Gather for a chance to retool around spiritual practices and reflection, and a chance to find ourselves in Scripture. Leave with some tangible next steps for how you might strengthen your support system and set about incorporating discernment practices into your ministry.

FACILITATOR: The Reverend Canon Rebekah Hatchis the Canon for Lay and Ordained Vocations in ECCT and a founding member of the Small Churches Big Impact Collective.

Conflict happens. It is a natural part of any group, parishes included. It also is not necessarily a bad thing. The lens we use to look at conflict and address it can make a big difference as to the outcome. Using modules from the College for Congregational Development (CCD), we will learn how to consider and respond to conflict from a Benedictine standpoint.

FACILITATOR:The Reverend Canon Kevin Olds, ThD, hails from central upstate New York. After undergrad, he spent a few years in IT before following a call to the priesthood. Degrees from Drew Theological School and General Seminary, and work in the Dioceses of New Jersey and Massachusetts, led him to ECCT in 2017. He served as rector of St. Timothy’s, Fairfield, until its merger with St. Paul’s, Fairfield. During that time, he completed his terminal degree at Evangelical Seminary and began teaching at Kairos.edu and Sacred Heart University. Since the merger, he has served as St. Paul’s Associate Rector for Formation. Alongside parish ministry and teaching, he has served in multiple capacities in ECCT including: Mentor in the Missional Curacy program, Southwest Regional Dean, and Title IV Intake Officer.

Taught by our plenary speaker

Spend time in church circles in this country and you’ll soon encounter a disarming truth. Nearly every congregation, regardless of denomination, has witnessed an uptick in “deaths of despair”. That is, deaths where the cause was related to substance abuse or self-harm. Despite our many material comforts, we are an increasingly despondent population. Where does this despair come from, how does it express itself, and what resources might we in the church draw upon to address it? In this workshop we’ll explore, with abundant compassion, what ‘hope for the hopeless’ actually looks like.  

FACILITATOR: David Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries, editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird website (www.mbird.com), and co-host of both The Mockingcast and The Brothers Zahl podcasts. He and his family live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he also serves on the staff of Christ Episcopal Church. Zahl is the author of Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What To Do About It and Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself). His latest book, The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World came out in April 2025 from Brazos Press. His writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Plough, Christianity Today, and The Guardian, among other venues.

Since the COVID pandemic, clergy, lay leaders, and congregations are experiencing the challenges of ministering to the mental health needs of church members and others for whom congregants and leadership care about and love.  Beginning with our scriptural direction to care for body, mind, and spirit, this workshop will discuss the interconnectedness of physical and spiritual health with psychological well-being, co-led by an experienced rector and educator (Todd FitzGerald) and a bivocational psychiatrist/Episcopal priest (Mary Lynn Dell). Suggestions for recognition of mood disorders, referrals for formal mental health care, and how the church ministers to and includes those with depression and other concerns will be discussed.  Useful resources will be shared with attendees.

FACILITATORS: The Rev. Mary Lynn Dell, MD, MTS, ThM, DMin, MHA, is Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Living/Hartford Healthcare, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut, and Professor of Psychiatry at the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. She graduated from Milligan University in Johnson City, Tennessee, and Indiana University School of Medicine, where she completed general psychiatry residency. She also completed a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Emory University, and has served on the faculties of several medical schools. She maintains board certifications in general, child and adolescent, consultation liaison, and forensic psychiatry.  She obtained theological education at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, Virginia Theological Seminary, and Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained Episcopal priest, she currently serves as non-stipendiary Priest Associate at St. John’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford, CT, focusing on adult faith formation.

For most of his 30 years in ordained ministry, the Rev. Todd FitzGerald has served as a chaplain in several Episcopal schools. While school chaplaincy is primarily focused on the spiritual lives of young people, its broader lens is educating the whole person to excellence. Thus, chaplains must collaborate across disciplines in pursuit of spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical flourishing for each child. Currently, Todd serves as rector of St. John’s, West Hartford, where he is attentive to opportunities to practice ministry in as many holistic ways as possible. At St. John’s, Todd is working with other leaders to explore possibilities for ministry that address the whole person thriving in mind, body, and spirit. To improve his skills and augment his knowledge for holistic ministry, Todd is currently pursuing a master’s degree in counseling for ministry at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University in Chicago.