Summer Schedule - The Diocesan House hours for July & August will be Monday - Thursday from 8:30am to 4:30pm, closed Fridays. We will also be closed on Tuesday, July 4th.

"Sabbath-by-the-Sea" for Clergy & Families
Where: Cape Cod
When: October 8th-10th
The Diocesan Counsil Leadership Committtee announces a 3-day retreat on Cape Cod from October 8th - 10th (Columbus Day Weekend) at the Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster, Mass. Event is scheduled to help build teamwork and wellness among Diocesan clergy and their families. Members of the Diocesan Council Leadership Committee will be happy to provide additional information: Mr. Ben West (Chair), The Rev. David Ames, the Rev. John Lawrence, the Rev. Daryl Stahl, the Rev. Jennifer Pedrick and the Rev. Bob Anthony.

Wickford Art Festival & St. Paul's famous Clam Cakes
Where: St. Paul's Parish Hall, Main Street, Wickford
When: July 7th - 9th
Each year, St. Paul's feeds the crowds at the Wickford Art Festival with "mountains of clam cakes, gallons of chowder, hundreds of lobster rolls, hamburgers and hot dogs." Coffee and muffins are available in the morning, fresh pies available all day long. Stop by for refreshments while enjoying the festival.

Register Now for the Episcopal Marriage Encounter Weekend.
When: November 3-5th
Where: Newport, RI
Website: www.episcopalme.com
More Info: Henry & Mary Champoux 739-4632 Episcopal Marriage Encounter invites you on a journey - a deepening of couple love. The Weekend format is especially designed to allow a husband and wife to pause awhile and focus on each other. Every now and then we all need to examine our lives and directions to determine if we are going where we want to go. An Episcopal Marriage Encounter Weekend offers a couple just such an opportunity.

While the Episcopal Church made headlines in electing its 26th Presiding Bishop and debating its stance on issues of human sexuality and faith, the 75th General Convention made a number of other decisions that will affect its mission and ministry for the next three years and beyond.

Meeting in Columbus, Ohio from June 13-21, the Convention also took stands on social policy issues facing the United States and the world, including the war in Iraq, human rights, and the church's role in and benefit from slavery.

In what became a major mission and evangelism emphasis of this General Convention, bishops and deputies gave their official support of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) supporting and urged parishes, missions, congregations and dioceses across the church to work for their implementation.

The MDGs are an eight-pronged declaration that has at its core the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015.

Resolution (D022) on the MDGs sets these objectives:

• Establishes achieving the MDGs as a stated mission priority of the Episcopal Church for the next three years;
• Urges each diocese, congregation and parishioner to give 0.7 percent toward the MDGs by July 7, 2007; i.e. by 07/07/07;
• Designates the Last Sunday after Pentecost as a special day of prayer, fasting and giving toward global reconciliation and the Millennium Development Goals;
• Calls on every diocese to establish a global reconciliation commission to mobilize Episcopalians to work for achieving the goals of the MDGs;
• Endorses the "ONE Episcopalian" campaign that calls on the U.S. government to spend an additional 1 percent of its budget to combat global poverty; and

The Episcopal Church is asking you to (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015; (2) Achieve universal primary education; (3) Promote gender equality and empower women; (4) Reduce child mortality; (5) Improve maternal health; (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; (7) Ensure environmental stability; and (8) Develop a global partnership for development. Just a few small tasks that are all in days work...

The above eight goals are the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) developed by the United Nations in respose to current global crisis and challenges. If you are not familiar with them by now, you will be soon. The Episcopal Church has embraced the MDG's.

Episcopalians can make a huge impact on the world through the simple act of remembering the number 0.7%. According to the Rev. Jay Lawlor (economist and priest);

· If every Episcopal diocese gave 0.7% of income we would raise $ 1.2 million per year.

· If every Episcopal congregation gave 0.7% of income we would raise $9.8 million per year

· If every Episcopalian gave 0.7% of his or her income we would raise $354 million per year.

Discover more about what it means to be an Episcopalian with the power to improve world conditions:

ONE Episcopalian

ONE Campaign

Millennium Development Goals - United Nations

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has set out his thinking on the future of the Anglican Communion in the wake of the deliberations in the United States on the Windsor Report and the Anglican Communion at the 75th General Convention of The Episcopal Church (USA). 'The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today, A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion', has been sent to Primates with a covering letter, published more widely and made available as audio on the internet. In it, Dr Williams says that the strength of the Anglican tradition has been in maintaining a balance between the absolute priority of the Bible, a catholic loyalty to the sacraments and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility:

"To accept that each of these has a place in the church's life and that they need each other means that the enthusiasts for each aspect have to be prepared to live with certain tensions or even sacrifices. The only reason for being an Anglican is that this balance seems to you to be healthy for the Church Catholic"