An Opportunity for Ministry Revitalization Training

On July 6th at 5 o’clock Eastern time, ministry redevelopers from around the Episcopal Church will come together in a videoconference, online. They will spend 90 minutes rolling out a new coaching initiative for Intentional Redevelopers across the Episcopal Church. All ministry leaders (lay and ordained) who would be blessed to have this support should join in. (For more information or to join in click here: http://bit.ly/jAGh8l )

Several preeminent redevelopers have banded together to demonstrate what works in turning congregations around, in real time. This Community of Practice would like to connect with the intentional redevelopers across the church and share the learnings, directly.

The initiative is called “missio:engage” and the goal (stage one) is to assist communities of faith in the process of re-rooting their ministries in the communities they are called to serve, with enough critical mass “back home” that this initiative is sustainable and avoids “burnout.” This is part of a Community of Practice that is committed to learning publicly in the service of the Episcopal Church at large.

How will it work?

Over a period of sixty days, Tom Brackett will work with a team of coaches to train a core group of leaders in each participant parish. Each member of the team will be dedicated to this ministry, alone. Over the following two years, that core group will learn how to offer radical welcome to newcomers in their community, move visitors from being newcomers to fully-formed leaders, reconnect with the realities emerging in the communities they are called to serve and offer relevant outreach that offers God’s grace in ways meaningful to their communities. By the end of the two year period, each of the members of the group will have identified, trained and nurtured their replacement.

The Measurable outcomes:

• Transformed and outwardly-turned faith community.

• Multiple streams of newcomers and visitors from the surrounding communities.

• A developed and refined process of incorporation leading to a Strengths-based approach to ministry formation for all.

• Core leadership development on multiple levels.

• critical mass necessary to engage in sustainable missional ministries.

• A real-time, on the ground reconnection (or “re-rooting”) in the ministry context.

The Assumptions:

• This is a covenanted two year ministry adventure. It is specifically focused on the systematic redevelopment of parish ministries that have struggled with decline.

• Each site has a Team of five, led by lay leader. This team does not include the Rector.

• Each team member can expect to spend about four hrs/week on this ministry.

• Each site will enter into a covenant with each other, with their Vestry/Bishop’s Committee, with their Rector/PiC as well as with Reverend Tom Brackett to learn together and practice what has been proven to work in this venture.

• Each site will also share their learnings and discoveries with the church at large via a dedicated website. There will be many others joining us in this venture. They will not have entered into these covenants but they will learn simultaneously with us and from these ministry case studies.

• Each site pays the expenses on their end. The cost of participating in this coaching initiative is born by my portion of the Episcopal Church Center’s budget .

For more information or to join in click here: http://bit.ly/jAGh8l

Prayers for the Bishop Search and Transition Process

Here are a few prayers written by the Rev. Jennifer Phillips to focus and guide us all through the search process. Check out the prayers page of  www.episcopalrisearch.org for more as the process progresses

For the Search & Nomination Committee and Transition Committee

God our Wisdom and Light:
you alone have power to bring blessing out of all our choices
and to use all our actions for the building up of your reign;
be with us as we take council for the future,
turn our hearts always toward the common good,
guide us in raising up and welcoming new leadership for our diocese
and help us to discern the presence of Christ in our midst always,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God living and true. Amen.

Prayer for the Calling of a Bishop for Rhode Island

Gracious God who sets the seas in their bounds and gives life to all your creatures,
who continually renews the face of the earth and is faithful to your covenant from generation to generation:
Lift up and guide the people of the Diocese of Rhode Island as we seek the next bishop to lead us;
renew our strength in the baptismal ministries to which you call us;
watch over and inspire the work of the committees entrusted with this task;
and, by the power of your Spirit, draw your people always toward the vision of your holy reign;
we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

Brief bidding for the Prayers of the People

I ask your prayers for all those who labor to seek the next bishop for our diocese; and that in this discernment process, we all may be strengthened in our discipleship in Christ, who has given us the ministry of reconciliation and in whom alone we rest our hope …

Prayer for the work of a the Search & Nomination Committee

God our Wisdom:
may we listen for and hear your voice among the many voices;
may we choose prudently, imagine boldly, and pray continually;
may we be strengthened by our companionship with one another,
and by your presence along the way;
and, trusting always in your goodness and mercy,
seek in all things to give you honor and glory,
for you are one God in Trinity of Persons and Unity of Being,
to the ages of ages. Amen.

The Latest eRISEN events newsletter- June 17th 2011

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN June 17th 2011 issue

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The latest RISEN Magazine "Transitions: Looking Forward"

The latest issue of RISEN, "Transitions: Looking Forward" has been printed and mailed so keep an eye on your mailboxes. Can't wait? you can view it in a fun e-book gadget at the bottom of this page or on our website

RISEN Magazine is The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island's award winning News and special interest magazine.  Each issue of RISEN centers on a timely theme and features articles that aim to inform, enlighten and inspire. It is published quarterly and has a circulation of around 9,000 with an estimated readership of 23,000.

Don't see the ebook loading below? Read RISEN on our website instead

Bishop Search Process: Committees are now in Place

For more updates visit http://www.episcopalrisearch.org/

The Search & Nomination Committee and Transition Committee now are in place for the process to elect the next bishop of Rhode Island. The committees began their work June 3-4 at a retreat hosted by St. Mary’s, Portsmouth. Click here to read about how the retreat went.

Lora MacFall, a member of St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in Little Compton, will chair the Search & Nomination Committee, which will develop a profile to describe our diocese, solicit nominations for bishop, screen nominees and then present final names to the electing convention.

Cathy Iacobucci, a member of Grace Church in Providence, will chair the Transition Committee, which will ensure that we celebrate the ministry of our current bishop, plan our new bishop’s ordination celebration and arrange a warm welcome for our new bishop to begin the next chapter of our ministry together.

The Standing Committee and Diocesan Council will commission the committees at the June 3-4 retreat. The committees will begin their work with the help of a consultant, Judy Stark. Judy has consulted in three other bishop search processes and co-chaired the Bishop Coadjutor Search Committee for the Diocese of Southwest Florida. She has served three terms on the Diocesan Council and has been elected as a deputy to the 2012 General Convention.

Additionally, the Rev. Mary Johnstone and Julia Slayton, executive director of Bethany House of Prayer, located in Arlington, Mass., will serve as a chaplain team to help guide the committees through the search, election, and consecration process.

Other lay members of the Search & Nomination Committee are Steve Bucci, St. Peters-by-the-Sea, Narragansett; John Gilmartin, Trinity, Newport; Mary Hafey, St. Thomas, Alton; Leon Sibielski, Ascension, Cranston; Ellen Vadney, Emmanuel, Newport; and Bill Warburton, St. Paul’s, Wickford. An additional member will be named later.

Clergy members of the Search & Nomination Committee are the Rev. John Alexander, St. Stephen’s, Providence; the Rev. Robert Brooks, retired; the Rev. Deacon Buck Close, St. George’s, Central Falls; the Rev. Canon Jonathan Huyck, Grace Church, Providence; the Rev. Mercedes Julian, Ascension, Cranston; the Rev. Pam Mott, St. Mary’s, Portsmouth; the Rev. Sandra Haines-Murdocco, retired; the Rev. Ann Marie Richards, Trinity, Newport; and the Rev. Melody Shobe.

Other lay members of the Transition Committee are Linda Mendonca, Emmanuel, Cumberland; Bill Plumb, Trinity, Cranston; and Grace Swinski, St. Paul’s, Pawtucket.

Clergy serving on the Transition Committee are the Rev. Deacon Dorothy (Ricky) Brightman, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich; the Rev. James Frink, retired; the Rev. Deacon John Higginbotham, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich; the Rev. Casey Shobe, St. Peter’s by-the-Sea, Narragansett; and the Rev. Veronica Tierney, St. George’s School, Middletown.

The Latest eRISEN- June 1st 2011

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN June 1st 2011 issue

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RI Priest Named New Executive Director of Forward Movement

The Rev. Scott Gunn will lead Forward Movement Publications in its mission to “reinvigorate the life of the church.”

Gunn, a priest of the Diocese of Rhode Island, has been named by the Board of Directors and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the new executive director of Forward Movement, the publisher of Forward Day by Day meditations as well as books and pamphlets about spirituality and The Episcopal Church. He begins his ministry with the Cincinnati-based Forward Movement in late July.

“Our church is at a critical and thrilling point as we seek to find our way forward in the 21st century,” said Gunn. “Forward Movement is positioned well to be a leader in proclaiming the Gospel that is at our core.”

With a worldwide circulation of more than 300,000 subscribers, Forward Day by Day will continue to play a central role at Forward Movement. At the same time, Gunn will lead the agency in the exploration of new content—and new methods of delivery—both to support current readers and to attract new audiences.

“We will continue to offer our dedicated readers the materials which nourish them, while expanding our audience through new kinds of content delivered in new ways,” Gunn said. Active both on the local and church-wide level, Gunn served two congregations in the Diocese of Rhode Island as well as in leadership positions on Diocesan Council and as deputy to the 2009 General Convention. He is a member of Episcopal Communicators and the Episcopal News Service Advisory Committee and an active blogger (http://www.sevenwholedays.org/).

Prior to his ordination, he worked for several technology and communication companies, including the Atlantic Monthly and the MIT Media Lab. He also holds degrees from Brown University and Yale Divinity School.

“We welcome Fr. Gunn as he joins the work of leading Forward Movement into the next chapter of its ministry,” said Jefferts Schori.
As Gunn takes the helm of the 76-year-old institution, he is looking to current subscribers and prospective readers to dream with him about how Forward Movement can better “tell the story of God’s work among us in way that our world can hear the Gospel.” Send him your ideas and dreams—for content and for new ways to deliver these stories E-mail him at sgunn@forwarddaybyday.com . To learn more about Forward Movement and its work, visit http://www.forwardmovement.org/ .