Church Center Staff Retreat Explores New Possibilities for Collaboration for the Sake of Mission
Episcopal News Service. November 2, 2001 [2001-319]
Jim Solheim
(ENS) Members of the program staff of the Episcopal Church Center gathered for an intensive two-day retreat, to discuss what they can best do to grow and strengthen the church and support its mission.
In small group discussions and quiet walks in the woods surrounding Stony Point Conference Center up the Hudson River from New York, staff members delved deeply into the mission of the church and their specific roles-especially seeking new and fresh ways of looking at mission and possibilities for collaboration.
Five general groupings were used as a framework for the discussion:
· Growth and development of congregations
· Leadership development
· Faith formation and spiritual development
· Justice and peace
· Partnership with the Anglican Communion and other ecclesial bodies
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold opened the meeting with an extended reflection on mission as participation in God's work. "Our vocation at its deepest and truest is to participate in the work God has given us. God gives us this work because he loves us, not just so we can be useful. As we do it, that work becomes the ground of our joy," he said.
In a memo to the whole staff at the church center following the retreat, Griswold reported that "it was an extremely productive time that I believe will serve all of us, as we are all part of a common enterprise."
The church center's management team met immediately after the retreat "to begin to think through the learnings," taking "some important next steps in an evolving process. It is clear," Griswold noted, "that our mission will be well served if we gather up the wisdom and expertise of our staff-and that it is important to have a group that meets regularly to talk about how the mission work carried out through staff can be strengthened and connected with various mission initiatives abroad in the life of the church." He announced the formation of that group and set a date of November 27 for the first meeting.
"We have sketched out some preliminary expectations for how the group will operate over the next six months," Griswold said. The meetings will address the areas of work discussed at the retreat "for sustaining and growing the church and enabling the participation of its people in God's project of reconciliation."
Another larger group of program staff will be focusing on "how the 20/20 vision is woven through our life." Their work is now in the planning stages.
The 20/20 initiative to double the active church participation in the coming years was endorsed at a recent meeting of the Executive Council.
"Such times are always wonderful ways to reconnect both our lives and our ministries," said Pat Mordecai, assistant to the presiding bishop for administration, in a follow-up memo to participants. "I believe that our dialogue provided tremendous food for thought and will lead to some real clarity about our direction going forward. There is clearly much energy and passion for what we are about which, I believe, will strengthen our new ways of being and new initiatives."