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[Back to index of January 2008 articles] Steinke To Speak at Diocesan Convention By Jim Naughton The Rev. Peter Steinke, a therapist whose popular books focus on leading congregations through times of change, will give a workshop and deliver the keynote address at the 113th Convention of the Diocese of Washington, Jan. 25-26 at Washington National Cathedral. Steinke, a Lutheran minister, is the author of Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What and How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems. His workshop, “Congregations as Emotional Systems,” is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25, in Perry Auditorium on the seventh floor of the Cathedral. The keynote speech will begin in the nave of the Cathedral at roughly 10:45 a.m. Jan. 26. Steinke believes that the church must refocus its energies on mission work. However, he acknowledges that pushing people beyond their Sunday morning comfort zones can be a painful process. “There is no transformation without crisis,” he says. “What really gets people when it comes to change is that people get disoriented. They ask ‘What was wrong with what we were doing? It worked for me.’ ” Guiding congregations through such transformations requires both psychological acuity, and goals rooted in the Gospel, Steinke says. “The more that people see that the mission is biblically and theologically well-founded, the more that they will get on board,” he adds. The convention preacher, the Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School, also will speak about a church community in the midst of transformation: the Anglican Communion. The convention begins on Jan. 25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and Douglas says the reading for the 8 p.m. Eucharist could hardly be more appropriate. "These are tense times in the Anglican Communion, with threats of schism and division flying about,” says Douglas, who is a member of the 2008 Lambeth Conference Design Team. “The conversion of St. Paul, however, reminds us that we never know where God might be leading us. Paul's conversion challenges us to a similar ‘turning around’ in service to God's mission.” Douglas, co-editor of Beyond Colonial Anglicanism: The Anglican Communion in the Twenty-First Century, also will give a brief, informal presentation at a reception for convention delegates following the Eucharist at the Cathedral College. “The challenge before the Anglican Communion today is not will we break apart but rather how are we Anglicans, in all of our many contexts and cultures, being converted anew to God's mission in the wider world," he says. The convention—whose theme is, That We All May be One: Many Gifts to Share—has a light legislative agenda. Only one resolution was received before the late November deadline. The resolution, submitted by clergy and laity from Redeemer, Bethesda; St. James, Potomac and St. Nicholas, Darnestown, would require the diocese to set a goal of contributing 0.7 percent of its operating income “to operate or fund ministries that contribute to the realization of the Millennium Development Goals,” by 2009, and to “challenge all congregations in the Diocese of Washington to do the same.” The eight Millennium Development Goals commit the members of the United Nations to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental stability, and developing a global partnership for development by 2015. The goals have been endorsed by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which promotes the goals through the ONE Episcopalian campaign (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ONE/), the Church’s Office of Government Relations and the Global Good Web site (http://www.globalgood.org/). Delegates to the convention will hear Chane’s sixth annual address on the morning of the 26th, vote on the diocesan budget and elect deputies to the 2009 General Convention, representatives to the Provincial Synod and members of the Standing Committee and Ecclesiastical Trial court, says Ann Talty, the diocese’s governance officer. The convention will once again include several “mini presentations” on significant but sometimes overlooked ministries within the diocese. Talty is still recruiting volunteers to collate registration packets, offer hospitality, serve as election tellers and perform other jobs. Sign up at http://convention.edow.org by Jan. 11, or contact Talty at atalty@edow.org or 202/537-6548. [Back to index of January 2008 articles]
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