DISPATCHES
june edition
Resources, Updates, and Good News from the ADNE
DISPATCHES is our monthly update that seeks to keep you advised of news, developments, and resources that support our shared priorities and initiatives across the diocese.
Our priorities are: Youth & Family Ministry, Leadership Development & Clergy Care, Global Mission, and the Reawakening of New England
PRIORITY: THE REAWAKENING OF NEW ENGLAND
Join us for the 5th annual Reawakening Conference with the Anglican Diocese in New England as we explore our 2025 theme:
“The Power of the Promise - Unbreakable hope for a divided and broken world”
October 17-18, 2025 | Grace Chapel | 59 Worthen Rd Lexington, MA 0242
Introducing The Rev. Ethan Magness, Reawakening Plenary Speaker
Ethan Magness is the founding rector of Grace Anglican Church in Grove City, PA. Ethan is married to Monique, and they have three daughters - Cora, Ella, and Avelina. Grace Church began in 2006 a few weeks before Ethan was ordained, and has developed into a multi-staff parish within the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh with about 275 residents and 275 undergraduate students from local colleges. The center of Ethan's ministry and Grace Church's emphasis is the Gospel of Jesus's absolution. In his spare time, Ethan likes to paint, draw, write poetry, cook Indian food, and watch The Office.
PRIORITY: YOUTH AND FAMILY
Pictured above: “My beloved son and daughter” from the 2024 ADNE Middle School Retreat by Kate Norris and ADNE middle schoolers!
Gospel Crash Course for Parents and Youth Workers
Contact The Rev. Kate Norris to set up a visit with your church!
kate@dandelionministries.org or kate@adne.org
Recently, The Rev. Eliud Mwangi from Holy Trinity Anglican Church invited me to lead a training for his youth volunteers. He wanted to get creative ideas for sharing the Gospel with different developmental ages of kids. He wanted to empower his team with a greater knowledge of Scripture and how to use every story to give the kids Jesus.
I gave a gospel framework that you can apply to any curriculum or any Scripture story that you are telling, whether with your own kids or kids you teach in Sunday School or youth group. Then I gave some practical tips on methods for different developmental stages - things that I have learned that connect with kids (of all ages;).
I did not grow up babysitting a lot or spending a lot of time around little children. When Sean and I started to want to have our own children, I felt like I was learning from scratch. We happened to be in seminary at the time, preparing to plant a church. Here is what I have learned that has really helped me draw strength from the Scriptures and have joy in sharing it.
Reach out to me if you’d like this for your parents and youth teams.
Here’s what Eliud and his team thought about it:
“I was delighted to have Revd Kate Norris train our kids, teens and youth ministry teachers. This was in line with our ADNE 12- month missional plan of starting teachers’ education and training...”
”Suffice to mention, this became the eye opener to our team as they found a new approach for ministering to our kids, teens and youths. It’s imperative that I would recommend this training to all the teachers and volunteers of the said groups and in our respective churches within the ADNE...”
”With the youth, teens and kids church being our mission tool as a church and I believe the same with other churches in our diocese I would highly recommend Revd Kate, to consider having these one-on-one sessions with various teams to help us navigate the dynamics of the latter...”
Contact The Rev. Kate Norris:
kate.norris@adne.org or kate@dandelionministries.org
Cell: 516.279.7896
ADNE Teen Retreat, May 16-18 2025
70 teen, tweens, and volunteers piled out of cars and into Pilgrim Pines at Swanzey Lake, New Hampshire under a threatening sky last Friday night. The rains actually held off (but the puddles caught us by surprise in the dark!) Hosted by the Anglican Diocese in New England, and run by yours truly, we gathered from New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to hear from Jesus. We expected a weekend of energy, silliness, and mud. We did not expect the Lord to go quite so deep… or to laugh quite so hard!
We walked through the Lord’s prayer over the weekend. Jesus’ friends asked him how to pray—God can feel far away, prayer can feel hard to start, we can feel distracted and stuck. Jesus knows this. So he gave us his words, his promises, as an anchor for our soul. He wanted us to say his promises back to him when we are going through the opposite of them. In the midst of loneliness, he says to call on His Father as “Our Father” (John 14:6,7) When we are hungry for friends, for peace, for acceptance, and we are trying to fill that hunger in all the wrong ways, Jesus leads us to say, “Give us our daily bread… forgive me… help me forgive them.” His grace is the real food we need (John 6:35). He is the source of life. In the third talk, we talked about the Holy Spirit. Jesus and God the Father give us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is always praying for us and through us in ways too deep for words (Romans 8:26-28). We painted, we listened to music, we considered all the things that speak to us deeper than words. That creativity is a gift from the Lord, to help us release the buried things inside us to give them to Jesus. It is also a way for God to speak to us, deep in our soul. In Jesus, God promises to carry us through evil and even death itself. Say my words back to me, I will keep all my promises to you.
As we looked at all the ways we try to get our needs met on our own, without Jesus as the source, we were led to say sorry. Jesus leads us to repent by the context surrounding the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6. He is holding up a mirror to hypocrites, to people pleasers, to those of us stuck in resentment; he is leading us to realize we need him… he is getting us ready to cry out this prayer. In the center of this prayer, Jesus assures us of his forgiveness.
We used paint (of course) to make our Spirit-led confession.
“Save me, us, them” we prayed as we laid our hands in paint and set them on the wood.
Jesus’ reply is “already done.”
The huge, white thumbprint represents Christ’s hands leaning in to touch ours, healing, forgiving, reassuring us by his death and resurrection.
We all took one of God’s promises and made it our own. We painted something about ourselves and what it meant to us. (What the kids didn’t realize is that they painted in fluorescent paint!)
That night, we hit the black lights and - surprise! The huge thumbprint and the kids’ “promise portraits” glowed! They did not expect that. The art showed that Jesus exceeds our expectations. He satisfies our hunger to overflowing and answers our cries. We talked about the Holy Spirit, and showed how he is always interceding for us, deeper than words, in ways art can show. We locked it in with personal testimonies from Piper and Bp. Drew, and me. Kids came up for prayer. One met Jesus for the first time. Others, asked for help. Our souls rested - knowing Jesus loved us and was with us.
And then we went crazy! During the retreat, our special guests, Linda from Long Island, Jimmy from Queens, and Lewis from Australia were on a hunt to find the queen of all swans at SWANzey Lake… they found her! The kids UN-talent show ended with a glow-in-the-dark global dance party bouncing around a giant pool toy! It made sense.
When we asked the kids, “What was their favorite part of the retreat?” They answered:
“Epic swan dance party”
“Ropes’ course”
“the food!” (and a cookie tray every night!)
“archery”
“beating Ben in basketball”
“painting”
“worship”
“making new friends and hanging out with good ones”
“the lake”
Join us next year! Jesus’ promise stands for you today and every day: cry out to me, I will answer you.
…for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen
(Matthew 6:8-13)
RECENT NEWS
Photos from Celso Taveras’ priestly ordination at Grace Anglican Church in Bridgewater, MA.
Thank you for supporting the ministries and priorities of the Anglican Diocese of New England.
The Anglican Diocese in New England wants to be on mission together: every parishioner, every member of the clergy, and every church. As a family of churches reaching across the breadth of New England, God is calling us to serve in the reawakening of the Northeast.
We can do so much more in God when we work together.
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May God the Holy Spirit make us steadfast in faith, joyful in hope and constant in love.
