Episcopal Press and News
New Directions Forms Regional Panel
Episcopal News Service. June 29, 1977 [77233]
Burlington, Vt. -- The Rev. Dr. H. Boone Porter, Executive Director of New Directions, reported that a Regional Steering Committee has been formed to assist the work of New Directions in Provinces I and II of the Episcopal Church and in the Province of Canada of the Anglican Church in Canada, which is comprized of dioceses in Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. The decision was made at a gathering of New Directions Consultants and graduates of the Leadership Academy of New Directions from those jurisdictions, June 7 to 9 at the Rock Point Conference Center here.
New Directions is a program for renewal of small churches and revitalization of their ministry and is sponsored by the Standing Committee of the Church in Small Communities of the Episcopal Church's General Convention.
The Conference members were consultants and archdeacons, rural deans, and other clergy with multi-parish responsibility from the Dioceses of Connecticut, New York, Central New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Montreal and Quebec. Members of the Standing Committee chosen are the Ven. Robert N. Willing, Archdeacon of the Mid-Hudson region of the Diocese of New York, the Very Rev. Robert Leather of Colebrook, N.H.; the Rev. Ronald Smith of Coaticook, Quebec; the Rev. James L. Lowery, Jr. of Enablement, Inc., Boston, Mass.; the Rev. Mark Sisk of Kingston, N.Y.; and the Rev. Raymond Cunningham Jr., Assistant Dean of the Leadership Academy of New Directions.
Others taking part in the Conference were the Rev. Richard Gary, National Mission Officer of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, who oversees the New Directions Program; Captain Thomas Tull, Church Army, Director of Program for the National Institute for Lay Training and a New Directions consultant, and the Rev. James C. Fenhagen II of the Hartford Seminary Foundation which is evolving vital programs for parish support and lay ministry.
At the closing session the Conference heard an affirmation by the Rt. Rev. Robert S. Kerr, Bishop of Vermont, concerning the revitalization of small parishes and growth of their ministry in his diocese in a program based on New Directions principles.
Dr. Porter pointed out that this first regionalization of the New Directions program and the existence of a steering committee would make it possible for New Directions to communicate examples of successful work in the small church field and to provide resource people to help at the diocesan or parish level. It will also aid in forming cluster parishes or group ministries, give advice on non-stipendiary ministries and suggest programs for strengthening lay ministry in parishes.
