Maryland's $8 Million Program for Renewal in Place DPS
Episcopal News Service. September 15, 1988 [88192]
BALTIMORE, Md., (DPS, Sep. 15) -- The Diocese of Maryland has begun an $8 million initiative, called CROSS+ROADS, to restore a sense of spiritual excitement and unity in the Diocese by 1992, the 300th anniversary of the Anglican Church in Maryland. 1992 is the 200th anniversary of the consecration of Thomas John Claggett, the first Bishop of Maryland and the first bishop consecrated on American soil.
A new Diocesan Center, which will bring the bishop's desk and the bishop's chair together in the same place for the first time, will be built with half the money. The other $4 million will be allocated to the Bishop Claggett Center; endowed funds for congregational renewal and development, ordained ministry, lay ministry and social ministry; the Nehemiah Fund; and local ministry and mission initiatives.
The CROSS+ROADs programs will be developed so that the four priorities established by Bishop a Theodore Eastman -- lay ministry, ordained ministry, social ministry and congregational development -- will intertwine with the four commitments enunciated by the parishes: spiritual formation, Christian education, Christian outreach and evangelism. Each is a part of the whole, sustaining and nurturing each other.
Speaking of CROSS+ROADS recently, Eastman said, "As we press ahead to the time when the House of Bishops will gather on our doorstep in 1992 celebrating symbolically with the whole Church what God has wrought in us and through us from Claggett's day 'til now, and as the Church of Jesus Christ prepares to enter the third millennium of its history, let us allow that deep and magnificent Spirit of Unity that binds the Father with the Son in triune majesty to fill our lives. Let us engage in this revolutionary venture together, becoming partners, true partners, in our mission of proclaiming the good news of God's Kingdom."
The Diocese of Maryland encompasses 123 parishes and missions in 4,688 square miles, and includes over 50,000 baptized members.