December 7, 2022 | Volume 12, No. 49

Save the Date for the Diocesan Bicentennial

On Saturday, February 25, 2023, join Bishop Logue at Saint Paul's in Augusta to celebrate the Bicentennial of the founding of the Diocese of Georgia.

There will be a Eucharist at 2 pm followed by a reception. Bishop Logue will preside and the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Wright, Bishop of Atlanta will preach. Clergy will be invited to vest and process. More information will follow in future editions of From the Field.

In February 1823, the three Episcopal congregations in Georgia–Christ Church in Savannah, Saint Paul’s in Augusta, and Christ Church Frederica on St. Simons Island–sent delegates to the first convention of what became the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Georgia. The delegates celebrated the Eucharist and prayed Morning Prayer daily through the February 24-28 meeting.

The delegates to that first convention published an address to Episcopalians scattered across Georgia, “We are aware, brethren, that there are difficulties to be encountered. Your number is small, and the individuals composing that number, are perhaps scattered. But be not disheartened. These obstacles are not insurmountable….However small, then, be your number in each vicinity, let that small number be embodied.”

The Diocese of Georgia held a Centennial Celebration in 1923 with a Eucharist at Saint Paul's in Augusta.

Pictured, the historic first building of Saint Paul's in Augusta.

New Beginnings #59 Staff Application and Participant Registration now open

• When: April February 24-46, 2023
• Who: Youth in Grades 7-9
• Where: Honey Creek!
• Cost: $125 per person

New Beginnings #59, a retreat for youth currently in Grades 7-9, is open for registration. This event is led by older youth, with adult support. In a time of increased anxiety and uncertainty, New Beginnings offers young people a chance to gather at Honey Creek offers young people a chance to step back from their daily lives and reflect on some of the big issues of life, such as Family, Peer Pressure, Friends, and how the Love God has for all of us is unconditional and everlasting. Participant Registration is available here: https://bit.ly/NBParticipants.

Applications to serve on New Beginnings Staff are also available! Any youth who has attended either New Beginnings or Happening is eligible to serve on staff. Serving on staff includes a commitment to attend the entire weekend, and to attend the staff lock-in, which is scheduled for February 4-5, 2023 at St. Anne's in Tifton. The staff application is here: https://bit.ly/NBStaffApplication.

If you would like to serve on the New Beginnings Steering Committee, contact New Beginnings Coordinator Karen Bell at karenbell@lowndes.k12.ga.us.

The Lead Teen for New Beginnings #59 is Jackson Beckham from St. Anne's in Tifton.

Happening #107 Staff Applications open

Happening #107 is on the schedule for March 24-26,2023 at Honey Creek! This event, led by youth for youth in grades 9-12 and offers participants (called candidates) a chance to explore their faith together, and address deep questions of piety, prayer, grace, reality, and more. It is open to any young person in Grades 9-12 who has not yet attended a Happening. Registration for Candidates is available here: https://bit.ly/HappeningParticipants. The event begins on Friday evening and ends with a Closing Eucharist on Sunday afternoon. Bishop Logue will be one of the spiritual directors for this Happening.

Staff applications for those who have previously attended Happening are also open now, and are available here: https://bit.ly/HappeningStaffApplication. More information is also on the Georgia Happening Website: www.georgiahappening.com.

As with all Diocesan Youth Events, we will adhere to the Diocesan policies requiring Covid-19 vaccination and testing in the week prior to the event for all participants and staff. In addition, to allow for some spacing, we are limiting the total number of Candidates and Staff to fifty people.

The Georgia Happening website, georgiahappening.com, is updated and will continue to be updated as we move closer to our Happening date! 

Remember the BEST is yet to come!

E.Y.E. 2023 Interest Form

Episcopal Youth Event (E.Y.E.) is held every three years, but with the pandemic it was rescheduled. Over 1500 youth and adults from all over the United States come together for four days of fun, fellowship, and learning.

The next E.Y.E. will be held July 4-8, 2023. The anticipated cost for the event, including travel, food, and fees, will range between $700-$800. Scholarship assistance is available.

If you are a high school youth or adult advisor who would be interested in learning more, fill out the interest form found here.

For more information or questions, contact Canon Joshua Varner at jvarner@gaepiscopal.org.

Deacon Sue Gahagan Retires

The Rev. Sue Gahagan has retired from serving as a deacon as she moves back to Indiana to be closer to family. Ordained in 2009, she has served since then at the Collegiate Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Savannah. The Very Rev. William Willoughby III said of Gahagan, "Her relentless dedication to the requirements of those in need, whether man, woman or child, puts the whole parish and other parishes in our area in mind of our baptismal duty to attend to those less fortunate, spiritually, physically or emotionally."

Bishop Logue said, "Deacons are icons of the servant ministry that every follower of Jesus is called to in baptism. Deacon Sue's ministry bore fruit not just in her care for the those who would otherwise be lost and left out, but also in how she inspired parishioners to join her in serving others as serving Christ."

An invitation to LGBT hospitality and affirmation

During the Diocesan Convention in November 2022, more than 30 delegates from every convocation met for a lunchtime conversation to discuss how parishes in our diocese can better serve and affirm LGBTQ+ persons in our communities. Facilitated by the Rev. David Rose (St. Luke’s, Rincon) and Eli Irvin (Epiphany, Savannah), there was consensus that while The Episcopal Church welcomes our queer members and neighbors well, there are still opportunities for ongoing affirmation. 

One idea that came out of this conversation was to form a group of parishes, members, and clergy in the diocese to encourage all in the Diocese to take prayerful and decisive action regarding LGBTQ+ persons and the Church. This includes better meeting LGBTQ+ persons where they are, engaging in work to dispel negative and damaging theology, and facilitating healing and reconciliation wherever possible.  All those interested in being a part of such a group are invited to complete the contact form linked below. Information of future events, resources, gatherings, and support will be communicated through this contact list. 

Click here to sign up for more information.

Weaver of Justice, in love and radical hospitality and acceptance, we affirm loudly that our LGBTQ+ siblings are made in your image. Give us such an awareness, we pray, to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as we work for justice, peace, affirmation and Holy listening. Be with us, strengthen us and refresh us as we continue the work of being your hands and feet, seeking to love our queer neighbors and siblings as you intended; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Brother Jimmy Lawrence

As we approach the bicentennial of our founding in 2023, we will share the story of the Diocese of Georgia. This week we remember the life and ministry of the Rev. Dr. James Bolan Lawrence, known to his neighbors as "Brother Jimmy."

No one in Sumter County had encountered a minister like the Rev. Dr. James Bolan Lawrence (1878-1947)—“He smoked, he drank, he liked good stories.” He attended country club dances and made headlines for preaching a sermon in favor of golf on Sunday. 

Gertrude Davenport who knew him well wrote that Lawrence, who was known in the area as “Brother Jimmy” was handsome, well-bred and scholarly. Lawrence, who grew up in the family of a patriarch of St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta, Georgia, was known for his love of “good food, good drink, good tobacco, good music, good clothes.” He read Homer and Virgil in their original Greek and Latin and to study laboriously to craft sermons “expressed in such beautiful language” that his friend noted were nonetheless “rarely were stimulating.”

Davenport recalls how though he was often ignored, laughed at and publicly made fun of, Dr. Lawrence persevered. He tirelessly worked to live out the Gospel. He carried the sick to hospitals, helped rehabilitate alcoholics, assisted boys and girls to get an education while teaching others himself. Little by little, she wrote, this county seat town observed the odd man with his collar on backwards helping people “high and low, rich and poor, young and old good and bad, black and white, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant.” He was versed in Greek, Latin and French, but he was never heard talking down to anyone. Too old to fight in World War I, he went into the YMCA and served near the front just the same. He returned from the war to take back up his steadfast example of trying to follow Christ.

Besides seeing significant growth in the membership at Calvary in Americus, he founded churches in Pennington (the log chapel is now in Andersonville), in Vienna, in Cordele, Blakely, Cuthbert, Dawson, and Benevolence. He would get on the train, and go to the next stop, get off and gather people to hear the Gospel. 

In 1947 when Mr. Lawrence retired from active service, Bishop Barnwell commented on the Archdeacon's forty-three years of faithful duty: “So far as my knowledge of the record goes, this is the longest period of service rendered by any man in the history of the Diocese.” He added, “Dr. Lawrence is still a missionary.”

When he died, he was laid to rest beside the log church of St. James. The mile-long funeral procession followed his casket, many on foot the 13 miles from church to church. Davenport shared that he had not gained hard-earned respect with noble church building efforts any more than through eloquent preaching. The people in Americus and the towns all around it loved Brother Jimmy Lawrence for his example of “kindness, selflessness, and utter goodness.” Bishop Henry I. Louttit, Jr. named him a Saint of Georgia in 1999 and established a local feast of September 3.

Pictured: Brother Jimmy Lawrence when serving in World War I with the YMCA and in his study in America. The bottom photo is of St. James' Church, where Lawrence is buried, in the town of Andersonville.

Feast of Feasts online

The Diocese of Georgia is offering daily devotions written by Bishop Frank and Victoria Logue for a 7-week study from Advent through Epiphany. The short daily readings use the lens of Franciscan ideals including humility, simplicity, and peace as a focal point of each week. This will be perfect to enjoy as a solo study, a small group, or as an offering for the whole congregation. The devotions are posted online daily on our website and social media channels.

Advent 2 has been added, and Advent 3 will go up Sunday morning.

You can find each week's devotions, as well as the accompanying video for the week, on our website. Click on the day of the devotion, and it will expand with the day's reading.

You can find additional ways to acquire the full PDF online or the book on our website here.

St. Nick made a special visit to Christ Church in Valdosta.

Mary Margaret Lemburg (in the front of. the line) takes part in the Festival of Lessons and Carols in All Saints' Chapel at Sewanee. The daughter of the Revs. Melanie and David Lemburg, she is in her first year as an undergraduate at the University of the South.

The Rev. David Rose celebrates the Holy Eucharist with children gathered with him at the altar at St. Luke's in Rincon.

The Rev. Larry Jesion (at center) hosted the Burke County Pastors breakfast at St Michael's in Waynesboro.

St John’s in Savannah is presenting an outdoor art exhibition entitled “Dawn on our Darkness: The Hidden Life of Jesus from the Annunciation to the Epiphany,” featuring artworks by Ivanka Demchuk of Lviv, Ukraine. The exhibit draws in residents and tourist alike to contemplate the season.

The youth group of St. Thomas in Thomasville enjoyed baking and decorating cookies in the church's kitchen.

Christ Church in Dublin is ready for their town's Jingle and Mingle with this cookie decorating table. They held a church open house and an encore Christmas Bazaar at the same time to invite their community into the church.

Parishioners of St. George's in Savannah decorated the tree with Chrismons on the Second Sunday of Advent (at left) as the acolytes lead the procession out into the world at Christ Church in Savannah.

St. Paul's in Albany hosted the Albany State University Concert Chorale, directed by Dr. Marcia Hood.

If you would like to have your submission considered for From the Field, it needs to be sent to Communications Manager Liz Williams (lwilliams@gaepiscopal.org) by noon on Tuesday.

Our one-year prayer cycle combines prayers for every congregation in the Diocese of Georgia with prayers for our ecumenical partners and for our Companion Diocese of The Dominican Republic.  

The 2022 one year prayer cycle is online here: 2022 Prayer Cycle.     

December 4 - 10

In our diocesan cycle of prayer, we pray for our congregation in Woodbine, St. Mark’s. We also pray for our ecumenical partners, especially the Catholic congregations of Holy Family in Metter and St. Bernadette in Millen. In our companion diocese of the Dominican Republic, we pray for the congregations in Santo Domingo, especially Holy Trinity (Santísma Trinidad).

December 11 - 17

In our diocesan cycle of prayer, we pray for Diocesan Youth Programs and our Episcopal Campus Ministries at Augusta, Valdosta State, and Georgia Southern Universities. We also pray for our ecumenical partners, especially those in Springfield—St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and St. Boniface Catholic Church. In our companion diocese of the Dominican Republic, we pray for Jesus the Teacher (Jesús Maestro) in Tamboril. 

Newly Revised 31-Day Prayer Cycles

We also offer 30-day prayer cycles for those who wish to pray daily for the clergy and clergy spouses: Diocesan Prayer Cycle and Clergy Spouses Prayer Cycle. (Updated 11/30/2022)

Bishop Logue will make his visitation to St. Alban's, Augusta and Atonement, Augusta on Sunday.

To view Bishop Logue's full visitation calendar, click here. (Updated for 2023 - 8/30/2022)

Picture: The Rev. Canon Loren Lasch presided and preached on Sunday at St. Luke's in Rincon.

Canon Lasch and Bishop Logue will be at the Postulancy Retreat at Honey Creek on Friday and Saturday. They will also meet with Diocesan Council on Thursday evening via Zoom.

Executive Assistant to the Bishop Maggie Lyons and Canon Katie Easterlin are on maternity leave.

Communications Manager Liz Williams will be on vacation December 6-12.

The best way to reach a staff member is via email as we will always get back with you promptly in many cases and in 24-72 hours when working on more pressing matters. Staff e-mails can be found here with a list of responsibilities so you know who to contact for what.

You may also reach diocesan staff by phone at (912) 236-4279.

The congregation gathers on the lawn at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Augusta for their tree lighting by candlelight, a sure sign of Advent.