Episcopal Church Women

Elaine Conger

Musician for Triennial 2024

Music is Elaine’s life. Yes, she’s a performer but, the performance is driven by a continuous playlist that swirls in a place deep within her. It’s not the genre of music nor the audience that drives her musical life, it’s a desire to have expression or an emotion guide her in artistic directions.

She considers her style “contemplative” Christian music, but she also blends those well-loved songs and hymns from the past, making them sound new to a younger generation. The approach is like how a change to the verbiage of prayers and litanies enables a translation of the Bible to make it so that people of today can understand its true meaning.

Triennial 2024 is a benchmark event and she realizes the importance of the women of the Episcopal Church celebrating their 150-year anniversary since the Women’s Auxiliary was formed. It’s important to give the people what they want. Yet, God doesn’t give someone what they want, He gives them what they need.

The same as when the Early church gave the illiterate people a means to understand the scriptures with secular tunes coupled with sacred lyrics. It’s important her music is relatable. There’s a fine line between performing for the purpose of self-gratification and instead presenting a means for those attending to be engaged in the Spirit, by the Spirit, and to want to be in praise of the Lord and Savior.

Elaine’s path to becoming the musician for Triennial is filled with a graceful story of building her career around Spirit and “feeling called to something more than sitting at the organ bench,” as she states. She has served as the music director for two Episcopal parishes: 11 years at Grace Episcopal in Paris, TN, and upon moving to Gatlinburg in East TN at Trinity Episcopal for 4 years.  In 2022, she served as the Artist-in-Residence for half the year at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach, FL.  While there she planned and arranged music for a contemporary service featuring a band and modern music, but she always found a way to throw in a hymn as the lectionary dictated to honor our beloved hymns yet making them sound “groovier.”

She explains that by changing the meter and/or tempo you can make a hymn sound like it was written in this century; however, by not messing with the lyrics you keep all the doctrine that our historical hymn writers worked so hard creating.

To learn more about Elaine, visit her website at ElaineConger.com.

La Rev. Catherine Amy Kropp

Oradora Principal

La Reverenda Catherine Amy Kropp actualmente se desempeña como Vicaria de la Iglesia Episcopal Memorial de Cristo en Kaua’i en Kilauea, Hawai’i. Pasó siete meses entre los años de 2022-2023 como voluntaria internacional en el norte del Líbano en una casa segura para jóvenes vulnerables por medio de la organización Relief & Reconciliation (Alivio y Reconciliación)

Anteriormente se desempeñó en Alaska como Rectora Asociada de la Iglesia Episcopal de St Mary en Anchorage, y como instructora itinerante y sacerdotisa episcopal de Dancing with the Spirit (Bailando con El Espíritu), un ministerio de música y a su vez un programa de extensión de cambio social que conecta a los ancianos y jóvenes nativos de Alaska a través de la alegría de la música para de esa forma Preservar la música per se, el idioma y la cultura nativa de la región. Académicamente hablando, Posee un M.Div. (Maestría de Divinidad) y un S.T.M. de Yale Divinity School, aunado a un Diploma en Estudios Anglicanos de Berkeley Divinity School en Yale.

Oriunda de Maine, donde enseñó ciencias en la escuela secundaria y se convirtió en Guía registrada de Maine, ha guiado peregrinaciones espirituales para todas las edades en Nueva Inglaterra, Alaska y los Territorios del Noroeste.

The Rev. Catherine Amy Kropp

Keynote Speaker

The Rev. Catherine Amy Kropp currently serves as Vicar of Christ Memorial Episcopal Church on Kaua’i in Kilauea, Hawai’i. She spent seven months in 2022-2023 as an international volunteer in north Lebanon at a safe house for vulnerable youth with Relief & Reconciliation.

Previously she served in Alaska as Associate Rector at St Mary’s Episcopal Church in Anchorage, and as a traveling instructor and Episcopal priest for Dancing with the Spirit, a music ministry and social change outreach program connecting Alaska Native elders and youth through the joy of music and preserving Alaska Native music, language and culture. She holds an M.Div. and a S.T.M. from Yale Divinity School and a Diploma in Anglican Studies from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

Originally from Maine, where she taught high school science and became a registered Maine Guide, she has guided spiritual pilgrimages for all ages in New England, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories.

In her keynote, The Rev. Catherine Amy Kropp will reflect on her experiences as an Episcopal priest and volunteer teacher in Lebanon working with refugees, drawing wisdom from the power of human connection across differences and inspiration from the voice of the youth within a remote and fragile geography.

Triennial Chaplain The Rev. Dr. Gayle Fisher-Stewart

Rev. Gayle’s spirit and determination are in constant motion. Her career in law enforcement and as a priest are entwined by the belief that God’s work is the direction for us all to follow. Her time on the police department showed her how fragile life is and how short it can be. Every day police officers leave home and don’t know if they will return. We need to learn how to value each and every day and to make each day count.

She truly believes we are all called to make this world a better place, especially if we follow Jesus. Because for me, He said, “you don’t have to live this way if you follow me,” and so she has spent her life trying to figure out what she and others can do to have victory for humankind. If she can be a help to humankind, particularly through the church, then she has a purpose. She has adopted a quote by the astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “It is the knowledge that I’m going to die that creates the focus that I bring to being alive; the urgency of accomplishment; the need to express love now. I don’t fear death. I fear living a life where I could have accomplished something and didn’t. There is a quote from Horace Mann, ‘Be ashamed to die until you have scored some victory for humanity.’” That is on her mind every single day.

The question she asks, “How can you be a change agent to change the world?” In response, her friends always say, “You always want to change the world.” It is empowering and yet humbling when those you love and cherish make such powerful affirmations about your life. Maybe she can’t change the whole world, but she can make a difference, somewhere. How can we all create change, make this place a better place? And for the longest time she has and people will say, she continues to have arguments with the church. Arguments bring light to the dusty corners, the spaces we take for granted.

She has two books, Preaching Black Lives (Matter) and the second one, Black and Episcopalian: the Struggle for Inclusion. In Black and Episcopalian, it says that the Episcopal Church needs to take action on what it preaches. Change is happening, slow changes, but the question is, “If we follow Jesus – Jesus gave up everything, risked everything for us – is the Episcopal Church willing to risk the church to be like Jesus?”

Are you willing to risk the very life of the Church to be like Jesus? And if you’re not willing to risk the very church to be like Jesus, then all of this is words and slogans. As the Episcopal Church deals with reparations for white supremacy and anti-black racism, she is working on another book, Church Hurt: Reparations for My Soul – Healing Race-based Trauma. While focusing on the African American experience in the Episcopal Church, people bring racialized trauma in many forms to the church and then experience racialized trauma by the church. We are not really engaged in healing because if the church focused on healing racialized trauma, it would become trauma-informed and look at every practice, policy, process, sacrament, and liturgy to ensure they don’t inflict trauma, that they lift up the various cultures people bring to the church.

If we believe as we say we believe that all of this is God’s, and God created everything, and God created plenty, Gayle says, “we have to ask why don’t God’s children all have what they need to thrive? So, they can in turn serve God.” Because as Martin Luther King said, “it’s hard to think about serving the Lord when your stomach is growling.” If we believe in Jesus as we say we do, why won’t we follow him to where the hurting people are, to the margins, because that is where we will find Jesus. Not in the buildings we love, but in the difficult and hideous places we shun. “Follow me,” Jesus said. He didn’t say to worship him. In fact, in Revelation, when John bent down to worship Jesus, Jesus told him to get up and worship God, not him. But to follow Jesus requires a risk, a risk Jesus took on the cross.

He risked his very life, everything for us, so we might have life and have it more abundantly. And how do we return this grace, this favor? By hoarding what is God’s. By living with poverty, homelessness, hatred, evil, war. We choose to live with them all. Human beings created all the ills of the world and God is waiting on us to fix what we have messed up.

In the end, Gayle hums the words of a favorite hymn, “if I can help somebody, then my living will not be in vain.”

As is customary, the national board dresses and enters the Triennial opening ceremony attired as a prior leader of the Church, the Bible, or historical figure. These representations illustrate ideals each board member wishes  to share with the women gathered at Triennial. As you read through this issue of the Communique’, be aware of the blue ECW crosses. Each of the woman’s persona is marked with this cross.

Triennial President by Karen Patterson

 From Julia Chester Emery in 1876 to the present day, The Episcopal Church Women have led the work in support of missions throughout the church, support of women’s issues and women’s rights to serve as deputies and be ordained, as well as reaching out to those less fortunate throughout the Episcopal Communion and the world.

Lydia by Pat Wellnitz

Lydia ran a successful business, selling a luxury product, purple cloth. This was a unique achievement for a woman during the male-dominated Roman empire. Lydia and her entire household were baptized in the waters of the river.  Thus, she became the first woman of Macedonia to be enrolled as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Esther by Samar Fay

Esther was a young woman who rescued her people, the Jewish minority, in the Persian empire. She begins as a humble person and becomes an active figure in the court, employing the age-old strategies of the powerless, especially women: sex, persuasion, and hospitality (the dinners she staged).

Esther tells the story of how the Jews rely on their own devices and find resources they never knew they had.

Esther’s uncle Mordicai says, “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Esther 4:14.

By her manipulation of her husband, Ahasuerus, Esther thwarts the intent of the evil minister Haman to destroy all the Jews in Persia.

Ruth Cummings Jellison by Margaret Noel

At Ruth Jellison’s funeral the eulogist said: “Your loss is commensurate with the joy, wisdom and care that she gave to your life.” He asked: What did you learn from Ruth Jellison? Did you learn about civic responsibility? Did you learn about organizing people to create a better community? Did you learn about commitment to family, community, church and God?  Did you learn to put a worm on a hook that you could go fishing? Did you learn that it was better to be a person who made the “other” feel important, special and above all loved, unconditionally loved?”   Ruth lived from 1923 – 2010.

Martha and Mary by Jennifer Kenna

I am Martha and Mary,

because, you see,

I believe some of each

dwells in me.

As Martha I host, I serve, I feed

but deep inside something else I need.

To be like Mary:  to sit with the Lord,

to watch and listen, to heed his words.

And then renewed with the faith I need

Go host and serve, go love and feed.

Mary Magdalene by Cindy Mohr

Mary Magdalene was one of the woman who accompanied and supported Jesus and the apostles. She was present at the crucifixion. Mary was also the first to witness the resurrection, which Jesus told her to announce to his disciples. She is known as the “apostle to the Apostles.” Mary Magdalene is commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on July 22.

Amelia Earhart by Mary Beth Welch

December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, NC and 12 seconds that changed the world forever – a plane made of fabric and wood flew! This feat was an inspiration to adventure-loving Amelia Earhart. A cradle Episcopalian, she was one of the first women pilots. She set many records, among them being the first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo. Amelia used her fame to tell women how to pursue their dreams.

Eleanor Roosevelt by Jan Goossens

Eleanor Roosevelt had a very public life.  She was First Lady of the United States, First Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, First United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.  She established a planned community for unemployed miners.  Lived 1884-1962.

St. Teresa of Avila by Beth Agar

St. Teresa was born near Avila, Spain in 1515. From an early age, she felt the call to spiritual practices, studying saints’ lives. Poor health plagued her all her life. It necessitated the cessation of her studies at the convent where she was being educated, and later, removal from the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation where she had been a postulant. After suffering as an invalid for three years, she returned to the convent. However, she was bothered by the laxness that she observed in the Carmelite rule and became more interested in meditation, which resulted in visions.  She began a Reformed Carmelite order that required more of the members and traveled for the next 25 years around Spain establishing 17 convents. She was a gifted writer, sharing her thoughts and concerns and still today, we benefit from her words.

Ruth the Moabite by Lisa Bortner

For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  Ruth 1:16

Annie Wauneka by Madeline Sampson

 Annie Dodge Wauneka (née Dodge; April 11, 1910 – November 10, 1997) was an influential member of the Navajo Nation as member of the Navajo Nation Council. As a member and three term head of the council’s Health and Welfare Committee, she worked to improve the health and education of the Navajo. Wauneka is widely known for her countless efforts to improve health on the Navajo Nation, focusing mostly on the eradication of tuberculosis within her nation. She also authored a dictionary, which translated English medical terms into the Navajo language.

Debora, the Judge by Luz – Province IX

 Words that described Debora: Leadership, Empowerment, Fighter, Warrior, Wisdom, and Faith Strong Full of God Knew

Liderazgo

Empoderamiento

Luchadora

Guerrera

Sabiduría y Fe

Fuerte

Llena de Dios

Sabia