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Conference on Lay Education and Ministry Held in Albany

Diocesan Press Service. February 27, 1975 [75081]

ALBANY, N.Y. -- On February 7-8, 1975, the Diocese of Albany was the host to a Conference on Education for Lay Ministry sponsored by the First and Second Provinces of the Episcopal Church, in cooperation with the Executive Council staff in New York. Approximately 90 persons from the dioceses in New York, New Jersey and New England assembled at the Hyatt House Motel in Albany to consider together how the Church can address her educational efforts toward the enablement of lay persons for ministry.

The delegates were welcomed by Bishop Wilbur E. Hogg, Jr., of Albany who challenged the Church to discover the means whereby our congregations may increasingly become the effective embodiment of the ministry of Jesus, in which every baptized person can discover and respond to his/her vocation to ministry. He said that a viable congregation is not measured by numbers of communicants nor the size of the parish budget, but rather by the spiritual energy and resources with which the members of the congregation move outside the parish in ministry toward the world.

The keynote speaker was the Rev. James E. Loder, PhD, associate professor of Christian education at Princeton Theological Seminary. In his address on the subject "How Adults Learn," he noted that everyone functions day by day according to patterns which will allow him to achieve his purposes. When these patterns are brought into question, e.g. a situation arises in which they don't work, the resulting conflict within himself requires that he change his pattern. This process amounts to "learning. " Education is the process of the transformation or the changing of patterns. Dr. Loder said that our usual response to the potential of conflict is to try to avoid it. Educators need to develop a positive view of conflict and learn the creative use of it. He was quick to point out that he was not talking about an argument or a fight but rather about the conflict within us when our patterns are challenged by data introduced into our life. The educational process is complete when the changed patterns are integrated into the whole pattern system for an individual, and that person can describe in his own "sacred story " what has happened to him and what it means to him.

The Rev. David Perry, Executive Council Coordinator for Christian Education, spoke briefly to the delegates to acquaint them with resources available from the Executive Council including a description of the services that he personally can and cannot provide. One purpose of the Conference was to build relationships between persons in the Dioceses with Diocesan responsibility for Christian Education and with Father Perry as well as relationships among such persons across Diocesan boundaries.

On Friday evening, a very delicious informal dinner was served by members of St. Andrew's Church, Albany. The theme of the dinner was "World Hunger." The speaker at dinner was the Rev. Norman J. Faramelli, Associate Director of the Boston Industrial Mission. He emphasized the need for the Church to lead the American people toward the acceptance of sacrifice and change of life style in order that a more equitable distribution of the goods of the world might become a reality.

Each delegate to the conference paid a $10 conference fee. It had been determined that whatever was left, over the cost of the conference and the meal at St. Andrew's, would go to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. It was announced that St. Andrew's had decided to donate the food for the dinner and what the Executive Council paid covered the other conference costs. Thus, approximately $900 was made available to be sent to the Presiding Bishop's Fund.

Saturday was spent in workshop groups led by Mr. Barry Menuez, Executive Council Coordinator for Lay Ministry; the Rev. Craig Dykstra of Princeton Theological Seminary; the Rev. Charles Grover, Miss Lucy Groening, and Mrs. Ellie Hillers, all of the Diocese of Central New York. The Conference ended with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist concelebrated by Bishop Hogg and Bishop Charles B. Persell, Suffragan of Albany.

The Rev. Charles Cesaretti, of the Diocese of New Jersey, was chairman of the Planning Committee which included from the Diocese of Albany the Rev. Richard Barrett, the Rev. George Kahlbaugh, and Mrs. Prentiss Carnell.