As many friends of Episcopal Relief & Development know, our tagline is “Working Together for Lasting Change.” We hold this statement dear. It is so important to the Board of Directors and staff of Episcopal Relief & Development that it is the name of our current strategic plan. Nothing captures the true nature of our work better than these five words.

Working together is a special part of our story. From our program partners to our donors and supporters, from technical experts to those who hold us in prayer, we could not reach over three million people each year without this community of caring and compassionate individuals. Blessings are abundant in our working together.

For this year’s Lenten Meditations, we asked our dear friend and well-known author Jerusalem Jackson Greer to partner with us on behalf of this Spirit-led community. Jerusalem wrote the meditations in celebration of our common life. Although Lent can sometimes be seen as a solitary spiritual journey, Jerusalem challenges us to walk this road with others. Using monastic wisdom as her starting point, she highlights the divine gifts that come from community.

Titling her meditations “A Commonplace Lent,” Jerusalem celebrates two uses of the word “common.” The first is the sense that we come together to celebrate “all that we are and all that we have in common”—prayer, worship, grace, love, community, service and so much more. The second understanding of common is a reflection on the ordinary, everyday nature of these communal gifts. She finds this duality rooted in the wisdom of desert mothers and fathers, monastics and other spiritual leaders and infuses it into her meditations for each day of Lent.

We hope you find a connection to a larger community of faithful people as you read these meditations. You are not alone. You join tens of thousands of others on this journey. We hope you will see yourself as an essential gift to others, both near and far. And we pray that God will richly bless you and your varied communities this Lenten season.

Sean McConnell
Senior Director, Faith & Community Engagement

Jerusalem Jackson Greer is co-executive director and agrarian minister for the Procter Center, an Episcopal farm, camp and retreat center in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. As former manager of evangelism and discipleship for The Episcopal Church under Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, she co-founded the Good News Garden movement and oversaw Way of Love and Evangelism initiatives for the wider church. She is also the author of two books, At Home in this Life: Finding Peace at the Crossroads of Unraveled Dreams and Beautiful Surprises and A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting and Coming Together, both published by Paraclete Press, as well as multiple Episcopal curricula, including as a contributor to Episcopal Relief & Development’s Abundant Life Garden Project® resources.

Jerusalem recently completed her master of arts degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary with an emphasis on rural ministry. Jerusalem serves on the board of Edible Theology and the Council of Advice for Episcopal Relief & Development’s Faith & Community Engagement team. She is an associate of the Community of Saint Mary, Southern Province, and a co-host of the Spade, Spoon, Soul podcast. Jerusalem is an in-demand speaker, preacher, and contributor around the topics of outdoor and agrarian ministry, discipleship, evangelism, leadership and the ministry of belonging in an era of loneliness.

© 2025 Episcopal Relief & Development