This year our children’s programming focuses on sharing stories: Bible stories from long ago that are central to our faith; stories from our community; and stories from our own lives. Through our stories, our faith, our love for God, and our love for one another take root and flourish.

In Sunday School we all will become Storymakers. Our Storymakers curriculum creatively retells stories from the Old and New Testaments through art, fun facts, theater, hands-on projects, and social-emotional prompts. Each child will receive a “zine,” which is a combination guide, workbook, and magazine (get it, “zine”). This is a fabulous program that will bend and flex with us, as we continue to adapt to the ever-changing realities of community health—whether we’re gathered under fresh-air canopies in our Cloister garden (tents like Abraham and Sarah!), or within our homes. We’ll share details and ways to participate in September.

Registration for Sunday School begins on Rally Day, Sunday, September 12. Our first day of Sunday School will be on Sunday morning, September 26. Sunday School is open to all children in PreK through 5th grade; and 6th graders, we have a special invitation for you this fall, as well. It’s going to be a great year!

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, 

When we began our search for a new rector in 2020, none of us could have imagined how transformed the world, our lives, and our life together as a parish would be by the ensuing months. Many things have shifted over the year and a half, but our core commitments and vision for the future of our parish have remained clear. “We are called to seek and serve Christ in all people and work with God to transform our world through love and generosity.” Core to this way of being together is having the leadership and staff to help guide and nurture our shared ministry. Since the leave-taking of our previous rector, we have remained understaffed for the work we believe God is calling us to as a parish.

For many years, we have proclaimed and worked to live into our core commitments of nurturing faith for all generations. We believe it is time to invest in this commitment in new and vital ways by hiring a full-time Director of Youth and Lifelong Formation. This position will bring a steady leadership to the lives of our youth and their families in spiritual growth, as well as work alongside the staff and leadership of the parish to help create opportunities for connection across the generations of the parish. Hiring this position is an essential step in strengthening our ministry here at Epiphany and reaching out to the larger community of Winchester and beyond. Bryn Hollenbeck will remain on staff in the part-time position of Director of Children’s Ministry and Parish Life. She will focus on formation for children and our Midweek at Epiphany programming. We believe that now is the perfect time to deepen our commitment to the future of our parish as we regather and renew our life together.

In addition, the rector and vestry believe that we must work to hire an additional clergy person to help support and grow our parish ministry. As a parish, we have flourished under a clergy team where there was creative, collaborative, and shared leadership. This vision for our staffing returns us to where we were before the pandemic and we believe that now is the time to renew our commitment to a strong future that is dedicated to care, support, nurture, and growth across the generations.

With this in mind, we write to tell you of the vestry’s support and approval for the hiring of these two crucial staff positions. Indeed, these actions will increase our annual budget and ask a commitment from us all to sustain them into the future. However, we believe that this is the future God is calling us to as a parish—committed to the nurture and growth of the children, youth, and families of the parish, as well as expanding our current ministry together as a fully intergenerational parish. With our support, Rev. Nick will begin the search process for hiring both a minister for youth and a clergy associate here at Epiphany.

We are excited for the coming years even as we acknowledge the challenges that are ahead for us and our world. Let us not tire from doing what is good and right and faithful to God’s call in our life together as the Parish of the Epiphany, for indeed, God is with us, leading us on, and it is here that growth and new life is before us always (Galatians 6:9). We are very grateful for your trust in us and commitment to our parish family as we seek to lead and respond to God’s directing Spirit among us. We give thanks for you and rejoice in what lies ahead for us all.

God’s peace to you,
The Rev. Nick Myers, Rector
Suzanne Owayda, Warden
Dave McSweeney, Warden

We invite you to join us this fall as we renew our relationships through Midweek @ Epiphany. All are welcome every first and third Wednesday of the month beginning September 22 for a time of community, fellowship, and formation. 

Midweek begins with a dinner served by masked volunteers from 6:15 - 6:45 pm, with outdoor seating under canopy tents in the Cloister Garden, as well as indoor seating in Hadley Hall. 

From 6:45 - 7:30 pm, we will offer formation for all ages. A clergy-led Bible study for adults will take place in the Upper Parish Hall. Children’s programming will occur outside as we explore our faith in creative ways. Children will be divided into two age groups — Pre-K through 3rd grade, and 4th through 7th grade — and rotate between activities led by Bryn Hollenbeck, Director of Children’s Ministry, and Craig Benner, Director of Music.

Find nourishment at Midweek.

The Wardens and I are pleased to share the news that the Rev. Bob Davidson will act as Assisting Clergy among us at Epiphany. Bob is my father-in-law and has been licensed to preach and preside within the Diocese of Massachusetts as a retired clergy person. The role of an Assisting Clergy is to assist in the liturgical and worship life of the parish and support other areas of our shared ministry together. The role of an Assisting Clergy is not a paid ministry position. Bob will assist with preaching and presiding at Sunday worship on occasion, help provide sacramental ministry to parishioners, and offer his gifts as a trained Social Worker to support the care and social justice ministries of the parish when needed. Bob earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Kentucky in 1978 and was ordained in the Diocese of Colorado, having served in both parochial and community ministry partnerships.

God's peace, 
Nick 

Following public health directives for Houses of Worship in Massachusetts, as well as the guidelines of our Diocesan office, we share the following updates to our practices and protocols here at Epiphany:

Sunday Worship

Beginning Sunday, July 4, registration for services will no longer be required. 

Mask Wearing

Masks must continue to be worn inside during worship services. Masks are not required when outside.

Fellowship and Gatherings

Fellowship in the Cloister Garden will continue during the summer. Hadley Hall will be used for fellowship during inclement weather; all windows and doors opened for air ventilation. Masks may be removed while consuming food and beverage.

Small Groups and Committees are able to return to in-person gathering at the church if they wish. Please contact the parish office at office@3crowns.org or 781-729-1922 to request space and approval. We encourage groups to still offer a virtual option for those who are unable to attend in-person.

We remain deeply grateful for your prayers and support—in time, talent, and financial support—as we work to renew our relationships and responds to God’s call in our common life.

This summer we invite all families with children aged preschool through sixth grade to join us for a series of new outdoor worship services. These short, 30-minute services will take place in the Cloister Garden and are created especially for children and their caregivers to worship together. 

Our outdoor worship services will be offered at 5:00 on the following Sundays: June 13, June 27, July 11, and July 25. Pre-registration using SignUpGenius is encouraged but no longer required, and last-minute additions are always welcome! We hope you will join us.

Dave (McSweeney) and I fell in love with Epiphany in 2012 and joined both the parish and The Episcopal Church a year later. Neither of us had any idea how God would use these two decisions to launch us into deeper waters. My journey towards the priesthood began in my youth but was ripened here, at Epiphany, with so many of you, dear friends.

In the spring of 2017, Jo Devlin, Mike Coltman, David Greeley, Sandra LaPerche, and Sarah Wasdyke were the Discernment Committee who recommended to the vestry that I be sponsored by Epiphany in the process from inquirer to postulant to candidate and, now, to ordinand. I am profoundly grateful.

I am genuinely humbled to invite you to “attend” online my ordination into the Sacred Order of Deacons on Saturday, June 5 at 10:30 a.m. The service will be live-streamed from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul website at www.stpaulboston.org. Reverend Nick will be representing all of you, but I also assure you that each one of you will be in my very full heart, with great thanksgiving.

~ Brett Johnson

That’s right, after a year of virtual riding, Team Epiphany will be participating in a COVID-safe, socially-distanced, mask-wearing, in-person ride to support the ALS Therapy Development Institute. Once again, your favorite fanatical cyclists will be pushing pedals to raise money for for cures and treatments for the terrible disease that is ALS.

One of challenges of this strange time we are living in is that none of the other problems we had before COVID-19 have taken a break. We still live in a world where other diseases still do their nasty damage, and one of the worst is ALS.

So, like last year, we are not letting the pandemic stop us from continuing our fight. We are not quite back to the three-day cycling event that took us from Boston to Greenwich, CT. This year we will have a one-day, 100-mile ride that still should be sufficiently challenging. And like last year, some on the team will participate virtually and record our miles on an athletics website called Strava.com. We’ll all be logging plenty of miles to keep up our end, even if we are not traversing the hills of Connecticut in a single weekend.

We have lost two beloved parishioners to ALS in recent years, Rick Marks and Steve Lewis. We ride in their honor and memory, and we will not stop until cures and treatment are found. Please join us by contributing to this important effort.

You can help in many ways:

1. Navigate to our team page and contribute to the ALS Therapy Development Institute 
2. Come ride with us – even if it's virtually. We are planning some appropriately socially-distanced group rides. Runners, walkers and other exercises are also welcome. Check it out here.  
3. Cheer us on! Pray for us! You can check out all the riders clocking miles virtually here. 

Thanks in advance for your support. If at all possible, we’d like to raise as much money as we have in past years. We know that’s a challenge with so many other concerns facing everyone, but we hope you will find it in your capacity to help us.

And please stay safe and be well.

~ Team Epiphany

With Spring arriving soon, along with a declining rate of COVID-19 cases, and new opportunities to be vaccinated, our staff, vestry, wardens, and reopening committee are eager to share plans for regathering in person. While we have not yet set the exact date for reopening, we have set an internal goal of April 30th to complete all necessary preparations to safely open. Our rector, the Rev. Nick Myers, will work in consultation with parish leadership, diocesan guidelines, and the directives of public health officials informed by scientific and medical data when deciding on when to regather for indoor and in-person worship. Please see below for what has been accomplished so far.  

Starting with the nave, we have installed an air purification system (ATMOSAir BiPolar Ionization system) which treats the air several times each hour. Ionization tubes clean the air inside the church, without using unsafe chemicals or creating any unwanted byproducts. Airflow passes over Ionization tubes that energize the air to form bi-polar — positive and negative — air ions and the airflow distributes these energized ions into all of the spaces served by the HVAC system. We have also outlined weekly cleaning and disinfecting protocols and ordered effective, plant-based disinfectants that will not harm our church’s beautiful wood interior.

As there will be limited seats available in the church due to social distancing requirements, we will continue to video the Sunday services. To do this discreetly, the audio and video streaming setup will soon be transitioned out of the center aisle to a new system that has several installed camera feeds and wiring, hidden from sight. Equipment has been purchased, and potential suppliers are bidding on rewiring the nave to support this new equipment. Signage has also been beautifully designed and produced to help guide you in and around the church, with assigned pew locations, traffic flow arrows, and other helpful directions.

To reserve a seat in advance of each service, an online user-friendly seat reservation system has been created which you will soon be able to access on our website at 3crowns.org. Lastly, as we work to reopen safely, we will be providing usher and greeter training. If you would like to be one, please contact the church office. We are greatly looking forward to being together again someday soon!