From the Field
Weekly News & Events of the Diocese of Georgia
In This Issue
Diocesan Staff Events
Turning Around Honey Creek
Fall Clergy Conference
Energy Audit
Youth and Young Adults
Convent Schedule
The Loose Canon
September 11
Congregations in Transition
Quick Links
to From the Field
 


 
Spirituality Retreat

Grounded in God is an overnight retreat this October at Honey Creek. The retreat will offer an opportunity for you to learn and grow while giving room for the Holy Spirit to recharge your spiritual battery. Canon Frank and Victoria Logue are working with the Society of Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (the neo-monastic community at St. Paul's Savannah) to lead the retreat at Honey Creek on October 28 and 29. (Friday evening through lunch Saturday 2 p.m.

 

The cost is $96.99 per person (based on double room occupancy) and $68.99 for commuters. Single rooms are available for $136.99.

 

Call Honey Creek at 912-265-9218 to register or send an email to Canon Logue to be added to the email list for more complete information.

One Year Later: How Are We Doing?

From the FieldThis is the 52nd Tuesday in a row that the Diocese of Georgia has sent out From the Field. That first email went to 288 email addresses and was opened by 122 people. Now more than 600 people each week read these emails.

 

As we said that first week, "Every time you walk out your church doors, you enter the Mission Field - fields white for the harvest." We hope this newsletter keeps you posted not just on what is happening with your diocesan staff, but also with the exciting things taking place all around this corner of God's Kingdom.

 

With more than 41,000 emails sent and a year of experience with this format, this anniversary offers an appropriate time to take stock of where we are. We want to learn from y'all what you like, how we can improve and what else you would like in communication from the Diocese.

 

The nine-question online survey will not take more than few minutes of your time: Click here to take the short From the Field survey

Diocesan Office Update

 

Bishop Benhase ordained The Rev. Remington Slone to the sacred order of priests this past Saturday morning at St. Peter's, Savannah, where Remington serves as a curate.

 

Canon Willoughby is deep in analysis of the year to date financial data to assist in budget planning for 2012.

 

Canon Hall is back in the office after vacation and a conference in the Diocese of Mississippi. She is working on a grant application to Trinity Wall Street.

 

Canon Logue is on vacation from August 21-27. 

Turning Around Honey Creek 
Turning Around Honey Creek

Turning Around Honey Creek 

The link above is to a less than 3-minute video message from Dade Brantley, the Executive Director of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia's camp and conference center, Honey Creek. Dade tells about the current financial difficulties, including how we got into the current bind and what is being done to turn around the operations.

 

Coming soon at Honey Creek   

9/9-9/11: Youth And Young Adult College Retreat

9/16-9/18: Daughters Of The King

10/2-5: Fall Clergy Conference (with Episcopal Preaching Foundation)

10/7-10/9: Fall Rally - Diocesan Youth Event

10/28-29: Grounded in God Spirituality Retreat

11/4-11/6: New Beginnings

11/11-12: Clergy Spouses Conference

 

Fall Clergy Conference

Preaching to Younger Generations

The Episcopal Preaching Foundation will bring the program for this fall's Clergy Conference October 2-5 at Honey Creek. The conference speakers are Tony Jones and Bill Brosend. Tony (pictured below) is the author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, among others. Jones will be working on this conference with The Rev. Dr. Bill Brosend, Associate Professor of Homiletics at Sewanee and the Executive Director of EPF. He is the author and co-author of five books, the most recent of which is The Preaching of Jesus.


The conference will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday evening October 2 with dinner and the Bishop's time for informal sharing. The conference program begins Monday morning and continues through lunch Wednesday, October 5. The conference rate is $250, which is a double occupancy rate (based on two persons in the room), $380 for single, and $160 for commuters. The fees cover all costs of the conference including program, lodging, and meals. Registration is through the website and not through Honey Creek. Please register online here: Clergy Conference Online Registration

St. Paul's Augusta

Energy Audit Leads to Grant, Savings

St. Paul's Episcopal Church was one of the first Augusta area churches of any denomination to request a Power Wise Energy Audit. The church also reached out to local faith communities when Georgia Interfaith Power and Light hosted a Clergy Luncheon there, leading to four more Energy Audits in the area.

 

St. Paul's Energy Audit revealed high energy costs compared to similar congregations, and a variety of Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) were recommended to reduce those costs, including insulation, lighting upgrades, and direct digital controls.

 

St. Paul's applied for a grant in May to help fund several of the ECMs identified in their Energy Audit Report. They were awarded $7,750 to install blown-in insulation in the sanctuary attic, which will have an estimated annual energy savings of $1,918.


St. Paul's will continue to track their energy usage in our Monthly Bills Tracking System. This will measure the effects of the insulation and other steps St. Paul's takes to reduce their energy usage. All Power Wise congregations receive Six Month Progress Reports based on their tracking data so the congregation can celebrate their success throughout the program. The energy audits available through Georgia Interfaith Power and Light are very low cost ($100-$300 depending on Sunday Attendance), paying for themselves often in a matter of months, in energy cost savings. Information is online here: http://gipl.org/content/Power_Wise.asp

Youth and Young Adults

College and Young Adult Retreat
September 9 - 11, 2011 

 

September 9th - 11th at Honey Creek. Eligible to attend are 18-year-olds who've graduated high school through 30-year-old young adults. This year's retreat will be an opportunity for rest, reflection, and reconnection. We will also be gathering on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th, so our weekend will be an opportunity to learn about Islam and our relationship as Christians to the Abrahamic religions. Register by emailing Canon Hall. Download a copy of the complete brochure/covenant & medical release.

Musician Fran McKendree to Lead Fall Event
Fall Event will be held October 7 - 9 at Honey Creek. 6th - 12th graders will be eligible to attend. More information to come.   

New Beginnings to take place at Honey Creek on November 4 - 6, 2011

More information to come. 7th - 9th graders are eligible to attend as participants. Mandatory Team meeting will be on October 22nd.  

OSH Convent, Augusta

Retreat and Workshop Schedule

The Sisters of the Order of Saint Helena in Augusta have published their fall schedule. A few of the upcoming events are:

Mindfulness and the Wheel of Health, a workshop with Trina Ford, Certified Integrative Health Coach. Saturday, November 5, 9:30 - 4:00. (Please note this date change). Program cost $95 with $50 deposit (nonrefundable, nontransferable); includes lunch.

I Have Called You by Name, an Advent retreat with Sr Carol Andrew, OSH.  December 9 - 11, beginning with 5:30 pm Vespers on Friday and concluding with dinner on Sunday. Program fee $80.

New Year's Eve at the Convent:  You know the expression "KISS"? That stands for Keep It Simple, Sisters.  This New Year's Eve, we will keep it simple and hope you will join us for any or all of our New Year's Eve events:  On Saturday, December 31 at 5:30 pm, we'll chant the festal Vespers of the Feast of the Holy Name, including the "Service of Light." From 6:30 until 9:00 pm, we'll serve refreshments and enjoy light-hearted merry-making.  RSVP to the guest phone or email with the number in your party.

A Special Offer to Clergy
 
Calling all weary clergy! We offer you one free night's stay in our guest house. One suggestion is to arrive on a Sunday afternoon or evening and stay through Monday which is typically the sisters' day in silence. Come when your schedule permits (or even if it doesn't) and make a brief or extended personal retreat, with spiritual direction or psychotherapy if you desire.

Register for all events and overnight accommodations through the convent guest office at 706-798-5201, ext 1, or [email protected].

Click here for the full schedule, with more information on the events above and their featured speakers: Convent Schedule as a PDF file.

The Loose Canon

Catch Community Attention with an Ad

Your church may be well known or little known in your community. An advertisement alone will not change that. But your image can be given a bit of a boost with the right ad. Two recent examples show what I mean.

 

 
The first ad (above), created by St. Anne's, Tifton, cost just $155 to run in the Tift County Football program for their eight home games. The Rev. Lonnie Lacy writes, "My hope was to create something simple and clever to increase our name recognition and to put us further into the mainstream of our community." In this, the play on 'tradition' helps. Then the QR code takes smart phone users to a page at the church website created to welcome folks who use that code to find the church. This is a small advertising cost to give the community's awareness of the congregation an added kick. A full-sized PDF of the ad is here: St. Anne's Football Ad

 

Christ Church Ad

 

The second recent advertisement I want to highlight is the one created by Christ Church, Savannah, to announce their new member of the clergy, The Rev. Dcn. Sierra Wilkinson. The ad underscores both that the church has a new member of their clergy team and brags a bit about Sierra's admirable resume as a woman just out of college and seminary. The ad ran twice in the Savannah Morning News. The full-sized PDF of this ad is online here: Christ Church Ad

 

One word of warning
An advertisement alone will do little to bring people to your church and nothing to grow your church. Not in and of itself. Growing in numbers in worship is much more dependent on welcoming visitors and intergrating newcomers into the life of the congregation. This is how a church keeps those who come to worship with them. An advertisement can and will pique interest in your church. It could cause someone to look at the website, or even to come visit. More oftem it will just make a potential newcomer more aware of your church. This will make it easier when a member of the church makes a personal invitation. Better to count on ads to raise awareness and invitations to bring in newcomers. Either way, any advertising should be part of a larger strategy.

 

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary 

 

The Loose Canon is a regular column in From the Field whose content is gathered together with other items of interest to those concerned with congregational development at loosecanon.georgiaepiscopal.org

Deacons Seek Nominations for Lay Servants

At the 2012 Diocese of Georgia Coventionat St. Paul's, Augusta, the deacons of the Diocese will award a layperson their Excellence in Servanthood Award for the third year in a row. This award is funded and sponsored by the Deacons of the Diocese of Georgia. Please know that:
  • This award is to be conferred upon a member of the laity;
  • You must obtain the permission of the layperson you wish to nominate;
  • Nominations must be postmarked between September 1st and November 10th, and must include all of the requirements listed above;
  • The Selection Committee, comprised of members of The Deacon's Formation Council, will not consider any application postmarked later than November 10th or which does not contain all required paperwork.
Please prayerfully consider the lay people you know to decide whose service as a servant to others the deacons should consider when making their selection.
The full application is online here: Excellence in Servanthood Award Application

Resources for September 11 Liturgies

911 CrossThe 10th anniversary of the terrorists attacks on September 11th is fast upon us. Bishop Benhase offers a collect and form for the Prayers of the people which may be used on that day. The prayers were created by the Diocese of Southwest Florida. They are online here: September 11 Prayers

 

In addition to the prayers above, for those congregations with a lay reader leading Morning Prayer on that day, Canon Logue has written the sermon for The Episcopal Churches Sermons That Work series for that Sunday. It will be posted online here a week ahead of time: Sermons that Work 2011

Congregations in Transition

Christ Church, Frederica
Search committee to be named in January 2012.
 

Grace Church, Waycross
Working on survey.

 

St. Francis of the Islands, Savannah
Survey complete. Search Committee finishing profile.

Receiving names soon.


St. John's, Bainbridge

Search Committee forming.

 

St. Patrick's, Pooler
Receiving names.

Cooling off with the St. Thomas, Isle of Hope Youth Group

The St. Thomas Youth Group is led by Deacon Geri Nelson. 

Remington Slone Ordained a Priest on Saturday, August, 20th at St. Peter's, Savannah
  The Rev. Remington Slone pictured here with The Rev. Sam Buice. To see a complete photo album of the ordination and other photos from the Diocese of Georgia, click here.

 

Send your news and events to [email protected],
so we can feature them in upcoming issues
of From the Field.

Sincerely,
 
Diocesan Staff
The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia