00:09:47 Episcopal Parish Network: Good afternoon and welcome! Thanks for joining us for this conversation about turning the energy of Easter Sunday into lasting connection and discipleship today. EPN is pleased to host this conversation. We invite you to put your name, parish name, and location in the CHAT for the benefit of our panelists. Please know we recognize that the experiences discussed in this webinar might not represent the breadth of experiences in all churches. However, we hope you garner insights that will spark conversation within your teams and leadership groups. 00:09:50 Episcopal Parish Network: We ask that you post your questions or comments in the CHAT feature here and our panel will try to get to them throughout the session. This session will last for about an hour. If you have to leave early, we are recording it and will send the recording and the PowerPoints to everyone registered for this session in the next couple of days. If your parish is not a member of Episcopal Parish Network, we invite you to join our work. Our 240+ members make programs like this one possible. More about membership can be learned by emailing us at info@episcopalparishes.org or https://episcopalparishes.org/epn-members. 00:10:47 Kipton Moravec: Kipton Moravec St Philips Episcopal Church, Beulah MI 00:11:07 Jennifer Bousquet: Jennifer Bousquet, St Stephen's Episcopal Church, Richmond, VA 00:11:08 Tracy Wells Miller: Hi everyone - Mother Tracy Wells Miller here from Zion Episcopal Church in Morris, NY (1.5 hrs southwest of Albany) 00:11:36 Calvert Prentis: Calvert Prentis, Sub Dean. Bermuda Cathderal 00:11:38 Mary Hultquist: Mary Hultquist, St David of Wales Episcopal Church, Portland, OR 00:11:43 Anne Abdy: Rev. Anne Abdy - Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Wilmington, NC, 00:11:50 James Yazell: James Yazell, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City, MO 00:11:52 Meg Olive-Allison: Meg Olive-Allison, St. Thomas Episcopal Church Columbus, GA 00:11:52 William Jordan: Bill Jordan, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church - Capitol Hill, Washington, DC 00:11:58 Margaret McCue: Margaret McCue, St David of Wales, Portland OR 00:11:58 Anne Abdy: Hi Nate!!!! Good to see you! 00:12:04 Stephanie Graham: Stephanie G. All Saints Sharon Chapel 00:12:05 Episcopal Parish Network: For those who just joined, we're glad you're here. Please post your questions or comments in the CHAT. Also, if you just joined, please post your name and parish/location in the CHAT! 00:12:06 Kirsten Radivoyevitch: Kirsten Radivoyevitch at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights , OH 00:12:10 Colleen Fitzgerald: Colleen Fitzgerald, Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan 00:12:11 Mike Gee: Mike Gee, St. Stephen's Episcopal, Orinda, CA 00:12:12 Denise Caywood: Warm greetings, Friends! Denise Caywood from St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Akron, OH. Diocese of Ohio 00:12:16 Liz McCarthy: Community coordinator Duffy and Asst. Treasurer Liz signing on from Emmanuel church of Newport RI! 00:12:18 Warren Leibovitch: Hi, I'm an AI assistant helping Warren Leibovitch take notes for this meeting. Follow along the transcript here: https://otter.ai/u/g1aIl7xWC1u3h6rkmZf4TUcmvPw?utm_source=va_chat_link_1 You can see screenshots and add highlights and comments. After the meeting, you'll get a summary and action items. If you'd like to stop this recording, you can go to the link above and click the Stop button. If you'd like to stop the recordings for all Otter Notetakers in this meeting, you can type "otter stop" in Zoom chat. 00:12:21 Rev. Valerie Davis: Deacon Valerie Davis St. Martin’s, Charlotte, NC 00:12:23 Tom Hancock: Tom Hancock, Senior Warden, St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, Ellsworth ME 00:12:23 Rebecca Eddy: Rebecca Eddy, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, NYC 00:12:30 Michelle Woods: Michelle, Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento 00:12:33 Zibby Perkins: Elizabeth Perkins, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Canaan, CT 00:12:37 Bill Mills-Curran: Bill Mills-Curran, St. Andrew's, Framingham, MA 00:12:41 Arthur Garno: The Very Rev. Art Garno, St. Peter's Church Hobart and St. John's Delhi NY. Diocese of Albany! 00:12:44 Tracy Wells Miller: Woo hoo! YSR! 00:12:45 Forrest Rodgers: Forrest Rodgers sending greetings from St Francis Episcopal Church in Moab UT 00:12:45 Jonathan Chesney: Jonathan Chesney, Church of the Holy Communion, Memphis, but soon to be at Church of the Holy Cross, Valle Crucis, NC. 00:12:52 Anne Abdy: Rob - Good to see you too!!! 00:12:56 Terrence Walcott: Terrence Walcott, St. Bartholomew's, Cambridge Ma. 00:12:59 Danielle Allen: Danielle A, Senior Warden at Episcopal Church of the Ascension Gaithersburg, MD 00:13:03 Melinda Bobo: Melinda Bobo, Trinity Episcopal Church, Lander, Wyoming 00:13:08 Elizabeth Wilcox: Liz W. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Church Delta CO 00:13:13 Paul Martin: Paul Martin, Grace Church, Alvin, TX 00:13:16 Jennifer Myers: Jennifer Myers, Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento 00:13:16 Edward Woodall: Edward Woodall, of St. Martin's, Charlotte, NC 00:13:17 Curry Brinson: Hi all, I’m Curry Brinson from St. Bart’s in NYC 00:13:18 Liska Stefko: Liska Stefko, Church of the Redeemer, Diocese of Toronto 00:13:36 Emily Rowell: Emily Rowell Brown, Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, AL 00:14:00 Harriet Sturgeon: Harriet Sturgeon, Grace Episcopal Church Alvin, TX 00:14:20 Logan Lovelace: Logan Lovelace, St. Mary's-St. Stephen's Morganton, NC 00:14:35 Barb Burns-Briggs: Barb Burns-Briggs, St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Lansing, MI 00:14:45 Natalee Hill: Natalee Hill, St. David's Church, Wayne, PA 00:15:01 Edwin Foster: Hello everyone. Edwin Foster, Jr. Warden at St..John's, Hollywood, Florida 00:15:21 Anne Abdy: Cameron, good to see you too!!! 00:15:44 Michelle Lane: Michelle Lane Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. Tequesta FL 00:16:02 Rob Kuhlenschmidt: Rob Kuhlenschmidt, Senior Warden -- St John's Hollywood FL 00:16:24 Elizabeth Molitors: Elizabeth Molitors, Rector, Trinity, Santa Barbara 00:16:30 Caitlin Frazier: Caitlin Frazier, St. Mark’s Capitol Hill in Washington DC 00:16:53 Margie Bangs: Margie Bangs, Senior Warden, Emmanuel Parish, Eastsound, WA 00:17:33 Jane Weyers: Jane Weyers, St. David of Wales in Portland, OR 00:18:06 Theresa Howell: Theresa Howell, St. Bartholomew's Church, Cambridge MA 00:19:03 GARY LANDRIO: Gary Landrio, Trinity Church, Potsdam, NY 00:21:02 Tom Hancock: We just had DHS security webinar...different message about locked doors. 00:23:23 Matthew McDermott: Matt McDermott, Christ Church, Portola Valley 00:25:56 Mary Ludwick: Tom - we just had a similar conversation in our Vestry about security 00:26:17 Mary Ludwick: Where can we get those new signs? 00:27:24 Cameron: Forward Movement would love to sell you a new one! 00:27:29 Cameron: https://signs.forwardmovement.org/?_gl=1%2A1xn7an3%2A_ga%2AOTcwMDE3NjM5LjE3NzA4MzMzMjg.%2A_ga_G1S217R9JR%2AczE3NzQ1NTI2NzMkbzIkZzAkdDE3NzQ1NTI2NzMkajYwJGwwJGgw 00:30:34 Noelani Boyd: Noelani Boyd, St. Cross, Hermosa Beach, CA 00:31:36 Fred H Johnson Jr: Fred Johnson, St Mark’s, Ft Lauderdale 00:31:47 Tracy Wells Miller: Thank you for speaking to the tension (or not) between hospitality and safety! Very much appreciate this perspective. 00:32:19 Mary Ludwick: Yes - thank you!! 00:32:52 Mary Ludwick: LOVE the button!! 00:33:39 Celeste Geldreich: I highly recommend showing your ushers/greeters the movie "Stranger at the Gate" which you can watch for free online. It's about how being welcoming transformed the attitude of someone who went to a mosque intending to do harm, but was so radically welcomed he joined the mosque! It's an incredible documentary. 00:34:12 Tracy Wells Miller: Thank you for that recommendation, Celeste!! 00:35:22 Denise Caywood: Thanks for the recommendation on the movie. 00:35:57 Jonathan Chesney: On topic of security/welcome, highly recommend the book "Open Arms, Safe Communities: The Theology of Church Security" by Jeanie Garrett, who did a lot of work on that when she was a parish admin at St. David's, Austin. 00:36:07 Natalee Hill: The comment about toilet paper and was great. Don't forget little step stools in your bathrooms to help young children and their parents with using the sinks. 00:36:44 Episcopal Parish Network: As a reminder, please post questions and comments in the CHAT feature. The panel will get to them as time permits. Thanks again for joining. 00:37:55 Tracy Wells Miller: Natalee, on that note about the kids stools — at a church I visited recently for my sister’s students’ piano recital, I noticed that they even had one of those little “small potty” inserts that you put over a regular-sized toilet seat to enable a small person to sit on it without almost falling in. (My sister has one at home for her kids.) I was like, wow, how cool that they actually had one of those in the church bathroom! 00:38:27 Tracy Wells Miller: Highly recommend Realm as a Church Management System! 00:40:05 Cara Meredith: And if parents don’t feel comfortable leaving their children, prep regular attenders to welcome children, even if they’re loud during the service. No bad looks! 00:40:10 Tracy Wells Miller: And — at a church I previously served, the person we hired to do childcare when we had no kids wound up eventually joining our church because she wound up sitting in worship all those Sundays when no kids showed up! 00:40:15 Andee Zetterbaum: Many of our Easter/Christmas "visitors" turn out to be out-of-town relatives of our members. They live way too far away to be potential members - so how do you welcome them in a way that would encourage to explore their own local Episcopal church? The "Please tell me if you're new" and newcomer packets don't apply... 00:40:35 Natalee Hill: *snaps* to that, Cara Meredith 00:41:09 Tracy Wells Miller: Good question, Andee — sometimes it can seem like the congregation doesn’t care about newcomers if they aren’t potential new members 00:42:39 Tracy Wells Miller: Like, “Oh, you don’t live here?” *person immediately loses interest and walks away* But how to encourage them to look into their own episcopal church where they DO live — good idea. Maybe just saying something about where they can look up their local Episcopal church, or, like Nate is saying, if the priest asks them where they’re from and sees if they might happen to know someone in their town 00:43:00 Lisa Petrosky: What is the name of the priest with the dark hair and beard and black suit? 00:43:43 James Yazell: Cameron Nations 00:44:52 Denise Caywood: We're challenged with getting our visitors to return. Any suggestions on following-up with visitors? 00:48:49 Whitney Altopp: Invite, Welcome, Connect has occasional webinars on setting up a system to help all interested people be engaged with new people. 00:49:52 Christopher Harris: here's an article on tips for texting first-time guests https://www.invitewelcomeconnect.com/post/3-game-changing-texts-to-turn-first-time-guests-into-regular-attendees 00:50:20 Meg Olive-Allison: On our welcome cards we started including a section that says "Would you like us to contact you" yes or no and also "Who would you like to hear from?" with options along with preferred contact method. We're getting better information and more cards as people know they have options. 00:51:48 Denise Caywood: Wonderful! Thank you 00:52:31 Michelle Woods: Any thoughts on outreach at secular community events or advertising (on-line or local/neighborhood newspapers)? 00:53:18 Barbara Mason: We've been using Invite, Welcome, Connect for 3 years at St. Michael and All Angels, Portland, OR. I'm hearing some of the ideas that we've been using. It's good to hear the affirmation of those ideas! 00:53:36 Michelle Woods: Events like festivals, parades, farmer’s makers, etc. 00:54:23 Episcopal Parish Network: For those who have to leave us early, thanks for joining today. The conversation will continue a bit longer. Please post questions and comments in the CHAT feature. The webinar is being recorded and will be available in the next day or two. You will receive a link to the recording and other materials when they post to our webinar Library at: https://episcopalparishes.org/webinar-library/ Thanks, again, to our panel for sharing this time and educating us on turning the energy of Easter Sunday into lasting connection and discipleship. We hope you found this a useful conversation. Thanks to our partners from across the Episcopal Church for participating in this important conversation. 00:54:26 Episcopal Parish Network: There are additional webinars on liturgy, technology, finances, communication, and current affairs coming up in the next few months. We hope you join us as you are available. You can see a list of upcoming webinars here: www.episcopalparishes.org/upcoming-webinars/ More webinars are added regularly. With the 2026 Annual Conference officially behind us, stay tuned for upcoming keynote recordings and a series of follow-up webinars designed to dive deeper into this year’s top insights. You can find all the latest updates and learning resources on our website at www.episcopalparishes.org. And mark your calendars for EPN 2027 in Denver, February 23-26! 00:55:27 Andee Zetterbaum: Michelle, almost all of our newcomers in the past few years either first met us at our booth at the local PRIDE festival, or came because of the lawn signs we put up the week before PRIDE. Note that it may take them MONTHS or even years before they walk in the door - but they consistently say that those are what planted the seed. 00:56:03 Michael Barham: Andee Z! 00:56:18 Meg Olive-Allison: Andee - what do your yard signs look like? 00:57:25 Cara Meredith: It’s so important to really spell things out during a service for those who are new to TEC. There are huge #s of former evangelicals hopping over to the Episcopal pond …but they don’t know to navigate the space. What does it mean to be gentle in the way we teach and lead so they can experience belonging in a new space? 00:58:28 Tracy Wells Miller: Amen, Rob, about going to people where they are!!!! 00:59:03 Fran Holliday: Something Kennon Callahan once said,”If someone comes to your church only on Easter and Christmas, they are teaching you that if they had a church it would be yours.” 00:59:15 Cameron: Absolutely! This former Baptist agrees. In addition to helping folks feel a deeper sense of belonging in a new space and with a new/unfamiliar way of worshiping, it is good to just give folks permission to not “get it right.” The point isn’t to do the “right” things, but to enter into the experience and encounter. 01:00:50 Andee Zetterbaum: The PRIDE signs we'd had for a half dozen years pretty much fell apart last year. We designed new ones that we'll be trying this year. I can't figure out how to post a copy here, but if anyone wants to see them, email me at azetterb@aol.com 01:01:17 Tracy Wells Miller: YES! My last church had church t-shirts and I loved it! 01:01:22 Whitney Altopp: I always do a simplified morning prayer service at the start of the Mother’s Day run. We focus on women and mothers. 01:01:31 Michelle Woods: Thanks for sharing Andy 01:03:33 Theresa Howell: We're seeing your email 01:03:33 Whitney Altopp: WE’re seeing your email 01:03:38 Tracy Wells Miller: We’re just seeing your Gmail inbox, Nate 01:04:32 Theresa Howell: Yes we see it now. 01:04:46 Whitney Altopp: I would love that outline, Nate!! 01:04:47 Danielle Allen: Can we get a copy so we have a place to start? 01:04:48 Denise Caywood: Would you be able to send that out? 01:04:54 Mary Ludwick: Yes please! 01:05:01 Anne Abdy: YES!!! 01:05:04 Colleen Fitzgerald: I'd like that too! 01:05:06 Ellen Cole: So this is for everyone? Not just those who are going to be confirmed? 01:05:19 Mary Ludwick: 👏🏻 01:05:22 Denise Caywood: GRRRREAT! 01:05:32 Jessica Koontz: Yes email please. 01:06:08 Anne Abdy: I don't see the email for Nate 01:06:21 Episcopal Parish Network: Nate’s email: Nathan@christchurchgeorgetown.org 01:07:09 Whitney Altopp: This was so much fun! 01:07:13 Anne Abdy: Great presentation.... 01:07:14 Episcopal Parish Network: Thank you, everyone! 01:07:15 Cynthia Marvin: thank you !! 01:07:22 Rev. Valerie Davis: Excellent session, thank you all! 01:07:23 Zachary Rugenstone: God bless 01:07:23 Mary Ludwick: THANKS!! 01:07:23 Kirsten Radivoyevitch: Thank you! 01:07:24 Theresa Howell: Thank you 01:07:24 Denise Caywood: Blessings, all