Two grants from the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council — a $10,000 New Episcopal Communities grant through the Episcopal Church’s Office of Church Planting and Redevelopment and a $2,000 Episcopal Evangelism grant — are fueling big dreams for Imagine Cincinnati’s ministry in the city’s northern suburbs and its growing partnership with Holy Trinity, Kenwood.
Imagine Cincinnati, which seeks to support parents — Christians and non-Christians alike— as they wrestle with the issues and challenges of modern parenting, grew out of work that Jen Fisher, a co-founder of Launchpad Partners, began with families of young children in Pleasant Ridge in 2021. A chance meeting in a coffee shop between Fisher, Canon Jason Oden, and Emma Helms-Steinmetz, the diocese’s director of formation projects and family ministry, led the trio to explore how Fisher’s playgroups and other initiatives could intersect with the diocese’s plans for ministry with young families.
As the project grew, Oden realized that Holy Trinity, Kenwood, a suburban Cincinnati church with a small congregation and a thriving daycare center, would be an ideal home base for the new initiative.
“It was a confluence: the neighborhood enjoys a proximity to young families with children, the building was designed with ample classroom space, and the congregation at Holy Trinity was open to ideas and wanted to use the space,” Oden said.
Fisher agreed. She hopes that Holy Trinity can become a parenting center that would be “welcoming and invested in interfaith activities, nature play, creation care, a home for body work and spiritual direction for parents and others. Being known for those things will be important in the religious landscape of the area.”
“For Holy Trinity, our involvement in Imagine Cincinnati is borne out of a commitment and calling to be part of our community,” Linda Tansey, clerk of the vestry, said. “Beyond the work toward Imagine Cincinnati, we are working with Launchpad to determine who we want to be as a congregation — how we want to worship and who we want to be in the community. We believe part of that will be playgroups and parenting support networks, all of which will expand the view of Holy Trinity as a caring, welcoming place in the community. What we want to become fits with the modern family dynamic, not just for worship, but for a potluck dinner or cookout in the garden. That’s where church has to be convenient to crazy, busy lives of young families.”
Tansey credits the project’s early success to the congregation’s vision, the neighborhood’s enthusiasm, and the diocese’s support.
“It’s a lofty vision but I think it could be successful,” she said. “We have the right people with the right passion. Without Jason Oden’s passion and trust, however, we couldn’t have gotten this done. It’s truly been a divine intervention. Jason has faith that we can do this become a viable community and valuable resource in the area, and the financial donations we’ve received from our community tells us that our neighbors believe in where we want to take this.”
To learn more about Imagine Cincinnati, email Canon Oden.
