[Episcopal News Service] Baking and binge-observing television each have been pandemic diversions. The clergy and lay leaders at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church capitalized on those habits last Epiphany when they made “The Great Episcopal Baking Display,” echoing the extremely common “Great British Baking Display.”

The concept came up through a Zoom staff members assembly in mid-December 2020 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church as the individuals wondered “how to convey persons together when we’re not going to be in-individual this Christmas?” stated Andrea McKellar, who at that time was the electronic ministry coordinator at her parish in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.

“We are a genuinely big congregation with a smaller area so there wasn’t a way to collect securely with no excluding folks,” she stated, adding that customers did not go back again to in-particular person providers until May perhaps 2021.

The bake-off was these a hit with the congregation that, although there are no present-day programs for a “second time,” parishioners continue to converse about how wonderful it was to see their leaders in a various context. McKellar said St. Stephen’s 2020 work could be replicated by other congregations for this coming Epiphany, or for Shrove Tuesday, which next falls on March 1, 2022.

The organizers requested a few bakers to make the sweet pastry recognised as king cake that is traditionally served on Epiphany but is possibly far more normally associated with Mardi Gras. The bakers utilised the Betty Crocker brief king cake recipe.

Andrea McKellar aided arrange “The Terrific Episcopal Baking Exhibit,” served as the emcee and edited the bakers’ films into the closing 12-minute show. Screenshot: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church video

McKellar, who also serves as the Diocese of South Carolina‘s ministry developer and is a member of the Episcopal Church Executive Council explained that the project snowballed after the Rev. Laura Rezac, associate rector, advised a baking competition. The finished merchandise was a 12-moment video clip, which McKellar edited and shared on the church’s YouTube channel the place the parish is nevertheless putting up…