Welcome to Good News!

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This is Good News brought to you by Listening for Clues.

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We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek Deacons in the

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Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

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We sure are.

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And today we're bringing you some good news about our new series, good News!.

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With us today is our special guest, usually behind the

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scenes director, Lynn Shematek.

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Welcome, Lynn.

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Thank you.

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It's now very nice to be here.

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Finally in front of the camera.

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All right guys.

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I have questions for you.

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This is going to be a little reverse of what you normally do.

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You usually ask the questions, but I'm going ask the questions

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cuz I don't know the answers.

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One thing, what is this Good News?

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Well, it is news that you don't hear on the TV or radio every day.

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What we are doing are interviewing people who are doing some amazing things in the

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community both here and across the globe.

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Yeah.

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We thought there's just so much bad news out there in the media every day

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that it was time for us to give a platform for some good news sharing.

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So that's what, this is all about.

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Talking about people and organizations that are making a difference in

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making people's lives better.

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And when does the Good News start?

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Our first video and audio podcast is launching on June.

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12th, which is pretty close to now.

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So we'll put a new episode, audio and video podcast every

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Monday morning at eight o'clock.

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So June 12th is our kickoff episode.

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And every Monday as long as we have guests willing to talk to us, we

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will we'll be up with a new podcast.

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Now, this is certainly different than what you've been

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doing for the past couple of years.

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So what made you do it?

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What's changed?

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We got this idea when we were at St.

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John's Church in Ellicott City at the election convention of our new

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Bishop-elect, Carrie Schofield-Broadbent.

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We were waiting for the ballots to be counted when Bishop Sutton said

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he would like to hear some good news.

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We've heard a lot of bad news , and he asked what good

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news was going on in the parishes.

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And immediately people began to stand up and share some amazing stories.

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Jon and I looked at each other and said, we can do this.

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And we began planning.

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Actually at that moment, Jon took notes on his phone and we began.

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Yeah.

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And so this was a real departure for us.

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Listening for Clues has been around for several years.

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We have a whole lot of videos and some audio podcasts on our

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website listeningforclues.com.

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And they've really been focused on having conversations around scripture

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around sacred art and we wanted to kind of broaden our approach.

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Although we both are Episcopal deacons, we wanted to expand a bit so that

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folks that are not necessarily in that niche of being part of an organized

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religion or Christianity the Episcopal Church would find something to relate

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to because we think that the good news in its broadest sense is universal.

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This is for everyone.

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So that's why we decided to make the change from our format, as wonderful

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as that format is, and doesn't mean we're never gonna go back to doing

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those things or doing those things in addition to Good News, but we

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thought it's time for a change and.

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And this is a way we're hoping to really multiply the effect that these

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folks are having in all their various work that they're doing in, as Lauren

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said, locally and throughout the world.

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And the way we hope that it multiplies is the folks watching or listening to

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the podcast some of them may think, Hey, I could participate in that.

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I really like that.

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I do wanna go to Africa, or I do want to give some money to this cause.

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And that could be one way.

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The other way is that people may think of, you know, I can

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do something myself like that.

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I've always had a passion about a certain group or a certain

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geography or a certain issue.

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Local, national, international, whatever it may be.

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So to me, being successful would have even having one person support one

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of these endeavors that are being discussed in the episodes or even

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starting something on their own.

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I think that would be a really effective way of spreading the good news.

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It certainly sounds like as you both are so enthusiastic over this

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project, and it's been a pleasure to be in the background helping you with it

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and I hope it continues for a long time.

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Yes.

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So do we.

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And you've been great clicking the buttons and critiquing and giving

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us advice on how to be a bit more creative and how to express things

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well and how to publish them.

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So thank you Lynn . We're really excited about it.

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We wanna thank folks that have already been interviewed and

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thank those who have signed up.

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We have a whole bunch of people signed up to be interviewed.

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I want to thank all who are watching us today to

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help us spread this good news.

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We can't do it without you, so please take a moment, comment, like, or share

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on all of your social media platforms.

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This will help us spread the good news to even more people.

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Again, thank you for the gift of your time.

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Until next time, peace and blessings.

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Good news is being brought to you by listening for clues.

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You can find us on our website, listening for clues.com, our YouTube channel,

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our ameo channel, and just about every podcast platform that there is.