Episcopal churches work to build bridges

 

Seven churches across the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane have been participating in a learning cohort as part of the "Building Bridges: Healing Divides" five-year grant under the Thriving Congregations Initiative from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. A second cohort began in May.

The churches in the first group were St. Luke's in Coeur d'Alene, St. James in Pullman, All Saints in Richland, Resurrection in Roslyn, and the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew's and St. Stephen's in Spokane.

The congregations are building community relationships to connect across and heal social, cultural and political divisions by listening, learning and developing new ministries. The project seeks to improve relationships among groups with differing views.

"One of our biggest fears when we engage with people who are different from us is that we may be changed," said Mallory Davis, the grant program director. "Of course, we will be changed."

Mallory explained that the cohort teams are composed of three to five people from each congregation—including a cleric, the warden of the vestry or bishop's committee and a lay leader.

Teams in the second cohort are guided by a coach.

In the fall of 2023, the Episcopal Diocese was awarded the grant as part of Lilly's Thriving Congregations initiative to encourage congregations to flourish by helping them deepen their relationships with God, strengthen their connections with each other and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.

The grant's purpose is to forge new practices of ministry and relationships that heal, rather than ignore or exacerbate wounds from social, cultural and political divisions of the current times and context, Mallory described.

Cohort teams meet in person and on Zoom every other month over two years. The next cohort meets through the fall of 2028.

As examples, Mallory described projects of three of the first cohort. Each church has worked with its community to develop and report back on their ministry experiment.

First, St. Stephen's knew there were organizations doing similar work on Spokane's South Hill, but they had a curiosity around how to break down those silos.

The church decided to host four community conversations, "Many Voices: Shared Story," for South Hill residents to gather for meals and converse on what people love, what they have lost, where they hurt and what they dream. From those sessions the church hopes to learn how better to serve together.

St. Stephen's gathered people for presentations led by Nicole Bishop of SNAP, Derrick Jennings of the Carl Maxey Center, Scott Cooper of Catholic Charities and Ross Carper of FEAST World Kitchen—to help them identify and heal political, social and cultural divides and develop skills to be healers.

"It has been wonderful to watch how St. Stephen's and other congregations have learned about their contexts," said Mallory.

In addition to learning about their communities, cohorts have met for two years to help each identify divides and ways to be healers by developing new ministries based on community needs.

Second, the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Roslyn, which is among the churches continuing their projects, began a new contemplative community called Terra Divina that gathers and practices immersing themselves in the rhythms of the natural world through presence and contemplation.

At the Roslyn church, the average Sunday attendance is 12 and an average of 20 to 25 attend Terra Divina, which includes church and community members.

Resurrection had a hunch that many in their community were fed by the natural world around them, and they wondered how they could offer up the sacred rhythms they experienced in their Sunday liturgies to help their community explore and honor the land and nature surrounding them, Mallory described.

Third, St. Andrew's Episcopal had started in Spokane's Emerson-Garfield neighborhood when many of its members lived in the single-family neighborhood homes. Now few live in the neighborhood.

Members wanted to know neighbors and in the process of making connections, they learned about the neighborhood's deep desire for community.

To open conversation, St. Andrew's has offered Coffee and Community conversations for neighbors on their front porch, where they set up tables and chairs and snacks.

Mallory said some of the projects are internal to the congregations, identifying ways for members to be healers and bridgebuilders with those around them, overcoming obstacles to conversations over differences with people they know and love.

"Projects come out of practicing deep listening, which has been part of the diocese's strategic priority to create a culture of listening, learning and development. Our mission is to form disciples of Jesus Christ in strong communities of faith to transform ourselves, our communities and the world," she said.

"To be a disciple in a community of faith is to be open, adaptive and possess a holy curiosity to reach out to our neighbors and be responsive to our contexts," she continued.

Mallory was diocesan program manager after working 17 years as the diocesan office assistant, bishop's assistant and administrative coordinator. Caroline McCall, her predecessor as grant program director, and the bishop applied for the grant in 2023.

Mallory moved to Spokane in 2004 to study theatre at Eastern Washington University. After graduating in 2008, she moved back to Gig Harbor for a year and a half but returned as program staff at Camp Cross on Lake Coeur d'Alene, where during college she had met "crazy Episcopalians living Christianity in a way I had not seen," she said.

In diocesan administrative work, she became aware that churches do not face difficulties alone, "but are part of a network of people experiencing similar difficulties and discovering opportunities to grow and deepen faith with God," she said.

"There is a common thread among the 34 congregations as they respond to joys and pains," Mallory said. "While there is some fear across the church that the church is dying, there are also stories of transformation and reconciliation in the face of that fear.

"Maybe we are being called to adapt and to be transformed ourselves," she commented.

After the next cohort will be an evaluation period and the possibility to expand the program.

With discussion at diocesan meetings on the grant, churches not in a grant cohort are invited to celebrate what the churches involved are experiencing.

"We see relationships being built or deepened where there were none, and people in relationship can't help but be changed," she said.

For information, call 624-3191 or visit nb2023-spokane.my.canva.site/buildingbridges-healingdivides#home.