Episcopal Service Corps empowers adults 21-32 to transform unjust structures through community building, local collaboration, prayer, and action.

For more than 20 years, ESC has been built on the belief that change happens when we bring together diverse teams of committed and passionate young leaders and support them as they tackle some of our nation’s most difficult challenges.

We are guided in every aspect of our work by a commitment to our four core values:

Formation, Discernment, Community, and Justice.

Formation

• We value the diversity of experience and thought brought into community and commit to walk alongside each other, using our resources to identify and grow in personal and communal areas of development.
• We acknowledge our own need for continuous learning and skill building, accepting responsibility for building greater capacity within ourselves for leadership, compassion, and hope.
• We trust collaboration, committing to support each other and to hold ourselves and one another to the highest standards of integrity, authenticity and accountability.
• We affirm that residential programs centered on mutual accountability offer a unique opportunity to practice building authentic relationships grounded in shared values and purpose.

Discernment

• We value spiritual curiosity, connectedness, and embodiment as a regular aspect of our common life, honoring the way of Jesus in the Episcopal tradition while exploring and embracing all expressions of a spiritual and holistic life.
• We trust that through practices centered on learning, personal and community discernment, and service to others, we will find new ways to connect with that which is greater than ourselves.
• We celebrate the diversity inherent in all of creation and commit to reflecting this diversity by building equitable, welcoming, and affirming spaces in which trust, authenticity, and honesty are valued and uplifted.
• We value Sabbath as an important part of a healthy rhythm of life and embrace regular periods of rest and reflection.

Community

• We offer loving service with our local communities from a place of hope, enlivened by our faith as we have come to understand it.
• We challenge ourselves to expand our understanding of community, risking our comfort to find oneness with others and the natural world while recognizing with gratitude the inherent reciprocity in all relationships.
• We create and curate generative spaces where ESC programs, staff, and volunteers have a sense of belonging in which to gather, share, and create resources, friendship, support, and learning.

Justice

• We believe that a just and peaceful world is possible and join individuals and communities across our network in seeking freedom from oppressive structures and systems by intentionally committing ourselves to the work of liberation.
• We commit to the work of healing our woundedness, honoring that which is life-giving, and challenging ourselves to create and embody patterns of life that will sustain us for the work of reconciliation.
• We acknowledge our deep need to learn and grow, remaining humble, curious, and open to change.
• We recognize that failure teaches us how to succeed and accept our mistakes as opportunities to practice vulnerability, resilience, and leadership.

Episcopal Service Corps values and celebrates diversity in all of God’s creation, strives to build programs reflective of Beloved Community, and commits to creating affirming space for all, particularly BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ persons. We do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, or ability.

Click here to visit the website for Episcopal Service Corps.

Click here to apply.

Still discerning your call to service? Click here to take the ESC Discernment Quiz.