LETTER TO CLERGY

April 12, 2010

Dear friends,

You may remember when we gathered at our Diocesan Convention last October; we passed a resolution inviting a review of our diocesan mission priorities. This resolution called for the formation of a Mission Task Force to facilitate a process through which the lay and clerical members of our Diocese could express their hopes and ideas regarding the future mission of the Diocese. I write to you on behalf of Mission Task Force, which I have the privilege of chairing. We have been meeting since December and are prepared to begin the listening process. Please see the attachment for the full text of the convention resolution, the membership of the task force, our three goals, and ways to follow our work and to be in communication with us, including our blog. Our blog has all of our meeting minutes so you may know what we’ve been up to since our formation.

This is an interesting, challenging time for the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island. As you have heard Bishop Wolf discuss characteristics of “transforming parishes,” I am persuaded that this is also an opportune moment for us to grow and change as a diocese with regard to our mission. Many of our parishes are currently struggling and wondering what the future holds. At the same time we have considerable gifts and resources within our diocese including spiritual gifts, leaders, property, money, passion, new ideas, youth, maturity, friendship, wisdom and a desire to serve others. We have the most important gifts: the creative presence of God, the love of Jesus Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit. It may be that if we discern carefully and invest our gifts in a diocesan mission that makes a difference to those whom we serve, we will find that our parishes and our lives will be transformed along the way. This will take some time, but we on the task force are excited to begin and we hope you will be as well. As a first step, we have designed a listening process through which we believe we will begin an important conversation within our diocese about our future.

Your role in this first step as diocesan clergy is fairly simple and straightforward. Participate in at least one of the listening process gatherings taking place around the diocese and encourage the participation of lay leaders in your parish. Each listening session will take about one and a half hours and we have scheduled them in each deanery. We encourage people to cross bridges if necessary! We have built in a clergy morning for deacons and priests to meet together, even though we hope you will join one of the gatherings around the diocese as well. The clergy morning comes at the end of the schedule as our listening and conversation may have deepened by that point and this will be a chance for summarizing and planning. We hope to use the information and ideas we gather at these listening sessions to suggest future direction and initiatives of our diocesan mission priorities and programs.

Please consider using your parish communication vehicles (newsletter, electronic communications, bulletins and announcements during worship, and/or bulletin boards) to communicate the following gatherings. You may turn this letter over and photocopy, scan or post. This letter is also being emailed so that you may use it electronically.




Listening in on Diocesan Mission
Join one of these Gatherings!

The Diocesan Mission Task Force invites every member of the diocese to participate in a listening process to influence and inspire our future mission priorities.

· Saturday April 24, 10 a.m., St. Paul’s, Pawtucket
· Wednesday, April 28, 7 p.m., Cathedral of St. John
· Thursday, April, 29th, 7 p.m., St, Mark’s Warwick
· Wednesday, May 5, 6:30 p.m., St. Columba’s
· Saturday, May 8th, 10 a.m., Church of the Epiphany
· Wednesday, May 12th, 7 p.m. St. Luke’s East Greenwich
· Clergy Gathering: May 19th 10 a.m., St. Paul’s Pawtucket



In addition to the listening “gatherings” we are also linking with other diocesan bodies such as the Program and Budget Committee, Diocesan Council, and the Bishop and her staff. We are also interviewing individuals. If you would like to speak with one of the task force members individually, please be in touch with one. You can find more information on our blog: http://mission-task-force.blogspot.com We will be glad to have you join our conversation!



In Christ,
Jennifer Pedrick
Chair, the Mission Task Force