EfM: Discern and Discover 2024
a multi-diocese Zoom event in Pennsylvania
A first-ever EfM event for anyone from Pennsylvania interested in EfM was held via Zoom on July 25 of this year. Sixty people registered and 25 attended. This was our brainchild, the three EfM Pennsylvania Coordinators: Alan Lindsay, Diocese of Pennsylvania (the Philadelphia area), Cathy Bailey, Diocese of Bethlehem, and Mary Novello, Diocese of Central PA.
Mary had attended the first onsite, post-Covid Coordinator training, led by Cathy and Terri Bailey (Cathy and Terri are not related) at Sewanee last Spring. The group heard of the wonderful events put on by mentors in Diocese where there were lots of EfM groups. Neither Cathy nor Mary had sufficient numbers to put on an event in their own diocese. Lamenting this, the idea struck: Might they get enough people interested if all 5 Pennsylvania dioceses (Pittsburgh, Northwestern PA, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem, and Central PA) participated? Cathy and Mary invited Alan to join in the planning, and we were off to the races (the remaining two dioceses do not have coordinators, but we included them anyway).
We had lots of ideas, and no budget. So, we used the resources that were handy.
We enlisted the Rev. Kevin Goodman, our new EfM Executive Director, to be our Keynote Speaker. We had heard him give a presentation about new EfM programs, and lead a theological reflection about EfM, and thought that might be of interest.
We envisioned a video welcome from each of our diocesan Bishops. Cathy led an effort to corral them at General Convention and shot a short introduction with the help of a Diocese of Bethlehem staffer. A Diocese of PA staffer helped edit it. The Bishops were happy to lend their enthusiastic support.
EfM staff provided an excellent list of over 1000 names and email addresses of people who are or were trainers, mentors, participants, or coordinators with Pennsylvania addresses.
An EfM grad and owner of a digital communications company designed the invitation, a landing page, and social media ads.
The Diocese of Central PA offered the use of their Constant Contact account to send out invitations with RSVPs. We used their Zoom account to host the event. This enabled us to have a list of approved registrants before the event started, and to send a survey afterwards. They also provided a wonderful tech assistant who helped during the event.
While we had our share of glitches, for our first time, we did well. Participants encouraged us to offer similar events again.
We want to send our deep gratitude to Kevin for an inspiring presentation, and to everyone else who helped to make this event possible, as well.
We hope you enjoy the Zoom video of our event.
Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Bailey
Alan Lindsay
Mary Novello
Event Agenda
Opening Prayer - Cathy Bailey, Coordinator, Diocese of Bethlehem
Welcome from the Bishops of Pennsylvania
Introduction of Key Note Speaker - Mary Novello, Coordinator, Diocese of Central PA
From Seminars to Streets - The Rev. Kevin M. Goodman, executive director, EfM
Wrap up and Closing Prayer - Alan Lindsay, Coordinator, Diocese of Pennsylvania
