Ecclesia Ministries Mission to Other Cities

Hey!! My Growing Relational Ministries course at Bexley Seabury Seminary starts soon and there are still some spots available!!

It's 4 weeks long and you'll imagine creating a new mission project in your congregation during that time. Register now.
You can take the course as a individual, or a team from your congregation can take it together.

I have a book contract!!! Poverty, Wealth, Christian Life: A Lenten Study will come out in time for Lent 2026!! Upper Room Books thank you once again!!!

For my last book, I had read all the background resources for my thesis. This time I have to do that reading now. Best get to work!!

https://www.propublica.org/article/albuquerque-homeless-encampments?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

Albuquerque Is Throwing Out the Belongings of Homeless People, Violating City Policy The city has violated a court order and its own policies by discarding the personal property of thousands of homeless people, who have lost medications, birth certificates, IDs, treasured family photos and the ashes of loved ones.

Worcester Fellowship in Worcester, MA is seeking a pastor for 10 hours a week. Please email [email protected] to get the job description.

Woo Sox!!!

Attend the May 4 game and support Worcester Fellowship!!!

To all of our supporters and friends, we are very excited about our Saturday, May 4th WooSox Game Fundraiser (at 4:05pm) and hope that you will join us and spread the word with your friends, families, youth groups and churches! We have secured our own section at Polar Park, and we will receive $5.00 for each ticket purchased via the secure link below provided by the WooSox for us. The link is now live, and anyone can go onto the link and secure their tickets! We had a great time last year and hope this year is even better.

https://fevo-enterprise.com/Worcesterfellowship7

We deeply appreciate you all and thank you for your support.
I will be in New Mexico, but I hope you will go!!!

Worcester Fellowship 5/4/24 @ 4:05 PM - Worcester Fellowship

What do you think?

Church 1.0

Foundational church, basic church, church without frills. Getting back to the basics, which for some people is community, belonging, liberation, and/or transformation, for other people is outreach, service, material support for the poor and oppressed. Attempting to get back to Jesus, to providing for the least among us. In technology, version 1.0 is the rushed, incomplete version of the product, intended to be updated as the users find the bugs. For me that makes church 1.0 more like a revolution than an institution, and begs us to recognize that it is always incomplete and undone. Church 1.0 fails at many things, and thus is always adapting, changing, adjusting.

I have written a Lenten Study on Poverty, Gutierrez, and the Christian response to Poverty. I'll send it to you for free (DM me your email address) and if you decide to use it there is a sliding scale cost.
It includes an Ash Wednesday and Good Friday service and a seven week study.

It is that time of year again! In January I am teaching Foundations of Baptismal Living. It is as course for lay leaders to learn how to develop the foundational theology for the issues they believe in. Each student picks a topic they care about, we talk about how to do theological reflection, and then work out what the details of your own theology.

The course is online, so much work is on your own schedule, with live, online sessions Friday evenings.

Please join me!

Foundations for Baptismal Living

Don't miss this book if you want to understand the intersection of classism and racism. From our own Cedar Monroe who was at the street church in Aberdeen Washington.

A reminder that you can preorder my upcoming book!

"We had an incredible day today in Bemidji, MN. Two crosses were placed on 2 incredible humans who are called to Peoples Church. I explained the tradition with it and did a blessing," says Pastor Rebel Hurd.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/25/nyregion/mentally-ill-homeless-nyc.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230626&instance_id=96020&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=45386319&segment_id=137645&user_id=456516823e6ef690b79478217a49e170

He Was Handcuffed and Hospitalized. Now He’s on Track for Housing. A contentious New York City policy to send more mentally ill homeless people to hospitals has helped some move into permanent homes.

Every day we learn things we did not know about our beloved Roger. His old phone is now the Constance Abbey number:
901-409-7442.
After repeated texts from blood banks we called Margery and found that he was a dedicated blood donor, something he did not tell everyone. We knew he had donated a kidney to a friend but he did not stop there, apparently. What a generous heart he had!

Photo by Cindy McMillion.

HUD Press Conference - 5/4/23

Bangor will close Valley Avenue homeless encampment next week The 20 people who have been living in the encampment will be in housing when the city closes it at the end of day April 11.

Roger Wolcott Obituary

Roger Lee Wolcott was born January 22, 1948 in Olympia, WA, first child of Richard Lee Wolcott and Jane Van Duyne Wolcott. He was later joined by three sisters: Susan, Jill and Sally. Roger was active in scouting, the debate team, and activities at St. John’s Episcopal Church. He graduated from Olympia High School and went on to attend the University of Arizona, where he graduated in 1970.

Roger met Margery Glass at the University of Arizona and they were married in 1975. They remained married until his death.

Roger loved adventure and travel and enjoyed cooking and entertaining, which allowed him to pursue what he felt was most important: relationships. He was an avid walker, hiker and cyclist throughout his adult life. He had an organized and analytical mind which he applied to all his endeavors. He was both an entrepreneurial property developer and a lay minister with the poor, whose whole life was guided by his Christian faith.

A lifelong Episcopalian, he was active in St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, where he began working with youth. That led him to many years of youth work on the diocesan level. During his early years in San Francisco, he encountered the Cursillo Movement which helped shape the rest of his life. During the decades of his involvement with that Christian renewal movement he was an important member of teams that conducted retreat weekends for others and he served on the coordinating committee. He made a commitment to daily Eucharist, often taken with the brothers and sisters of the Community of St. Francis in San Francisco to whom he became close. Twice, Roger heard a definite call from God: to donate his kidney to a friend and to help the less fortunate in the St Mary's Cathedral neighborhood in Memphis.

As he was transitioning into retirement, Wolcott used his skills to renovate homes for the working poor in northern Mississippi and in Memphis TN. In retirement years in Memphis, Roger and his wife Margery joined the Rivendell Community which focuses on hospitality and prayer. Roger felt a call from God “you can do ministry here” and established a home to live in and a daytime hospitality ministry, Constance Abbey, for the unhoused and needy neighbors in Memphis. Roger listened to people until he could see the face of Christ on them. Ministry focus was coffee, resources, showers, laundry and clothes closet. Feeding neighbors was added and became the only constant food source in the zip code during COVID.

While visiting the San Francisco area Roger was in a bicycle accident that left him paralyzed. He died on December 24, 2022 surrounded by family.

A funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m, Saturday, February 25, 2023 at Calvary Episcopal Church, 102 N 2nd St, Memphis, TN 38103. A reception will be held at the church after the service. The service will be live-streamed on Calvary's page.

Please make any donations in Roger’s name to Constance Abbey, 209 Hamlin Pl., Memphis, TN 38105 or on-line at constanceabbey.org .

(photo by Margaret Smith)

Seabury Western is offering a completely online course on Relational Ministries using my book Five Loaves, Two Fish, Twelve Volunteers. The book is about food ministry, but people will apply it to all sorts of ministries where the people in need lead the programs. I'm the teacher! It is 4 Weeks starting Feb 20.

https://bexleyseabury.pathwright.com/library/growing-relational-ministries-a-spirituality-of-mission-68459/205987/about/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=c1459e23-129f-400a-b3c9-914af49ec489

The pricing is set to be beneficial to teams registering: $200 for the first person, $100 for the next, and $50 for each additional. It's great for teams but there will be individuals registered as well.
If you go the team route suggest you schedule a time you'll get together live with just your group each week to discuss the way the material connects to your specific context.
In addition there is a a "live session" every Friday from 5 to 6:30 eastern time on zoom.

The final live session is scheduled individually with people or teams,
so y'all would negotiate the time for that with me and I'd meet with your team to answer any questions about going forward.

Growing Relational Ministries: A Spirituality of Mission None

Roger Wolcott, dedicated to homeless, dies in Calif. hospital The founder of Memphis' Constance Abbey ministry to the homeless died early Saturday, Dec. 24, of injuries sustained in a biking accident near San Francisco.

Heart breaking.

We have much to teach the church.

As attendance dips, churches change to stay relevant for a new wave of worshippers A longtime pastor says the question used to be how can the church change the culture? Now, it's how do they change the culture of the church? Ways range from gardening to food giveaways to fire pits.

Keep Roger in your prayers!! Email Marjorie!

Friends of Constance Abbey,
Attached is a photo taken by Margery Wolcott of her husband Roger when they arrived at the San Francisco airport on Wednesday, November 30. This is probably typical of Roger anytime he arrives there - so happy to be in S.F.- that he must stand by the door and look all around for familiar sights, with his luggage behind him, an afterthought at best.

Unfortunately, Roger was injured in a bicycling accident, un-witnessed, on a bike path some miles from San Francisco on Tuesday, December 6. A physician who was biking found him and was able to start CPR.

Roger's injuries are serious. He has no cognitive issues but does. Have an injury to his spinal column. The physicians tell us he will have greatly reduced mobility in the future.

Margaret T. Smith (Volunteer and Board Secretary) and our capable Community Members will be attending to the Neighbor's daily needs, and working to give them a Merry Christmas. The Board of Directors will provide support to them and we find we have many friends of the Abbey and the Wolcotts who wish to help.

If you wish to contact us, please email Margaret: [email protected]. Please include a phone number. A Caringbridge site for medical updates from Margery Wolcott will be online today.

Prayers are requested and appreciated.

Do you know what a Thrivent grant can do? Well, today, it allowed Holy Cross Church & Preschool members, Donna and Mike, to buy the ingredients to make 32 meals for our Fruits of the Freezer ministry, and donate 20 boxes of mac and cheese to our pantry. They even have some funds leftover to make more meals!


It's great to be Church together ❤

The UCC has a resource kit and training available for Harm Reduction Ministries--a great workbook for the congregation with theological and practical information, a resource list, liturgies. And trainings! faithinharmreduction.org

Red and other colored artwork proclaiming: People Who Use Drugs are Beloved By God. Overdose and Drug Use Ministries Health and Wholeness Advocacy UCC.