Iona Collaborative

The Iona Collaborative Annual Retreat and Deans' Meeting is underway! Over 60 Continuing Ed. participants and Deans of local schools of formation within the Iona network are gathered this week for study, reflection, and rest at beautiful Camp Allen conference center. We are so grateful for this time together.

When Joe and Audrey Rose talk about ministry, they don’t begin with strategy or qualifications. They begin with stories. Stories of surprise, of hesitation, of moments when God showed up in ways they didn’t expect.

Travel with us to the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire to learn more about these small church leaders, their paths to formation, and how they are living this out in the small church context here:

Ministry Spotlight: Joe and Audrey Rose - IONA Collaborative at Seminary of the Southwest When Joe and Audrey Rose talk about ministry, they don’t begin with strategy or qualifications. They begin with stories. Stories of surpri...

The latest issue of our Small Church Voices newsletter is out now!
Join us as we travel to the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire for a ministry spotlight featuring a couple living into a shared vocation with honesty, humor, and deep mutual respect.

We’re also delighted to share that additional rooms are now available for our Annual Retreat in June. We hope you’ll join us at Camp Allen in the Piney Woods of East Texas for three days of study, rest, and reflection—always a meaningful time among friends and colleagues.

Finally, we’re offering a resource inspired by this month’s ministry spotlight. We hope that it sparks creativity and fresh imagination as you prepare to gather in the months ahead.

Read on for more!

Small Church Voices Newsletter Email from Seminary of the Southwest For Leaders of Small and Rural Churches Small Church Voices Newsletter From the Iona Collaborative This season between Easter and Pentecost draws our attention to

“Collaboration is the future of theological education,” said the Rev. Nandra Perry. “I think that’s the vision we all embraced: a ‘mixed ecology’ of bishops, seminaries, and diocesan schools working closely together to form the new, more diverse generation of leaders we all know our church needs. Through the Iona Collaborative, Seminary of the Southwest has been investing in this vision for nearly a decade now; so it was incredibly affirming to see it beginning to flourish.”

Read more:

Southwest Leaders Help Shape House of Bishops Conversation on Theological Education - Seminary of the Southwest Theological education and priestly formation were among the central topics at the House of Bishops’ meeting held March 17-23, 2026, at Camp Allen in Navasota, TX. About half of the […]

Easter Sunday | Psalm 118

"The same stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

This is the last post in our Lenten series — and we couldn't think of a better place to land than here.

All through this season, we have been walking alongside the priests, deacons, and lay leaders of small churches across the Episcopal Church. The ones leading quietly. The ones showing up week after week — to the Wednesday night gathering, the Sunday liturgy, the hospital visit, the second job that makes it all possible.

The builders of this world may overlook the small church.

But God does not.

God’s mercy endures forever. Not just for the largest congregation. Not just for the most resourced diocese. For all of it. For the twelve people singing on Easter morning just as surely as for the twelve hundred.

These small churches are our cornerstones — steadfast in faith, rooted in love, full of a joy that doesn't need an audience to be real.

On this day, the Lord has acted.

To every bivocational leader and every small congregation in our network — we see you. More importantly, so does God.

Alleluia. Christ is risen.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

From the cross, Jesus, fully human and fully divine, cries out.
Not with polished words, but with the raw despair of human pain.

And yet…
He cries out to God.

Even in anguish, there is a turning.
Even in silence, a relationship remains.

Psalm 22 begins in lament, but it does not end there. It bends toward something deeper: the quiet, sturdy truth that God hears.

“God did not hide…but heard when I cried.”

Our cries do not vanish into the dark.
They are held. Remembered. Heard.

And we are not alone in them.

Christ has gone before us.

A cloud of witnesses surrounds us.
Voices of sorrow and hope, past and present.
Joining their cries with ours.

On this Good Friday, we remember:
The God who hears Jesus hears us.

"I love the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication."

On this Maundy Thursday, Jesus gives us a new commandment — love one another, just as I have loved you.

It is that simple. And that profound.

Today, in the middle of the preparations and the busyness and the exhaustion of Holy Week — pause. Even for five minutes.

You are loved.

Not because of how the service goes. Not because of how many people show up. Not because everything comes together perfectly.

Simply because God has inclined his ear to you. Because Jesus has called you his own. And because that love — the love that weaves our hearts together — is the whole point.

Go into these sacred days held by that.

What does it mean to discern together in community? How does this reflect what we know about the early church, and how can this practice bear the fruit of “living Christ” in our contexts?

Listen to Iona Collaborative’s Theologian in Residence, John Lewis, as he talks with A Matter of Faith Podcast hosts, Lee Catoe and Simon Doong, about his new book, Discernment in the Early Church and Today.

A New Episode of A Matter of Faith is out now! John Lewis, author of Discernment in the Early Church and Today: Reclaiming Paul's Vision for Formation and Community Building joins the podcast this week. We talk with John about the way in which the early Christian church centered discernment and how getting back to our foundational beliefs as Christians can transform both the spiritual life of our faith and our institutions.

Subscribe to A Matter of Faith wherever you get your podcasts and take some time to listen and leave a review. Got a question for Lee and Simon or a future guest? Send them to [email protected].

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