October 28 - Feast of St.Simon & St.Jude
Grant, O God, that as your apostles Simon and Jude were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Bishop's Letter
October 26, 2022
Dear People of the Diocese of Kootenay,
Greetings in the name of Christ, who is our Peace, our Reconciler, our Guide.
This past week was our Clergy Conference at Sorrento Centre. Tuesday and Wednesday featured guest presenter Rev. Heidi Neumark, a Lutheran Pastor from the Bronx. You can learn more about her ministry
HERE. Her work has been to help small congregations to go out their church doors to find the needs in their own neighbourhoods, to go out and listen, go out and see needs in the community.
Pastor Neumark asked us great questions for our small group discussions, questions such as “What makes your congregation queasy but might be a sign of new life?” “In your context, who are outsiders?” “Who would you say your congregation doesn’t see because they are facing away from them?” “What are limits to mission?” There was lots of energy in the small group discussions.
Pastor Neumark spoke with humour and humility, sharing lively biblical metaphors as well as hope-filled and encouraging stories from her experience.
Thursday morning our speaker was Michael Harvey, working on being welcoming communities, creating space for God’s transforming work.
Thursday afternoon we had our “Greater Clericus” meeting. Some of our new congregational leaders had never met each other except on zoom; it was good to have a full discussion of issues.
It was wonderful to be in person at Sorrento, to worship together, to eat together, to walk together, to build community amongst colleagues for support in this challenging time in the Church. As you pray for your congregational leaders, you might ask them what was a highlight or learning for them at the conference.
Thank you to conference organizers Rev. Canon Andrea Brennan, Rev. John Boyd, and all those who helped make the conference a success.
This week I am at a retreat centre in Niagara Falls with the Canadian House of Bishops. Our work this week includes: follow up from our work at Lambeth, “bringing home” the Lambeth Calls to the Church; Indigenous bishops catching us up on the work of the Sacred Circle, Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples and the process for selection of the next National Indigenous Archbishop; reports from the World Council of Church; preparation for General Synod in July 2023. We have lots of conversations about the post-covid challenges of declining attendance, hybrid worship, declining finances, clergy shortages, shared concerns across the country. Tomorrow we spend the day with Mandy Marshall, Director for Gender Justice for the Anglican Communion (she spoke at Lambeth), as we continue our work to create a safer Church.
Like clergy conference, I find these days of worship, bible study, and discussion with colleagues in the House of Bishops to be challenging, invigorating and encouraging in our shared work of leadership in God’s Church for God’s mission.
I look forward to being back in the Diocese next week.
Blessings.
Yours in Christ,
+Lynne
(Above) Bishop Lynne captured a rainbow over Niagara Falls as she took a walk between sessions at the National House of Bishops conference this week. Below are a few snapshots from Clergy Conference last week.