Episcopal Service Corps
Formation, Discernment, Community, Justice
A year to deepen commitment to self, to others, and to God.
!Apply for Beloved in the Desert 2024-2025 TODAY!
with the
The Episcopal Service Corps Common Application
Who We Are
For those in the midst of their twenties, or close on either side, Beloved in the Desert is a community for finding integration and grounding while searching for who you are amidst the Joy of Christian Discipleship. Our Community life involves celebration and disappointment where members will encounter both encouragement and critique to deepen their lives. Integration expects members to develop personal gifts, gain greater understanding of self, and live more discerned lives. When we are grounded we feel supported and centered on a foundational sense of self, something many of us struggle to find. Only through searching and encountering spaces that are uncomfortable and even distressing can we open ourselves to personal growth. This work of deepening our commitment to love of self, love of others, and love of God brings us to experience joy more spontaneously and perpetually.
What We Do
As a member of Beloved in the Desert, one joins a nationwide network known as the Episcopal Service Corps. (Learn more about the Episcopal Service Corps network, here.) Beloved members live in community and work with local non-profits and congregations to support God’s work for justice and compassion in Tucson and beyond. Our residencies prepare members for work in Education, Social Work, Non-Profit Management, Childhood Development, Church Music, and Faith Formation. A few come to us wondering if they are called to a life of lay or ordained ministry in the church, most come to us for a year to reorient themselves, try out a different pattern of life, and figure out next steps.
Discern about joining Beloved in the Desert and take the Episcopal Service Corps Discernment Quiz NOW!
How We Do It
Our lives have patterns, figuring out a Rule of Life is just developing an awareness of those patterns and learning to structure them in helpful ways. Being intentional with the start and end of one’s day, setting aside a few times each week to meaningfully reflect on how things are going, then purposefully reorienting the small and large parts of one’s life is the foundation of all personal development. Beloved in the Desert engages Anglican Spirituality to guide us through these patterns as we trust God’s Spirit to be moving in the lives of our participants. Being an Episcopalian, or even a Christian, is not required but being curious about engaging a year of intentional personal and group formation using traditional practices of Christianity is. We want to help you deepen your relationship with the divine using the tools that have supported many.
Beloved in the Dessert practices a faith that values everyone as full members of the Body of Christ amidst the diversity of races, sexes, gender identities, and sexual orientations found within God’s Creation.
Learn more in our frequently asked questions below!
If you are someone you know would be interested in this opportunity, please connect them to Ben Garren, Program Director, at ecmtucson@gmail.com
If you would like to give to support Beloved in the Desert, please select Outreach—Beloved in the Desert at this link. If you would like to give by check, please make your check out to Saint Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church with Beloved in the Memo line. Thank you for your support!
We gather together young adults and assist them in creating a community where they can experience belonging as they engage common goals. Members are expected to be more than just roommates with others who live in the house but to strive to be part of a team dedicated to everyone's mutual flourishing. Commitment to community meals, shared budgets, communal chores, and group formation are essential parts of the program. Meaningful relationships are not always easy, they require us to learn more about ourselves and better ways to interact with each other. Time in intentional community brings about an element of confidence that is not only self-reliance, but other-reliance, an understanding of priorities and hopes that are borne out of community.
"Throughout our Judeo-Christian history, the desert has been a place of encounter, a place in which the unfathomable mystery of God meets our creaturely selves. From the Israelite sojourn of forty years to Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, scripture gives us the precedent of desert revelation. Moses looks at the bush, and it burns without being consumed. The angels minister to Jesus amid the rocky wilds. The stories tell us this: in a sparse landscape, it is hard to fool ourselves. In an empty natural setting, we come face to face with our own limitations and mortality and with the fact of our creaturely dependence. The desert spaces help us strip away illusions and lies. In that empty space, the voice of God that thunders over the waters may thunder inside the human soul." (The Desert Mothers, Mary C. Earle, p.83)
Members of Beloved are asked to do the difficult work of learning to not fool themselves, to be a bit more honest about who they are and what they are called to do. This type of learning happens many times in our lives, often without support and when we are unprepared. By taking part in Beloved in the Desert each participant has the opportunity to do this intentionally within a supportive community. This allows them to process their past and be better prepared for their future.
Most of our applicants are young adults between 21 and 29 years old, exceptions are possible for those over the age of 18 and under the age of 32. Many of our applicants join us after they have completed trade school or an associate, bachelor, or graduate degree, while others join us amidst a gap year. To fully benefit from the program, applicants need to have significant life experience post high school. All applicants must be willing to commit for the full timeline of the program, ten months from the end of July until the middle of May.
Beloved in the Desert is grounded in Christian Theology and practice and many of our applicants are baptized Christians. All applicants must be prepared to participate in Christian worship and formation while meaningfully discerning their own spiritual and religious life.
Beloved in the Dessert values all applicants regardless of race, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. We strive to respect the basic dignity of all individuals at every level of the program and our applicants should be prepared to take up this striving.
If you are wondering about our beliefs and how your spiritual and life journey may fit into them, please reach out to us. Anyone curious enough to get to this section of our information will probably be in the midst of a personal journey we would hope to support. We’re not looking for experts, but people who are invested in the hard work of community building, justice making, listening, and transformation in the name of Love.
Most weeks Beloved members are spending about 32 hours doing work in their residencies with an expectation that everyone gets two sequential days off each week. Every Tuesday morning is set aside for formation that includes course work in community organizing, training in mental and emotional health skills, as well as art collaborations. Two of our residencies involve supporting episcopal communities in their life of worship as essential program hours. Weekly participation in the worship and formation life of Saint Phillip’s in the Hills and the Episcopal Campus Ministry at the University of Arizona for the other members is strongly encouraged. Beloved members are expected to take time to find a regular cycle of prayer and spiritual reflection for themselves as individuals and also as a community that will have daily and weekly components.
Regularly engaging the worship of Saint Phillip’s, the Episcopal Campus Ministry, and the Beloved Community is the foundation Beloved in the Desert offers to begin a meaningful exploration of your faith. When the community meets on Tuesday mornings there will be regular opportunities to explore spiritual practices and theological ideas. Every member of Beloved is provided a Spiritual Director, time for spiritual retreats, and other opportunities to explore the journey of faith they are walking. These personal discoveries will be formed by, and inform, the work each Beloved Member takes up in the community and also their life with their housemates.
Beloved in the Desert hosts four residencies each year: Faith Formation; Church Music and Liturgy; Teaching and Social Services; and Housing, Construction, and Global Non-Profits. People come to our program for a variety of reasons. Maybe you have a plan to go into social work, education, ordained ministry, or music and one of these residencies will help you further that goal or maybe you are just needing a break year and one of our residencies looks like a constructive and fun thing to do.
Residency in Faith Formation
The Beloved Residency in Faith Formation prepares participants to play a vital role in nurturing the spiritual growth and development for all age groups. At the center of this residency is sixteen hours a week with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson where the Beloved member will be working directly with children and youth during their after-school programming. Surrounding this is ten hours a week working with the formation ministers of Saint Phillips in the Hills and the Episcopal Campus Ministry at the University of Arizona on Sunday and Wednesday programming. This residency includes two projects, a smaller project focused on engaging undergraduate students, and a larger project with the faith formation team at Saint Phillips.
This Residency is ideal for those looking to work with children and youth in any environment and especially for those discerning calls to lay and ordained ministry in the church.
Residency in Church Music and Liturgy
The Beloved Residency in Church Music and Liturgy prepares participants to play a central role in the musical life of worship communities. At the center of this residency is work with the choirs of Saint Phillips in the Hills as they enrich the worship of the congregation. This includes services on Sunday Mornings, Major Feasts, and monthly Evensongs. As not all worship occurs in a traditional parish setting the Beloved member is also expected to assist with worship at the Episcopal Campus Ministry at the University of Arizona and help coordinate the NightSong Compline experience. This residency includes five hours a week dedicated to private practice.
This residency is ideal for those with at least an associate’s or bachelor’s in music performance, or comparable experience, seeking to better understand the role of music within Christian liturgy and may also be appropriate for individuals discerning a call to ordained ministry with similar musical experience. An audition will be part of the interview process.
Residency in Teaching and Social Services
The Beloved Residency in Teaching and Social Services prepares participants for careers in education, community organizing, and social services. This residency is with Imago Dei Middle School, a small, independent, tuition-free private school in Tucson offering grades 4-8 for children from low-income families. The core of this residency is time in the classroom assisting the students. The Beloved Member at Imago Dei may also provide assistance to the school chaplain and support the array of social services provided to families and alumni of the school. This residency is thirty two hours a week at the school coinciding with the school’s calendar.
This residency is ideal for anyone pursuing a career in education or social work and may provide space for those discerning calls to lay and ordained ministry in non-parochial settings.
Residency in Housing Services, Construction, and Global Nonprofits
The Beloved Residency in Housing Services, Construction, and Global Nonprofits prepares participants for careers in the nonprofit sector, housing support, and social services. This residency is with Habitat for Humanity Tucson and Beloved Members can be placed in a variety of roles within their programming. Beloved Members can gain experience in the fundraising and volunteer coordination essential for all non-profits or focus their time on construction, work at the HabiStore, and the innovative CHUCK Center where job training is combined with real world experience building affordable housing.
This residency is ideal for anyone wanting experience in the non-profit sector and also those with construction experience who want to serve the greater community.
Beloved in the Desert is a service year for personal enrichment that has more in common with a scholarship year at a school than a job. Beloved members are provided housing, health insurance, mentorship, as well as a food and living stipend of $400 a month. The expectation is that members live simply, have the space to prioritize what is essential in their lives, while not encountering hardship. We want members to become fully aware of the variety of resources that are in the community to assist those living simple lives out of necessity or by choice.
Winter-Spring: Applications are available on this site: https://episcopalservicecorps.org/
December-Spring: Zoom Interviews with Beloved in the Desert and Residency placements.
February-May: Acceptance of Applicants to Beloved in the Desert for a specific residency and signing of contracts.
End of July: Move in and Orientation Week
August to Mid May: Beloved in the Desert Program year.
Corps Members have a range of goals after their time in Beloved in the Desert. Time in community, prayer, and service forms us and helps us to hone those goals. After Beloved in the Desert Corps Members have:
-Gone to Seminary on Lay and Ordained tracks of education
-Stayed local and worked in non-profit or educational institutions
-Participated in a second, different year of ESC
-Pursued a Master’s in Social Work
-Pursued other graduate work
-Worked in professional Church Ministries
The bonds forged in community life have formed friendships across age, experience, and background within the Southern Arizona Episcopal community and the broader Church, and the practices of prayer and reconciliation practiced in Beloved have laid groundwork for continued personal and communal work.
If you are a member of Saint Philip's or a community member, we would love to partner with you to support the work of Beloved in the Desert. Part of the program year for Beloved in the Desert will be the offering of a range of learning opportunities from the heart of Tucson, so if you want to share a workshop, open your home as a Parish Parent once a month for dinner, donate furnishings for the Beloved in the Desert residence, contribute financially to our sustainability, or to pray with us, you are most welcome! If you think your organization might be a good candidate for partnership with us, be in touch!
