Renewal Assembly IV: Empowered Leaders, Renewed Congregations

Have you found that service on the vestry has enriched your spiritual life? 

Bishop Paul posed this question to his guests on the video prepared for the next renewal assembly scheduled for Saturday, February 11, from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM, at seven sites across the diocese.  The assembly, a retreat for current and future vestry members, is entitled “Empowered Leaders, Renewed Congregations.”

Joining Bishop Paul on the video are Raymond Arcario, who served as senior warden of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem; and, The Very Rev. Anthony Pompa, Dean and Rector of Nativity.

The daylong retreat will draw from Neal Michell’s Beyond Business As Usual: Vestry Leader Development.  “This book,” writes Michell, “is for those churches that are no longer content with business as usual.  It is for those clergy and vestry members who want to be partners in ministry and mission as they explore new and create ways to do and expand mission and ministry.”  Copies of the book will be made available to each vestry attending for a subsidized price of $10.00.

Drawing from Beyond Business As Usual, the retreat will engage vestry members in Bible Study and a number of “teaching” experiences, such as “Four Principles Every Leader Should Take to Heart.”  The purpose is to examine appropriate, effective mental models of the vestry as a “learning community” that plays a significant role in the spiritual growth and renewal of the congregation.

Charles Cesaretti, Interim Missioner for Congregational Renewal hopes "that the retreat will enable every participant to respond in the affirmative to Bishop Paul’s query – Have you found that service on the vestry has enriched your spiritual life?”

Registration is open at www.diobeth.org until February 3.

Renewal Assembly IV: Empowered Leaders, Renewed Congregations

Diocesan Life for December 2011/January 2012

Open publication - Free publishing - More floods

You can download a .pdf of the file here: Download DECEMBER2011_DiocesanLife_SMALL

Renewal Assembly III: Finding Your Voice

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Registration is open for the Renewal Assembly III on November 12.

“Finding Your Voice” is the theme of the third Renewal Assembly, which will be held on Saturday, November 12.  It will be a time when participants will be engaged in using the power of recollection to identify the blessings of their past to empower their voice to give shape and articulate the future.
 
The day will begin with a special video with Bishop Paul interviewing two guests.  This will be followed by small group discussions and a time for corporate and personal prayer.  The schedule will run from 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM, and will include a light luncheon.
 
The Assembly will be hosted at eight sites: Christ Church, Towanda; St. Mark’s, New Milford; St. Luke’s, Scranton; Holy Cross, Wilkes-Barre; St. John’s, Palmerton; Trinity Church, Easton; St Andrew’s, Allentown; and, St. Alban’s, Sinking Spring.
 
Registration is open on www.diobeth.org.  The registration is found by clicking on “Register for Diocesan Event” on the right column of the homepage.  Registration closes on October 31.  All registrants will be assigned to the most appropriate host site.

Registration closes on Oct. 31.

Thank you for you support.

See you on November 12,
Charles

Diocesan Life for September 2011

Download the September issue of Diocesan Life as a .pdf
Download September2011_DiocesanLife_SMALL (3.3 MB file)

Renewal Assembly II: Connecting the Dots

Here is the video from our second Renewal Assembly.

 

Diocesan Life for June 2011

Open publication - Free publishing - More anglican

If you would like the issue in a .pdf, you can download it here. It's 2MB:

Download June2011_DiocesanLife_SMALL

Noonday Prayer from Dallas PA on YouTube

Father John Major
Rector, Prince of Peace Dallas and Trinity West Pittston

Everyone is invited to utilize our multimedia noonday prayer service, which can be found on our website, www.princeofpeacedallaspa.org
 
Renewal. It means taking something that works well for us and continuing it. We renew drivers’ licenses and magazines that we enjoy. It also means taking something we’ve perhaps let slide a little and reviving, restoring and refreshing it. We renew our interest in an old hobby. We renew acquaintances with someone we haven’t spoken to in a while.
 
When it comes to our spiritual life, whether we have one that works well or one that we’ve let slide, we can all benefit from renewal. We can refresh good faith practices with new effort and intensity, or replenish our faith by establishing practices that will bring us closer to God. This was the focus of the Renewal Assemblies held recently throughout the Diocese of Bethlehem: the need to renew our faith and good works through prayer.
 
Renewing a magazine subscription or acquaintance requires us to reach out and make contact. Spiritual renewal is no different. We need to reach out and make contact with God, and the way we as Christians do that is through prayer.
 
Our Episcopal faith provides us many models and resources for building our prayer lives, including daily devotions. Pausing three times a day for Morning Prayer, Noon Prayer and Evening Prayer will take less than total minutes from your day, but will renew your connection to God each and every time you pray.
 
To make it easy for you to join your brothers and sisters in Christ in prayer no matter where you are, Father Major and some parishioners at Prince of Peace Episcopal Church of Dallas created a YouTube video of Noon Prayer and a Litany for the Mission of the Church. Visit www.princeofpeacedallaspa.org  and click on the video.
 
Make time every day to talk to God and renew your life.