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[Back to index of March 2008 articles] 113th Convention
By Lucy Chumbley
The Diocese of Washington approved a $4.6 million budget for 2008 and upheld the work being done toward meeting the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals during its 113th convention, held Jan. 25-26 at the National Cathedral. It elected deputies to the Episcopal Church’s 2009 General Convention and new members to serve on the Standing Committee, Ecclesiastical Trial Court and Provincial Synod. Convention delegates also heard from the Rev. Peter Steinke, a Lutheran pastor, therapist and author, who gave the keynote address (see story) and from the Rev. Ian Douglas, Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School, who delivered a sermon on the “New Pentecost” at the Eucharist. Special guests this year included Bishop Richard Graham of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s Metropolitan DC Synod, and the Right Rev. Musonda Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana. Bishop Graham was a co-presider at the Eucharist, and Bishop Mwamba shared his view that “reports of the death of the Anglican Communion are, to quote Mark Twain, ‘grossly exaggerated.’ “We as Africans just want to carry on with life and to improve our lot in the parts of the world that we live in,” he said. “We need to improve our links with others, because that enables us to grow. “The bottom line is that we are all the same, we are all one and we can even become friends. We love you, we’re one in Christ, and we, as children of God, must live up to that richness that comes from Christ.” In short presentations from featured parishes on significant ministries at home and abroad, members of St. Peter’s, Poolesville; Christ, Kensington; Ascension, Lexington Park and St. Paul’s, K Street described their work in South Africa, New Orleans, Central America and with the District of Columbia’s homeless population. In his address to the convention, Bishop John Bryson Chane spoke of the significant progress the Diocese of Washington has made since he arrived in 2002. He pointed out that there has been both change – 48 of the diocese’s 92 congregations have called or are in the process of calling new rectors; almost a third of its parishes are engaged in some kind of renovation work – and challenge, with the painful decision to close two parishes and a mission. Despite these difficulties, “already we are seeing positive changes in congregational growth patterns,” he said. This growth includes a new affiliated parish, All Saints Nigerian Igbo in Lanham, Md., which was dedicated in 2007, and four new Latino congregations, along with a full-time Diocesan Latino Missioner. It includes an emerging Korean congregation, to be nested within one of the Maryland parishes, and the 2006 groundbreaking for the diocese’s first new start parish construction in 40 years – St. Nicholas’, Darnestown. In another positive development one congregation in the diocese – St. Augustine’s, in Southwest D.C. – has been sharing its worship space with a neighboring Lutheran congregation, strengthening the historically close ties between the two churches. “These are significant accomplishments and are signs of a healthy, mission driven diocese,” Chane said. Additionally, Chane said, the diocese’s ministry to young people and area college students has expanded, and plans to build a new elementary school for disadvantaged boys in Anacostia are well under way, with $1 million already raised. The diocese, which is home to seven historic African American churches, is also home to one of the largest numbers of ordained persons of color in the Episcopal Church and is in the process of recording this history, Chane added. Finance Committee chairman John Welch described his presentation on the diocesan budget as being “as much an appeal as it is a report,” calling on parishes to support diocesan efforts by pledging a minimum of 10 percent of their net operating income. “Most dioceses have mandatory assessments,” he said. “We’ve tried to rely on persuasion rather than legislation.” The diocesan budget supports the work of the governance office, youth and academic ministries, ordination and deployment, communications, consultation and support to parishes and the Latino Missioner, who supports the work of six congregations. The resolution on Millennium Development Goals commended the work of the parishes to date, and asked them in 2009 to designate at least 0.7 percent of their normal operating income towards meeting the goals, which aim to half extreme poverty by 2015. It also challenged all Episcopalians in the diocese to make a personal commitment to give 0.7 percent of their own income to ministries supporting these goals. “We can do this,” said the Rev. Susan Burns, rector of Redeemer, Bethesda and one of the resolution’s sponsors. “It’s a moral imperative that we do this. We encourage parishes to give whatever more we need to give to enable the diocese to be a leader in this.” In closing, Bishop Chane invited delegates to a mid-year Diocesan Evangelism Conference, set for June 7. The keynote speaker will be Brian McLaren, author of A Generous Orthodoxy, The Secret Message of Jesus. “This is an opportunity to gather closer together as a community in Christ,” Chane said, anticipating “lots of prayer and lots of exposure to the power of Christ.”
[Back to index of March 2008 articles]
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