Summary

The Washington Post – A decade after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, Washington National Cathedral is halfway restored – “When the earthquake happened, I thought, ‘Wow — we have got a task ahead of us”…

Wilkes Journal Patriot – New rector at St. Paul’s discusses goals – The Rev. Stephanie Parker was recently named rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 206 West Cowles Street in Wilkesboro…

Episcopal News Service – Episcopal clergy entertain and evangelize in the virtual ‘town square’ of TikTok – he Rev. David Peters isn’t your average priest, and his style of evangelism is less about preaching and more about laughter. “It’s just another way of relating. It’s also the town square,” said Peters

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A decade after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, Washington National Cathedral is halfway restored

The Washington Post – Washington, DC

The heads of Old Testament prophets lie on the ground near the south entrance of Washington National Cathedral, scaffolding surrounds the central tower and, upon close inspection, parts of the ornamental limestone exterior are cleaner than the rest.

Ten years after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit the region, damaging the cathedral and other buildings, stone masons of the District’s gothic place of worship say their work to repair the building is halfway complete.

“When the earthquake happened, I thought, ‘Wow — we have got a task ahead of us,’ ” Joe Alonso, the head stone mason, said Thursday. “Everything here is handmade. You look at the incredible detail on the stone carvings here and it’s all hand done. … It’s just the nature of the work.” […]

New rector at St. Paul’s discusses goals

Wilkes Journal Patriot – North Wilkesboro, NC

The Rev. Stephanie Parker was recently named rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 206 West Cowles Street in Wilkesboro after serving in that role on an interim basis since August 2020.

Parker has lived in western North Carolina since 2016 and previously was rector for the Episcopal parish in Sparta.

She grew up in a military family and originally is from the metro Atlanta area, where much of her family still resides. Parker graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2003, and has served Episcopal parishes in southern California and Seattle, Wash.

Prior to that she was an exercise physiologist in both research and clinical settings.

Parker said she is an avid horsewoman and animal lover and has a farm in the area with four horses, three goats and a blind cow she adopted from a neighboring farm. […]

Episcopal clergy entertain and evangelize in the virtual ‘town square’ of TikTok

Episcopal News Service – Pflugerville, TX

TikTok, the video editing and streaming app on which mostly millennials and Generation Z share funny dance challenges, viral moments and memes, might be the last place you’d expect to find a 45-year-old priest evangelizing. But the Rev. David Peters isn’t your average priest, and his style of evangelism is less about preaching and more about laughter.

“It’s just another way of relating. It’s also the town square,” said Peters, a church planter in Pflugerville, Texas, near Austin. Peters became perhaps the first priest to go viral on the app when his videos – including “Outfits I’m Afraid to Wear” and “Anglican Priest Problems” – unexpectedly took off in the summer of 2019, garnering international media coverage. He and other Episcopal clergy have made a ministry out of providing an affirming alternative to harmful variants of Christianity and explaining what they love about their faith, often through the offbeat language of memes. @davidwpeters  […]