|
 |
 |
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
[Back to index of Special Issue articles] Bringing it back home By Lucy Chumbley "There's something kind of homey about this," said the Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, welcoming members of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington to the 111th diocesan convention - his first as dean of Washington National Cathedral. "It's a wonderful, different way to experience the cathedral." The cathedral has many missions, Lloyd said, but one of its central roles is "to be a mission center and a spiritual home for the people of the Diocese of Washington." In that spirit, after celebrating partnerships with Southern Africa and Honduras in previous years, Bishop John B. Chane brought the focus back home to the diocese at the Jan. 27-28 gathering. The centerpiece of this year's convention, Chane's fourth since his installation as the eighth Bishop of Washington, was the Three Years Out report, a document designed to review the first three years of Chane's episcopacy and to set a course for the future. To produce the report, which Chane commissioned at the 2005 convention, consultants polled approximately 500 members of the diocese for their opinions on how Chane and his staff were handling various issues. Their findings, which identified congregational development, youth ministry and domestic and global mission as priorities were presented to deputies as both a written report and a short film. Survey respondents said they were pleased with youth ministry in the diocese, and wanted more of it. And while parishes were satisfied with the support they received from the diocese in the area of congregational development, they asked to have more contact with the bishop and his staff, and for the diocese to sponsor more consultants and training for parish leaders. They also suggested that the bishop was spread too thin in his current role, and asked that the diocese study the possibility of calling a second, full-time bishop, so both parishes in the diocese and global concerns receive the attention they deserve. "It is incumbent upon me as your bishop to take this work seriously and to take the information received and act upon it," Chane said in his address, adding that he was both "energized and challenged" by the group's findings. The main challenge the diocese faces in moving forward with these goals is financial, he said, calling on parishes to increase their pledge to the diocese. He also asked that two new task forces be created, one to explore the feasibility of conducting a capital campaign, and the other to explore purchasing land for the planting of new congregations and the development of affordable housing. These task forces will report their findings to the 2007 Diocesan Convention. "If we expect to grow in numbers, and if we expect to grow in ministry, we can no longer rely on contributions of a little over 7 percent of net operating income from our parishes, supplemented by income from the Soper Trust," Chane said. "We can no longer ignore what we know must be done if we are to be faithful to Christ's Gospel in growing the mission and ministry of this diocese. …The time is now to bite the bullet, or the bullet will bite us." Since 2003, the diocese has been using interest from the Soper Trust, an unrestricted fund, to balance its budget. At last year's convention, Chane commissioned a task force to study future the use of the fund, and in January that group made its report to the Diocesan Council. "When this [decision to use Soper funds to augment the budget] was adopted, it was believed there would be substantial increase in parish giving," said Janice A. Booker, chairwoman of the Diocesan Council's Soper working group. "However this increase in giving has not materialized." The Diocesan Council recently adopted a new policy for the use of the Soper income, Booker said. Starting in 2008, $100,000 will be set aside from the trust for congregational development, with a long term goal to reserve 50 percent of the trust's annual income for this purpose. "During the listening sessions conducted for the Three Years Out report, people from all over the diocese expressed a desire for more resources and services," Corbett-Welch said. "Your call has been heard, but we are counting on you to help share the cost of answering it." "Domestically and globally we are now poised to really become a mission-driven diocese for the 21st Century," Chane said. "The question before this convention is; 'Are we now ready to step forward and accept the challenges and opportunities that are ours?' Are we ready to share the people and material resources of our parishes for the benefit of the ministries of all our parishes? Are we ready to do the hard work that will be required of us to make us the church and diocese that God would want us to be? I already answered this question when I accepted the election to become the eighth bishop of Washington. What will your answer be?" [Back to index of Special Issue articles]
|
|
||||||||||
