“I enter this new year filled with hope.…”
by the Right Reverend Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Mountain Echo, January 2008

I am a person of hope, at least most of the time. My tendency is to look expectantly to the future and the hope and promise that the future can hold even when facing challenging realities. I am, you could say, an Advent person.

I am writing these words in the middle of Advent, the church’s liturgical “new year.” You are reading them sometime after January 1, 2008, when the world has celebrated another “new year.” A new year, whether civil or religious, points us to the future, and very often we enter a new year with a mixture of anticipation, expectation and uncertainty.

As I think about the Diocese of Vermont, The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, here are some of my thoughts and reflections on four matters that will be part of my new year and, in varying degrees, perhaps part of your new year, as well.
Minister for Stewardship Development

On February 1, 2008, the Diocese of Vermont will welcome the Reverend Angela Emerson, our new diocesan Minister for Stewardship Development, as a member of the diocesan Ministry Support Team. The process of crafting a diocesan Stewardship Development Plan, a position description and the actual calling of a person to this ministry has taken nearly two years. This is all in response to one of the key areas in our diocesan Strategic Plan for Growth and Ministry.

We began with conversations in local congregations and ended with a superb and faithful discernment committee who unanimously recommended Angela for this position. Along the way, we learned a lot about the hopes and expectations people have with respect to Christian stewardship and met many gifted people who offered themselves for this ministry. I feel truly blessed by the working of the Holy Spirit in this entire process.

In keeping with the pattern of having members of the diocesan Ministry Support Team live in various regions of the diocese, Angela will take up residence in the White River Junction area and work out of an office at Saint Paul’s, White River Junction. I am filled with hope and expectation that this ministry will bear good fruit in the congregations of our diocese. Please prepare to welcome Angela with the same good spirit with which she is so eager to join us.

Capital Campaign Committee
Diocesan Convention 2007 authorized the creation of a Capital Campaign Committee. The last diocesan capital campaign was conducted over ten years ago. The fruit of that campaign continues to be realized through all the many loans and grants provided through the initiatives created at the time. Through the various McClure Discovery Initiatives alone, grants totaling over $500,000 have been awarded to congregations for everything from outreach projects to handicap access to training and formation.

A new capital campaign can help us expand those resources, address the critical capital and deferred maintenance needs at Rock Point, look to new mission and ministry opportunities we might want to encourage, and set the Diocese of Vermont on a solid financial foundation for the future.

We witnessed an expression of the generosity of the people of Vermont in the Global Reconciliation Offering presented by our congregations to the Presiding Bishop at Diocesan Convention. That offering of over $34,000 has been sent to Episcopal Relief and Development for the new MDG Inspiration Fund of the Episcopal Church. In my mind, that bodes well for a future capital campaign in Vermont, and so I enter this new year very hopeful about that endeavor. I will announce the Capital Campaign Committee by the end of January, so if this is an area of interest for you please speak to me.

Lambeth Conference
In July 2008, I expect to attend the Lambeth Conference, the every-ten-year gathering of bishops from around the Anglican Communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. While this is a stressful time in the history of the Anglican Communion, I want to remind us that it is not the first stressful time for the Communion. I journey toward Lambeth with hope in my heart, not just about the possibility that the church can work through the theological, contextual and ecclesial differences that presently exist, but also with the hope that the church can be that inclusive, grace-filled, loving and mission-oriented community we are called to be in and through baptism.

A meeting of bishops alone will not and cannot produce that koinonia for which the Holy Spirit yearns, but we can contribute to it, and that is my hope for Lambeth. At the end of the day it will be the whole people of God who lead us into that reality already given in Christ but not yet realized in our frail human lives. Toward that end, I am actively engaged with others in the work of reconciliation and full inclusion through what has been named the Chicago Consultation. A report about our initial gathering is on page C of this issue of the Echo. Please pray for the work of the Chicago Consultation and the Lambeth Conference.

The diocese’s 175th anniversary
Throughout 2008 we continue our celebration of the 175th anniversary of the Diocese of Vermont and the election of John Henry Hopkins as our first bishop. Some magnificent projects and events have emerged from the vision and effort of the members of the Anniversary Committee. From the opening liturgy on June 2, at Saint Stephen’s, Middlebury through to the marvelous 175th Diocesan Convention in November, featuring the presence of our Presiding Bishop, we have kept our attention on the gift of our heritage and hope of our future mission and ministry.

Our anniversary celebration will culminate with Diocesan Convention, November 7-8, 2008, in Rutland, the site of Bishop Hopkins’s first convention. Here we will once again celebrate our heritage and look forward in hope. The convention theme will center our attention on the stewardship of creation and environmental sustainability. Already we have a commitment from Vermonter Bill McKibben to be with us on Friday of the convention. Bill is one of the leading voices in the field of climate change and environmental sustainability.

I am in the process of naming a program committee to work with me, Bill, and the Dispatch of Business Committee to prepare for Convention and the preparatory Ministry Fairs. If you have an interest in helping with this important work, please be in touch with me right away.

In April 2008 I will complete seven years of ministry as your bishop. Seven is one of those sacred numbers. and as I pause to think about these past seven years I find my heart filled with joy and anticipation about our future ministry together. The time has passed quickly, in part because of the wonderful diocese into which God and the people of God have called me to serve. There is something profoundly grace-filled about being part of the lives of so many gifted people and so many faithful congregations who are taking their baptismal identity seriously. From your engagement in local and global mission, to your faithfulness in worship, study and service, to your many ministries in daily life, I continue to give thanks to God for all the blessings we have in this diocese and for the gifted colleagues on the diocesan Ministry Support Team with whom I am privileged to serve. I enter this new year filled with hope and anticipation for all the good things that the Holy Spirit has in store for us. I remain open to the leading of that Spirit and invite you to do the same.

Happy New Year!
+Thomas

Go to index of Bishop Ely's Mountain Echo columns and letters to the diocese