Bishop search update

The Standing Committee has been working hard at choosing the search and transition committees as we discern our next bishop. By the end of the application process on June 15, we had received 62 applications for a total of 20 spots available. The Standing Committee met on July 12 and now has a preliminary selection for the two committees. We will gather some additional information over the next month, and will make our final decision at our August 2 meeting. Thank you to all who applied, and please keep the Standing Committee, and the Diocese in your prayers.

 

 - The Standing Committee of Southern Virginia

Annual Meeting of Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church Sept. 26-29

The program begins Wednesday evening with Compline and a 12-step meeting. This gathering will include noted speakers, recovery workshops, bluegrass music, a tour of the Biltmore Estate. Registration for the Gathering is $250; scholarships are available. Click here for more information and registration. 

CE-Net Gathering: Where Faith and Life Meet

How do you respond when unexpected events occur in the lives of our parish families? Where does our faith intersect with our everyday life? If you are responsible for some aspect of Christian formation you have likely considered these questions.

 

The Christian Education Network (CE-Net) invites you to join them for the "Where Faith and Life Meet" formation gathering on Saturday, August 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hickory Neck Church, Toano.  

 

CE-Net has invited Vicki M. Lanier, LPC, to offer some guidance for formation professionals to help us navigate our parish response to life's unexpected events. In addition to Vicki's guidance, we will have an opportunity to spend time in small groups discussing how we might respond, on a programming level, to unexpected events, such as suicide, shootings, death (beloved parishioner, family member, pet), or a national crisis.

 

During lunch we will have an opportunity to check in and hear about each other's ministries. Lunch will be provided for $6 per person. Register here. Registration closes on Tuesday, August 14.

 

If you have questions or require additional information please contact Vicky Koch at vkoch@stpaulsnorfolk.org or Megan Dern at Megan.Dern@goodshepherdnorfolk.org.

Administrators & Treasurers Lunch Group to meet in Petersburg

The Administrators & Treasurers Lunch Group will meet on Thursday, August 23, from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at St. Stephen's, Petersburg. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet with other parish administrators and treasurers to talk about common issues. There's no agenda for this gathering - just an opportunity to get together, share, encourage, support, and ask questions. Bring your own lunch; beverages will be provided. RSVP to Diocesan Comptroller Judy Dobson, jdobson@diosova.org or 757-213-3386. St. Stephen's is located at 228 Halifax Street in Petersburg.

Upcoming Safe Church training - register now!

Registration is open for fall Safe Church classroom training. Click here for more information on Safe Church training, who is required to take it, and to register for any of these scheduled trainings:

• September 8, 2018 - Ascension, Norfolk
• September 15, 2018 - Trinity, South Boston
• September 22, 2018 - St. Andrew's, Newport News
• October 13, 2018 - St. Aidan's, Virginia Beach
• October 27, 2018 - St. Matthias', Midlothian

Church Periodical Club's Miles of Pennies benefits Jackson-Feild

Jackson-Feild Behavioral Health Service's Hayden Gwaltney School received a grant of $822.23 from the Miles of Pennies to purchase books and educational materials. The Gwaltney School has received more than $8,567 from the program over the years. The beneficiaries of these grants have been students who were educated by using materials provided by this fund.

 

Founded in 1888, the Church Periodical Club (CPC) is an Episcopal organization that provides books, magazines, tapes, videos and CD's at no charge to those who cannot otherwise obtain them. The first grants were awarded in 1991.

 

The Miles of Pennies provides grants up to $844.80. Laid edge-to-edge, it takes 84,480 pennies to cover the distance of a mile. Hence, the name of the fund and the maximum amount of grants provided. The Miles of Pennies program focuses exclusively on the educational needs of children from kindergarten through high school.

 

Donations are collected to support the Miles of Pennies Fund as well as other programs sponsored by the CPC. The majority of the donations are provided by Episcopal Church Women throughout the country. The total grants awarded annually range from $18,000 to $25,000 depending upon the donations raised.

79th General Convention wrap-up

Southern Virginia's General Convention Deputation. Front L to R: Ronald Ramsey, Alice Webley, Samantha Vincent-Alexander, Jennifer Andrews-Weckerly, Mark Wilkinson, Isabel Burch. Rear L to R: Cameron Randle, Willis Foster, Julia Messer, Sam Webster, Clare Harbin, Bishop Hollerith, Toni Hogg.

 

The 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church is a wrap. GC79 met July 5-13 in Austin, TX. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's call in his opening sermon for Episcopalians to follow "The Way of Love" could be felt throughout this General Convention as bishops and deputies from every part of the worldwide Episcopal Church put in very long days in committee meetings and legislative sessions. Over 500 resolutions were considered by the convention, but the two big legislative issues were revising the Book of Common Prayer and same-sex marriage rites. General Convention voted against revising the 1979 prayer book, but instead to approve and authorize alternative, expansive-language liturgical materials. General Convention voted for making authorized same-sex marriage rites available for use in all congregations, ensuring all Episcopalians can be married by their priests in their home churches. Episcopal News Service offers a good legislative wrap-up here. You can also find much more on General Convention at the diocesan #GC79 blog.  

 

GC79 Resources for congregations and individuals 

 

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry invited Episcopalians to embrace a new "rule of life" - The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life.  

 

TEConversations (The Episcopal Church Conversations), held during joint sessions of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, are available, along with discussion guides. They are: Racial Reconciliation; Evangelism; and Care of Creation. 

Cursillo Co-ed Weekend Sept. 27-30

The next Cursillo Weekend will be Sept. 27-30 at Chanco on the James in Surry. Linda Tandy is the rector for this weekend. Cursillo is Spanish for "short course" and the weekend offers a short course in Christianity. The movement was started many years ago in an effort to help young Christian men grow closer to Christ. Today, there are Cursillo movements all over the world. On the three day weekend, candidates learn how to grow as leaders in their communities and in their own personal journey with Jesus. For more info and an application, go to www.cursillodiosova.org.

Fall Camp at Shrine Mont Oct. 22-25

Sponsored by the Tri-Diocesan Council on Aging, Fall Camp will be held Oct. 22-25 at Shrine Mont in Orkney Springs, VA, and is an opportunity to spend time in the mountains of Virginia with other seniors from across the Commonwealth and from other states. The camp is an attempt to take seriously the spiritual needs and journeys of primarily retired people, challenging participants through keynote speakers, workshops, worship and interaction with one another. Click here for more information.  

 

The keynote speaker for this year's conference will be Lauren F. Winner. Dr. Winner is an Episcopal priest and vicar of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Louisburg, NC. She writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Her books include Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, and, most recently, a book on overlooked biblical tropes for God, Wearing God.

Outreach at Chanco - All God's Children Camp

For the second year Chanco partnered with the United Methodist Church to provide All God's Children Camp in June. Children with an incarcerated mother or father, ages 7 to 12, spend a week at camp, participating in activities such as boating, swimming, hiking, archery, crafts, Bible study, and conflict resolution. Partnering with the Virginia United Methodist Church, All God's Children Camp provides a week of sanctuary for children who face so many challenges in their lives: economic poverty; temporary living conditions; loneliness; low self-esteem; violence; and drugs. Chanco is pleased and proud to be a partner in this wonderful outreach ministry.

 

Summer missions at Boys Home

	Volunteers from Trinity, Portsmouth, with Boys Home Director Donnie Wheatley (in white shirt)

Trinity, Portsmouth, is one of three churches that have spent time at Boys Home in Covington this summer. Volunteers from Trinty, as well as St. Michael & All Angels in Columbia, SC, and St. Martin's in Richmond, each spent about a week at Boys Home, working hard on some very hot days. 

 

Trinity worked diligently to replace front wood panels and insulate the entrance barn, and installed kick boards in the run-in sheds and corral barn for the horses. They also installed new bench seats on the bleachers by the riding area and began construction of a greenhouse by the garden area. To relax after their hard work, the group enjoyed an afternoon four-wheeler ride up the mountain behind Boys Home.

 

St. Michael and All Angels spent many hours painting the run-in shed and barn near the riding ring, as well as clearing grass from our pond. After all that work, the group found time to enjoy a day of kayaking and caving in the beautiful Allegheny Highlands! 

 

With the threat of rain, St. Martin's helped input the codes that raise funds from Coke reward caps, and cleaned the gym and recreation room. They made the trip to the top of the mountain at Boys Home, where they painted the lodge inside and out and began constructing a wood shed. After many hours of work, they visited Douthat State Park to unwind.

 

If your congregation would like to learn more about Boys Home and how you can support their ministry, please contact Lauren Ward, Lward@boyshomeofva.org.

"The Way of Love" permeates the work of the 79th General Convention

 

Southern Virginia's deputation (L to R): the Rev. Willis Foster; the Rev. Samantha Vincent-Alexander; Sam Webster; the Rev. Jennifer Andrews-Weckerly; the Rev. Julia Messer; Clare Harbin; Bishop Hollerith; Alice Webley; the Rev. Ronald Ramsey; Isabel Burch; Toni Hogg; the Rev. Cameron Randle. Not pictured: the Rev. Mark Wilkinson.

 

The 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church has been meeting in Austin, TX since July 5, and participants (including Bishop Hollerith and our diocesan deputies) actually began arriving July 2 to begin committee work. Bishop Hollerith and deputies from Southern Virginia are putting in very long days in committee meetings and legislative sessions. General Convention continues through Friday, July 13. Below are just a few of the highlights of #GC79 thus far. For much more on the work of General Convention, visit the diocesan #GC79 blog, Facebook and Instagram. You can watch and follow the work of General Convention live on the Media Hub and the GC79 app.  

 

The Way of Love

 

The 79th General Convention opened July 5 with a festival Eucharist that included a rousing sermon by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. He talked about the Way of Love and how Episcopalians can intentionally move forward in that way. He called for not just GC participants, but all Episcopalians, to "meditate on the life and teaching of Jesus" before all of their work, and in everything they do. The Episcopal Church has created resources to help us do just that - The Way of Love: Practices for Jesus-Centered Life. This new "rule of life" is to turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go, and rest.  

 

TEConversations

 

This General Convention includes something new and different, TEConversations (The Episcopal Church Conversations), held during joint sessions of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. The three TEConversations were: Racial Reconciliation; Evangelism; and Care of Creation. Each session began with powerful presentations by speakers, followed by guided conversation among the deputies and bishops. There are videos of all TEConversation speakers and discussion guides you can use in your parish. These resources are great for small groups, youth groups or adult forums.   

 

Public witness by Bishops United Against Gun Violence

 

	Bishops at public witness;   Bishop Hollerith at top right.

Bishop Hollerith was one of the bishops taking part in the July 8 Public Witness event at Austin's Brush Square held by Bishops United Against Gun Violence. Hundreds of General Convention participants attended the event. Many of the clergy present were wearing orange stoles - the color associated with gun safety and the blaze orange worn by hunters.  

 

Speakers included Phil and April Schentrup, whose daughter, Carmen, was killed in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas on Ash Wednesday of 2018. Since Carmen's death, both April and Phil have spoken out publicly against gun violence, as well as pushed hard for solutions that bring our country together. Phil and April generously shared their story of grief and pain, and urged the church to advocate against gun violence and promote public safety so that our nation can live together in peace.

 

Prayers at detention center encourage women held there

 

	Deputies (L to R) the Rev. Julia Messer, the Rev. Samantha Vincent-Alexander, the Rev. Cameron Randle, Clare Harbin at Hutto prayer service.

Nineteen busloads of General Convention participants - over 1000 people - including Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and House of Deputies President Gay Jennings, traveled to the Hutto Immigration Detention Facility in Taylor, TX, to hold a prayer service outside the detention center.  

 

Grassroots Leadership, a non-profit organization that works with communities across this nation to abolish for-profit private prisons, helped facilitate this public witness. They reported to General Convention that on Sunday afternoon, "A woman called from Hutto after today's prayer and told us they were glued to the windows until the last bus left the detention center. Women inside were crying, saying they knew they weren't alone after seeing so many people there."  

 

Organizers of Sunday's prayer service plan to provide follow-up advocacy resources and opportunities. One step that both Houses of General Convention were encouraged to take was to donate to Grassroots Leadership's Hutto Deportation and Defense Bond Fund. Gifts to the fund "will be used to release people detained and ensure they remain free. Bonds on average are $1,500-$10,000. Funds will be used for bond, basic needs, and commissary so women can call their children and community, and other emergency needs."  

Jackson-Feild promotes two staff members

	Marie Hippolyte, left. Adrienne Foster, right.

Ms. Marie Hyppolite who has served as Clinical Director heading the behavioral health services at Jackson-Feild for the past four years has been promoted Director of Programs and Clinical Services. She has been employed by Jackson-Feild for twenty-five years. She previously serves as Director of the Eleventh House an independent living program which has since closed and as a clinical social worker at Jackson-Feild. Also promoted is Adrienne Foster to the role of Clinical Manager. She has served as a clinical social work for thirteen years.

             

Both Ms. Hyppolite and Ms. Foster have helped Jackson-Feild achieve an excellent reputation for the provision of high quality residential treatment services to help children struggling with mental health disorders and their families. They are outstanding therapists who have helped countless children understand and manage their disorders, and will provide great leadership and direction to ensure that Jackson-Feild provides trauma-focused, cutting-edge and evidence-based mental health services in the future.

Summer missions at Boys Home

	Volunteers from Trinity, Portsmouth, with Boys Home Director Donnie Wheatley (in white shirt)

Trinity, Portsmouth, is one of three churches that have spent time at Boys Home in Covington this summer. Volunteers from Trinty, as well as St. Michael & All Angels in Columbia, SC, and St. Martin's in Richmond, each spent about a week at Boys Home, working hard on some very hot days. 

 

Trinity worked diligently to replace front wood panels and insulate the entrance barn, and installed kick boards in the run-in sheds and corral barn for the horses. They also installed new bench seats on the bleachers by the riding area and began construction of a greenhouse by the garden area. To relax after their hard work, the group enjoyed an afternoon four-wheeler ride up the mountain behind Boys Home.

 

St. Michael and All Angels spent many hours painting the run-in shed and barn near the riding ring, as well as clearing grass from our pond. After all that work, the group found time to enjoy a day of kayaking and caving in the beautiful Allegheny Highlands! 

 

With the threat of rain, St. Martin's helped input the codes that raise funds from Coke reward caps, and cleaned the gym and recreation room. They made the trip to the top of the mountain at Boys Home, where they painted the lodge inside and out and began constructing a wood shed. After many hours of work, they visited Douthat State Park to unwind.

 

If your congregation would like to learn more about Boys Home and how you can support their ministry, please contact Lauren Ward, Lward@boyshomeofva.org.

79th General Convention convenes July 5-13

The General Convention is the governing body of The Episcopal Church that gathers every three years. Southern Virginia will be sending a deputation of clergy and lay people, along with Bishop Hollerith, to this year's gathering - the 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas, July 5-13.

We'll be using this blog to post news about General Convention before, during and after our time in Austin. On the blog you can also find information that will help you understand how General Convention works and its importance in the life of the Episcopal Church. While we're at General Convention, we'll use the site to post daily updates and photos.  

 

In addition to photos on our Facebook page and Instagram, @Diosova, we'll also be posting a different prayer each day for General Convention and the Episcopal Church. Please pray for Bishop Hollerith, our deputies, and everyone participating in General Convention.  

 

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding,  

be present with those who take counsel at the 79th General Convention  

in Austin, Texas, for the renewal and mission of your Church.  

Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory.  

Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage  

to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Administrators & Treasurers Lunch Group to gather July 19

The Administrators & Treasurers Lunch Group will meet on Thursday, July 19, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. at the Diocesan Office in Newport News. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet with other parish administrators and treasurers to talk about common issues. There's no agenda for this gathering - just an opportunity to get together, share, encourage, support, and ask questions.  

 

Bring your own lunch; beverages will be provided. RSVP to Diocesan Comptroller Judy Dobson, jdobson@diosova.org or 757-213-3386.

Clergy transitions

The Rev. Grant Stokes will leave Christ & St. Luke's, Norfolk, on July 15, 2018. He will begin as rector of Trinity, Portsmouth, on August 1, 2018.

The Rev. Connie Jones will retire from Grace Church, Yorktown, on August 1, 2018.

The Rev. Jon R. Anderson will begin as rector at Epiphany, Danville, in August 2018.

Fall Camp at Shrine Mont keynote speaker will be author Lauren Winner

The Tri-Diocesan Council on Aging will hold its annual Fall Camp at Shrine Mont Oct. 22-25. Fall Camp is an opportunity to spend time in the mountains of Virginia with other seniors (but we don't have an age limit) from across the Commonwealth and from other states. The Camp is an attempt to take seriously the spiritual needs and journeys of primarily retired people, challenging participants through keynote speakers, workshops, worship and interaction with one another.

 

The keynote speaker for this year's conference will be Lauren Winner. Dr. Winner is an Episcopal priest and vicar of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Louisburg, NC. She writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Her books include Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, and, most recently, a book on overlooked biblical tropes for God, Wearing God.  

 

Click here for more information.