January 8, 2014  


Notes from Bishop Mark

My prayers throughout the twelve days of Christmastide were for the blessings of joy and refreshment for all of our congregations and for the lay and clergy leaders who serve them. Two days after the beginning of the New Year, your Executive Board, staff, and I met to continue the restructuring of the Board, review and revise the Sustainability Report and prepare for this month's Diocesan Council.

 

For all clergy: It is your great privilege to share in the gathering of our common life that is Diocesan Council. If you need to be excused from attending Council or some portion of it, please make contact with me. Otherwise, please register soon. We are low on clergy registrations at this writing.

 

Sunday Visitations and Midweek Vestry Meetings:

  • On the Second Sunday of Christmas, I worshipped with the people of Emmanuel, Bristol. This Sunday I will be at Trinity in Arrington.
  • Vestry meetings: Last week I met with the vestry of Christ Church, Blacksburg

Pastoral Concerns:

The Rev. Bob Brodie was in the hospital and is still recovering from a bad case of the shingles with complications. The Rev. John Heck and The Rev. Cathy Montgomery both had knee replacement over the holidays and are now engaged in healing and rehabilitation. Keep Bob, Cathy, and John in your prayers.

Transitions: Repeat-Trinity, Boonsboro, has called The Rev. James Young to be their next rector. James currently resides in the Diocese of Oregon. He will join Trinity in the early spring.  


Notes from Evans House

Yesterday an email message about the January 12 convocation meetings went out through Constant Contact to all clergy, lay delegates and alternates, parish offices, and others. Please read it carefully and come to your convocation meeting prepared for the business at hand.

 

Online registration for Annual Council at the early bird rate closes on January 15. After that date, you'll need to register at the onsite registration table at the Hotel Roanoke when you come to Council and be prepared to pay the full fee.

 

New mileage reimbursement rate effective January 1, 2014:

The rate is now $0.56 per mile.

 

Attention parishes/people who have copies of the parish mailing list: St. John's, Glasgow, has a new PO Box. Change your record for them to PO Box 507. 

 

 

Events 

Correction to previous information about January's Center for Lifelong Learning program: The correct date is January 14. Call 540-483-1518 to register. Invite your friends!

 

The youth of the diocese are looking forward to sharing a meaningful, BRIEF (7:30-9 pm) Stop Hunger Now pack experience with Council on Saturday night following the banquet.

 

The pack will be set in the context of the Eucharist and will be prayerful and intentional-intentional about not wasting ingredients, intentional about the use of our hands for mission, and intentional about praying for those who so desperately need our help.   

Please consider participating with the youth in this experience. It will be memorable, meaningful, and short!

St. Paul's, Lynchburg, invites you to their Celtic Evensong services:
  • February 2, 5 pm
  • March 16, 5 pm

 News  


United Thank Offering (UTO) grant applications are now being accepted. 

 

The focus for the 2014-2015 grants is The Gospel of Love proclaimed by Jesus Christ.

 

Guidelines and application forms are available here

 

For more information about the guidelines, contact the Rev. Heather Melton: [email protected]

Repeated from Previous Updates 

 

Principal Clergy of All Parishes and/or Senior Wardens: please be sure to notify Lynn ([email protected]) of any changes in your Certificates of Election for Council.

 

Giving blood at Annual Council: Click here for a coupon to present when you arrive at your donation appointment at Council--and be automatically entered to win a $1,500 gift card! 

 

From Cara Modisett, who is advising Bishop Mark and the staff on communications matters:


As we move toward the launch of the newly redesigned diocesan website, we are developing a number of blogs, including one called Faces of the Diocese.

 

We're looking for a wide range of people who'd be interested in writing one blog entry - just one! - at some point in 2014. Our 52(-plus) bloggers would be scheduled by week, and we'll work with each writer on his/her piece.

    • Who: Youth, clergy, lay, staff, seminarians
    • What: Your stories - rather than blogs with titles like "Why I love the Episcopal Church," we're looking for stories from your life as an Episcopalian - what joys, challenges, projects are you engaged in? Those stories will vividly tell the reader "Why (we) love the Episcopal Church."
    • When: We're aiming for a January launch.
    • How: Contact Cara Ellen Modisett, [email protected], to volunteer as a blogger and/or to suggest bloggers from your parish.

Y@C 2014: ONE in Mission: To Imagine, To Love and To Serve! 

 

Youth in grades 6-12 are invited to attend the most memorable weekend of the year! The event will be held at St. John's in Roanoke. The dates are Jan. 24-26 and the cost is $90.00. Our mission, should we choose to accept it: We are the Youth of Dio SwVa; here, one in mission, ready to serve with open minds to imagine, hearts to love unconditionally, and hands to serve all of God's children. Come find out what this means to you, your parish, and your community! 

 

Paperless registration for youth events! We are in the midst of updating our website to accommodate paperless registration for all youth events. Please be patient with us as we make this change. Registration for Y@C will be held through the Council registration website posted on the Y@C page of the youth website. After completing this registration form, you will then be redirected to the youth website to finish your online registration. If you have any questions, please contact Aimee Bostwick at the diocesan office.

 

Hard as it may be to imagine, the invitation to Council 2014 that went out just before Thanksgiving had an error! The correct date for the January convocation meetings is January 12, 2014. Locations and times listed in the invitation were correct. (Thanks to the ever-alert Bob Miller and Shirley Kingery for pointing out the error, which we're blaming on gremlins--or maybe sunspots.)


From Grace, Radford: Mission Trip to Belize 

 

Grace Episcopal Church in Radford is looking for others who might be interested in a mission trip to Belize, Central America. This trip is for youth and adults ages 15 and up. The dates will be from June 30, 2014, to July 10, 2014. Currently, there are 15 people signed up for the trip. We have space for twenty five. 

 

The trip will consist of seven days in Corozal, Belize, a town nine miles from the Mexican border, where the group will paint and repair the Anglican school and put on a Vacation Bible School for the local children. The three additional days will be spent on Caye Caulker, a small island off the coast. 

 

The cost will be from $1200 to $1400, depending on the cost of the airline ticket. The cost includes all transportation, hotel accommodations in Corozal and Caye Caulker, breakfast and dinner in Caye Caulker, snorkeling trip, and other fun activities. 

 

For more information, contact Father David Rose at [email protected] or by telephone at 540-639-3494.


2014 Clergy Compensation Information


The 2014 Official Clergy Compensation Chart and the 2014 Workbook for Clergy Salary Range are now available at www.dioswva.org in the Resources==>>Parish Resources section. Scroll down to "Documents related to the employment of clergy" to find this material.
  

Please click here to read a letter from the Presiding Bishop concerning a special offering for Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

 

Now available for parish use: DioSWVA's Employment Application Form. Click here for the pdf version. Click here for the Word file.  


New Life

Click  here  to see the chart of 2013 Received Reports as of January 7, 2014.

Click here to see the chart of 2014 Received Reports as of January 7, 2014.

Click here for information about the Sponsor-a-Day program.

Click here for the current list of supply clergy. 
 
Click here for the diocesan staff directory.

Weekly Email Archives

You can view the past issues of weekly email updates, as well as other emails sent from the diocese by following this link.

 

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Evans House Staff

The Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern VA

540-342-6797

P.O. Box 2279 * Roanoke, VA * 24009