Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

This article is also available in English here. Este artículo está disponible en ingles aquí. 

Hace unas semanas tuve una conversación con un amigo sacerdote. Empezamos a hablar sobre su Iglesia, sus ideas, sus inquietudes, y sus experiencias. Puede encontrar la entrevista AQUÍ y el video abajo.

Le hice una pregunta que me hizo pensar mucho. Le pregunté qué era algo que le había sorprendido de la Iglesia Episcopal cuando se hizo sacerdote. Me dijo que lo que le había sorprendido era que había una gran diferencia entre la Iglesia Episcopal de México y la de los EEUU. Específicamente, que en la de EEUU hemos adoptado tradiciones que no son “episcopales” como tener imágenes de vírgenes (particularmente La Guadalupana) y santos, primeras comuniones, y otras tradiciones que son Católicas Romanas. Él es cuarta generación Episcopal, hijo de sacerdote/obispo toda su vida (su esposa también es cuarta generación episcopal) y eso, para mí, fue una gran sorpresa. Aunque yo sé que la Iglesia Episcopal ha existido por muchos años, no sé por qué no había pensado en esto. Mi propia experiencia también me ha mostrado que en EEUU la Iglesia Episcopal Latina/Hispana/Hispanoparlante se ve como una iglesia Católica Romana y varias personas no parecen saber si hay alguna diferencia más que el/la sacerdote se puede casar y puede ser mujer. 

Yo pensaba que esta realidad era porque tenemos muchos sacerdotes de la Iglesia Católica Romana que se han “convertido” episcopales – mi honesta opinión era que se querían casar o ya estaban “casados” o tenían hijos o los habían “sorprendido” en relaciones amorosas y tenían que dejar la Iglesia Romana (que no permite que sus sacerdotes se casen, tengan hijos, o estén en relaciones amorosas) y no querían “convertirse” en Episcopales. Yo crecí en la Iglesia Evangélica así que para mí, tener imágenes o estatuas de vírgenes o santos siempre ha sido algo que me incomoda. Así que me encantó hablar con mi amigo ya que sentí que por fin alguien tenia la misma opinión que yo sobre la Identidad Episcopal – no somos Católicos Romanos.

Sigue leyendo...

On Saturday I was in Union Square with a clipboard and a petition, attempting to get strangers to sign. In recent months as I’ve become more involved with the climate change movement, I’ve found myself further and further outside my comfort zone, and this was just the latest example.
I believe strongly in the cause of fighting climate change, so I am happy from time to time to do this kind of work. I am a somewhat shy person, and it helps me grow personally. I also know there are other people—more outgoing people, for example—who will be a better fit for canvassing in the long term.

In any group that relies on volunteers, there will be times when its members will have to step outside their comfort zones. We’re not called to do only the things that come easily to us. This is as true in climate advocacy as it is in churches. 

However, if your volunteers are constantly asked to do things they do not enjoy or for which they have no aptitude, they will burn out. As I’m learning, sometimes we all have to say, “No, I’m not the right person for that.” As the group’s leaders or chairperson, you can empower your team members to say that. 

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There’s a show that airs on ESPN called Pardon the Interruption and it gives me agita. It’s a roundup of the day’s sports news hosted by a couple of loud, contentious talking heads with strongly voiced opinions about…everything. It’s kind of like the sports version of the McLaughlin Group, the long-running PBS news show that puts liberals and conservatives around a table and lets them have at it. Both shows are 30 minutes of people interrupting one another in what is basically, at least to my ears, a verbal food fight.

Much of ministry, like life itself, is an interruption. You can plan out your day and yet, depending on what arises, it often veers off in a completely different direction. Those plans you had to write that newsletter article? That gets trumped when you get a phone call that someone took a fall and is being transported to South Shore Hospital. Or that time you carved out to sit in your office and go over the budget for an upcoming meeting? That goes out the window when a parishioner comes in with news that her father just died.

You can either rue the disruption of your regular routine or you can view it as an opportunity to serve others. And you learn pretty quickly that people are much more important than your own calendar or deadlines or to-do list.

Jesus certainly knew what it was to get interrupted. During his brief, what I like to call “rock star” phase, when people hounded him wherever he went, his life was one long interruption. He couldn’t go anywhere without people wanting his attention or a healing touch or a chance to take a selfie with him. If he wanted a quiet moment for renewal he had to slip away by cover of darkness to find a place to pray — and even then people caught up with him and interrupted his private devotions with their own needs and concerns. Something he never once complained about.

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In the past few months, there has been a lot written about millennials. Namely, what they want, why/why not we should care about their characteristics as a generation, and conflicting information about what the Church should do in light of this information. 

In April 2015, a popular Christian speaker and author, Rachel Held Evans, published a Washington post blog that quickly went viral. 

In it she cited a study published by Pew Research for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Research showed that over 25% of the Millennial Generation claims no religion affiliation. She described in detail the efforts made by churches to be relevant and to reengage this demographic. Evans suggests that instead of looking at market research to determine what is cool for the moment, millennials are looking for authentic worship.

“If young people are looking for congregations that authentically practice the teachings of Jesus in an open and inclusive way, then the good news is the church already knows how to do that. The trick isn’t to make church cool; it’s to keep worship weird.” Her blog’s thesis was to embrace what the Church does well instead of changing it to meet the culture. 

She writes,”I believe that the sacraments are most powerful when they are extended not simply to the religious and the privileged, but to the poor, the lonely and the left out. This is the inclusivity so many millennials long for in their churches, and it’s the inclusivity that eventually drew me to the Episcopal Church, whose big red doors are open to all — conservatives, liberals, rich, poor, gay, straight, and even perpetual doubters like me.“

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The beautiful worship of the Episcopal Church can be a bit daunting for newcomers, especially those coming from nonliturgical traditions. But oh, once you get the hang of it, warmed by the inspiration, peace and teaching of our common prayers and calendar, it’s hard to imagine worship any other way.

There is another beautiful tradition of prayer, not weekly, but daily. It’s right there in the beginning of our Book of Common Prayer (starting on page 37), yet its treasures are undiscovered by many. Happily, there are many clergy and lay leaders intentionally encouraging people to give the Daily Office a try, and helping them get started.

The Rev. Ryan R. Whitley of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has written a fun and easy-to-understand Daily Office Tutorial.  Acknowledging that the Daily Office might seem a bit complicated and time-consuming, St. George’s web site reminds us that it is part of our Anglican heritage to be in a global community of daily prayer: 

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One of the hot topics at the General Convention is the use of social media in communication and evangelism. Discussion around a resolution to support digital evangelism (B009) resulted in a significant number of tweets on Twitter (#YesB009 and #B009).
Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and blogs, people not present at the General Convention were able to follow resolutions and to express opinions using #gc78. Whether they were following the results of the election of our Presiding Bishop, offering their opinions on the marriage resolution, or asking questions about the structure resolutions, the participation in the General Convention was broadened and deepened by the use of social media. 
This leads me to wonder how participation in our church can be broadened and deepened by the use of social media. If #gc78 can trend on Twitter (meaning that it is being tweeted about frequently), why can’t we make the Episcopal Church or our dioceses trend? Over the next three years, the Episcopal Church will be further exploring how to effectively evangelize using digital media.
This post first appeared on The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts' General Convention e-newsletter and is reprinted with permission.
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Who are we? What is our vision? Where are we going?

For July, Vestry Papers invites congregations to consider these questions, reflecting on the gifts God has granted to us while also listening – and watching – for what God is calling us to do in our communities. Our offerings include: 

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In addition to all the other very exciting things happening at General Convention there’s a lively conversation on an important, sensitive, and timely topic – our church’s relationship with alcohol, addictions, recovery, substance misuse, and healing. This summer, a special committee has been appointed, of which I am a member: Committee number 22 on Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse. Though it’s hard to eclipse the energetic spark that is the storyline about Presiding Bishop-elect Curry, I’d also say that this may be one of the most important conversations we’re going to have this summer, mostly because we’re hoping it’s a conversation that only begins in Salt Lake City and one that trickles down into the life of every local community in our church.

In short, we’re striving to find a new normal in our church’s relationship with alcohol, in particular, and a newer, more holistic understanding of how we deal with substance misuse in our individual lives and communities. We’re also trying to name that we need to keep our eyes fixed upon the gifts of healing and forgiveness and compassion when dealing with addiction and recovery – we are the Body of Christ, after all – at the same time that we also need to learn how to have hard conversations with one another. Will this happen because of General Convention resolutions? No, of course not. But this will begin by the conversation we have at General Convention, and that conversation has been going on in our committee as well as on the floor of both the House of Deputies and, soon, House of Bishops. This conversation is one I hope the rest of the church will also start to have, and soon.

Here are the details, and you can see everything at the website www.generalconvention.org.(Click here to look up resolutions by their number.)

First, the House of Deputies has already passed resolution D014, a resolution calling on dioceses and bishops and other bodies in the ordination process to “explore directly [with nominees, postulants and candidates for ordination] issues regarding substance use in their lives and family systems.” This passed the House of Deputies with substantial engagement and conversation; as I write on Tuesday morning, it is awaiting House of Bishops consideration and action.

Second, again as I write, the House of Deputies is set to consider resolutions A158 and A159. These are both resolutions the committee spent time discussing, writing, and revising. The committee, as such, was charged with updating our church’s policies on alcohol and drug abuse – last updated in 1985 – and even though the committee only had one resolution submitted before us, it’s no small thing for a legislative committee to become a policy-writing committee. That said, I commend these resolutions (as they look going into House of Deputies floor debate) and trusting the Sprit, as we all do, I’ll bet that I will also commend whatever version comes out post-GC.

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Thousands of people from across the United States have hunkered down in Salt Lake City for the triennial General Convention. It is an intense, marathon-length, sprint-pace gathering for leaders of the church to make decisions about policy, direction, and finances. We worship together each day and connect in convention center hallways and at exhibit booths.

And sometimes Jesus shows up. (To be more accurate, Jesus is always here; sometimes we recognize him.) Forward Movement invited people to share their Jesus encounters, using the hashtag #JesusAtGC, and there have been some wonderful encounters. Of course, we have experienced some big-Jesus moments, like the historic election of North Carolina’s bishop, Michael Curry, as the next presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. This is a man who loves Jesus and isn’t afraid to tell others about it. His election and leadership will galvanize and inspire the wider church, and I’m excited to see the plans God has for us through Bishop Curry.

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For the past several days I've spent more time than I probably should following General Convention on Twitter. We're trending! For those who don't tweet, this means our hashtag, #gc78, which basically links all the various tweets about convention, is one of the most popular on Twitter. There are millions of people on Twitter and even more hashtags, so the fact that we’re trending is a pretty big deal. 

That's how I read the news about the election of the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry as the first African American presiding bishop. That's how I saw photos of a hundreds and maybe thousands of Episcopalians marching against gun violence. 

Every now and then I came across a tweet or statement about personal responsibility, however, that I found somewhat troubling. Things like "It is going to take a change of human hearts and not human laws to stop gun violence," or that it would be hypocritical to divest from fossil fuels as a church because “we are not personally committed” to giving up using energy from oil and gas and coal. (I should say here that I'm a proponent of divestment but what I'm going to say is relevant even if you disagree with me.) 

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In response to ECF’s recent announcement of the publication of the new Vestry Resource Guide, a congregational leader asked:

Is going through this [the new Vestry Resource Guide] worthwhile as a vestry retreat?

My response to her was ‘yes.’ During the research that preceded this recent revision, I heard many stories of congregational leaders designing vestry retreats around individual chapters from the Vestry Resource Guide (VRG). As a result of this listening process, the focus of this edition is both ‘here are things vestries should be thinking about’ and ‘how might these approaches and practices be adapted to work in your context?’ To assist with this discernment, we’ve continued ECF’s practice of providing discussion questions at the end of each chapter. We’ve also added a list of related resources at the end of each chapter to help vestry members find additional information on the covered topics.

Many of the chapters in the new Vestry Resource Guide also include a case study showing how a congregation has approached the topic being discussed in that chapter. Our intent is to encourage vestries to consider the discernment process used by that congregation. ECF blogger Anna Olson describes the process this way:

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Perhaps I got ahead of myself with my last blog post. It happens. I am often guilty of: “Ready. Fire. Aim.” In mentioning the Minnesotans' trip to Southside Abbey, I mentioned the Innovative Leadership Rounds, without really unpacking what that program is. 

First, the Innovative Leadership Rounds program is made possible by the generosity, support, and faithfulness of the Episcopal Church Foundation's Fellowship Partners Program. For those who had not heard, I am humbled and honored to be named a Fellow for 2015. I am humbled and honored beyond words, which is rare for me – to be without words, that is. 

This reality calls to mind the speech the character Kevin makes at the end of an episode of the television show, The Office. Kevin, who is not known for his knowledge or wisdom, is part of a team that has just won a trivia competition. Upon reflection, he offers: “Look, I know it's easy to say tonight was just a fluke, and maybe it was. But here's a piece of trivia: A fluke is one of the most common fish in the sea, so if you go fishing for a fluke, chances are... you just might catch one” (The Office, “Trivia”). That's some deep theological stuff right there. How often are we in the presence of the Holy Spirit, present in the ordinary, and we just miss it?

In short, ECF has been gracious enough to see the Holy Spirit present in the work that Southside Abbey is doing and supportive enough to offer that work as a resource to others engaged in similar work around the Church. This is what the Innovative Leadership Rounds program, which is funded by the Fellowship, is all about. 

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When there is so much happening, or so much to do in the present, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine the future. Here’s a fun exercise to move people to envision how their church could make an exciting difference in the world.

Vision is inspiring because it describes impact. To help people understand this concept, start the exercise by asking the question: What are some ways our ministries currently impact the people of our congregation and our neighborhood or community? In other words, what are some results of our ministry in this place?

Record the answers of people on a flip chart. Encourage stories that describe impact. For instance, if someone says the impact is “beautiful worship,” explain that beautiful worship is what we do, but what is the impact of our beautiful worship? Ask the person if s/he can give an example of how her/his life, has been impacted by the worship at the church (which I hereby name St. Alban’s).

This is sometimes a bit of a stretch for people. Asking them to describe impact helps prevent simple listing of the features of the parish.

Next, divide the audience into small groups of 3 to 6 people, and give these instructions:

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The Episcopal Church’s General Convention is just around the corner. There are hundreds of resolutions to be considered. A new presiding bishop will be elected in addition to the usual election of General Convention presiding officers, at large executive committee members, trustees of General Theological Seminary, and other church wide bodies. You’ve a one -­‐ or maybe two -­‐ person shop. How can you possibly cover this event while also doing the rest of your job?

Nancy Davidge, a veteran of four General Conventions, offers these three tips:

A few weeks ago, I finally got caught up on compiling the time-sheets our church’s parish administrator fills out every week. I know it doesn’t sound like much, nor does it sound very exciting, but it’s all part of a larger shift we’ve been at work on at St. George’s, Valley Lee. I wonder if it’s a shift happening elsewhere in the church. And, if so, I wonder where we’re going with this.

When I was called as rector, now nearly eight years ago, this congregation had only recently celebrated the end of the ministry of a part-time secretary. She was a parishioner, and she had had the job for about ten years. Prior to 1997, that is, they’d never had a secretary or anyone in the office. That was the rector’s job. He produced the bulletins and the vestry, for the most part, ran the business of the parish.

With her departure, and during the leadership of an interim priest, they decided they needed someone in the office. There was no one in the congregation they could hire. Looking back, actually, that was a good thing, and an inadvertent beginning of our current policy that parishioners cannot be employees and vice versa. They went to a local temp agency and had a string of employees, some good, some not so great.

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An Orderly Chaos - Episcopal Governance

For the June Vital Practices Digest, we’re sharing five resources on how governance works – or can work – in our Church, from General Convention to your parish vestry or bishop’s committee. Our fifth resource is to help congregations strengthen their practice of year-round stewardship.

It’s easy and free to connect with these resources for your congregation. Subscribe to ECF Vital Practices to receive Vestry Papers and this Vital Practices Digest in your inbox each month.

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Our grand VBS experiment was a success. In a post a few weeks ago, I promised I would circle back after the first session and report on the program.

Like many congregations, we’ve struggled to find the right fit for summer Christian formation. Even though we have forty to fifty children involved in choirs and acolyte service during the school year, our Vacation Bible School attendance has been anemic for the past few summers.

Led by our awesome (and very part-time) Christian formation director, we decided to try a different approach.

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