Diocese of Southern Virginia receives award from Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church

By the Rev. Lauren McDonald, St. Stephen's, Newport News

L to R: Jan Brown; Shannon Tucker, outgoing president of RMEC; the Rev. Lauren McDonald

The last week in October, Jan M. Brown and the Rev. Lauren McDonald, co-chairs of the Addictions and Recovery Commission (ARC) of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, attended the annual Gathering of Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church (RMEC) at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle. This year's Gathering featured presentations by the Rev. Becca Stevens, Anne Lamott, and Sybil MacBeth. Jan, who was elected Vice President of the RMEC Board during the Gathering, facilitated an afternoon of "telling our recovery stories," in which Gathering participants learned to share their stories in five sentences. It was a powerful afternoon of honest and open sharing.

 

This year, at the Friday night banquet, RMEC presented two awards that had been given out in the past but had not been awarded recently. One was the Sam Shoemaker Award given to an individual who has made significant contributions in the field of addiction in the Episcopal Community. The other was the Russell Horton Award given to a Diocese with a new or renewed recovery commission that has had a significant increase in activity, a creative/renewed ministry, and has supported RMEC's goals of making a difference in and through the Episcopal Community in the field of recovery from addiction. This year the Russell Horton Award was given to the Diocese of Southern Virginia in recognition of restarting our Addictions and Recovery Commission and working to create Recovery Ready churches and a Recovery Ready Diocese. Jan and Lauren received the award on behalf of DioSoVA, and Lauren gave a presentation to those gathered on what the ARC has done in the past year.  

 

In 2016 the RMEC Gathering will be held in Williamsburg, hosted by the Diocese of Southern Virginia. Those interested in helping with the conference may contact Lauren at 757-903-0000 or lauren@spiritworksfoundation.org. We look forward to showing the rest of the Episcopal Church our Southern Virginia hospitality.