Episcopal Communicators Conference Comes to San Diego

In April 2026, communicators from across The Episcopal Church will gather in San Diego for the Episcopal Communicators Conference. They will arrive from large dioceses and small parishes, from cathedrals and campus ministries, from urban neighborhoods and rural towns. Some will be full-time professionals. Others will be administrators or volunteers who carry communications alongside dozens of other responsibilities. What unites them is a shared vocation: to help the Church tell the truth about what God is already doing in the world.

Last year was my first Episcopal Communicators Conference. Again and again, I had conversations with people who understood exactly what it feels like to do this work for the Church–to care deeply about the people we serve, to work with limited time and resources, and still to show up fighting for every inch of ‘digital ground’ on the Church’s behalf. The shared pride of the stories being told and the genuine curiosity about how others were running campaigns or reaching their neighbors; the generous exchange of tools, ideas, and hard-won lessons, all felt oddly familiar to my own heart for the work. By the end of the conference, what I carried home wasn’t just practical skills but a sense of belonging to a community that knows both the joy and the weight of telling the Church’s story well.

EDSD is hosting this year, and I couldn’t be happier. Our diocese sits at the edge of borders and cultures, where stories of migration, resilience, and hope are woven into daily life. It is a place where the Church is growing and learning to be present without pretending to have easy answers. Welcoming communicators from across the Church into our context invites them into a living classroom for what faithful storytelling looks like.

This year’s conference is not a marketing expo. It is not about clever slogans or flashy campaigns. A dedicated team of communications professionals has carefully crafted the offerings to showcase and improve the ways our Church bears witness. In a time when many people feel disconnected from institutions, how the Church communicates is inseparable from how the Church loves. Words, images, stories, and presence all shape whether our neighbors feel welcomed or ignored, seen or overlooked.

What makes this conference different from many professional gatherings is its grounding in vocation. Everyone in the room understands that they are not just managing information. We are shaping how people encounter God. 

This matters for congregations of every size. Many of the churches I work with are not struggling because they lack faithful people or meaningful ministries. They are struggling because their neighbors do not know their stories. This year’s conference will help you learn how to tell stories clearly and honestly–where people begin to see themselves in those stories. Like when a neighbor hears their privately held beliefs shared online, or when a new seeker notices that this church might be a place where their questions are welcome.

That is what communication is. When we write a story about a baptism, when we share a photo of neighbors serving one another, when we livestream a service for someone who cannot be present, we are not just distributing information. We are participating in the Church’s ancient calling to bear witness.

All of this rests on a simple theological truth: Christianity, at its heart, is a story; the story of a God who loves the world enough to enter it, to dwell among us, and to draw us into a new way of being. The Gospel of John names this mystery by calling Jesus the Word made flesh. This is the story of a God who does not remain silent or distant. God chooses to be known, to be heard, to be seen.

The Episcopal Communicators Conference exists to help churches do this work with skill and care. Participants leave with new tools and a deeper sense of why their work matters. They come home with language that feels human instead of institutional, with ways to invite people into worship without pressure, and with practical systems that save time and reduce burnout. For many communicators, it is the first time they realize they are not alone in this work, that others are wrestling with the same challenges and discovering faithful ways forward.

A communicator’s work is not peripheral. It is pastoral. It is evangelical. It is sacramental (in its own way), using ordinary tools to reveal extraordinary grace.

Those who come to the Episcopal Communicators Conference will return to their congregations better equipped to do just that. They will return with new skills and a renewed confidence that their work is part of God’s own movement in the world. They will help their churches become more visible, more welcoming, and more alive in the neighborhoods they serve.

In a time when so many are searching for meaning, belonging, and hope, the Church’s ability to communicate well is not a luxury. It is courageous love. 

Join us in San Diego, April 14-17, 2026, to learn how to tell God’s story with clarity, beauty, and courage. To find out more about the Episcopal Communicators Conference coming to San Diego this April, visit https://episcopal-communicators.wildapricot.org/conference. Financial aid is available.