L. Zoe Cole

Why do you feel called to serve the Church as a Deputy to General Convention?

I continue to feel passionate about and energized by the ministry of governance, the ability to support and mentor new leaders, and to participate in the unique gift of The Episcopal Church: that we are both a local and a global community. Participating in General Convention, and the wider work of the Church helps to keep these levels in creative tension, helping us to truly recognize each other as siblings in Christ and treat each other in ways that bear witness to the transforming love of Christ.

What life experiences and/or training can you offer as a resource to the Church?

First and foremost I offer my vocation of formation. This shapes my sense of how to raise up new leaders in an on-going way, as the best householders who know how to bring from the storeroom what is old and what is new (Matt 15:??). It also shapes my ability to be a witness to both lay and ordained members of the church of the need for laity to be formed to take our place in the life and governance of the church, for the health and flourishing of the church. I also bring both my past experience as a deputy and my recent experience as non-partisan legislative staff for the Colorado State Legislature. This life experience and training has enabled me to share my experiences of the church at the denominational level with the local church and to bring my experience of my local communities to the church at the denominational level.

Describe your ministries, participation and experience in the Episcopal Church.

My experience of TEC us that we seek to be a community that nourishes all parts of the person so that each can discern, be formed, and live into our gifts for the benefit of the world and our own flourishing.

I have been progressively involved in TEC, beginning when my parents joined the church when I was 8 years old, continuing through my teenage years, college, and as an adult, in the parish, in the diocese, and in the wider church. My experiences as a Godly Play Storyteller and EFM Mentor have particularly fueled my sense of vocation and spiritual maturation, as well as my completion of the PhD in Religious & Theological Studies in 2019 that prompted me to seek to be elected to the Board of Examining Chaplains, which creates and grades the General Ordination Examination (GOE) that is required of all priests in TEC.

What aspects of our corporate life or issues facing the Church today hold particular interest or importance to you?

In 2019, I wrote that discipleship/formation had “never been more important to our continuing ability to proclaim the Good News with confidence and to serve those in need, inside and outside the Church, locally and globally.” In 2022, it is exponentially more important that the Church model an alternative to the world’s anxiety and violence and political polarization. This requires formation. How we are formed determines how we obey the command to love one another as God has loved each of us, and thus, how we manifest the now-ness of God’s Commonwealth of Love and Justice as an alternative in which it is possible to celebrate our differences, even when they are challenging, and still work together toward a common good for all.

How will your participation as part of the deputation enhance the life, mission and ministry of our diocese?

My participation as part of the deputation in the past has already enhanced the life, mission, and ministry  of our diocese. It has contributed to my own vocation of contributing to the formation of others, including by working with the Safe Church task force to update and expand the ways we as a church keep each other safe. My continuing participation will continue to have this impact, especially as I foster the gifts of new leaders, in the diocese and in the broader church, for the future we are learning to live into.