About two years ago, I was invited to join the Commission for College and Young Adult Ministry (formerly known as Campus Ministry) within the Diocese of West Missouri. We were discussing what we could do to support college students and young adults since we didn’t have traditional campus ministries like our neighboring dioceses in Kansas and Missouri. The young adults that we were seeing come through the doors of our churches were more young professionals (mid 20’s to early 30’s).
As a young adult myself, I felt more inclined to find solutions or, at the very least, possibilities of what we could offer to college students and young adults in the diocese of West Missouri. We wanted to reach the most amount of people while working with limited funds. Thus, the All Things…Episcopal Podcast was born.
Offering a podcast that talks about anything and everything related to the Episcopal Church would be a two-part mission. First, it was meant to help newcomers to the Episcopal church understand a bit more about the why, what, and how of our belief and worship, and second, it was meant to serve as a refresher for those of us who have spent a fair amount of time in the Episcopal church to remember why we do things we do.
After two successful seasons, I, along with the commission for College and Young Adult Ministry, began to think about what the next chapter for the podcast would look like and if we could partner with the Diocese of Kansas on this work as well. We were met with an enthusiastic yes (which made me happy because the Diocese of Kansas is supporting my path to ordained ministry), and a partnership between the two dioceses was initiated.
Part of this arrangement is that there will always be a voice from Kansas and one from West Missouri. We also try to have a variety of representation from different orders within the church (lay and ordained) while also having gender diversity as well.
To date, the All Things…Episcopal podcast is being streamed in over 25 different countries and has had just over 4,000 downloads in the year and a half it’s been in existence. For more questions about the All Things…Episcopal podcast, please contact Clare Stern-Burbano at cstern@kccathedral.org
by Clare Stern-Burbano
835 SW Polk St.
The Harvest is the diocese’s triennial news magazine