Register now for Administrative & Financial Best Practices Workshop on May 15

Join us on Thursday, May 15, at Grace Church, Yorktown for a day designed especially for parish administrators, treasurers, and anyone (staff or volunteer) involved in the financial or administrative functions of your church. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn, ask questions, share your experiences, and connect with your colleagues in other churches. Topics will include: compensation, audits and internal controls, health insurance, electronic giving and more. Watch the eNews and our website for more details coming soon.  

If you missed last year's workshop, listen to what participants had to say:  

• "I learned so much ...great handouts for future reference"
• "I look forward to the next workshop!"
• "Loved it. Great info & awesome lunch"
• "very informative"

If you did come last year, this year's workshop offers new topics and speakers. Don't miss it!

Registration fee $20 (includes lunch). Click here for more information and online registration.  

Clergy, mark your calendars for these important events

Renewal of Ordination Vows

Renewal of Ordination Vows will be held on Wednesday, April 16 at 10 a.m. at St. John's, Hampton and at 2:30 p.m. at St. Barnabas', Richmond.

Spring Clergy Conference

Registration for the Spring Clergy Conference opens soon. Mark your calendar and plan to join us on Tuesday, May 13 at Chanco on the James. 

ECW Annual Spring Meeting: How to transform your ECW - the Redeemer success story

Two years ago, the ECW at Redeemer, Midlothian, like many ECWs in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, struggled to survive. Then, they decided to transform their ECW program. Today, meetings are well-attended. Volunteers gladly help with outreach and service projects and enjoy enriching fellowship. 

 

What inspired the women of Redeemer, and how did they accomplish this transformation? 

Come to the ECW Spring Annual Meeting at Good Shepherd, McKenney, VA, May 17 to hear first-hand how they did it. Redeemer ECW board members who drove the ECW transformation will share their success story. To RSVP, contact Louise Boss, 757-678-5331, louiseboss@exede.net by May 5.

Mission of the Holy Spirit flowery fundraiser

The Mission of the Holy Spirit has partnered with Flower Power Fundraising for this season's fundraiser. Flower Power offers top-quality flower bulbs for purchase. All orders ship directly to purchasers and Mission of the Holy Spirit gets to keep 50% of every dollar sold. How can you help? Just go to the Mission's Flower Power web page to place an order. Invite your friends. Share it on Facebook. Click here to get started! 

New website offers ways to assist Navajoland

from The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs  

Opportunities abound to assist the self-sustaining ministry of Navajoland, a regional district in the Episcopal Church.  Ideas to help sustain Navajoland by volunteering or donating are offered at a visually engaging new website, www.navajoland.org. The website was produced by the Episcopal Church Office of Communication in collaboration with the Navajoland Area Mission and the Development Office of The Episcopal Church.

Bishop David Bailey notes, "More than half of the Navajo people in the United States live in Navajoland. There are a significant number of homes without plumbing, heating or electricity. As a church it is important for us to have a witness to the Navajo, and to take steps for the area to be self-sustaining."

The Episcopal Church Navajoland Area Mission encompasses more than 26,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.  While it began its work in 1889, the Episcopal Church Navajoland Area Mission was established in 1978. As stated on the new website: Yet today there is a new spirit and energy in this land - exploring sustainable farming and aquaponics, expanding retreat opportunities, and working to heal addictions. Donations of time, talent and treasure through this website will help to further the work of The Episcopal Church in Navajoland. That work involves healing the wounds of the past so that new beginnings may emerge - leading to an indigenous clergy, economic self-sufficiency, and a deeper appreciation of the unique gifts the Navajos bring to The Episcopal Church and to the world.

How to help
Check the website for opportunities to help sustain Navajoland. Volunteers are needed, especially carpenters, experienced roofers, licensed electricians, licensed plumbers, and painters. Listed on the website are various levels to assist with donations. The items range from household needs and doors to computers and paint. Essential repairs to buildings mean that the facilities can be used for programs, such as afterschool, computer training, or for rental income to help pay for clergy salaries and program needs. For more information contact Elizabeth Lowell, elowell@episcopalchurch.org.

Buildings for a New Tomorrow conference

The Episcopal Church Building Fund invites you to attend Buildings for a New Tomorrow conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL, April 28-30. This conference was created to bring people together to discuss the complex issues of church buildings, in an open, honest and realistic forum. It also challenges people to think differently - about their buildings, what they represented, how they supported ministry (or do they?); how to use them for revenue, and when to close them. Participants and presenters come from across the country to challenge themselves and each other to think differently, and to explore ways of using their buildings as an asset and to become thriving hubs of their community. Click here for more information.

Presiding Bishop's Lenten reflection 2014

Click here for video of this message. 

 

The reality is that the season of Lent, which Christians have practiced for so many centuries, is about the same kind of yearning for greater light in the world, whether you live in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere.  

The word "Lent" means "lengthen" and it's about the days getting longer.  The early Church began to practice a season of preparation for those who would be baptized at Easter, and before too long other members of the Christian community joined those candidates for baptism as an act of solidarity.  

It was a season during which Christians and future Christians learned about the disciplines of the faith - prayer and study and fasting and giving alms, sharing what they have.  

But the reality is that, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, the lengthening days were often times of famine and hunger, when people had used up their winter food stores and the spring had not yet produced more food to feed people.  Acting in solidarity with those who go hungry is a piece of what it means to be a Christian.  To be a follower of Jesus is to seek the healing of the whole world.  

And Lent is a time when we practice those disciplines as acts of solidarity with the broken and hungry and ill and despised parts of the world.

I would invite you this Lent to think about your Lenten practice as an exercise in solidarity with all that is - with other human beings and with all of creation.  That is most fundamentally what Jesus is about. He is about healing and restoring that broken world.  

So as you enter Lent, consider how you will live in solidarity with those who are hungry, or broken, or ill in one way or another.

May you have a blessed Lent this year, and may it yield greater light in the world.

- Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori