Recently, the interns were pleasantly surprised to receive hand-delivered invitations to have lunch, with Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, and his wife Phoebe, at their private residence on the top floor of the Church Center. Bishop Griswold, and Mrs. Griswold acknowledged the interns' contributions to the Episcopal Church and thanked them for their hard work. Each intern received a lapel pin with the Presiding Bishop's unique insignia on it. Mrs. Griswold praised the interns for their decision to serve as interns at 815. "This building is a doorway to the world," she said, referring to the global impact of the many offices at the Church Center. Bishop Griswold also commended the interns for their decision to participate in the life of the Church by working at 815. He later joked that he had never been to the Episcopal Church Center before he was elected Presiding Bishop.

Curious to hear their stories, the Griswolds invited each intern to share about themselves and the work they are doing this summer.

Jay Hobby-Shippen, a senior at the General Theological Seminary in New York City, is an intern in the Office of the Anglican Observer at the United Nations. The highlight of his  summer was an assignment to write a report on the control of small arms and light weapons, an issue about which he is passionate. "I basically went to the meetings at the U.N. and took notes," said Hobby-Shippen. "I then wrote a formal report for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Consultative Council. At the end of the report I was asked, based on what I had seen and heard at the meetings, to give my recommendation on what the Anglican Communion's position should be." Hobby-Shippen has learned a lot about the Anglican Communion, its global impact, and its relationship to other organizations like the U.N. "It has been a joy to help the Anglican Communion work to address the needs of the world by participating in the dialogue at the U.N.," he said. Hobby-Shippen will be ordained in less than a year. Asked how he thinks this internship will shape his priesthood, he says, "I think that I will be much better at and more involved in promoting the Church's principles at all levels of political power. This experience has helped me see how important it is for the Church to use its power in the public sphere to prepare the way for God's reign of peace and justice. I am more committed to that now."

Kayt Fitzmorris, a 17-year-old senior at the Field School in Washington, D.C., has virtually unfettered access to the United Nations because of her status as an intern in the same office. She spends most of her time sending letters to churches abroad and running errands to the U.N. Planning to pursue a major in international relations when she graduates from high school, Fitzmorris says, "This experience will really help."

Across the hall in the Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, Megan Sanders is spending the summer archiving personnel files and sacramental records of Episcopal military chaplains dating from WWII to the present. Sanders, a middler at the General Theological Seminary, is discerning a call to military chaplaincy herself. "Journeying through this office's chaplain service files," she says, "has been like walking inside the footsteps that have gone before me on the beach - many different trails have been blazed by those who have answered this specific call to ministry, and it's been my honor to integrate their experiences into my own discernment." A special moment occurred when Bishop George Packard, Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, presented Sanders with an artifact relating to the heroic Chaplains of the U.S.S. Dorchester (four Army Chaplains who perished in 1943 after sacrificially giving up their life jackets to soldiers as their torpedoed ship sank). Packard knew of her admiration for the Dorchester Chaplains because of their conversations about it this summer. Sanders was honored to receive such a meaningful gift and said, "It made me feel valued and connected to the mission of this office in a unique way."

Martha Korienek, a senior at Berkley Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, served as the assistant to Margaret Larom, director of Anglican and Global Relations. Korienek met Larom last fall and remembered thinking that she would like to work for her. "She seemed like she would be an amazing person to work for, in that she is both very sweet and extremely knowledgeable about the Anglican Communion, a subject in which I have great interest," said Korienek. Her duties included mostly administrative tasks. "Hopefully I made Margaret's job a little easier," she said, "and allowed her to be slightly more prepared for her meetings so that she could be the best voice of the Episcopal Church that she could be." Summing up her experience she remarked, "In the end, I learned far more than I could have predicted."

Other interns included Emma Budwig in Ethnic Congregational Development, Elsa Cumming in Administration, David Fleenor in the  Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, Morgan O'Neill in Management Information Systems, Mary Poyet in the Anglican Consultative Council United Nations Office, and Katherine Wesley in Episcopal Relief and Development.

After hearing from each intern, the Griswolds entertained questions ranging from, "What is the most rewarding and challenging aspect of being the Presiding Bishop?" to "What was it like to be in the One Campaign commercial with Brad Pitt and George Clooney?"

Concluding the luncheon, the Griswolds thanked the interns for their hard work and commended them for their service to the church.  Griswold commented that the energy the interns bring to the building is refreshing.