Report from ECW

National Episcopal Church Women Board Meeting Report
October 2024
“Empowering Women of Faith

may_2025_necw_meeting_billings_montana.pdf
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Greetings to all Province II Bishops, Province II ECW Board Members, Diocesan Representatives and Friends!
 
It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the next NECW board meeting will be held in Province 2 at the Hampton Inn & Suites Rochester Downtown, 101 South Union Street, Rochester, New York, from Friday, September 26, 2025 thru Monday, September 29, 2025. You are all invited to attend.
 
From May 1, 2025 thru May 5, 2025, I attended the NECW meeting held at the Doubletree, 27 North 27th Street in Billings, Montana.  Our hosts from the Province 6 ECW Board, Beth Agar (President) and Marcia Himes and Amy Mayes (Treasury co-chairs) traveled to Billings to welcome us. The NECW welcomed, Andrea Petrosh, as its new Executive Council Liaison.  In addition, Beblon Parks, from Province 3, conducted an engaging and informative workshop on "Using Pronouns-What's it all about?" Beblon utilized origami techniques as she guided members in creating and decorating T-shirts.  The individual designs helped members to explore their own identities.  Beblon later explained the various pronouns and their connections to self-identification.
  
SUMMARY OF CURRENT NECW ACTIVITIES
Triennial 2027 Planning. Triennial 2027 will be held in late June or early July 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona in conjunction with General Convention.  Women at the Well: Faith in Action was adopted as the theme for Triennial 2027.  Committee Chairs were assigned. Triennial logo designs were reviewed and a final logo was selected.  The new logo will be displayed soon on the NECW website.  President Lisa Bortner and 1st Vice-President Cindy Mohr will attend the next General Convention Planning Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona from July 20 -22, 2025.
The NECW Virtual Event Series:  The next session will be held on June 7, 2025 with the theme “Taking Care of Business: Basic Parliamentary Procedures” to be presented by Cherise Story, CPA, MBA, PRP.  Another virtual event is scheduled for July 12, 2025, on Prison Ministries presented by Deacon Linda Paul.
Communique Magazine Online: The Communications Committee, in conjunction with the Creation Care and Environmental Justice Committee, recommended that we encourage our membership to read the Communique magazine online to be more ecologically minded.  For those ECW members who wish to continue to receive a paper Communique they will have to indicate on the website that this is their wish and indicate if they would like the magazine in English or Spanish. There will be an option to donate to cover shipping costs of the Communique on the website. This information will be provided in advance by way of Facebook, our website, and in the monthly news blast. Starting with the next Communique, the magazine will be published in English and then separately in Spanish.
The Thursdays in Black, Stations of Hope Lenten Program:  This program was a huge success. Sue Mueller was recognized for chairing and writing the liturgy for the program. NECW plans to continue this program next year.
Association of Episcopal Deacons Triennial (AED): The National ECW is a sponsor of the AED Triennial to be held in San Antonio, TX on June 5-8, 2025.  President Lisa Bortner will attend the AED Triennial dinner on Saturday, June 7, 2025 to represent the National ECW. 
Tri-History Conference:  This conference is a platform for exploring the history of the Episcopal Church, its antecedents, and other churches within the Anglican Communion.  It will be held from June 17-21, 2025.  The National ECW will provide copies of our Communique magazine for the event. The Tri-History Conference is a biennial event sponsored by three organizations within the Episcopal Church.  They are the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Women's History Project and the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists.  The 2025 Tri-History Conference will focus on the history of the Latino Ministry in the Episcopal Church.
Strategic Planning Committee:  This committee has begun to create a strategic plan to move our organization into the future.
Member-at-Large for Creation Care and Environment Justice Chairperson:  The Ad Hoc Creation Care and Environmental Justice Committee nominated Sue Mueller as Chairperson of this committee.  The board approved Sue’s nomination and installed her as chair during the meeting.  A motion was approved to give the committee a line-item budget of $10,000 per year to be taken out of the contingency fund line-item.
Registration of ECW chapters: The NECW continues to encourage all ECWs to register and be counted. ECW chapters may be registered on our website at ecwnational.org.
 
MOTIONS APPROVED:
Donation of $1000 grant awarded to Mosaic Episcopal Church in Pearland, Texas for their Christian Education Fund.
Donation of $1000 grant awarded to the Montana Community Foundation for a contribution to the Snowbird Fund which directly supports indigenous communities in Montana by directly supporting families and community members searching for the missing loved ones.
Donation of $1000 to Episcopal Relief & Development for disaster relief.
Explore the possibility of the National ECW Board’s travel to Cartagena, Columbia for the Province 9 meeting in January 2027.
Donation of $160 to purchase a chair for the library at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Billings, Montana in the name of the National ECW in support of the Women of St. Luke’s Church.
Provide mediation services for conflict resolution to any Province Board in need.
Donation of $200 to Yvonne O’Neal’s for her presentation on Human Trafficking.
Accept Sue Mueller as the Creation Care and Environmental Justice Member-at-Large.
Amend general budget to establish a line-item of $10,000 for the position of Creation Care and Environmental Justice Member-at-Large position.
Establish an NECW Board chaplaincy.
Establish a new procedure for grant applications.  All grant requests must be submitted with a letter of support from Episcopal clergy and be sent to the Social Justice Chair by email.  Applications for Universal grants and Women-to-Women grants must be supportive of ECW’s or of women’s ministries within the Episcopal Church or recognized affiliates of the Episcopal Church Women.  Grants will be a maximum limit of $1000 and a submission date of August 31.  Approval decisions from the NECW Board will be made by November 1.
The NECW will sell t-shirts for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women at $5.00 over costs plus shipping.  Buttons will be sold for $1.00 plus shipping.  The funds will go to the Social Justice line-item budget to support ministries of the Social Justice Committee.
 
BOARD OUTCOMES
Morning Prayer will be offered on Wednesdays on Facebook Live at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
 
Zoom Virtual Workshops will continue to be offered quarterly.
 
Please be on the lookout for Save-the-Date reminders for our next NECW meeting to be held at the Hampton Inn & Suites Rochester Downtown, 101 South Union Street, Rochester, New York, from Friday, September 26, 2025, thru Monday, September 29, 2025.  You are welcomed to attend.  Remember that our Communique magazine is available on-line on the NECW website.  Please monitor the NECW website ecwnational.org regularly for current information and articles.  Sign up on the NECW website for weekly “News Blast” which are sent out on Saturday mornings and are available by email.
 
Continue to send me your newsletters, your reports, and any information about your diocese to my email at [email protected].   This will allow me to have on-going information about you that I will include in my Province II Representative Report to the NECW Board.  Thank you in advance.
 
Dianne Roberts, Esq.
Province II Representative
National Board of Episcopal Church Women
[email protected]