Why Diocesan Convention is so important:
+Tom’s top ten reasons
by the Right Reverent Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Mountain Echo
October 2006

Diocesan Convention is just around the corner. It hardly seems possible, but this will be my sixth convention as your bishop. Call me crazy, but I look forward to our Diocesan Convention. This edition of the Mountain Echo is filled with information about this year’s convention, and I encourage you to inform yourself about the annual gathering of congregational and diocesan leaders.

People seem to like to make top ten lists about many things these days, so I thought I would put together such a list about Diocesan Convention and why I think it is so important for the life of a diocese.

10 You get to go home and tell folks at church the next day about your experience (and I really hope you will).

9 You get some really good “stuff” at the display tables, while you learn about ministries taking place throughout Vermont. (We’ve got plenty!)

8 You get to meet people from all over the diocese and learn about the joys and challenges they are experien-cing in their churches—and you get to tell them about yours. (This is also known as meet old friends and make new ones.)

7 You get to speak your mind about things that are important to you and to your church—and you get to listen to others do the same. (For instance, this year we’re voting on a new assessment formula, clergy compensation, a resolution on slavery and racial reconciliation and a resolution addressing the importance of groundwater as a public trust resource.)

6 You get to hear about various diocesan ministries that you might not have known about before. (This year we focus on the ministry of our cathedral.)

5 You might get your picture taken and published in the Mountain Echo. (Anne Brown is everywhere!)

4 You get to share in the decisions that help shape the mission and ministry of the Diocese, including a vote on how to spend a million dollars (the Diocesan Budget).

3 You get to meet and hear interesting preachers and speakers from beyond the Diocese. (This year it is the Very Reverend David duPlantier, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans.)

2 You get to be part of a larger witness to the world about the strength, vitality and mission of the Episcopal Church in Vermont and beyond. (Remember that Baptismal living stuff.)

1 You get to sing, to pray, to worship, and enjoy the company of other faithful disciples of Jesus Christ from all over the Diocese (worth the price of admission all by itself).

So, I look forward to seeing many of you at Convention and I ask that the rest of you pray for us before and during Convention as a sign of our solidarity with one another as people of faith. Stay tuned to the December edition of the Mountain Echo for all the news from Convention, or log on to the diocesan Web site at www.dioceseofvermont.org to read and learn more.

Faithfully,
+Thomas