Connected Another
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Connected to One Another VIRGINIA EPISCOPALIAN of Virginia Diocese Magazine of the Episcopal Quarterly The Summer 2015 FOR CHRIST. FOR THIS TIME. FOR ALL TIME. TABLE OF CONTENTS WHO WE ARE 1 Sabbatical will be about Reconnecting THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA 2 General Convention Coverage FOR CHRIST. FOR THIS TIME. FOR ALL TIME. 6 Our Diocesan Identity & Community 9 Life-Long and Life-Wide: The Bishop’s Spring Conference The Mayo Memorial Church House: 10 The Sixth Consultation of Anglican Bishops 110 West Franklin St. 800-DIOCESE 11 First Steps in Racial Reconciliation Initiative Richmond, VA 23220-5095 804-643-8451 12 Learning to Love Through Adversity Fax 804-644-6928 13 Born Again and Again: St. Patrick’s, Falls Church 14 St. Peter’s Richmond’s ‘Good Neighbor’ Approach The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia is a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the 15 Practicing African Hospitality in Virginia Episcopal Church. We are a community of 80,000 baptized members and 425 clergy in 38 16 A Diocesan Youth Trip to Philadelphia counties and serveral cities of central, northern and northwestern Virginia, serving the world 17 Preparing Lay Staff to Manage Challenging Situations through 181 congregations, six diocesan schools, two diocesan centers and six diocesan homes, 18 Bishop’s Jubilee Fun for All Ages and home to the largest Anglican seminary in the world. Our episcopal seat is the Cathedral 20 Preparing to Help Your Neighbor Shrine of the Transfiguration, Orkney Springs. Organized 1785. 22 Celebrating Pentecost Across the Diocese 24 ECW of the Diocese of Virginia Retreat How to Reach the Diocesan Staff: 25 ECW Church Periodical Club Paris Ball, Director of Christian Formation [email protected] ext. 1042 26 Civil War: The Diocese of Virginia Rejoins the U.S. Buck Blanchard, Director of Mission and Outreach [email protected] 1016 Episcopal Church Mary Anne Bryant, Assistant, Mission and Outreach [email protected] 1017 31 Diocesan Calendar, In Memoriam, Clergy Changes Stephanie Higgins, Bp. Assistant, Congregational Support [email protected] 1031 33 Sabbatical will be about Reconnecting (Español) Edward W. Jones, Secretary of the Diocese, Chief of Staff [email protected] 1030 Kathlyn Jones, Transition Ministry Assistant [email protected] 1038 COVER PHOTO Stas Jones, Financial Administrator [email protected] 1022 Wilbert “Skeet” Jones, Sexton 1028 Ed Keithly, Deputy Director, Transition Ministry [email protected] 1015 This issue includes cover art created by designer John Dixon Mildred Lofton, Bookkeeper [email protected] 1023 with the help of diocesan staff members and their families, who Bill Martin, Assistant to the Secretary [email protected] 1025 gladly took a little break from their work and summer vacation Kendall Martin, Comm. & Special Projects Officer [email protected] 1029 schedules to color the paper dolls used for the cover photo. Aisha Huertas Michel, Communications Director [email protected] 1021 The paper dolls, and the act of diocesan staff and their Beth Rocheleau, Benefits Administrator [email protected] 1047 families working together, exemplify the theme of this issue Meg Schwarz, Assistant, Christian Formation [email protected] 1043 – connection – and how we, together with the entire Anglican Julie Simonton, Staff Officer for Communion, play a vital role in working toward our common Congregational Development & Stewardship [email protected] 1035 goal of advancing the Kingdom. Karen Smith, Receptionist/Assistant [email protected] 1010 Ted Smith, Treasurer [email protected] 1046 CORRECTION The Rev. Mary Thorpe, Transition Ministry Director [email protected] 1013 Michael Wade, Asst. to the Director of Christian Formation [email protected] 1027 Fostering a Web of Connections: Central America –Spring 2015 Kate Wettstein, Assistant to Bishop Gulick [email protected] The photo included with this article incorrectly identified 703-241-0441 the new consecrated Bishop of El Salvador as the Most Rev. Amy Williams, Assistant to Bishop Johnston [email protected] 1012 Armando Guerra Soria. The Rt. Rev. David Alvarado was The Rev. Canon Pat Wingo, Canon to the Ordinary [email protected] 1024 consecrated as the second bishop of El Salvador. VIRGINIA EPISCOPALIAN SUMMER 2015 Virginia Episcopalian (ISSN 15353621, USPS 019711) is published quarterly by the Episcopal VOLUME 124 ISSUE 3 Diocese of Virginia, periodicals postage paid in Richmond, 23232-9998. Copyright 2015. Contact the editor for reprint permission. Views expressed in this newspaper are not official statements of policy by the Diocese. Editorial/advertising policy is set by the Published by the Diocese of Virginia – Circulation 18,600 editor and Executive Board. Bishop: The Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston Bishop Suffragan: The Rt. Rev. Susan E. Goff Postmaster: Send changes of address to the Virginia Episcopalian , 110 W. Franklin St., Assistant Bishop: The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick Jr. Richmond VA 23220. Office hours are 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m., Monday through Friday. Editor: Aisha Huertas Michel Associate Editor: Kendall Martin Communicants: $5/year Non-Communicants: $6/year Design/Layout: John Dixon SABBATICAL WILL BE ABOUT RECONNECTING THE RT. REV. SHANNON S. JOHNSTON As I announced in my Pasto- A special note from Bishop Johnston: ral Address at our Diocese’s As I drafted the missive below, the General Annual Council back in Janu- Convention of the Episcopal Church was almost ary, I shall take a sabbatical three weeks away. Printing requirements and from September 1 until De- deadlines prevented me from offering any cember 31. Actually, the sab- perspective of the Convention in those lines. batical leave itself is three Instead, our editorial team asked me to write about months (something of a stan- my upcoming sabbatical, the next “big” topic after dard length) but I am link- Bishop Johnston this edition of the Virginia Episcopalian hits your ing it to my month of annual mailbox. Our team, however, ensured that space vacation. This comes after I reconnect with family and was saved in the magazine to include significant have completed eight years friends who live in other Convention coverage and still meet our summer in my ministry as a bishop parts of the country. I’m edition deadline. in the Diocese of Virginia. rather ashamed to admit In making this decision, I con- that over the years my sulted with the Standing Committee, our diocesan staff, habit of overworking has caused me to neglect many of the Bishops Goff and Gulick (as well as a number of fellow bishops most meaningful relationships in my life. It’s strange to say, across the Episcopal Church), and my spiritual director. All have but I’ve lost touch with some of the people who mean the been most supportive, emphasizing that taking a sabbatical world to me and to whom I owe so much. Since Ellen will be is important not only for my own well-being but also as an busy during my sabbatical time with her work for the Center example of self-care for all of our clergy. I quite understand for Liturgy and Music at the Virginia Theological Seminary, I both points, but in no way do I take a sabbatical for granted. will travel to see people who are definitive in my life, those So, I must say how deeply grateful I am for the support I have who make some of my very best memories. Some of those received in taking this leave. are friendships that go back to my earliest boyhood and Even though sabbaticals are common, not everyone is my adolescence, while others are friends from my adult life familiar with what one is, so I’ll cover a few basics. The term before I entered the ministry. I will see seminary classmates “sabbatical” is derived from the biblical word “sabbath,” with whom I shared such uniquely formative time, and I will meaning a time of rest. Logically enough, it became customary go to beloved clergy-colleagues who saw me through thick for a sabbatical to occur in a seventh year, since the sabbath and thin. And, of course, family. I rarely see any of my nuclear day is the seventh day. However, nowadays the timing or extended family, and even then for only a very short time. differs from place to place, as is the case with the various That is just plain wrong, and it must be put right. policies of congregations in our Diocese. For clergy who serve I will tell them all that, in spite of my neglectfulness, I congregations full-time, the length of a typical sabbatical also love them and always have. I will also be sure that this time of differs, ranging from two or three months to as long as six reconnection is not a one-and-done sort of thing but rather months. The purpose of a sabbatical is to take a period for will be the impetus to stay in close touch, however we can. It’s rest and renewal, but this might include undertaking some cliché, but so true: Life is just too short to lose any of its best special project. Should such a project be proposed, I always parts. As this reconnecting comes from my heart, I know that counsel that it should itself be in some way rejuvenating it will also come back to my heart. In the end, I will simply be a and important personally. I make that point because I do better, more whole, person. not believe in “working” sabbaticals in the case of parochial Allow me to conclude this article by inviting all of you clergy; to me, that is a contradiction in terms. to use this same period of September through December to The time has come for me. The demands of my position find ways to “reconnect” with the ones who mean something have most certainly taken their tolls.