Bishop's Days for Parish Leadership Coming Soon!

Registration for Bishop's Days for Parish Leadership 2011 is coming soon. This year's theme is: Bringing Our Shared Vision to Life: Best Practices for Transforming Ministry. Dates are: October 8 at Good Shepherd, Norfolk and October 15 at Redeemer, Midlothian. Who should attend? Lay leaders, Vestry members, Church staff, and Clergy. Why should you attend? 13 great workshops to choose from, enjoy time with our bishop, network and share ideas, get resources to take back to your church and share. Details and registration will be posted here and at our Bishop's Days blogsite, www.bishopsdays.blogsite.com.

Be A Part of Our Digital Resource Library
This year, instead of a resource fair that participants might not have time to fully peruse, we'll be providing all resources in digital format on a flash drive. If your ministry or organization would like to be included in the digital resource library, please contact Ann Turner, aturner@diosova.org or 757-213-3388.

St. John's Portsmouth Selected for National "missio:engage" Program

St. John's, Portsmouth, has been selected by the national church as one of only 12 English-speaking congregations in the United States to join with 12 Spanish-speaking congregations in an exciting congregational revitalization initiative called missio:engage. The goal of missio:engage is to assist communities of faith in the process of re-rooting their ministries in the communities they are called to serve, with enough critical mass "back home" that this initiative is sustainable and avoids "burnout." This is part of a Community of Practice that is committed to learning publicly in the service of the Episcopal Church at large.  

Over a period of sixty days, Tom Brackett, Program Officer for Church Planting & Redevelopment for the Episcopal Church, will work with a team of coaches to train a core group of leaders in each participant parish. Each member of the team will be dedicated to this ministry, alone. Over the following two years, that core group will learn how to offer radical welcome to newcomers in their community, move visitors from being newcomers to fully-formed leaders, reconnect with the realities emerging in the communities they are called to serve and offer relevant outreach that offers God's grace in ways meaningful to their communities.  

"The people of St. John's are excited and energized to be part of this cutting edge venture for the entire Episcopal Church," says the Rev. Derek Harbin, rector of St. John's. "Our hope is that we can better engage our 21st century culture as we strive to fulfill the twin heartbeats of Jesus: inviting and forming disciples in the faith and caring for those in need in our community and world."

Bishop Vache Scholarships Awarded

The Department of College Ministries is pleased to announce the Bishop Vache Scholarship award recipients for 2011. The committee met in July and considered over 30 applications. 

Scholarships were awarded to:
Charles Agbaje, St. James Portsmouth, Northwestern University

Joshua Barker, Christ Church Smithfield, Guilford College 

Santana Belfield, St. Mark's Hampton, Virginia State University 

Charles Daugherty, St. John's Chester, Longwood University

Claudia Hazelwood, Grace Norfolk, Johnson and Wales

Tyshenna Hollowell, Mission of the Holy Spirit, Norfolk State University

Nora Jackson, St. Martin's Williamsburg, The College of William and Mary  

Javan Rogers, Mission of the Holy Spirit, Norfolk State University

Fredsal Walker, St. Mark's Suffolk, Christopher Newport University 

Emily Wheeler, St. Andrew's Newport News, Virginia Wesleyan College

John Wiley V, Grace Norfolk, Virginia State University 

Danielle Williams, St. Augustine's Newport News, University of North Carolina

Convocation 1 Awarded First Mission Initiative Grant

The first Evangelistic Mission Initiative Grant of $1000 is awarded to Convocation 1 on the Eastern Shore. They will use their grant to produce "Episcopal Churches of the Eastern Shore" brochures that will highlight each congregation's location on a map, with service times and contact information. The brochures will be placed in the Visitors' Centers on the Eastern Shore. Additionally, they will develop a join website highlighting all the churches, events, directions and links. This is especially helpful for those congregations without a website of their own. May God bless their efforts to reach out to summer visitors and new residents.

Grants of up to $1000 per Convocation are available for Evangelistic Mission Initiatives. Be creative! How can you reach out to new people and raise the visibility of the Episcopal Church in your area? How could you better equip the congregations in your Convocation to be more inviting and welcoming? Get more information about these grants here. Share your ideas with your convocational dean. Deadline for applications is October 1.

Seeds of Hope Grant Deadline Extended

Seeds of Hope grants are available to congregations and diocesan groups to begin or expand ministries for social and economic justice causes. The deadline for grant applications has been extended to September 15th. More information about the Seeds of Hope grant and to download an application click here.

St. Paul's, Union Level, Celebrates Final Eucharist & De-consecration

St. Paul’s, Union Level, held its last worship service and was de-consecrated on Sunday, July 3. The final Eucharist was celebrated by The Very Rev. Chris Cunningham, Dean of Convocation VIII and rector of Johns Memorial, Farmville. He was assisted by the Rev. Bob Kerner, priest-in-charge of St. Mark’s, Bracey, who has been the supply priest serving St. Paul’s since 2007. “This service is not about the death of St. Paul’s Union Level,” Cunningham said in his sermon, but “a celebration of life, a celebration of the ministry of God in Christ has ordained here at St. Paul’s for these last many years.”

About 35 people gathered for the service – a bittersweet homecoming for some. “This was once a thriving farm community,” said Kerner, “but not any longer.” The church was founded in 1880 by the Rev. James Solomon Russell, the first African-American priest in Virginia. Russell planted a number of churches in the farm communities of Southern Virginia. While St. Paul’s was always a small church, the shrinking community left it with just six members according to church treasurer Wilson Dortch. Young people moved away for more opportunity, older members passed away. Eucharist was celebrated just one afternoon each month.

While it is sad to see the doors of a church close, the energy and resources that have been put into St. Paul’s can now be redeployed for greater Gospel purposes. St. Paul’s chose “to give up its life for the sake of being faithful to the Great Commission, and to find new places and new ways to extend God’s Kingdom,” said Cunningham, “The life of this particular church and its particular congregation may end today, but the life of the Church, and of each baptized Christian continues.” The faithful remnant of St. Paul’s will join other local congregations in South Hill and Bracey, bringing their faith, wisdom and experience to enrich those communities. Thanks be to God!

You can see pictures of St. Paul's and this final service on our Facebook page.

Book Sales Benefit Mission of the Holy Spirit

The late Rev. Bill Starkey published two books about his life - Exclamation Points: Memoirs of a Life Well Lived and Ponderings. The Rev. Starkey began his work as an author after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. His doctor suggested that good therapy would be to write his life story. Much of Rev. Starkey's ministry was in West Virginia, but he also served as rector at Emmanuel, Virginia Beach; St. Simon's, Virginia Beach; and Emmanuel, Jenkins Bridge. Rev. Starkey was passionate about improving the lives of at-risk youth, so all proceeds from the sales of his books go to Mission of the Holy Spirit. To purchase copies of Ponderings or Exclamation Points, contact Walt Altice, c/o Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 5181 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, 23462, 757-499-1271. Each book is $20. Checks should be made payable to Starkey Scholarship Fund.