Ayesha Mutope-Johnson
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Multicultural Relations and Racial Reconciliation Network Receives Constable Fund Grant |
The Episcopal Church Executive Council, at its February meeting in Linthicum Heights, MD, approved the recipients of the Constable Fund Grants, totaling $380,000 for seven projects. Among those accepted was "Building Bridges," a proposal submitted by Houston resident Ayesha Mutope-Johnson, chair of Province 7's Multicultural Relations and Racial Reconciliation Network.
The Constable Fund Grant Review Committee was chaired by the Rev. Tanya Wallace, an Executive Council member from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. The Constable Fund provides grants to fund mission initiatives that were not provided for within the budget of the Episcopal Church as approved by General Convention. Wallace explained, “The criteria used for the ranking, in conjunction with the expectations of the grant and its benefactor, were a clear focus on religious education, potential impact of the project, cost-effectiveness and clarity of budget, level of collaboration, and consistency with the priorities of General Convention and the Episcopal Church.”
Wallace said the Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee received 16 applications, which carried combined requests totaling over $1.2 million.
Recipients
The following seven projects receiving 2017 Constable Grants are:
The Constable Grants were named for Mary Louise Constable, who was a visionary philanthropist. In 1935, in the midst of economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression, Constable made a monetary gift to the Episcopal Church to establish the Constable Fund. Her desire and intent to add periodically to the fund during her lifetime was realized and culminated with a very generous final gift at the time of her death in 1951. The language of Constable’s will states that the fund exists “in perpetuity … to apply the net income for the purposes of the Society, preferably for the work in religious education not provided for within the Society’s budget.
The Constable Fund Grant Review Committee was chaired by the Rev. Tanya Wallace, an Executive Council member from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. The Constable Fund provides grants to fund mission initiatives that were not provided for within the budget of the Episcopal Church as approved by General Convention. Wallace explained, “The criteria used for the ranking, in conjunction with the expectations of the grant and its benefactor, were a clear focus on religious education, potential impact of the project, cost-effectiveness and clarity of budget, level of collaboration, and consistency with the priorities of General Convention and the Episcopal Church.”
Wallace said the Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee received 16 applications, which carried combined requests totaling over $1.2 million.
Recipients
The following seven projects receiving 2017 Constable Grants are:
- Building Bridges (Province VII): Support for creative multi-diocese Province VII antiracism project. $29,000.
- Red Shirt Table (Province VI): Support for convocation on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with Presiding Bishop's presence. $40,000.
- Province IX Youth and Young Adult Event Leadership Development (Province IX and Episcopal Church Office of Formation): Support for project to create Spanish language Episcopal Youth Event in Province IX. $40,000.
- Province II Forming Christians (Province II/Diocese of New Jersey): Support to create web-based interactive Christian formation videos for use in the home with families. $50,000.
- Love God, Love Neighbor (Episcopal Migration Ministries): Support for regional educational trainings designed to empower Episcopalians to be agents of reconciliation in the world as allies, advocates, and ambassadors for their refugee neighbors. $60,000.
- Episcopal Asset Map (Episcopal Church Office of Communications): Support to continue important work of the map through rebuilding the site, in partnership with the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Relief & Development. $60,000.
- Our Stories Speak of God (Episcopal Church Office of Evangelism and Reconciliation): Support for collaborative churchwide project to grow faith and relationship through stories (evangelism and reconciliation). $101,000.
The Constable Grants were named for Mary Louise Constable, who was a visionary philanthropist. In 1935, in the midst of economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression, Constable made a monetary gift to the Episcopal Church to establish the Constable Fund. Her desire and intent to add periodically to the fund during her lifetime was realized and culminated with a very generous final gift at the time of her death in 1951. The language of Constable’s will states that the fund exists “in perpetuity … to apply the net income for the purposes of the Society, preferably for the work in religious education not provided for within the Society’s budget.
Reinventing St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in shopping center took ‘a lot of miracles’
By Mary Frances Schjonberg | January 5, 2017 |Editor’s note: This is the third in a continuing series about the reinvention of the EpiscopalDiocese of Fort Worth. Other stories in the series can be found here.
[Episcopal News Service – Hurst, Texas] At first glance, Village Plaza looks like any other shopping center in the Fort Worth metro area – until you see that there’s not one but three storefront churches. The newest, situated between Yori, an Asian fusion restaurant, and Thai Thip restaurant is St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
The shopping center is the third place St. Stephen’s Episcopalians have called home since 2008. First, there was the local Women’s Club building and then the Northeast Wedding Chapel. Each place was limited by the cost of rent and when it was available. So, some members went looking for a new place and the idea of moving to a shopping center came up because, as Diane Snow put it, they thought such a location “might be appealing to non-traditional church goers.”
The Episcopal Church Building Fund helped the congregation lease the space that had once housed a dance studio where one member’s daughter took classes years ago. “It was quite a risk in getting started here,” Snow said, explaining that the members wondered if it had enough room, and no one knew how long they would be there.
They took the risk, gutting the space and turning it into a multipurpose sanctuary in 2014. And, while for most Episcopalians the image of a traditional church with stained glass windows and a big organ symbolizes the presence of the holy, the Rev. Bob Gross, a formerly retired priest who now serves the congregation, said, “I’ve felt the Holy Spirit here.”
Others have, too, and newcomers have arrived. Some bring children and so the congregation offers Sunday school – in the kitchen right behind where the altar is current placed. It’s a good thing that Gross “has a nice booming voice,” said Rebecca McKneely, a member of St. Stephen’s since 1992.
St. Stephen’s is finding ways to minister to the community outside of Sunday. It is one of the saints of the 4 Saints Food Pantry. The members also collect food for the Fort Worth AIDS Outreach Center and they regularly cook supper at the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth.
And then there’s their Little Free Library out front. It looks like a little traditional church, complete with painted stained glass windows, a red door and a “slate” roof. Beside it are two chairs and anyone is welcome to take a book from the small collection inside. Each book comes with a St. Stephen’s bookmark.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
Post – Election Message
November 9, 2016
Gulf Coast Episcopal Dioceses Respond to
Severe Flooding
In the Diocese of Western Louisiana, Disaster Coordinator Deacon Lois Maberry writes that assessment efforts are currently underway to ensure that people in flooded areas are accounted for and safely sheltered, and that damage assessment will begin when the water recedes. Her message encourages donations to Episcopal Relief & Development and states: ”As conditions improve and there are needs for volunteers I will send out other communications. In the meantime, if churches would like to donate something tangible, please consider gift cards. These are easily mailed to the churches in the area and can be given out as needed for various supplies.” FEMA warns of heavy rain through August 20 from Texas to Alabama and likely flooding in Louisiana and further north along the Mississippi River.
Emergency preparedness activities such as creating a disaster kit and ensuring adequate supplies of food and water at home are outlined in Episcopal Relief & Development’s web resources. Please continue to pray for all those impacted by storms and flooding, for first responders who are conducting rescue operations and for church communities who are reaching out to care for their most vulnerable members and neighbors. To enable Episcopal Relief & Development to respond to the current Gulf Coast flooding and support emergency preparedness and long-term recovery efforts in the United States, please donate to the US Disaster Response Fund. - See more at: http://www.episcopalrelief.org/press-and-resources/press-releases/2016-press-releases/gulf-coast-episcopal-dioceses-respond-to-severe-flooding#Aug162016
Emergency preparedness activities such as creating a disaster kit and ensuring adequate supplies of food and water at home are outlined in Episcopal Relief & Development’s web resources. Please continue to pray for all those impacted by storms and flooding, for first responders who are conducting rescue operations and for church communities who are reaching out to care for their most vulnerable members and neighbors. To enable Episcopal Relief & Development to respond to the current Gulf Coast flooding and support emergency preparedness and long-term recovery efforts in the United States, please donate to the US Disaster Response Fund. - See more at: http://www.episcopalrelief.org/press-and-resources/press-releases/2016-press-releases/gulf-coast-episcopal-dioceses-respond-to-severe-flooding#Aug162016
Combating Hate With Racial Reconciliation
by Ayesha Mutope-Johnson, Provincial Chair, Anti-Racism Network
Today is July 9, 2016.
Three nights ago, a friend and fellow member of our local chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians called and asked what we were going to do about the killing of brother Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge who, just the day before, was shot by police at point blank range while they had him pinned to the ground. I started to write, and there was pain.
I turned away distracted and checked my Facebook feed.
There was this woman, now known as Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, who had posted just 9 minutes earlier the record of the brutal and bloody murder of her boyfriend, Philando Castile. She was practically screaming, and crying – clearly in fear for her own life also – claiming as she videotaped on her phone that the police had shot her boyfriend in the arm, and pleading to God to not let him die and “go out like that”. As the video progressed you could hear her 4-year old daughter growing into a woman that day as she tried to comfort her mother with words of love.
This was fresh and raw, and just one day after the earlier death, that I had not yet been able to process.
It is three days later, and I am now returning to the task that I started on July 6th – because the pain was too great. A couple of my White friends were very compassionate and quickly reached out with a brief comforting word – one on Facebook, one by email and next day, one on the telephone.
What I feel today, practically every Black man and woman (and many Black young people) also feels. A sense of helplessness, a feeling of despair, a tsunami of hopelessness and tons of fear. Some are feeling anger (a secondary emotion, driven by fear.)
We march peacefully in Dallas and Atlanta – like we did in Ferguson. We dare not show our anger in mass, we dare not congregate with hate on the street, let no one throw a bottle, or a trash can, or break a storefront window – oh, then it would be Watts all over again. Besides, that is not productive anyways.
So we pray, we reach out to our friends, we post on Facebook and Twitter and other social media.
And while we are stewing in this swamp of hopelessness, stagnant and unable to move or show our emotions – authentically – a lone, mentally unbalanced brother in Dallas, back from two tours in Afghanistan, loses it and shoots 11 police officers. Horror! He has now descended into what Martin Luther King warned us against, and each and every Black person is tagged, and painted with that same brush.
No, we are not all angry. No, this woman refuses to live in fear. I like to say I’m too old to run so I can’t participate in the revolution. Ha! But, there is something I can do…
I will fight the way I know how.
Racial reconciliation is what I do. I will look at your face, look into your eyes, and seek the ally in you. If I find it, and if you will please seek me out, let’s open the conversations everywhere.
Let’s proceed with our study of Jim Wallis’ book, “America’s Original Sin: Race, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America”, starting September 11 (of all days).
Let’s read Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Let’s talk to others – help them to understand how to fight the revolution with knowledge, and education, and sharing with people of all stripes reconciliatory language and touch and action.
Let’s talk to our little ones. Turn off the gory recount of the stories on television and discuss love and goodness and hope and reconciliation.
Let’s resolve, here and now, today, to do more, no, to do all we can to reverse this culture of viciousness and hate that comes from fear – by how we vote and by how we approach each other as strangers on the streets and by we treat each other – friend, loved one and stranger – today.
Three nights ago, a friend and fellow member of our local chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians called and asked what we were going to do about the killing of brother Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge who, just the day before, was shot by police at point blank range while they had him pinned to the ground. I started to write, and there was pain.
I turned away distracted and checked my Facebook feed.
There was this woman, now known as Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, who had posted just 9 minutes earlier the record of the brutal and bloody murder of her boyfriend, Philando Castile. She was practically screaming, and crying – clearly in fear for her own life also – claiming as she videotaped on her phone that the police had shot her boyfriend in the arm, and pleading to God to not let him die and “go out like that”. As the video progressed you could hear her 4-year old daughter growing into a woman that day as she tried to comfort her mother with words of love.
This was fresh and raw, and just one day after the earlier death, that I had not yet been able to process.
It is three days later, and I am now returning to the task that I started on July 6th – because the pain was too great. A couple of my White friends were very compassionate and quickly reached out with a brief comforting word – one on Facebook, one by email and next day, one on the telephone.
What I feel today, practically every Black man and woman (and many Black young people) also feels. A sense of helplessness, a feeling of despair, a tsunami of hopelessness and tons of fear. Some are feeling anger (a secondary emotion, driven by fear.)
We march peacefully in Dallas and Atlanta – like we did in Ferguson. We dare not show our anger in mass, we dare not congregate with hate on the street, let no one throw a bottle, or a trash can, or break a storefront window – oh, then it would be Watts all over again. Besides, that is not productive anyways.
So we pray, we reach out to our friends, we post on Facebook and Twitter and other social media.
And while we are stewing in this swamp of hopelessness, stagnant and unable to move or show our emotions – authentically – a lone, mentally unbalanced brother in Dallas, back from two tours in Afghanistan, loses it and shoots 11 police officers. Horror! He has now descended into what Martin Luther King warned us against, and each and every Black person is tagged, and painted with that same brush.
No, we are not all angry. No, this woman refuses to live in fear. I like to say I’m too old to run so I can’t participate in the revolution. Ha! But, there is something I can do…
I will fight the way I know how.
Racial reconciliation is what I do. I will look at your face, look into your eyes, and seek the ally in you. If I find it, and if you will please seek me out, let’s open the conversations everywhere.
Let’s proceed with our study of Jim Wallis’ book, “America’s Original Sin: Race, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America”, starting September 11 (of all days).
Let’s read Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Let’s talk to others – help them to understand how to fight the revolution with knowledge, and education, and sharing with people of all stripes reconciliatory language and touch and action.
Let’s talk to our little ones. Turn off the gory recount of the stories on television and discuss love and goodness and hope and reconciliation.
Let’s resolve, here and now, today, to do more, no, to do all we can to reverse this culture of viciousness and hate that comes from fear – by how we vote and by how we approach each other as strangers on the streets and by we treat each other – friend, loved one and stranger – today.
Missional Communities Give Voice to the Gospel
by Bishop Andrew Doyle, Diocese of Texas
The Gospel of God in Christ Jesus will not be deterred by economic variables and, even now, is at work in the world outside the buildings and institutions of the Church. God is the sower of seeds in the world.
I’ve called churches in our Diocese to establish 50 missional communities in five years because we seek to write a new narrative—one of a growing and thriving Christian community. We are making the future today. We seek new ways to turn the tables on the economic stumbling blocks characteristic of the one priest+one building=1 congregation model and to provide a fully voiced Gospel in our communities.
Our “attractional” church model undertakes evangelism through invitation and welcome, and by connecting people within a congregation. A “sending” church model undertakes evangelism by multiplying Christian communities of all sizes, either by establishing second locations or missional communities, or both. These missional communities—or small batch Christian communities—are established by a group of people about the size of an extended family, sent into the world to live as missionaries who chose to serve a specific group. (Small Batch, p. 120).
The initiative to start missional communities also takes a chapter from the Maker Movement, which began in the technology industry and spread throughout our culture. This “small batch” approach to creating new techniques and processes—new products—centers on small, local and sustainable goals. It can be seen in the microbrewery explosion, artisan chocolatiers, local bakeries and coffee roasters, things like the rise of farmers markets selling locally sourced products.
(Continued at www.epicenter.org/article/missional-communities-give-voice-to-the-gospel/)
I’ve called churches in our Diocese to establish 50 missional communities in five years because we seek to write a new narrative—one of a growing and thriving Christian community. We are making the future today. We seek new ways to turn the tables on the economic stumbling blocks characteristic of the one priest+one building=1 congregation model and to provide a fully voiced Gospel in our communities.
Our “attractional” church model undertakes evangelism through invitation and welcome, and by connecting people within a congregation. A “sending” church model undertakes evangelism by multiplying Christian communities of all sizes, either by establishing second locations or missional communities, or both. These missional communities—or small batch Christian communities—are established by a group of people about the size of an extended family, sent into the world to live as missionaries who chose to serve a specific group. (Small Batch, p. 120).
The initiative to start missional communities also takes a chapter from the Maker Movement, which began in the technology industry and spread throughout our culture. This “small batch” approach to creating new techniques and processes—new products—centers on small, local and sustainable goals. It can be seen in the microbrewery explosion, artisan chocolatiers, local bakeries and coffee roasters, things like the rise of farmers markets selling locally sourced products.
(Continued at www.epicenter.org/article/missional-communities-give-voice-to-the-gospel/)
Council's Young Wonder
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By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, The Living Church
Thomas Alexander was finishing breakfast and preparing to join fellow members of Executive Council for Morning Prayer one day in November when he demonstrated two gifts he brings to that body: a wry sense of humor and a knack for understatement. “I seem to be younger than a lot of the other people,” said Alexander, 19. The average age of Executive Council’s members is closer to 60 than 20. He is the lay representative from Province VII. A sophomore at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, Alexander is the only council member who needed an undergraduate dean’s permission to serve on the governing board, because attendance at council meetings requires him to leave campus for four or five days each year. Alexander is confident that what he brings to the table is not an ability to speak for his generation. What he provides, in addition to a sharp wit, might be a clear sense how the church can meet 21st-century needs without pandering or compromising its identity. He believes council members appreciate him in that capacity and not as a youthful token. “They’re not, you know, putting words in my mouth as a young person,” he said, noting that 19-year-olds are not monolithic and no one speaks for all of them. “There hasn’t been any, like, Let’s ask Thomas because he’s young. They kind of get it that you shouldn’t do that.” Clad in a bow tie and speaking in measured tones, Alexander presents as a man mature beyond his years. He’s quickly building a denominational résumé to match. In 2013, at age 17, he served on the mission planning team for the 2014 Episcopal Youth Event, which drew 1,000 participants. Last year he represented the Diocese of Arkansas as a General Convention deputy. Before seeking the deputy role, he wondered if he might be too young. But he decided it was the right time to become involved with so much change afoot — from the election of a new presiding bishop to the adoption of new canons, new task forces, and a continuing effort to restructure the church. “All these different changes, I think, are putting us in a different direction,” he said. “I was attracted to that.” |
Alexander describes himself as one who has always been drawn to new things, as well as to traditional forms in church life. His parents, both devout Episcopalians, established his faith roots in a new church plant of the 1990s: St. Margaret’s in Little Rock. His passion for Gregorian chant and other monastic music grew out of his experience at Christ Church, also in Little Rock, where he now worships.
At Hendrix, he combined the traditional with the innovative last fall by launching a weekly, chant-based Compline service that draws around 25 people every Sunday night. It could be seen as a type of evangelism, he says, albeit not a conventional one. It has involved recruiting non-Christian singers by assuring them their gifts are needed to help a Christian activity succeed. Compline also lets people come and engage on any level they wish. Some treat it purely as a concert. Others find it provides nice background music for reading, or as an opportunity to lie down in a pew and relax. “It does different things for different people,” he said. “I think for Episcopalians that can be hard. As creed-based, liturgy-based people, we kind of like having our This is what Christianity looks like. We can see here. It’s pretty formulaic. But there’s just all these different experiences going on. And that’s the beauty of being in the Episcopal Church: it’s that that’s okay.” Alexander is starting to make a name for himself in the church’s leadership circles, not so much because of his age as despite it. Click to continue. |
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Anti-Racism Network Welcomes New Chair
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Sherry Denton, President of Province 7, has announced the appointment of Ayesha Mutope-Johnson as Chair of the Anti-Racism Network for the Province.
Born in the Caribbean, Ayesha is a cradle Anglican who taught Sunday school in her native country of Trinidad and Tobago before straying far, far from the church to “find herself.” When she renewed her faith and joined the Episcopal Church, the unmistakable joy of the elegant and ceremonial liturgical worship captured her senses. A member of St. James Episcopal Church, Houston, since 1991, Ayesha has served on the vestry, the long-range planning committee, the school board, the school strategic planning committee (chair), the school fundraising committee (chair), the Head of School search committee (chair), and the visioning board for rebuilding the church after it was demolished by a tornado. She is a member of Daughters of the King, Episcopal Church Women, the Ushers Guild, Lectors, new member mentors and the Christian Formation Commission. Ayesha teaches adult Christian Education, conceiving, designing and preparing her own syllabi after careful research. Annually, since its inception at St. James 10 years ago, she has taught the adult class in Vacation Bible School. As an attorney of some 30 years, Ayesha has served as Chancellor at St. James since 2011, and has made a point of working pro bono for the church as well as for needy clients. In 2014, she retired, closed her law practice, and began to pursue, on a part time basis, Christian Counseling, for which she completed a Master of Arts degree and was credentialed as a Licensed Professional Counselor. |
Ayesha Mutope-Johnson
A member of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE) since 2005, Ayesha has begun research and preparation for conducting racial reconciliation programs in her home community of Houston. In September 2014, just one month after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, as Programming Chair of the Rev. John Dublin Epps Chapter of UBE, Ayesha organized a paneldiscussion: “Intergenerational Perspectives on the Church’s Mission for People of Color,” which broached the very current issues of extra-judicial killings of young Black men in America’s cities. This discussion led to a Bishop’s meeting to advance the concerns of people of color within the Diocese of Texas, and has been instrumental in supporting the Bishop’s efforts to lead the dialog that will serve to dismantle, tooth and nail, racism in the Diocese.
Ayesha is married to Caliph Johnson, and has three adult children and three grandchildren. |
