Tag Archives: forward movement blog

ICYMI: Week of 11/11/16

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Welcome back to In Case You Missed It, a.k.a. ICYMI, our weekly blog roundup of the latest stories around the @fwd_mvt and #Episcopal world. Here are some of the topics that captured our attention this week.

We opened the week with a question inspired by one of our Advent resources, a new book of themed meditations by Christine McSpadden.

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We love the open-ended nature of this one. What are you waiting for?

You can get What Are You Waiting For (the book) here. NB: To receive it or any of Forward Movement’s Advent resources for the start of the season, order by Friday, November 18.

Of course, using digital resources buys you some extra time. And one of our favorites is our new Journey through Advent app. Designed for use on its own or as a companion to our calendar, it features colorable cartoons drawn by Jay Sidebotham, daily readings and more.

Journey through Advent

You can also find many additional Advent resources in this big list on ECF Vital Practices.

In this intense election week, many resources in the #Episcopal community focused on the power of prayer, both before and after Election Day. In Forward Today, Scott offered a bit of both: a letter written before the results, to be shared after they came in. It highlighted what we as Christians could learn from this contentious time, no matter how it turned out. An excerpt:

It’s time for us to stop decrying our division and to start doing something about it. That will take a different form for each person and each community. What will you do? What do you hope others will do? For now, let us pray.

Here is Scott’s full letter.

Speaking of prayer, we leave you with the final offering of Forward Movement’s A Season of Prayer: For an Election.

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Amen. Have a peaceful weekend.

ICYMI: Week of 11/4/16

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Welcome back to In Case You Missed It, a.k.a. ICYMI, our weekly blog roundup of the latest stories around the @fwd_mvt and #Episcopal world. Here are some of the topics that captured our attention this week.

This week marked a famed triduum in the Church: All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and last but not least: All Brackets’ Day. That’s right: Lent Madness is here! OK, we have juuust a few more days until Lent. But the brackets are here, and you can now see who will be facing off in the Battle of the Bands (Fanny Crosby vs. G.F. Handel), the Clash of the Consonants (Joseph Schereschewsky vs. Nikolaus von Zinzendorf) and many more matchups.

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You can also pre-order the 2017 Saintly Scorecard and Bracket Poster–perfect for your church, home, or the saintly location of your choosing.

On a more serious triduum note, we loved what #GrowChristians editor Nurya Love Parish wrote for All Saints’ Day, drawing a connection between cross-country season and “life’s relay race.” A quote:

“Running cross-country initiates you into a tribe with new language and measurements of success. What matters most is if you set a PR (personal record); what matters next is how the whole XC (cross-country) team is faring. The novel language and concepts remind me of my conversion. When I became an Episcopalian, there were plenty of new words and acronyms (vestry, piscina, ECW). And there were new measurements of success: what do you mean, Jesus, when you say the last shall be first?”

Some other fun news for the #GrowChristians community: Grow Christians now has its own Facebook page! Be sure to like GC on FB now to stay in the loop with all things #Episcopal #parenting. And if you love #GrowChristians, check out our other resource for parents: Daily Devo.

Lodged between the merriment of All Saints’ Day and the Madness of All Brackets’ Day is the often-overlooked (or misunderstood) All Souls’ Day. This is the one that really challenges us, writes Scott Gunn, because in a society “allergic to death” it deals with the mortality of those we love. Scott’s piece on All Souls’ for Forward Today was powerful stuff. You can read it here.

Photo by flickr user Russ2009 / Creative Commons

Are you feeling stressed about the election? You are not alone. As we enter the final days of this contentious time, Episcopal News shared an excellent look at what Episcopal churches across the country are doing to help with election season anxiety. We were happy to see the mention of Forward Movement’s A Season of Prayer: For an Election. There are many other useful resources shared in the article as well.

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We hope you’ll join us in prayer in these final days before the election, and beyond. Have a peaceful weekend.

ICYMI: Week of 10/21/16

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Welcome once again to In Case You Missed It, our new blog roundup of the latest stories around the #Episcopal world. Here are some of the topics that captured our attention this week.

Lots of Episcopal folks were at the Claggett Center in Maryland for the Discipleship Matters conference, hosted by RenewalWorks and Jay Sidebotham. For those who couldn’t attend, the lively #discipleship16 hashtag archives some of the highlights and key takeaways. For another good read on the meaning of discipleship, check out this reflection from Scott Gunn.

We also enjoyed the photos we saw from Claggett—check out this one from Scott next to the conference logo!

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There is still much work to be done to support those affected by Hurricane Matthew. Episcopal Relief and Development issued this press release detailing their efforts, in Haiti and elsewhere, and how you can help. You can also download bulletin inserts here.

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If you haven’t checked it out yet, the Episcopal Church’s ‘Thursdays at 2’ video series is really terrific—great stories every week, beautifully produced. Here’s the latest, on The Crossing, a group of young adults meeting in community weekly in Boston.

 

At Forward Movement, we’re continuing to share prayers each day leading up to the election. It’s been amazing to see the response to these–a testament to the power of prayer and the Episcopal community (and beyond). Here’s a favorite from this week:

OCT 20: Pray for peace in the world and in our nation

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To join us for each day’s prayer as it’s posted, follow/like Forward Movement on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can read the full season of prayers and download them as bulletin inserts at forwardmovement.org/election.

Wishing you a peaceful week.

ICYMI: A weekly blog roundup

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Welcome to In Case You Missed It, a new end-of-week feature we’ll be running here on the Forward Movement blog. Here are some of the stories that captured our attention in the Episcopal social media world this week:

The House of Bishops wrapped up their time in Detroit with an inspiring video. It was an excellent reminder in this fraught election cycle that it was like that in Jesus’ time too. (You can scroll down that page for a full series of videos from the fall 2016 meetings, and check out the top tweets at #hobfall2016.)

In the wake of shootings in Tulsa and Charlotte, the Episcopal community spoke out and shared prayer across social media. We thought this BCP prayer on the Episcopal Church’s Facebook page was apt for this painful moment:

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We read two thoughtful takes on Matthew as we celebrate his feast: Jay Sidebotham’s Monday Matters spoke to the saint’s lessons of mercy and grace. On Grow Christians, Marcus Halley wrote that “celebrating the Feast of St. Matthew is the celebration of the lengths that Christ comes to find each of us and the heights to which we are capable of soaring in the knowledge and love of God.”

In an Ember Day edition of Forward Today, Scott Gunn wrote about the importance of praying for clergy, reflecting that it was a practice he enjoyed even before his own call to ministry. We also loved flickr user samdessordi’s striking photo:

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And speaking of Bishops, the always-funny Episcopal Church Memes gave us a smile:

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Amen!