Laity Lead the Way in Southeast Convocation
Worship, prayer, planning and fellowship. These are the ingredients that some 200 to 250 fellow Common Cause Anglicans from a dozen southeastern states will combine to create a binding relationship in joint mission and ministry among partnership congregations throughout the region. The three-day conference is scheduled for April 17–19 at Holy Cross Anglican Church in Logansville, GA., about 30 miles east of Atlanta.
Anglican Communion Network and Common Cause moderator Bishop Robert Duncan will be keynote speaker at the event’s Thursday evening opening session. Bishop Duncan will present participants with the broad vision of the Common Cause Partnership, while Jenny Noyes, Anglican Communion Network Director of Evangelism, will follow with testimonies about the growing number of cooperative grass roots initiatives that are forming across the country among Common Cause Anglicans.
Friday’s morning session will feature Bishops Alex Dickson, John Rodgers, and David Anderson, Bishop-designate William Ilgenfritz and other Common Cause leaders in a panel discussion on God’s work being accomplished through the gathering – or “clustering” – of Anglican congregations all over the United States. Following the discussion, attendees will have a number of smaller “breakout” sessions to choose from for refining or expanding on ideas generated by the panel discussion. These sessions are expected to include: renewal ministries, youth and children’s ministries, summer camp ministries, Daughters of the King, Order of St. Luke, Order of St. Andrew. According to one of the conference organizers, the Rev. Lynne Ashmead, “the workshops and networking time will equip participants with ministry tools to help them play their role in rebuilding God’s Kingdom through vibrant Anglican churches.” Ashmead emphasized that “the conference itself is already a visible sign of vibrancy among the laity” because of their taking the initiative to hold the conference.
Veteran church-planter, the Rev. Tom Herrick, will lead a pre-conference seminar on Thursday. Herrick is the National Director for Church Planting for the Anglican Communion Network, and Executive Director of the Titus Institute of Church Planting. His Church Planting Foundations Seminar will lead attendees through a series of teachings and guided group exercises that will prepare them to discern God’s vision for their church, articulate their congregation’s core values, focus their church’s mission to achieve that vision, design a ministry plan to carry out that mission, and learn a strategic planning process for establishing realistic goals and objectives necessary for evaluating and modifying planting efforts. This seminar will also be a valuable tool for guiding new churches in developing congregational unity and growth.
Speaking of the coming event, Southeast Convocation Dean, the Rev. Jim McCaslin, noted that “This is really exciting stuff, lay people, led by the Holy Spirit, coming together to strengthen and multiply their efforts in living out the Gospel.” McCaslin pointed to other efforts around the country where fellow Anglicans, whatever their Common Cause affiliation, are joining in mission and ministry, heeding, McCaslin said, “the call of God” to rebuild His church from the bottom up. McCaslin added that this working together in mission and ministry is fulfilling “God’s Cause that He gave us in Common to take the saving Good News of Jesus to a lost and hurting world.”
McCaslin predicted that the conference will “yield practical, fresh initiatives through cross-fertilization of ideas that will in turn lead to new, closer levels of fellowship.” (He expects many of the concepts developed at the conference to be published for reference by all members of the Common Cause Partnership.) This true partnering he sees “empowering the laity through the Spirit to perform real mission and ministry together.” “Look around,” he said, “see what God is doing!”
Additional conference details and registration information are available at: www.regonline.com/195695.