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Fresh Start

Participation Requirements

All priests entering new cures are required to participate in the diocesan Fresh Start program for a term of 18 months. (Fresh Start is not required for Deacons.) This includes the newly ordained priests, priests entering the Diocese of Missouri from other dioceses, and priests transferring to a new cure within the diocese. Fresh Start takes place during the academic year with enrollment of new classes taking place in September and January.

Goals

Fresh Start is intended to:

  • Build collegiality and deep relationship among the priests of the diocese to strengthen them in their ministry
  • Facilitate mentoring of newer clergy by more experienced clergy
  • Facilitate newer clergy sharing updated seminary knowledge with more experienced clergy
  • Cross-pollinate the clergy cohort in both their practice of ministry and their spiritual journeys
  • Provide a safe environment to “talk shop” and workshop ministry context struggles during times of transition
  • Offer skills-building content in areas such as (but not limited to):
    - Church planting principles in established parishes
    - Leadership in changing parish systems
    - The spirituality of priesthood
    - Civic leadership and partnership for priests
    - Non-violence as a core spiritual practice for justice and peace
    - De-secularizing self-care for pastoral flourishing
    - Appreciative Inquiry
    - Change management
    - Evangelism

Methodology

Fresh Start currently meets virtually from 10 a.m. to noon on the second Thursday of the month. Hour one is a check-in session in breakout rooms with a guiding question. Hour two is a guest presenter from one of the content areas.

Conveners

  • The Rev. Earl Mahan, Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Town & Country, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Manchester ([email protected])
  • The Rev. Canon Whitney Rice, Canon for Evangelism & Discipleship Development ([email protected])
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For more info, contact:

The Rev. Canon Whitney Rice
Canon for Evangelism & Discipleship Development
314-231-1220, ext. 1383 

    The Rev. Canon Whitney Rice

    Canon for Evangelism & Discipleship Development
    314-231-1220, ext. 1383 |

    The Rev. Canon Whitney Rice is an Episcopal priest who serves as the Canon for Evangelism & Discipleship Development for the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. She is a graduate of Yale Divinity School where she won the Yale University Charles S. Mersick Prize for Public Address and Preaching and the Yale University E. William Muehl Award for Excellence in Preaching. She has taught undergraduate courses at the University of Indianapolis and has contributed to Lectionary Homiletics, the Young Clergy Women’s Project journal Fidelia’s Sisters, and other publications. She has served as a researcher and community ministry grant consultant for the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, is currently a staff writer for the Episcopal Digital Network’s Sermons That Work, and is an active participant in the activist clergy community for racial and economic justice in St. Louis. A communicator of the gospel at heart, she writes and teaches at Episcopal, United Methodist, and ELCA churches on a wide variety of topics including rethinking evangelism, stewardship, leadership, women’s theology of the body, mysticism, and spiritual development. When she’s not thinking about theology, particularly the intersection of evangelism and justice work (which is all the time, seriously), you’ll find her swing dancing. Find more of her work at her website Roof Crashers & Hem Grabbers (www.roofcrashersandhemgrabbers.com).

    Her ministries include:

    1. Evangelism
    2. Discipleship Development
    3. Children & Youth
    4. Experimental Ministries/Missional Communities
    5. Fresh Start
    6. Ordination Process
    7. Ordination Redesign
    8. Re-Imagining Task Force
    9. Requiem or Renaissance
    Clergy Resources Clergy Book Recommendations Clergy Communications Community of Deacons Congregational Development Resources Fresh Start Lay Ministry License


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    1210 Locust St. · St. Louis, MO 63103
    (314) 231-1220
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    Episcopal Diocese of Missouri
    1210 Locust St.
    St. Louis, MO 63103

    Contact Us
    (314) 231-1220

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