Winter 2010

Director: The Rev. Dr. Catherine Dafoe Hall
Executive Coordinator:Sheila Mulgrew

Welcome to a new format and new ideas for Mentors, Coordinators and students. Watch for opportunities to contribute your story.

EfM online launched in Canada

For years people have been saying that they wish they could do EfM online, now it is possible. Our first online group began meeting in September, seven students from coast to coast began meeting with co-mentors Chris Ross and Catherine Hall. The group is supported by software from the University of the South, a program known as Blackboard. Students are able to post responses to the chapters on a private (to the group) discussion board and discuss their various points of view. TR and discussions of Common Lessons takes place simultaneously in an online forum where people can chat through text and see images on a whiteboard.

Mentors are needed. If you are an experienced mentor with good computer skills, a good computer, and a high speed internet connection you could be included in the next mentor training (which takes place online) this spring. Write to director@efmcanada.ca to inquire further.

Students are welcome for September start-up. Students need to have a general comfort with using computers, and have a high speed internet connection. Some tech support is available. See the website for further information. EfM Canada On-Line Course

EfM at General Synod

Education for Ministry will be at General Synod. Trainer Patricia Bays will be present at our display to welcome people and offer information about EfM to General Synod delegates. Patricia is an educator and an author and has served EfM as a trainer since 1994. You might suggest to your diocesan delegates that they watch for the display, introduce themselves to Patricia and plan to attend the EfM reception which will be organized by the EfM folks of Halifax.

New Columns

There are new columns for and about EfM participants in this newsletter. We aim to support and encourage folk as much as possible. Your input is welcome director@efmcanada.ca

LILIAN ROBINSON “FLOWER” ROSS

Flower passed away peacefully in Asheville, NC on November 30, 2009.Though she suffered the last few years of her life with serious health problems, she remained positive and grateful for the life that she had lived. She was 80 when she died. She leaves behind her loving husband, the Rev. Charles L. Winters, who along with Flower founded the EfM program.

Flower lived a remarkable life, having been born in Atlanta, Georgia at the beginning of the Great Depression, the oldest of three children. Flower’s given name was Lilian but she was nicknamed Flower, a reference to Lilly, her name. Her mother was Margaret Mitchell’s typist when she wrote Gone With The Wind. Flower attended Mary Washington College and received her Masters degree from Loyola University in New Orleans. Flower worked for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama while her children were young and later worked for the School of Theology, The University of the South, where she married Charles Winters in 1980. Along with Charlie, she helped create and champion Education for Ministry , an educational program for lay-people in ministry, still widely used throughout the Episcopal Church. Over the years Flower traveled extensively in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America while serving as a trainer of mentors for EfM groups all over the world. She conducted a training of mentors in Kootenay in the fall of 1978 thereby bringing the EfM program to Canada.

A Celebration of her life and a memorial service was held at All Soul’s Cathedral, Asheville, North Carolina, at 2:00 PM on Saturday, December 12, 2009.

Karen Meridith Appointed as Director of Sewanee’s Education for Ministry Program

Sewanee, Tenn. — The School of Theology of Sewanee: the University of the South has announced the appointment of Karen Meridith as director of the Education for Ministry program. Meridith, who has extensive experience in Christian education, most recently has been director of operations for the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Her appointment is effective January 1. The Education for Ministry (EfM) program is an extension program of lay theological education that has enrolled more than 75,000 participants since 1975 and has been called the deepest and most transformative program of extension Christian education in the Episcopal Church.

Meridith comes to Sewanee as both an EfM graduate and mentor. She brings broad and diverse experience in administration and educational leadership. Meridith gives a special reason for her move. “Four years of study in EfM gave me the theological tools and vocabulary to discern and articulate my own call to ministry in theological education, while the support of my EfM communities (as student and as mentor) encouraged me to step out in faith to believe in and accept that call. I am honoured to help further EfM’s continuing mission to the Church.”

Especially for Coordinators

EfM coordinators are those wonderful people who plan and organize mentor trainings and promote EfM in the Diocese.
Coordinators do various things to support and encourage EfM. Do you have a newsletter? Special events? Or other activities that engage the community? Write and tell us your story for this newsletter.

For Mentors

Mentors are trained and accredited folk who lead EfM groups.
Some mentors are concluding TR by asking students to write a prayer that arises from the content of the TR. Students fill in the blanks and conclude the TR by saying the prayer together or silently:

God who....
Grant us....
So that....
Amen.

Life after EfM

Education for Ministry is designed to help participants to discern and enter into fulfilling lay ministry. What stories are out there? Will you share your discovery of lay ministry? We would like to tell your story here.

One BC parish that has had EfM for many years encourages graduates to gather with the EfM group monthly for worship and fellowship. The graduates then go into their own group for discussion of a book or TR.

PLANNED TRAINING EVENTS

Please click on the link to see the training events for EFM-Canada Training Events

ARCHIVED COPIES OF THE NEWSLETTERS

Last updated: February 24th, 2010