May 6, 2014Volume 4, Number 36
In This Issue
Diocesan Office Update
Spring Clergy Conference
St. Luke's, Hawkinsville
A Selfless Selfie?
Positions Available
ECW Annual Meeting
Field Guide Survey
Two priests walk into a bar...
Social Media Connections
Web Links
 
 
 


This Sunday's Lections:
Third Sunday of Easter 
Acts 2:14a,36-41
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
Join Our Mailing List
Save the Date for Convention 2014

The 2014 Diocesan Convention will be held on November 6th through 8th at the beautiful new beachfront Jekyll Island Convention Center (Convention Center website).  The convention will approve the budget, elect persons to diocesan offices as well as debate and decide on proposed canonical changes and other resolutions. Each mission congregation is represented by its clergy and a delegate, while the clergy and three delegates vote on behalf of every parish.

 

Special room rates are being held for a limited time for Convention attendees. Those are:

 

The Jekyll Island Club http://www.jekyllclub.com/ 

  • (No meals are included; restaurants on site)
  • Holding the block for Wednesday, Nov. 5th - Saturday, Nov. 8th, 2014
  • $169.00* for the Clubhouse and Traditional room(one room/one night)+ a $10/room resort fee
  • $299.00* for the one bedroom suite (one room/one night)+$10 per room resort fee
  • Rates available on a first come first serve basis through September 30, 2014
  • Group Number 97151
  • Phone: 912-635-2600 or 800-535-9547

 

The Hampton Inn and Suites, Jekyll Island  http://www.jekyllislandhamptoninn.com/ 

  • (Includes breakfast)
  • Holding the block for Wednesday, Nov. 5th - Saturday, Nov. 8th, 2014
  • $129.00* for Standard Room (one room/one night)
  • $149.00* for Studio Suite (one room/one night)
  • Rates available on a first come first serve basis through October 15, 2014
  • Group Name "Episcopal Diocese of Georgia"
  • Phone:912-635-3733

 Honey Creek Camp and Conference Center  http://www.honeycreek.org/Honey_Creek/Welcome_to_Honey_Creek.html 

  • (Includes breakfast)
  • Holding the block for Wednesday, Nov. 5th - Saturday, Nov. 8th, 2014
  • $81.00 for Lodge Room  (one room/one night)
  • $30.00 per night for Cottage--per person with a min. of 5 in cottage or rates will be higher
  • Rates available on a first come first serve basis through October 15, 201
  • Phone: 912.265.9218

*Rates quoted are for and do not include taxes and tips

Diocesan Office Update  

Bishop Benhase and Canon Logue are at Honey Creek for the Spring Clergy Conference which ends today. Canon Willoughby was at the conference last evening for a presentation to the clergy.

 

Canon Logue will be on vacation, hiking in the mountains of Tennessee from May 6-17.

 

Bishop Benhase and Canon Willoughby will meet with Diocesan Council this Friday and Saturday at St. Margaret of Scotland, Moultrie. Council is tasked with making key decisions for the Diocese, functioning as the convention in recess.

 

Bishop Benhase will make his visitations this Sunday to St. Margaret of Scotland, Moutrie, in the morning and to St. Andrew's, Douglas, in the afternoon.

 

Convocational Confirmation in Eastertide 

Albany | May 10th | St. Paul's | Albany | 4 p.m. 

Savannah | May 29th | St. Francis' of the Islands | Savannah | 7 p.m. 
 

Spring Clergy Conference Wrapping Up

The Spring Clergy Conference is wrapping up today at Honey Creek. The main speaker is Lauren Winner, Assistant Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity. Winner is the author of numerous books, including Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath. Winner worked with the clergy to consider biblical images of God beyond more common imagery such as Jesus as the Good Shepherd to consider such unexpected imagery as the deep connection between God and the sense of smell in scripture. Biblical images of God were further explored in the conference Eucaharists with the Rev. Tom Purdy's sermon on God as Mirror from II Corinthians and the Rev. Kevin Kelly's sermon on God as the fir which burns, but does not consume in Exodus.

 

 

   
 
 St. Luke's, Hawkinsville
Blessing of the Crops Prayer Breakfast

More than 100 people attended the 12th annual Blessing of the Crops which St. Luke's, Hawkinsville, hosted for its community at a local restaurant. "This is a reminder that nothing grows that God is not a part of,'' said their rector, the Very Rev. Gary Abbott. "We ask his blessings on the things we eat, the things we wear and life itself.''

 

An article on the Prayer Breakfast by the Macon Telegraph is online here: Prayers Felt at Blessing of the Crops.

Christ Church, Frederica
Can You Share A Selfless Selfie?
Parishioners gathered for Easter at Christ Church Frederica were asked to take out their cell phones during the liturgy. The Rev. Tom Purdy, the church's rector, surprised (and likely mortified) some people by suggesting that they capture the joy of the resurrection on Easter morning by snapping photos and/or using social media to share our experience with the "outside world". As Purdy explained in a follow up email, "Technology is an evangelistic tool in the hands of the church, no matter what that technology is. We use everything at our disposal to spread the Good News of God in Christ."
  
A selfie is a self-portrait, usually taken with a smart phone, most often to share on Facebook and in other social media (as shown here at left from a Project Smile mission trip). Purdy wrote to his parish, "The Church as a whole, and this parish in particular, is largely absent from social media, although we do have our own Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. What we lack is the  regular communication between "us" and everyone else. A big part of that is because we tend not to welcome such communication in church. Cell phones in church are usually seen as a bad thing, except when an app can keep an otherwise noisy child quiet. So where people check in on social media via their smart phones from the beach, or the coffee shop, or who knows where, they rarely check in from church."
  
Purdy went on to explain, "In my last parish we discovered that our teens 'live and die' by their smart phones, specifically through texting. We started to regularly text prayers to our teens, and guess what - they loved it! We sent texts during lunch hour, concentrating them around certain seasons of the church or before midterms and finals - whatever was going on in their life; we knew their phones would be in their hands, and we learned that God could be too. Transforming technology for the work of the church is not as radical as we might think."
Positions Open in Thomasville and on St. Simons Island

The Episcopal Development Agency of Thomasville (EDAT) is searching for its founding Executive Director and Christ Church, Frederica is searching for a full time Youth Missioner.  

 

EDAT is a service ministry focused on the revitalization of the neighborhood known as The Stevens Street Historic District. This neighborhood surrounds Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and is an historically African American neighborhood. In addition to the physical rehabilitation of structures in the neighborhood, EDAT works to address factors impacting local residents, issues of health and nutrition, education, life-skills and employment. EDAT's effectiveness in these areas depends upon strong working partnerships with other local agencies. For full information, see the position listing online here: EDAT Executive Director Position Listing

 

The ideal candidate  for the Frederica Youth Missioner opening is a lay Episcopalian with a passion and calling around teenagers and youth ministry.  The person who answers this call will not be spending most of their time in an office, but out in the community building relationships with teenagers and their parents while fostering a community that extends well beyond the walls of our buildings and the boundaries of our properties.  Interested candidates should send Christ Church's Rector, Tom Purdy, a resume and answer the three questions at the end of the ministry description by May 9, 2014.  You can find a link to the description for this ministry here: Youth Missioner Position Listing

Register for the 2014 Annual ECW Meeting

Registration is open for the 2014 Annual ECW Meeting on May 16-17, 2014 at Honey Creek. Registration is $25.00 and should be sent to Karen West at 218 Earlwood Dr. Dublin, GA 31021.  Meals and hotel will go through Honey Creek - meals for Friday dinner/Saturday breakfast, lunch is $36.00. 

 

Room cost are as follows: $80 for single occupancy lodge room, $40 for double occupancy lodge room, $20 day for Hunt/Chapin Cottage, or $100 day for Jonnard Cottage. Please call Carolyn Middleton at Honey Creek at (912) 265-9218 for meals and lodging. If additional information is needed please contact Cristy Jordan 912-659-0287 [email protected] or Norma Akins 478-984-8872 / [email protected]

 

 

ECW Friday Night Banquet:
Girls in Jeans & Pearls!

Since we are at fabulous relaxin' casual Honey Creek, wear your favorite jeans

and your Southern Belle pearls to our Banquet!! Saturday Eucharist is a T-shirt Eucharist!!

Wear your church or ECW T-shirt as we worship together led by our Bishop.

 

AND.....bring any and all gently worn T-shirts cluttering up your closet...we will give these to the Clothing Shelves of St. Athanasius ECW in downtown Brunswick. Clothing is always needed and sought by families with children and working men. Have fun and bless others too!!

Congregations Should Take the Field Guide Survey

Your congregation should submit information now for its entry in a new Field Guide to the Diocese of Georgia. The booklet will tell about the ministries of each congregation.

  
The current edition is from the fall of 2012 and it is available here online: click here to download the 2012 Field Guide.
  
The priest and vestry can decide who should submit what information to be included in the guide. Each congregation is limited to a single page in the Field Guide. 
 
In addition to the questions used to generate the Field Guide, there are questions about congregations with grants and planned giving programs. Answers to these questions will assist the Diocese in its work to support congregational planned giving programs as well as help us in linking ministries with available grant funds. 
  

Two priests walk into a bar...    

       

...and bless it. The Revs. David Rose and Joshua Varner pray for the new Molly MacPherson's Pub during its grand opening.  
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Sincerely,                                       
            
Diocesan Staff                             
The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia