GOL @ GENCON24 Schedule
In true Gathering of Leaders’ style, we’re embracing peer-learning and hearing directly from some of our Participants themselves. As faithful and hope-filled leaders in the Church they’re creative ministries are bringing new life. See you at the ECF/GOL Booth
Jun 22 @ 12 pm ET – Miriam McKinney – Social Justice Storytime
Jun 22 @ 1 pm ET – Kyle Oliver – Playing Our Way to a More Mature Faith
Jun 23 @ 12 pm ET – Lydia Bucklin – Wild Church
Jun 23 @ 1 pm ET – Pamela Dolan – Greening Your Church, Greening You Soul
Jun 24 @ 1 pm ET – Jen Enriquez – Tell Me the Truth About Racism
Jun 24 @ 2 pm ET – Heidi Carter – Is the Lay Order a Thing?
Jun 25 @ 3 pm ET – Callie Swanland – Kinship & Porkchops
Learn more about the presenters
Miriam McKinney will present on social justice and story telling for adults. Miriam Willard McKenney is Forward Movement’s Director of Development and Mission Engagement, and she serves on The Episcopal Church’s Way of Love working group. She’s also the Youth Minister at Calvary Episcopal Church in Cincinnati. In the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Miriam serves on the Commission on Ministry and the Becoming Beloved Community Leadership Team. She received a UTO grant from the diocese to combine radical honesty and picture books to help congregations enter into the work of racial reconciliation. Before joining Forward Movement’s staff in 2010, Miriam followed God’s call to be a librarian and was a children’s librarian and school media specialist for more than 20 years.
Kyle Oliver is an Episcopal priest, educational media producer and researcher, and creator of Liturgy Illuminated, A (Christian) Formation Playbook, and the documentary podcast Becoming Tapestry. He teaches Christian education at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. will make a case for adult play and convene a conversation about how to nurture playful learning in your congregation.
The Rev. Lydia Bucklin is the Canon to the Ordinary for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. Join Lydia to learn about UP Wild, the fastest growing faith expression in her diocese. Visit wild.org for more info.
The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan is the author of Contemplative Gardening, a story about a church garden that brought her closer to God, creation, and her parishioners, as well as a guide to using gardening as a spiritual practice. Pamela is the rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Martin in Davis, California, a “zero carbon church” and the subject of a Fossil Free Zones video shown at the faith pavilion at COP28 in Dubai. Pamela will be signing copies of her book and will have the video available as well.
Have questions about “going green”? Come chat with Pamela about everything from carbon neutrality to eco-preaching.
Jen Holt Enriquez discerned a call to ministry through her involvement with Forma,
while working with children and youth at St. Christopher’s in the Diocese of Chicago.
Jen expanded here ministry to include teaching children skills and giving them tools
for finding peace in themselves and their world via Peace Camp in 2017. In 2020
Jen sought a way to talk to kids about racism and in collaboration with Rev. Will
Bouvel created Tell Me the Truth About Racism, a set of stories designed to invite
children and adults into conversation about the problem of racism through the lens
of faith.
Jen is mom to middle schoolers Helena and Luke, plus 3 wiener dogs. She loves
morning walks and getting her hands dirty in her garden in her spare time. Jen Holt
Enriquez is an attorney by formal education.
Heidi J.A. Carter, a Lay Professional, writer and consultant in the church, has spent half of her thirty years in ministry on Diocesan staff, and half in local parishes. In addition to the work of this project, she currently serves as a writer and content creator for Episcopal Relief & Development. Heidi is working on a project regarding Lay Ministry. Come and learn about how your experience can help the development of a resource for Commissions on Ministry across the church. We hope to provide new questions and directions for COM’s, so they can better-embrace and support the ministries of all the baptized into the life of the church, as directed by our ministry canons.
Rev. Callie Swanlund is the author of From Weary to Wholehearted: A Restorative Resource for Overcoming Clergy Burnout. Many of us are experiencing overwhelm or burnout, which often isolates us from one another. But we were created as communal creatures; as author Kaitlin Curtice describes it, there is a thread from our heart center to the heart center of every living being, connecting us and our actions to one another. Callie will share how making connections with one another can reduce our stress and lead to flourishing. You’re invited to come be nourished, reflect, share, laugh, and be reminded of your belovedness. (And aren’t you at least a little curious about where porkchops fit in?)