Convention 2012 Plans Underway

Gathering by the river at St. Paul's Church, Augusta, The Diocese of Georgia will journey back to its roots, back to the place where the Diocese was founded in 1823. That first convention called together three churches-Christ Church, Savannah; Christ Church, Frederica; and St. Paul's, Augusta. Their goal was "to exchange the feebleness of individual, separate action, for the strength of united, concentrated effort." Then as now, we hold this goal in our hearts, minds, and spirits, as we look forward to A New Era of Mission in the life of this Diocese.

Again, on the occasion of its Centennial celebration in 1923, the Diocese gathered at St. Paul's with this goal:

We hope and pray that everything about the Convention will be an inspiration to us all to begin a new century of our diocesan life in the right way, with new ideas, new zeal, and high and holy purpose, to set forward the Kingdom of Jesus Christ from one end of this Diocese to the other.
 

As we gather in 2012, we will once more lean on the strength of "united, concentrated effort" in order to "Set forward the Kingdom of Jesus Christ." Through the strategies and goals of the New Era of Mission campaign, we will focus our efforts on these new ideas to bring zeal to Congregational Development, Clergy and Lay Leader Development, and ministry with Youth and Young Adults toward a high and holy purpose. 

Come and gather with us by the river as we chart the course for this new era of mission.You can keep posted on the plans at the convention website, which will be updated frequently as we work toward Convention 2012:  

http://convention.georgiaepiscopal.org

Nominations Sought
Bishop Benhase has named Jody Grant as the Nominations Chair for the upcoming convention. To read about the positions available for election at Convention 2012, please visit our Elections Page. 
 

Registration Starts October 15

We will open up early registrations from October 15-31 at a reduced rate. In response to suggestions made after the last convention, churches will be able to sign up their whole delegation with a single registration. Individuals and couples may also register, but we have heard the need for an individual to register a church's group all at once and we will make that available. Details on registration and more will be included in a special From the Field for Friday, October 14.

Bishop Benhase officiates the liturgy in the Parish Hall at St. Luke's Hawkinsville during his recent visitation. The church is being renovated to provide a firm foundation and secure the building for future generations.

Diocesan Office Update

Stewart Named
Dean of Albany Convocation

Bishop Benhase announced that he has named The Rev. Bill Stewart as Dean of the Albany Convocation. This announcement follows The Rev. Don Hutchens stepping down as dean due to parish and family commitments.

The Very Rev. Bill Stewart

Stewart is the rector of St. John & St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Albany. Born in Americus in 1948, he grew up in the Methodist church. He and his wife Sharon discovered the Episcopal Church at St. James, Quitman in 1978, and were confirmed by Bishop Paul Reeves. They moved to Cordele in 1981 where he served as Chief Appraiser for the Board of Assessors for 17 years. While in Cordele, he was very active at Christ Church and served on numerous civic and professional boards. He helped found  and was president of GAP Group, Inc, which developed and maintains the software used by more than 100 assessor's offices throughout Georgia.

Finally answering a call to explore ordination, he participated in a non-residential seminary training program at Sewanee in 1998, being ordained by the Rt Rev. Henry Louttit as Deacon in 2001, and to the priesthood in 2004. He was priest in charge of Worship on the Water for its first five years at Lake Blackshear. He also served as vicar of St. Stephens, Leesburg, and as Interim Rector at Annunciation, Vidalia, before becoming the second Rector of St. John & St. Mark's Episcopal Church in May of 2009. He is the spiritual director of Cursillos in Georgia.

Stewart has been married to Sharon Costello (now Stewart) of Worcester, Massachusetts since 1976. They have three children, Ryan, 33; Shaun, 28; and Rebekah, 22. When time permits, he enjoys cooking, he is a voracious reader, and he and Sharon travel as they can.

Honey Creek Update

This weekend, Honey Creek will host a Walk to Emmaus weekend for men. The following weekend the women's Walk will be held at our camp and conference center.

Coming soon to Honey Creek   

10/2-5: Fall Clergy Conference
            (with Episcopal Preaching Foundation)
10/7-10/9: Fall Gathering - Diocesan Youth Event
10/28-29: Grounded in God Spirituality Retreat
11/4-11/6: New Beginnings
11/11-12: Clergy Spouses Conference

Vision in Mission and Ministry Video from 1989

VIMM Legacy Seen Across Diocese

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bishop Shipps led the Diocese of Georgia through a diocesan-wide capital campaign named Vision in Mission and Ministry. The video linked above was created in 1989 to show the goals for the campaign. By 1992, $1.1 million was in hand or pledged to be given within the year. Those funds were used for two main purposes:

1. To double the number of lodge rooms at Honey Creek, adding a lobby and office space in the process, and
2. To add to the existing Mission Development Fund in order to aid congregations in building projects, as well as buying land for future churches.

The campaign was highly successful in boosting the amount of space for adult groups using our camp and conference center. Furthermore, the $300,000 that went into the Mission Development Fund enabled new construction as well as capital improvements at 

Atonement Augusta

Good Shepherd, Brunswick

Grace, Sandersville

Holy Cross Thomson

St. Barnabas, Valdosta

St. Francis', Camilla

St. John's, Albany

St. John's, Bainbridge

St. Mark's, Radium Springs

St. Elizabeth's, Richmond Hill

St. Thomas Aquinas, Baxley

Trinity Statesboro

Land was also purchased in Effingham County and Columbia County, along with some parish hall and classroom projects. The $300,000 stretch so far because it was joined together with $510,000. Of that half milllion, $203,000 was from the sale of Holy Apostles, Savannah with the rest being funds from the earlier Venture in Mission Campaign, about which more will be shared in a future issue of From the Field.

St. Michael & All Angels, Savannah

Student Returns from Year-Long Pilgrimage

St. Paul's, Albany

A Pet Burial Idea Worth Considering

One-Day Workshop for Wardens/Treasurers and Youth/Young Adult Workers

Canons Willoughby, Logue, and Hall will offer a one-day workshop for wardens, vestries, and youth workers on Saturday, October 15th, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Episcopal Campus Ministry House on Fair Road (GA 67) in Statesboro.

The group will break into two tracks-one for Church Wardens and Treasurers led by Canons Willoughby and Logue to give the tools needed to assist in overseeing the temporal affairs of a church and another with Canon Hall for those who work with youth and young adults to discuss best practices as well as to disseminate information on upcoming events. 

Course to Be Offered Again 

The canons will repeat this one-day workshop again in the spring at a location on the western side of the diocese, so as to make attending the workshop as convenient as possible for all.

To Register

Lunch will be provided. Please click this link to register online. For more questions on the workshop, please call Diocesan House at (912) 236-4279 to speak with one of the canons.

St. Paul's, Augusta

Spiritual Choral Group Coming to Augusta

The Riverwalk Series, Inc. presents one of America's finest choral groups as part of the 2011 Westobou Festival on Sunday 2 October at 7 pm at Saint Paul's Church, 6th & Reynolds in downtown Augusta. The New England Spiritual Ensemble has been heard nationally on "CBS Sunday Morning", on National Public Radio's "Performance Today", is the subject of several public television features, and has toured nationally and internationally. Its first recording, "Comin Up Shouting", features the arrangements of spirituals and works of John Andrew Ross. The music critic of the Boston Globe pronounced the ensemble "excellent.... blessed with performers who own good voices....daringly expressive", and reported that the performance "brought a hush to the hall". The ensemble is comprised of some of the most distinguised African American singers in the country and the group's Augusta concert is made possible by a major grant from the Porter Fleming Foundation. Visit the group's website at

www.nespirituals.org

Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased online at www.RiverwalkSeries.com or from the Box Office, 706-722-3463.

OSH Convent, Augusta

Come Away and Rest Awhile

St. Philip's, Hinesville

Vacation Bible School

in Photos

St. James', Quitman

Taking Part in First Skillet Festival

September 14 is Holy Cross Day in our liturgical calendar. This year, St. Anne's, Tifton, invited parishioners to bring crosses to the Eucharist that evening for them to be blessed. The congregation brought an array of personal necklace crosses, pocket crosses, rosaries, wall crosses, and more. 

Why DoGs Should Cheer for Boise State

The season opening loss for the University of Georgia notwithstanding, Diocese of Georgians have some solid historic grounds for cheering for Boise State University. The institution was founded by the fifth Bishop of Georgia, the Rt. Rev. Middleton Stuart Barnwell.

Before serving as our bishop, Bishop Barnwell was for 10 years (1925-1935) the Missionary Bishop of Idaho. During this time in the late 1920s and early 30s, as Bishop of that Diocese, Barnwell ran St. Margaret's School, a secondary girls academy in Boise, Idaho. With the Depression, more girls began to attend public school. Bishop Barnwell advocated that the academy become a junior college so that local high school graduates could begin their college education without out-of-state costs. In February, 1932, he began working to form a junior college out of St. Margaret's. While he found no local support, Barnwell did secure funding from The Episcopal Church. September 6, 1932, Boise Junior College opened its doors to about 75 students and fourteen faculty members (eight of whom were full-time). Bishop Barnwell served as the college's president from 1932 until 1934. At that time he recommended that Boise Junior College become a public institution. That junior college grew to become Boise State University (with an enviable football program) in which Diocese of Georgians should take some pride.

Having served in as Missionary Bishop of Idaho for nearly a decade when the call for a bishop coadjutor went out from the Diocese of Georgia, he was elected at the second electing convention to serve alongside Bishop F.F. Reese then in 80 years old. The election of a successor to Bishop Reese was a difficult one, taking two conventions to be decided. On August 30, 1934, a special convention was held at Grace Church, Waycross and failed in twelve ballots to elect a new bishop. A second session met January 15, 1935 at St. Paul's, Augusta and took nine more ballots to elect the Bishop Barnwell, great nephew of Bishop Stephen Elliott, our diocese's first bishop.

At the time of his 1935 election as Bishop of Georgia, there were 16 parishes, 21 organized missions, 13 unorganized missions, five mission stations and one parochial mission. The still segregated church records noted 6,420 communicants. During his tenure as bishop, which lasted until 1954 the Diocese grew 27% to 8,156 total communicants with two more churches becoming parishes and four additional missions created.  

Bishop Albert Rhett Stuart said in his 1957 Address to Convention, "On October 14, 1928 in Washington, D.C., as a Junior Seminarian, I heard one of the great sermons of my life. It was preached by the then Missionary Bishop of Idaho to a great assembly of the General Convention of the Church. The preacher declared-'There is no such thing as a foreign mission. A misson is foreign only as our love doesn't reach to it. The neighbor across the street may be foreign to us if our heart doesn't reach to him. Jesus Christ came into flesh not for Nordics or Anglo-Saxons but for all the world.' Bishop Barnwell brought this sermon in his life, not just in words, to Georgia where it characterized his leadership for 19 years."

He died in Savannah on May 6, 1957. Bishop Barnwell and his wife Maggie had no children. He died in Savannah on May 6, 1957.  She died in 1960. The couple is buried at Savannah's Bonaventure cemetery. Bishop Stuart said of his predecessor, that he was "A humble and patient man of God."

For more on his history with founding the college, see "Chapter Two: Bishop Barnwell's College" in Glen Barrett's Boise State University : searching for excellence, 1932-1984 the full text of which is online here: Bishop Barnwell's College

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Youth and Young Adults 

The Diocese Seeks Volunteers to Form a Steering Committee for Young Adult Ministry

Young adult ministry is not limited to campus ministry, though the latter does fall under the umbrella of the former. The age of a young adult is debatable, but generally, the span of young adulthood begins when an 18-year-old graduates from high school and lasts until one turns 30-years-old. Therefore, the single, 19-year-old college sophomore and the married, 29-year-old mother of two are both considered young adults.