One of the best parts of being on Diocesan Staff is that we we get to travel around this very pleasant peninsula to connect with people, parishes, and communities. AND, even when we are in our offices and not on the road, we still get to do cool and meaningful work to support Episcopal ministries in our diocese.
Nurya Parish, Canon for the Northern Collaborative, Creation Care, and Beloved Community
A wonderful Sunday at St. James Episcopal Church in Pentwater! We celebrated the retirement of Fr. Sam Morrison and announced the new call of Fr. David Blank. A full church and a great morning!
Tracie Little, Canon for the Southern Collaborative and Adult Formation
“Answering God’s Call in a Weary World”. The Opening Retreat for the Academy for Vocational Leadership was a wonderful opportunity to explore spiritual tools for congregations to listen to God and imbed the work of discernment, awareness and reflection into our DNA. What a Spirit-filled and amazing weekend this was. Rich conversation, deep listening, learning spiritual tools, sharing prayer. Thank you to Aneya and April from the Iona Collaborative for facilitating and to all who participated. I’m looking forward to seeing where God leads us through this deep soul work!
Rachel Rose, Director of Communications
I’m not sure there’s ever a “not-busy” season in church life, but I can tell you that, for diocesan staff, the time between midsummer and Convention is the busiest of busy seasons. I’m grateful that my work this week had me working on a lot of different aspects of our life together as a diocese, reminding me that just as we’re all at work, God is evenmoreso at work among us!
My week started with Alan, our Interim Executive Officer, and Molly, our Standing Committee President. They braved the less-than-ideal air as Canadian wildfire smoke lingered over the Grand Rapids area and they braved the scorching sun to meet me on the banks of the Grand River and record several videos that we’re prepping to be released August 26 – 29. Stay tuned!
Tuesday sent many of us over to Saginaw for site visits at Horizons Convention Center and First Presbyterian church for walkthroughs of our Convention locations. Convention planning is a lot of work and it’s really kicking into high gear. It was not only helpful to work with our site hosts to expedite our logistics work, but it was really lovely to be in the spaces where hundreds of us will gather in just a couple of months to pray, connect, and make important decisions regarding our shared life of ministry in Christ.
On Wednesday, several of our part time staff members joined in our weekly Program Team meeting. I’m so grateful to work with such thoughtful and faithful people!
Saturday brought many diocesan leaders together for the August Diocesan Council meeting. St. John’s in Midland was, once again, very hospitable. Although Diocesan Staff don’t vote at Diocesan Council meetings, I am always glad to attend to hear how our elected leaders make so many – often complicated – decisions for financially supporting our ministry in this Pleasant Peninsula. I had to listen to the second half of the Council meeting as I drove to the very northern edge of our diocese to meet up with my co-worker Jess Kidder, our Program Manager for Holy Ground for Whole Communities. On Saturday evening and Sunday, we shot a lot of video content to prepare for introducing this incredible grant program to the diocese after Labor Day. On my way home on Saturday, I meandered a bit to get B-Roll of the exteriors of a couple of our diocesan parishes.
I didn’t get a lot of photos this week, but I was especially grateful for Jess sneaking this photo of me at work. We had the immense pleasure of watching a magnificent storm roll through the straits over Lake Huron and I captured a timelapse of the movement of the clouds and water. Getting B-Roll of the beautiful natural surroundings for our video was definitely a “I-can’t-believe-this-is-actually-my-job” moment!
