Some 300 clergy, lay delegates and visitors gathered at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Pa., June 9-10, for the Diocese of Bethlehem's 129th convention. They heard the address and sermon of the Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall, Bishop of Bethlehem, set the 2001 agenda for mission, and shared their common ministry and membership in the 14-county diocesan community.

Delegates unanimously adopted a recommendation to "establish a companion relationship with the Diocese of Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, whose leaders and many parishioners are now in exile in Uganda ..."

Delegates also approved a $1.4 million diocesan budget for 2001, adopted changes recommended by a task force on diocesan structure, elected officers and members to diocesan committees, and received reports from some 30 committees, commissions and diocesan staff persons.

Delegates heard from Dr. Ned Wallace, the Diocese of Bethlehem medical missioner [TLC, Feb. 20], who has spent four months of each of the past 10 years in the tiny southern Africa kingdom of Swaziland coordinating the Swaziland International Elective, a learning and service program in community medicine centered in an overcrowded rural hospital.

The offering received during the convention Eucharist was designated for AIDS orphans in Africa.

Bishop Marshall announced that the diocese, "barring the truly unusual," will receive shortly about 300 acres for a camp and gathering place near Lily Lake, located between Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre.

Speaking briefly about General Convention, Bishop Marshall said his "overall concern is that the church not be divided. I will continue to work as I have, for deepened unity with those whose views I do not necessarily share."

(The Rev. Canon) Bill Lewellis