March is Women in History Month, a time to acknowledge women's contributions to history, culture, and society. Recently, we asked several of our female alumni to share how they have been serving the Church during Coronatide.
Suz Cate, C’84, T’12
A week into the public health emergency, I reached out to my local colleague group of pastors and gathered us on Zoom to pray together and support one another. We have met weekly through the months since, continuing to pray together and share resources and ideas. We are currently working on setting up a meeting with a local counselor to learn about how we can support mental health initiatives in our community. It has been a blessing to us all to share our burdens as leaders in our congregations and our community.
Molly Payne-Hardin, T’17
In the first month of the pandemic, really just to meet my own needs (I was 9 months into a new job as rector), I took to FaceBook Live each day to pray the noonday prayers. Unexpectedly, a small group of our laity together with another Episcopal Church about 45 minutes from us, wanted to continue it after one month—each of us taking a day that we go live at noon from the church's FaceBook page. It's brought these five worship leaders a wonderful sense of ownership and thoughtfulness about their own prayer lives, seeking out various reflections that they want to share on the day that they lead, and a sense of connection even though some of us live in other states now.
Judith Walton Comer, T’08
My priest husband and I have offered compline via FaceBook Live since last March. We started out doing it seven nights a week and now are doing it four nights each week. We have also done supply work via Zoom, including an Ash Wednesday service. We will be doing a Maundy Thursday service via Zoom with an Agape meal and hand washing. It’s been fun to get creative and find ways to make Zoom an intimate and personal experience. It works!
Lea Colvill, T’15
My town was an early hot spot. I began daily devotions based on different learning styles. I called every household once a week. A donor gave me her rainy-day money to assist unemployed members while they were waiting for their checks. We used YouTube and Zoom.
Teresa Phares, T’17
I work for the Godly Play Foundation as the Director of Training Operations. We’ve really had to pivot and re-imagine our work during the pandemic. In-person Core Trainings make up a big part of our incoming revenue, but we also needed to figure out how to support our practitioners that were struggling to provide quality formation. We worked with our trainers to design several online workshops that could meet the needs of practitioners at varying points in their practice. We’ve learned that we need to continue to provide these online workshops going forward, and given the wider reach we’ve been able to have, we’ve learned a lot about the Church’s programs and needs.
