Venture in Mission Puts "New Life" in Dioceses
Episcopal News Service. June 15, 1978 [78175]
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. -- Two bishops from dioceses that have completed successful Venture in Mission pilot programs were able to affirm that, because of the Venture, "new life and new leadership surfaced" in their dioceses.
The Rt. Rev. Gray Temple, Bishop of South Carolina and the Rt. Rev. Judson Child, Suffragan Bishop of Atlanta, made their affirmations at a meeting of the Episcopal Church's Fourth Province held at the Kanuga Conference Center here in early June. Both dioceses announced in May that they had oversubscribed their Venture goals.
Both bishops pointed especially to the level of excitement and leadership among the laity. Bishop Temple, who said he had been cool toward the project, said flatly that it was the laity "who carried the ball" and added that "nothing within living memory had so excited the laymen. "
Both bishops also noted that the Venture had been a program that seemed particularly to involve and excite the black congregations, many of which pledged themselves well over stated goals.
With these pilot programs completed the other dioceses are moving ahead in the Venture and the provincial campaign chairman, the Rev. Canon George Chassey of Charleston, S.C., has scheduled a meeting of diocesan leaders for July 6 in Atlanta.
A thick notebook of materials used in the South Carolina effort stirred a good deal of attention among the diocesan bishops with one -- Bishop Paul Haynes of Southwest Florida -- taking it home for further study.