Many thanks to our intrepid St. Thomas delegates to Diocesan Council last week. Read their report below:
Statement on Diocesan Council from St. Thomas Lay and Clergy Delegates
We were honored to represent St. Thomas at the 168th Diocesan Council in Galveston. We began the weekend with a standing-room-only crowd at Trinity Episcopal in downtown Galveston. Bishop Andy Doyle’s sermon about the Good Samaritan introduced one of the Council’s main themes: neighbors. “Who are our neighbors?”, asked Bishop Doyle. What do we know about them, really? Where are our neighbors, and how can we reach them? During the meetings that followed on Friday and Saturday at the Galveston Convention Center, Bishop Doyle and others encouraged us to take on spiritual practices that will help us get to know our neighbors by developing more meaningful relationships. He encouraged us to commit to having meals with others at least three times a week, noting that breaking bread is a spiritual practice rooted in Jesus’s own teaching. Bishop Doyle also encouraged us to commit to getting to know 8 of our neighbors during 2017. Here at St. Thomas, we hope to spend much of 2017 identifying our neighbors and their needs to that we can work planfully and prayerfully as we discern and determine how best to go about the work of God in the community.
Jesus offered the parable of The Good Samaritan in response to a lawyer who asked, “And who is my neighbor?” As Bishop Doyle pointed out, neighbors are not only those who live near us. Neighbors are those who are in some kind of need—the need for safety, for security, for love. Without knowing our neighbors more genuinely, we can never know what these needs are, and without that deeper knowledge, we certainly cannot begin to address these needs meaningfully. The Good Samaritan showed genuine care for the injured man—importantly, a Jew and thus a “natural enemy” of the Samaritan. The Good Samaritan saw a need and met it, disregarding cultural taboos to take the beaten man to a place of safety and to provide for him while he recovered from his injuries.
The largest role for all clergy and lay delegates during Council is to vote on the upcoming year’s clergy and lay boards to support the diocesan executive council, standing committee, church corporation, Sewanee trustees, and deputies to general convention (it’s in Austin in June of 2018!). We voted on the approval of the budget for the upcoming year, and we voted on changes to our Diocese’s constitutions and cannons. We also approved Bishop Doyle’s recommendation to hire an Assistant Bishop, a native Spanish speaker with years of service experience. This key new appointment will bring a great relief to the Diocesan office in making visitations to parishes and growing the mission of our diocese to serve the people of God in Texas.
The 168th Diocesan Council was a meaningful, powerful experience, and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to serve. Thank you for the prayers and other forms of support you offered to us as we served as your delegates to the Council. The 169th Diocesan Council will be held in Waco in February 2018. We would love to share our experiences with anyone who interested in attending next year.
Anne Ness, Senior Warden
Natalie Brady
Samuel Gladden
Kendall Morrow
Fr. Mike Stone