Convention Report 2006

Holy Family Fishers were very gracious hosts and our thanks also go to each person in that congregation that helped make the convention run smoothly.

As always, there were so many things gone over in the convention that it was sometimes mind boggling but there were a few things that really hit home and I believe will be of special interest to our congregation.

The one that held the most impact in my heart and mind was the meetings that the Restructuring Design Team held in the Spring of 2006. They were titled Spring Clericus Meetings. They listed emergent themes or issues that they said may not represent the majority voice, but were themes that were recorded and seem to be either recurrent or highly charged.

These were as listed:

From Parishioner and Laity

• General sense that many parishioners/laity feel distant, disconnected from the role, structure of the Diocese.
• Similarly, sense of disconnect between parish life and national church.
• Conversely, the sense of relatedness and belonging occurs at a parish, congregational level.
• Some question as to "how decisions are made" at Diocesan level.
• Expressed discontent of regional confirmations (relate this to the sense of connectedness being at parochial/local level)
• Some concern that adult formation needs attention.
• Concern that effective ways need to be discovered to provide ongoing lay and ordained leadership training/ongoing development.
• Expressed interest in helping everyone understand national trends as compared to what may be occurring within local parish or Episcopal denomination (i.e. Hadaway’s research)

From Parish / Congregation

• Widespread sense that the small, rural or struggling parishes are not being sufficiently supported.
• Significant tension between the needs of existing/struggling parishes and the Diocese’s focus on new congregations.
• Significant sense of disconnect between Southwest Deanery and Indianapolis (seat of Diocesan office); feel more connected to Louisville, St. Louis, Nashville Diocese.
• General concern that endowed parishes are ‘over resourced’ in people and programming, question is how to what degree it is accepted that boundaries can be crossed to support the less resourced parishes, the degree to which collaboration can be explored as a strategy.
• General sense that Mission Strategy is not always well informed or helpful when working with aided parishes resulting in the parishes having to keep saying the same things over again to the committee.
• Some sense that being an aided parish is humiliating.
• Conversely, some sense that even the endowed churches are on welfare in that they are relying on funds from the deceased and not pledges from the living.
• One deanery expressed the sentiment that ‘Commission on Ministry is a disaster".perhaps repeat of a more general theme of being disconnected from role/function of Diocese.
• Some sense that Vestries are more concerned with operational issues than mission issues.
• There were also some comments from clergy but at this time this does not seem significant in our parish.

A "Strawmodel Restructuring Initiative" for the Diocese was presented. It tells what kind of things "might" help and the desire to keep to the motto of Strengthening our Faith and Widening our Embrace.

My personal take on this is that the Diocese is at least listening. That is a good start.

One very important resolution that was passed was one trickling down from the General Convention that we begin using "Enriching Our Worship Volume 1: Daily Office, Great Litany, and Eucharist, and Enriching Our Worship Volume 2:Ministry with the Sick and Dying, and Burial of a Child, under direction of the bishop. We are being encouraged to use this resource for Sunday worship.

Resolution 3 also states that we are being asked to begin transition to the Revised Common Lectionary, effective the First Sunday of Advent 2007. It also states that congregations may request permission of the Ecclesiastical Authority to continue use of the current Episcopal Lectionary for the purposes of orderly transition, until the First Sunday of Advent 2010, when the RCL will become the authorized lectionary for this Church.

There were other resolutions, that of appreciation to Bishop Griswold and in greeting Bishop Jefferis-Schori. There was one on concerns about accessability.

Resolution 8 re-affirmed the Diocese commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and that it would seek to involve each congregation in these goals. The goals are to designate .7% of the budget for ministries which help to meet those goals. From what I understand, we are already meeting these goals with our food pantry and other outreach programs. We do not have to do anything NEW to meet this .7%.

There were other interesting resolutions that were passed and anyone can feel free to ask me about them. I think that the ones that really involved St. Timothy’s directly have been listed above.

The Bishop’s address was interesting, as always, and can be found from a link on the St. Timothy’s web site or just ask me and I will get you a copy of it.

We were serenaded by the beautiful music of Jonathan and Debra Hutchinson of Heartstrings. Jonathan also is the rector of the church in Bean Blossom, Indiana. Most anyone that has been to Waycross in the last 15 to 20 years knows their music as they are almost always there to welcome and entertain when there is something going on at Waycross. We thank them.

I am sorry that this has been so lengthy but really think that the things that I have covered had an impact on St. Timothy’s and is therefore important to document for all it’s parishioners.

I humbly submit this report on November 5, 2006

Judy Champa