Mike Reiss shared with me his slide deck from the recent Moravian Eastern District Training Workshops held last weekend. It's great primary information and he gave me permission to share it. Mike is the Executive Director of the Interprovincial Board of Communications for the Moravian Church in North America. If you decide to share, just let him know. His contact information is on the last page. The file is 1.5 MB.
Registration opens today and closes March 23rd. Cost is $17.50 and includes lunch.
A day set aside for learning about opportunities and resources for ministry in congregations, and celebrating ministries we share. There will be 13 different workshops spanning all aspects of ministry to select from this year. Please plan to join us for a wonderful day of learning.
Workshops include: All Day Workshops (one workshop in both sessions)
#1 Ministry of the Lay Eucharistic Visitor (all day workshop) - The Rev. Edward Erb -- Two-part course leads to licensing. Morning session - Biblical, theological, and historical background. Afternoon session - resources and practical considerations (ex. HIPAA rules, safety, and health concerns)
#2 Understanding and Working with ChurchPost (all day workshop) - Mr. John Goodell, Owner of ChurchPost -- A hands-on guide to using ChurchPost, our electronic newsletter platform, to communicate effectively and immediately with your members and visitors.
Session I - 9:45am to 11:15am
#3 Wardens/Vestry 101 - The Rt. Rev. Paul Marshall and The Ven. Howard Stringfellow - Introduction for new wardens and vestry members or a refresher for experienced vestry members to the roles, responsibilities, and realities of parish leadership.
#4 Bringing Financial Sanity to the Family - Mr. Dan Charney - The program, Financial Sanity, designed by Nathan Dungan, founder and president of Share Save Spend, consists of four one-hour sessions. This training helps you to become familiar with the program, and will cover session one of the program to give participants a feel for what it is all about.
#5 Transitional Formation in Parishes - Ms. Kim Rowles - In periods of individual transition it is especially important to support and lead members in our communities to an intentional life with Christ, this session will help outline a plan for individual parishes dealing with middle to high school transition, high school to college transition, and couples to family transition.
#6 - Come Let Us Worship - A Workshop for the Laity and Clergy - The Rev. Laura Howell & The Rev. John Francis - This session will explore some of the tools the Book of Common Prayer gives us for daily worship. It will provide some practical suggestions for parish prayer that may be led by the laity as well as the clergy.
#7 - Evangelism as Prayer and Faith Sharing - The Rev. Jane Bender, The Rev. Doug Moyer, and Mrs. Carol Keane - The Unbinding the Gospel series doesn't give answers as to how, when and where. Come learn how many ways this lively resource can be tailored for your use.
Session II -- 1:15pm to 2:45pm
#8 Enabling Ministries: Forward Life Planning - Mr. Charlie Barebo - Develop your parish's capabilities to deliver ministries by strengthening its approach to Forward Life Planning.
#9 Treasurers’ Workshop - Mr. Bruce Reiner -- This workshop will focus on cash receipts, cash disbursements, internal controls, and audits.
#10 - The Confirmation Conundrum - The Rev. Canon Anne Kitch - Explores the rite of Confirmation and the many questions it raises. Includes an overview of the history of Confirmation in the Episcopal Church and the theology of Confirmation as it is express in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
#11 - Health Ministries - Mrs. Diana Marshall - Health ministry plays a unique and critical role in facilitating the health of clergy, staff and congregations. Health ministry looks different from congregation to congregation, reflecting the unique needs, interests, and resources of the faith community.
#12 - Incorporating New members into the Episcopal Church - The Rev. Canon Andrew Gerns- The course will introduce a simple, easy-to-understand, process of incorporating new members into a congregation. It will also describe various kinds of visitors and newcomers and show how to integrate the worship and theology of the Episcopal Church into our evangelism.
#13 - Training for Regional Discernment Teams - Members of the Commission on Ministry - This training session is designed to help both clergy and laity understand the purpose and structure of regional discernment as practiced in the Diocese of Bethlehem.
Starting in February, Diocesan Life, the newspaper of the Diocese of Bethlehem will include a new national newspaper covering the life and work of the Episcopal Church. Called Episcopal Journal, a new independent publication serving Episcopalians throughout the country and abroad.
Initially, the new paper will be available as a printing partner with more than a dozen diocesan and parish publications, including Diocesan Life, that reach over 50,000 households. A campaign for individual and small group subscriptions will follow.
Editorial director Jerry Hames says the Journal’s mission is “to inform, involve and inspire Episcopalians in the United States and abroad by sharing the good news of our church’s life and ministry.”
Freshly designed with an attractive contemporary layout, Episcopal Journal will offer timely and accurate reporting, drawing its news articles from Episcopal News Service and other Episcopal, Anglican and ecumenical news services, he said.
“It will also invite contributions from recognized names in the fields of religion, science and the arts, and offer columns and meditations appropriate for the church seasons.”
Hames, editor of Episcopal Life from 1990 to 2007, said the new publication will fill a vacuum caused by the decision to terminate national print publications from the Episcopal Church Center in New York. The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church voted in October to approve a budget that cut all funding for print publications. That followed an across-the-board budget reduction voted by the General Convention in 2009. As a result, Episcopal News Monthly, which succeeded Episcopal Life a year ago, will cease publication with the January 2011 issue.
“We now have partners committed to the printing program from coast to coast,” Hames said. “They include the dioceses of Delaware, Long Island, Bethlehem, Easton, Vermont, New Hampshire, Northern Michigan, West Tennessee, Iowa, Nevada, San Joaquin and Eastern Oregon.” A quarterly issue of the Journal will also be produced for several dioceses who publish four times a year.
Four diocesan editors whose publications are partners in the printing program will serve on an editorial advisory committee. They are the Rev. Heather Cook of Easton, Cate McMahon of New Hampshire, Rise Thew Forrester of Northern Michigan and Jeanie Senior of Eastern Oregon.
At this time, Hames said, editorial inquiries and submissions may be sent to episcopaljournaledit@gmail.com or Box 308, Cranbury, NJ 08512. Advertising inquiries should be addressed to episcopaljournalads@gmail.com, or to Box 106, Fort Washington, PA 19034.
For further information you may contact Jerrold Hames, 609-897-9769, or email at jerrold.hames@gmail.com
The following is one in a series of talking points prepared as a resource for The Episcopal Church provided by The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs.
Talking Points: The facts about The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA).
The Episcopal Church is over 7400 congregations in 109 dioceses plus three regional areas in 16 countries with 2.2 million members.
It is important to note that membership in ACNA includes churches and denominations which have disassociated from The Episcopal Church both recently and over the last 130 years, as well as congregations which have never been part of The Episcopal Church. A definitive number is difficult to ascertain.
ACNA is lead by an archbishop who is not a member of The Episcopal Church, The Church of England, the Anglican Church of Canada, or The Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church laity and clergy believe the Christian faith as stated in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. We call the Holy Scriptures the Word of God because God inspired their human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible. We look to the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in the understanding of the Scriptures. Our assurance as Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Episcopal Church welcomes all who wish to serve God through Jesus Christ.
The Episcopal Church welcomes women in ordained ministry – deacons, priests and bishops.The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church is the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to lead The Episcopal Church as well as any of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion. ACNA does not permit women to serve as bishops and, in some areas, bars women from all ordination.
The Episcopal Church is a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion, serving God together and working together to bring the Reign of God on earth. ACNA is not a member of the Worldwide Anglican Communion.
It is important to note that those who have remained in The Episcopal Church in those places where some have left include conservatives as well as liberals, persons on the political right as well as on the political left, and everything in between.
It is an inaccurate and misleading image that pictures those who have broken away from The Episcopal Church as the persecuted faithful, when in reality those who have remained have felt deeply hurt, and now in some cases are exiled from their own church buildings by ACNA.
To: Clergy, Parish Administrators, Parish Newsletter Editors
From: Bill Lewellis and Kat Lehman
The Diocese of Bethlehem will soon roll out ChurchPost for use by all parishes.
ChurchPost is a web-based and user-friendly solution that will empower parishes to create group email lists to communicate with parishioners generally and to communicate on separate lists with those members engaged or interested in specific ministries. It will enable parishes to create topical email groups that will be accessible to interested members from any computer while also allowing all parishioners, simply by signing up at a "Get Connected" box on the home page of the parish website, to have access to any or all groups that are created and made available publicly. It will also give parishes the ability not only to create quick text emails to post to the group but also (without any need for technical knowledge) to create professional-looking email notes and email newsletters by using colorful templates. Find more information about ChurchPost here.
Those connections between members of the international body will continue, no matter what U.S. Episcopal or Anglican Communion leaders decide, Bishop Marshall said. "Relationships exist and grow on levels that institutions ... can abet, but can neither create nor destroy."
newSpin...is an
electronic newsletter of information related to the Diocese of Bethlehem, the
Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion... with some spin, of course, from
the editor. To receive it online, about six times monthly, send your email
address to Bill Lewellis, blewellis@diobeth.org. Ask for newSpin. If
you subscribe to Bethlehem of Pa you already receive newSpin, in
addition to many other notes. The newSpin newsletter is available also on our diocesan blog.
