The Executive Council

The Faith Formation Working Group is dedicated to assisting congregations in the lifelong process of learning and growing in the Christian faith. The Working Group covers the lifelong journey of faith, dividing the work with Amy Cook focusing on adults and Caren Miles focusing on children, youth, and Whole & Healthy Church.  Together, the Faith Formation Working Group consults, provides and curates resources, designs and leads training, and supports congregations and institutions of the diocese in their work of creating safe and transformational environments for learning and growing in faith. 

This past year was shaped by the election process as well as supporting Bishop Marc in his last year as bishop by wrapping up projects and directives from him. This was also a year marked by cleaning, reorganizing, and sprucing up the diocesan offices in anticipation of a new bishop. At the same time, both Caren and Amy increased visits to churches, having conversation with folks across the diocese, and seeking to support local innovation.

Amy Cook:

Here are some of the areas of my work since Diocesan Convention in 2023:

• Vital + Thriving– This year I have worked with the Vital +Thriving team at the Center for Church Innovation to find different ways of sharing information and connecting with the churches involved in the program. I support the lay Steering Teams and Listening Teams in the Vital + Thriving program which now involves 1/3 of the churches in the diocese. It is a delight to visit with the different teams and attend Sunday morning services in our different churches to see what churches are learning about themselves and their neighborhoods. A new cohort will be added in January 2025 bringing us to four different cohorts of churches on this journey of discovering God’s mission.
• Supporting Vocations – I continue to co-facilitate the Day of Discernment with our Vocations Officer, Dr. Travis Stevens, as well as support the planning and facilitation at the Vocations Conference. Together we are revising the Local Discernment Committee materials and updating discernment resources. These past few years I also helped in the creation of the new online School for Deacons offered through Bexley-Seabury seminary. This new online diaconal training is the first of its kind for the entire Episcopal Church. Ten other dioceses have been using this revamped School for Deacons to support their own diaconal formation, and more will be utilizing the school in the coming year.
• Finishing Projects – This year we wrapped up various projects with Bishop Marc Andrus, such as the Sacred Earth webcasts which ended in February of 2024, with over 1000 attendees for these online offerings.
• Expanding online training – this has been the year to expand online offerings for vestries and small groups through our DioCal school with Church Next. I am able to access hundreds of courses and make them accessible for free for our churches. This year, popular courses included Vestry Formation and the conflict between Israel and Palestine along with the Becoming Beloved Community training. Altogether there are more than 400 users for these courses.
• Supporting Formation– I continue to support our college chaplains and to offer resources to churches and diocesan committees and institutions. I have enjoyed opportunities to preach or lead retreats (vestry or otherwise) when invited.

Caren Miles:

In January I, along with a number of youth and children’s ministers, lay and ordained, volunteer and paid, attended the FORMA conference online from the comfort of our homes and offices. The Faith Formation office offered full scholarships to all who wished to attend. We were able to learn from and meet with formation ministers from across the Episcopal Church. Our working group will continue to work with FORMA (and offer scholarships) in preparation for their hybrid conference in January 2025.

With the direct support of my office, three deaneries (Alameda, Contra Costa, and Southern Alameda) continued to build on partnerships formed over the last few years. They have been meeting together once a month for fellowship, community, service, and worship.

It is our hope in 2025 to expand this teamwork into the other deaneries, as well as bringing the youth together at the Diocesan level. We are beginning to envision youth activities in the coming year and also beginning to dream about a Diocesan Summer Youth Trip. With renewed energy around youth ministry coming out of the Visioning Sessions we are optimistic about the possibilities the coming year brings.

Much of my time both in the office and around the Diocese has been focused on Safe Church. That includes facilitating training, both in-person and online, and LiveScan fingerprinting (over 550 people so far!) to keep our congregations current with California Law. I have also spent time doing Title IV intake and pastoral care, and assisting congregations with conflict resolution and lay misconduct. In the next few months we will be onboarding and training new Title IV Intake Officers who do not work at the Diocesan Office in order to better serve the needs of the Diocese.