsford
Church of England
Biography
The Very Rev. Winnie Varghese
Dean, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
New York, NY
Biography
Main Stage Conversation: Thursday, February 25 | 11:00am – 12:00pm
Faith, Service, and the Common Good
What holds us together? What do we owe one another? And what does faithful leadership look like in a divided society?
These are urgent questions for our nation—and for the Church.
On Thursday, February 25, EPN 2027 brings two remarkable leaders to the Main Stage in Denver for a conversation about faith, public service, democracy, and our shared responsibility for the common good.
Theodore R. “Ted” Johnson—scholar, author, Washington Post columnist, and retired U.S. Navy commander—joins Linda Etim, whose career has taken her from international humanitarian work and the White House to a new calling toward ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church.
Together, they will explore what holds communities together across difference, how our deepest values shape our engagement in public life, and what faith asks of those seeking to serve others in a fractured world.
This is a conversation about the challenges before us—but also about the possibilities.
Two Leaders. Lives Shaped by Service.
Ted Johnson has spent his career examining some of the most consequential questions facing American life: race and democracy, belonging and national identity, and the bonds that allow a diverse people to imagine a future together.
A retired U.S. Navy commander, Ted served for two decades in the military, including as a White House Fellow and speechwriter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Today, he is a senior fellow in Democratic Futures at New America, leads the Us@250 initiative, and is a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. He is the author of When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America and If We Are Brave: Essays from Black Americana.
Linda Etim has spent nearly two decades putting public service into practice. Her career has spanned global development, foreign policy, human rights, and humanitarian response. She led global development for the Biden-Harris presidential transition and served as President Biden’s first White House Senior Director for Development, Global Health, and Humanitarian Response, following leadership roles at USAID, the National Security Council, and the Gates Foundation.
Then came another call.
After years of public and humanitarian service, Linda began preparing for ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church. A candidate for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, she is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary, with a focus on social justice and chaplaincy.
Two distinctive journeys. One shared conviction that our lives can be given in service to something larger than ourselves.
Speakers:
Ted Johnson
Author, Scholar, Veteran
The Washington Post
Biography
Linda Etim
Candidate for Holy Orders
Episcopal Diocese of New York
Biography
Main Stage Conversation: Friday, February 26 | 9:00 – 10:00am
Seeking. Belonging. Becoming.
Young people are still searching for meaning, belonging, purpose, and something larger than themselves.
They’re just not convinced they’ll find it in the Church.
On Friday, February 26, theologian and author Professor Andrew Root joins the Rev. Stanford Adams, Rector of Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, for an EPN 2027 Main Stage Conversation about young adults, secular culture, institutional distrust—and how the Church might invite a new generation to encounter the Gospel.
This won’t be a conversation about getting young people back into pews simply to preserve the Church we already have.
It will be about something much more interesting: How does the Church evolve its engagement for the sake of the Gospel—not simply for the sake of keeping our institutions going?
From Secular to Sacred
Few scholars have spent more time thinking about this question than Andy Root.
Professor and Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, Andy is one of the leading scholars working at the intersection of young people, faith, ministry, and our increasingly secular culture. He is the author of more than 30 books, including the six-volume Ministry in a Secular Age series, and his scholarship explores what happens to faith when belief is no longer assumed—and how ministry can create space for people to encounter God in that world.
Andy brings theological depth to a question confronting congregations everywhere: If young people are skeptical of institutions but still searching for meaning and transcendence, how might the Church invite them to explore the sacred?
And what needs to change for them to believe that invitation is worth accepting?
Putting the Questions into Practice
Stanford brings another perspective to the conversation.
As Rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Austin, he leads a growing, multigenerational congregation with two campuses in one of the country’s fastest-changing cities. He and Good Shepherd are actively exploring new ways of reaching people—particularly younger generations and those who are disengaged from institutional religion.
Together, Andy and Stanford will wrestle with some uncomfortable—and exciting—questions.
Why do younger generations distrust institutions? What are they actually seeking? Where are they finding meaning, belonging, and transcendence outside the Church? What might draw them toward Christian community? And what does the Church need to rethink if we want to meet them there?
This isn’t about chasing the latest strategy or dressing up what we’ve always done in something new.
And it certainly isn’t about idolizing the Church as it has been.
It is about asking how Scripture and sacrament, worship and prayer, community and service can speak authentically to people who may know very little about the Church—or have already decided it has little to offer them.
Our roots matter. But being rooted in the Gospel should give us the courage to grow.
That is the conversation Andy Root and Stanford Adams are bringing to Denver.
Speakers:
Stanford Adams
Rector,Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd
Austin, Texas
Biography
Andrew Root, PhD
Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry
St. Paul, Minnesota
Biography
Main Stage Conversation: Friday, February 26 | 11:00am – 12:00pm
Bringing It All Together: Four Conversations. One Final Reflection.
On Friday, February 26, the Very Rev. Dr. Gabrielle Thomas, Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, will take the Main Stage to close EPN 2027.
After 4 Smart Starts, 9 Pre-Conferences, 4 Main Stage Conversations, 30 workshops, bonus sessions, and countless conversations, Gabby will help us bring it all together, placing what we have heard and experienced in Denver within the deeper story of Christian faith and tradition.
Drawing on the questions that have shaped our Main Stage, she will help us consider what faithful leadership asks of us now: how we lead through change, practice courage and belonging, seek the common good, and invite new generations into a life of faith. And she will ask one final question: What does the Christian tradition have to say to this moment, and what does it ask of us?
It will be a fitting close to four days together: a chance to gather what we have learned, consider what we will carry home, and leave Denver ready for what comes next.
Connecting the Ancient to the Present
Gabby is a historical theologian whose scholarship brings ancient Christian thought into conversation with the questions facing the Church now. Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, she is the author of several books, including For the Good of the Church: Unity, Theology, & Women. Her current work, I Renounce Satan and All His Works, explores what an ancient baptismal promise might mean for Christian life today.
Before Yale, Gabby taught Early Christianity and Anglican Studies at Emory University, served as Theologian-in-Community at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, and spent nearly a decade on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Theological Reflection Group.
She brings the depth of Christian tradition to a question at the heart of EPN 2027: What wisdom can we recover from those who came before us to help us lead the Church faithfully now?
Speaker:
Join Us in Denver
EPN 2027 will bring together more than 800 clergy and lay leaders for four days of learning, worship, conversation, and practical ministry.
Participants will experience:
• Five nationally recognized keynote conversations
• Nine role-based pre-conferences
• Practical workshops
• Worship at St. John’s Cathedral
• More than 80 ministry partners and exhibitors
• Meaningful conversations with colleagues from across the Church
Registration Opens October 14, 2026
February 23–26, 2027
Grand Hyatt Denver
St. John’s Cathedral
Denver, Colorado
