A BRIEF HISTORY OF FRESH START_^®

In the early 1990s The Episcopal Church began conversations focusing on transitions-ministry concepts. Cornerstone, a ministry of the Episcopal Church Foundation (led by the Rev. James C. Fenhagen, II, and Mr. William S. Craddock, Jr.) picked up on a concept conceived in the Diocese of Missouri called The Transition Project. The concept led to a program called “Fresh Start” in the Diocese of New Hampshire, under the leadership of the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, Canon to the Ordinary. Other leading voices in this early development included the Rev. Loren Mead and the Rev. Roy Oswald of the Alban Institute and the Rev. Hartshorn Murphy of the Diocese of Los Angeles, who wrote the initial “transitions project notebook” for Cornerstone.

Simultaneously Cornerstone commissioned the Grubb Institute to research especially fruitful “learning moments” in the lives of clergy, congregations, and church institutions. The research identified the period of new ministry and mutual adjustment between clergy leadership and a congregation, i.e. times of change, as one of the most fertile times for learning. The Grubb Institute research also indicated that building trust through coaching among the bishop and new clergy in the first year of service in the diocese was crucial to the future health of the relationships. As a result of this research, Cornerstone began an initiative which came to be called “Clergy/Congregation Transition: Beginning a New Pastoral Relationship.” The program was pilot tested and a small number of dioceses adapted its model.

At the National Deployment Officers Conference in 1998 three diocesan deployment officers (the Rev. Canon Melford E. Holland, Jr., Pennsylvania; the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, New Hampshire; and the Rev. Canon Thaddeus Bennett, Los Angeles) each presented plenary sessions on different transition issues. The presentations were enthusiastically received, and participants began to believe that this initiative, eventually named Fresh Start, could be a significant resource to the wider church. Following this meeting a collaborative partnership was created among three groups: the Episcopal Church Foundation’s Cornerstone; the Office for Ministry Development; and the Church Deployment Office. These partners developed an ambitious five-year plan on a very modest budget with anticipated income from the Episcopal Church Foundation and the General Convention.

In June 2000 a Luce Foundation grant enabled the collaborative organizations to distill and clarify a strategic plan for Fresh Start and launch a national program. Two leading authors of the original curriculum were the Rev. Canons V. Gene Robinson and Thaddeus Bennett. Together with the Dioceses of New Hampshire and Los Angeles, three other dioceses (Alabama, East Tennessee and Ohio) became pilots in this new collaborative transitions project. Ms. J. Ann Holtz, of East Tennessee, was hired as the national program coordinator.

Over the next five years, with the guidance and leadership of the collaborative partners, over fifty dioceses enrolled in and introduced the Fresh Start program providing transitional materials and resources to clergy and congregations throughout the United States and Canada. Facilitator training sessions were conducted twice a year providing diocesan facilitators with necessary instruction to adapt and present the Fresh Start program in their dioceses. The primary funding partner and lead agency during this phenomenal growth period was the Episcopal Church Foundation.

A new revised curriculum (Fresh Start 2.0) was introduced in 2003 with additional materials for lay and congregational applications. CREDO Institute, Inc. also became a fourth collaborative and funding partner of the Fresh Start program that year

In 2005 a comprehensive evaluation of Fresh Start was conducted using a quantitative survey instrument and extensive interviews. A major finding in this analysis was that the Fresh Start experience greatly strengthened the relationships among diocesan clergy in transition, the diocesan staff and congregational leadership.

In 2006 the Church Deployment Office assumed the lead-agency role from the Episcopal Church Foundation. In the fall of 2006 the principals agreed to assign the lead agency function and role to CREDO Institute, Inc., effective the following year. In 2007 the Fresh Start organization was restructured to include three part-time coordinators, each responsible for particular areas, rather than one full-time coordinator responsible for the entire program.  The number of coordinators was reduced to two in 2008. 

A new Fresh Start 3.0 curriculum, released in December 2007, addressed concerns raised in the 2005 national evaluation and feedback from individual facilitators.  In addition to more in-depth material, emphasis was placed on providing facilitators with detailed assistance in designing and delivering sessions. The Fresh Start website was also redesigned to provide accessible resources, curriculum, and materials to the facilitators.

A revision to the Fresh Start 3.0 Curriculum (Fresh Start 3.1) was introduced in December 2009.  It revised the program standards to more easily include Fresh Start lay programs and adapted all modules for use by either clergy or laity.  The website was also enhanced to include online registration for conferences.

Throughout its shifting developmental path and evolution, Fresh Start’s purpose has not changed: to support clergy and congregations in transition.