These webinars are offerings of the Episcopal Parish Network to the church.
They are presented at no-cost, but registration is required.
Category: Changing Church/ Strategic Leadership
Tomorrow’s Priest, Today’s Leader: The State of the Seminarian
Monday, December 15 at 3:00pm ET
Every current rector and lay leader will one day serve as mentor, colleague, or employer to a newly ordained priest. Are you and your parish ready to meet the next generation where they are?
Today’s seminarians are arriving with new perspectives—shaped by diverse backgrounds, cultural shifts, and distinct professional expectations that influence how they see parish life and leadership. Understanding them now is key to helping them—and your parish—thrive.
Join us for an insightful conversation with seminarians from across the Episcopal Church as they share their experiences, hopes, and challenges in preparing for ministry. Hear firsthand what inspires and concerns them, and learn how you can better support their formation as faithful, adaptive, and resilient leaders.
This session will help you:
- Anticipate emerging needs – Understand the hopes, fears, and questions shaping the next generation of priests.
- Guide with clarity – Learn where assumptions about parish life may need gentle redirection.
- Mentor for longevity – Discover ways to foster growth that strengthens both vocation and community.
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with the Church’s future leaders and gain practical insights for your own ministry and mentoring.
Presented By:
- Josh House – 3rd Year Seminarian, Virginia Theological Seminary; Alexandria, Virginia
- Adelle Dennis – 3rd Year Seminarian, The School of Theology, The University of the South; Sewanee, Tennessee
- Nick Gordon – 2nd Year Seminarian, Berkeley Divinity School, Yale University; New Haven, Connecticut
- Weston Curnow – 2nd Year Seminarian, Duke Divinity School; Durham, North Carolina (moderator)
Category: Liturgy
Room to Breathe: An Advent Pause for the Soul with the O Antiphons
Tuesday, December 16 at 3:00pm ET
As church people, Advent often arrives carrying both beauty and pressure. Liturgy must be shaped, music planned, sermons prepared. In religious orders, the days just before Christmas are traditionally marked by praying the O Antiphons. These ancient texts, traditionally sung before and after the Magnificat at evening prayer, invite a more intimate encounter with Advent by naming and addressing the One who is coming.
Whether your Advent has unfolded in a rush or in quietness, we offer this time as a chance to refocus and begin to think about the arrival of Christmas in a different way. So much of our attention in these days is drawn to outward preparations: trimming the tree, planning meals, finding or making the perfect gifts. All of these carry meaning, yet they can sometimes eclipse the care of our own spiritual lives.
As members of a religious order, we invite you into a pause: a gentle space to renew your spiritual reserves and tend the interior work that Advent asks of us. Give yourself a late-Advent gift by joining us to explore the O Antiphons and the images of Jesus they reveal.
May this be a moment of stillness, depth, and quiet joy before Christmas arrives.
Presented By:
- Kristina Frances – Superior, Society of St. Margaret
- David Bryan Hoopes – Sacristan, Order of the Holy Cross
