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Deacon Karulynn Koelliker works with Chris Holmes on an exercise in finding different perspectives, as the Clergy Conference participants went outside for a demonstration.
Spring Clergy Conference
Learning the Coach Approach
Learning and practicing a new tool for the ministry tool belt provided the focus for the Spring Clergy Conference held at Honey Creek from Sunday through Tuesday.
 The Revs. Chris Holmes and Walter Hobgood taught coaching skills to the gathered clergy. In contrast to a therapeutic or mentoring model, coaching works from the goals of the person being coached. The key steps clergy learned are 1) Stay fully present, 2) Deeply listen, 3) Ask powerful questions, 4) Expand possibilities. These four steps then coalesce around specific goals. Each session using the coach approach ends with an action plan in which the person being coached names when they want to be held accountable for next steps. Clergy not only heard presentations on coaching but also spent significant amounts of the training time practicing coaching skills with one another.
 Like all clergy conferences, worship grounded time together in scripture, prayer, and singing. The Rev. Hunt Priest, Rector of St. Peter's Savannah preached for the Monday morning Eucharist and on Tuesday the Rev. Jim Said, Rector of St. Augustine's Augusta preached.
Tuesday afternoon concluded with a presentation from the Church Pension Group, who sent two representatives to walk clergy through changes to the pension. These changes are largely designed to simplify the options while providing greater benefits to part time, bi-vocational, and later in life vocations to the priesthood.
The Fall Clergy Conference will be held September 17-19, when Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will meet with the clergy. Registration for that conference is already open at www.honeycreek.org
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ECW Gathers in Bainbridge
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ECW President Beth Mithen |
Each year all the women of the Diocese of Georgia are invited to a retreat. This year was special because The Order of the Daughters of the King® joined their resources with the ECW for the enrichment of both organizations. It was a very positive experience.
The talented women of St. John's, Bainbridge hosted the retreat which was expanded to two days with activities that ranged from crafts, workshops, a fun run and yoga.
The Friday night banquet, an elegant dinner of local foods, was highlighted by reports from many teams throughout Georgia and the Companion Diocese in the Dominican Republic. Julia and Julius Ariail were the guest speakers, sharing about the Dominican Republic, and Bishop Benhase's talk provided hope and inspiration.
A business meeting, additional workshops on the basics of ECW, The Order of the Daughters of the King, more crafts, and an awe-inspiring spiritual workshop by the Rev. June Johnson were offered on Saturday.
The group gathered in St. John's for Holy Eucharist with Bishop Benhase celebrating. Each year the host church/convocation designates a local charity to receive the offering. This year the offering was named The Carolyn Riley Baker Memorial Outreach Offering in honor of the Past-President and it went to the local women's shelter.
Next year's r
etreat will be held April 27-28th at St. Patrick's, Albany.
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Diocesan Community Update
 The Diocese mourns the loss of Dr. Luther Rice Mills IV, who died on May 1, in Hospice at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, North Carolina. Luther is the husband of the Rev. Nancy Mills, a retired priest of the Diocese of Georgia, who most recently served at Good Shepherd Thomasville. He married Nancy Thompson Mills in 1980, a painter and later an Episcopal Priest. He was Chief of Surgical Pathology at VAMC, Augusta, GA and Faculty Professor at the MCG Department of Pathology where he was awarded Professor Emeritus on retirement in 1997. They moved to the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in 2012. Memorial Eucharist will be held at St. Giles Chapel on Saturday, May 6 at 11:00 AM.
The Rector and Vestry of St. Augustine of Canterbury Augusta announce the call of Amy Bradley to serve as a Lay Curate. Bradley grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, and lived in Mobile, Alabama, for twelve years before moving to North Carolina in 2014 to enter into the Master of Divinity program at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. She will graduate in May 2017. During her time in North Carolina, she has served at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Durham. She also served as a chaplain intern at UNC Hospital. She has worked with children's and youth programs, teaching Godly Play, assisting with youth programming, and assisting with children's choir programs. Before beginning her studies at Duke, Bradley worked as an English teacher at the high school and middle school levels and as a reading instructor. She is married to her high school sweetheart, John. They have one daughter, Alice, and a cat named Joaquín. Bradley begins her ministry with at St. Augustine's on July 23.
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United Thank Offering Ingathering
 The Spring In-Gathering for the United Thank Offering (UTO) is collected around Ascension each year; in 2017 those Sundays are May 21 and May 28. Please consider prayerfully your donations to UTO this year. Send in-gatherings by June 15th to Suzanne Harrow 2508 Sheraton Drive, Augusta, GA 30906.
"The Diocese has applied for another grant this year and we are waiting to hear the results of the grant committee," said Mrs. Harrow. "
The Honey Creek grant is going well and the Creation Care Committee is pleased with what has been accomplished to this point."
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Sign Up Today!
Hometown Missions, our usual diocesan outreach weekend is expanding beyond just a  weekend this year! Hometown Missions will take place Sunday, June 4 through Wednesday June 7 in Albany, Georgia. Diocesan Youth will come together with adults from the Albany Congregations to offer a Vacation-Bible-School-themed event for the children in the area around St. John's and St. Mark's, Albany. This area was one of the hardest hit in the tornados of the winter and spring, and there are very few activities for area children this summer since resources have had to be diverted to the clean-up and rebuilding efforts.
Youth who are currently in Grades 8-12 are encouraged to come to Albany to help work with these children, and to make a difference in their lives! Youth will lead children throughout each day's activities, will spend parts of each evening preparing for the next day, and of course will take time to play and sing and spend time together!
Youth are asked to arrive in the afternoon on Sunday, June 4, and will need to be picked up on Wednesday, June 7, also in the afternoon. We will be sleeping at St. John's and St. Mark's, so youth will need to bring sleeping bags, pillows, and sleeping pads (optional) in addition to their usual packing.
The total cost for this four day event is just $90. Scholarships are available upon request. If you will be seeking a scholarship, please register and pay the deposit only and then contact Joshua Varner at [email protected] To register, go
here.
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The Diocese of Georgia's Episcopal Youth and Children's Services (EYCS) awards numerous college scholarships each year. If you, or someone you know, is heading to college from the Diocese, please share information about this program. We are also asking that parishes download the bulletin insert available here and the flyer here to distribute and post. For more information, go here
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May 11th Deadline for Comments on Updates to Canons
T
he proposed changes to the Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia are out for comment until Thursday, May 11th. At its May 12th meeting,
Diocesan Council will consider feedback and amend the proposed changes as needed. Have you provided feedback yet? Please go here to do so.
For an Executive Summary of the proposed changes, the full canons with the proposed changes shown in color, and a chart showing the current delegates to convention compared to the proposed representation, go here.
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Join the Creation Care Commission for Work at Honey Creek
On May 13-14, the Creation Care Commission will hold a work weekend at Honey Creek to continue improvements to the Ecology Center and develop "green" projects around the campus. Projects will include installing a rain barrel, painting, cleaning/organizing, rebuilding compost bins, light woodworking, and possibly starting work on a composting outhouse. Helpers enjoy complimentary lodging, and the group prepares meals and worships together. Also, the CCC still seeks the following furnishings for the Ecology Center "retreat room": futon/sleeper couch, coffee table, bookshelves, and a tall work table/bar. If you would like to pitch in for all or part of the work weekend, or you have furniture to donate, contact Deacon Leeann Culbreath at
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David Kirby, Bill Querin and Linda Lowery celebrate the installation of a rain barrel. At right, Laura Evans cleans the screened porch of the Ecology Center.
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Bold Liturgies Offer Leaven for Our Communities
In January, I was glad to be asked to teach at Kanuga's Church Leadership Conference along with Rachel Held Evans, whose book
Searching for Sunday was the Lenten study for the Diocese last year. Rachel advocated for keeping the church weird. As she put it, "You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality."
Taking the Passion to the Streets
 I think we are better served by doing liturgies that are authentic, but in ways that don't try to tame the counter-cultural nature of our words and actions. On Good Friday, my wife, Victoria, and I processed around Madison Square in Savannah's Historic District as a part of the Stations of the Cross. Police shut down Abercorn Street as we moved from stations to station, genuflecting in the street. The Rev. Craig O'Brien loudly proclaimed, "We adore thee, O Christ, and we bless thee," as we perched on one knee and then responded, "Because by thy holy Cross thou hast redeemed the world." As we made our way through the public devotions, some tourists took pictures, a few joined in and found themselves with us in the church as the liturgy ended. This is the sort of action my friend Scott Gunn encouraged in a blog post
Holy Week: Kick it up a notch!
Go Weird or Go Home
As Jonathan Mitchican writes in a post for
The Living Church,
Evangelism of the Weird, even "something as simple as making the sign of the cross in a public space, offering a blessing over a meal" can stand out. In that article, he concludes, "Go weird or go home." While we shouldn't try to be strange for the sake of standing out, we should be bold in keeping to traditions that have long nurtured Christians, even if they might seem out of step with the times.
Praying Beside a Dumpster
 In starting King of Peace, Kingsland, I found that teaching spiritual practices and using the fullness of the prayer book was refreshing to young families looking for a place to raise their children in the faith. There is nothing quite so memorable as lighting new fire in the darkness for the Easter Vigil or body proclaiming "Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia" at the graveside of a loved one. One May night, a young woman's body was left in a dumpster at an apartment complex in St. Marys. I somewhat hastily organized a vigil two nights later. More than 100 people turned out to sing by candlelight alongside that dumpster (
see photo below) as we prayed for the girl, her family, and our community.
Yes, we want to stay true to our Episcopal tradition, but that would not tame the strangeness of our liturgical actions. With Easter behind us, we look toward the fall, Advent, and beyond. How might your congregation create liturgies that are bit bolder? Can your liturgies become leaven for your community?
Frank
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary
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Bishop Benhase made his annual visitation to Christ Church Frederica on Sunday. He blessed the new furnishings for the Parish Hall worship service, welcomed a new member to the church, Skip Slocum, and blessed the icons from an Icon Writing Workshop. Above, front row, from left: Susan Shipman, Annabelle Salter, Ed Rowley, The Rev. Becky Rowell, Sarah Taylor, Skip Slocum;
back row, from left: Anne Jones, the Rev. Tom Purdy, Toni Rowley, Jane Thau, the Right Rev. Bishop Scott Benhase, Jackie Turbidy, the Rev. Deacon Jim Wethern, David Blatchford.
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Share your news in From the Field
Send your news, events and photos to
so we can feature them in upcoming issues of From the Field. Deadline for submissions each week is Monday at 4:30 PM.
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Prayers for Weekly Liturgies
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 52 weekly prayers are available in one document
found here.
April 30-May 6
In our diocesan cycle of prayer, we pray for our congregation in Harlem, Trinity, and Catholic churches in Cuthbert and Donalsonville-St. Luke's and the Church of the Incarnation. In our companion diocese of the Dominican Republic, we pray for
Monte de la Transfiguración (Mount of the Transfiguration Church) in Jarabacoa.
May 7-13
In our diocesan cycle of prayer, we pray for our congregation in Hawkinsville, St. Luke's. We also pray for our ecumenical partners, especially St. Mark's Catholic Church in Eastman. In our companion diocese of the Dominican Republic, we pray for the congregations in Jimaní,
San Ignacio (St. Ignatius),
San Pablo Apóstol (St. Peter the Apostle), and
San Tito (St. Titus).
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Diocesan Office Update and News
Bishop Benhase will make his annual visitations to St. Peter's Savannah at 10 AM and St. Luke's Rincon at 4 PM this Sunday. The Bishop's full schedule is available
here.
Canon Logue will be in Memphis, Tennessee, this Sunday through Tuesday as he meets with his colleagues from the 19 other dioceses in the southeastern United States.
The
Rev. Hunt Priest, Rector of St. Peter's Savannah, will officiate at the noon service Thursday to be held at St. George's Chapel, Diocesan House.
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Testing Out the Ecology Center at Honey Creek
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A group of young parishoners from St. Thomas' Isle of Hope traveled to Honey Creek Retreat Center to test out the Ecology Center. It received a stamp of approval!
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Diocese of Georgia Finance Committee
Thursday, May 4
1 PM at Diocesan House
Ordinations, May 13, 10:30 AM
The Rev. Dcn. Terri Walker Degenhardt and the Rev. Dcn. Lawrence Michael Jesion
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Augusta, Georgia
Trainings for Vestries, Administrators and Communicators, May 14
Postponed until the Fall.
Honey Creek Conference Center
Contact Diocesan EfM Coordinator Misty Graham at 352-281-6805 or
[email protected] for more information here.
Evangelism Training
Saturday, June 24 from 1-4 pm
St. Peter's Episcopal Church
3 West Ridge Road, Savannah, GA 31411
Register
here.
Evangelism Training
Sunday, June 25 from 1-4 pm
St. Anne's Episcopal Church
2411 Central Ave. N., Tifton, GA 31794
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