Looking Outside Our Parish

A few basics about organization

(Don't be upset if you already know this stuff—it's new to someone else in the room!)

Diocese

The Episcopal Church, USA is divided into geographical areas called dioceses. Our diocese, The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, is the oldest one in the "wild west" on this side of the Alleghenies. We're 200+ years old (had to get special permission to become organized because we were so few and so spread out). Our diocese covers approximately the northern half of Ohio.

Mission Area Council (MAC)

In other places, this would be called a "Deanery." It is an informal association of several local parishes who send representatives to keep one another up to date and to share with outreach projects. Our rector, Rev. Kay N. Ashby, is the Dean. Members of the MAC are Grace, Mansfield; Harcourt Parish, Gambier; St. James, Wooster; St. Mark's, Shelby; St. Matthew's, Ashland, St. Paul's, Mount Vernon; and Tabor Cottage, Butler.

The representatives from our parish to the MAC are Ann Shelly (MAC Treasurer) and Curt Allen (MAC Secretary).

Each MAC sends a representative to the Diocesan Council. Our representative is Curt Allen.

Latest Diocesan Council information

The Diocesan Council met at Trinity Commons on Thursday, May 17.

The first half of the meeting was what I call B.B.I. material (Boring But Important): financial committee discussion, updates on loans and grants, and a quick update on the coming 79th General Convention. I took away four things:

1. On the financial level, the diocese is doing OK. We are declining in number of parishes (two will cease fairly soon) and in membership, but the money projection for the coming year is exactly the same as what we got last year.
2. The diocese has a fair amount of investment income, and we already avoid investing in tobacco, liquor, casinos, and for-profit prisons, but a committee is also working to seek out proactive investment opportunities: companies which actually work to make things better. A report on their findings will become available for individual parish members who want to configure their investment portfolios to become more proactive as well.
3. Loan and grant money is available for parishes who really need it. It's not a total gift; the parish is expected to provide the majority of the money for a project, but help is available, even for fairly mundane items. One parish needed emergency roof repairs and another emergency parking lot repairs, and grants/loans were approved for both.
4. This wasn't a topic of conversation, but I realized that St. Matthew's is in a much better position financially than many other parishes. We do not struggle to pay bills as many do.

The second half of the meeting was devoted to an initiative called Becoming Beloved Community. As a denomination and as a diocese, we are committed to working against racism, and this is our program for working toward that goal. An Anti-Racism Training program is already in place and clergy are already participating in that training.

At our previous Diocesan Council meeting, I raised a question about all this anti-racism training. According to the 2010 census, Ashland City is 95.8% white and Ashland County is 97.3% white. The obvious question, in an environment such as this, is why we should bother. The answer has two parts.

First, racism is a heart attitude, and one does not need to be standing next to a person of another race to be a racist. (If you think about it, a black or Hispanic person in a community which is 30% non-white will probably feel a lot less excluded than a black or Hispanic person in a community which is only 2.7% non-white, so there is a point to reaching out to our neighbors.)

Second, the shift from the negativity of being against something to the positive Becoming Beloved Community stressed our obligation to reach out to those who are dissimilar to ourselves—economic, social, education, etc. When a congregation consists of a group of people who are identical, something is missing.

Training events are already taking place at Bellwether Farm and will soon be announced for other locations.

The Bishop's Time was largely devoted to a report on Bellwether Farm. The summer camp will operate on a very reduced schedule this year, about two weeks, because we are still finding our way. Similarly, financial projections are all guesses because, as Bishop Hollingsworth said, "We are running by the seat of our pants." Construction all seems to be in place, however, and the farm is scheduled for several meetings and conferences (ECW and future Diocesan Council meetings, for example). There has been some discussion of acquiring a farm across the state highway, to be used for a sustainable agriculture program.

Episcopal DNA

Like most of my projects, the website revision has grown and multiplied to a point where it threatens to become unworkable.

A friend looked at our current home page and said, "Wow! That's really dated!" Well, OK. I never did put myself out there as a designer, and the page's general appearance hasn't changed in years. So I began all over again, this time with a web search for a template that will do well with both desktop computers and phones. I found a really pretty one. The next task is filling it with material that will work for us.

I asked myself what a first-time visitor would like to know about a new church. Here's what I came up with:

1. Where is the church?
2. When do they do things?
3. Will they accept me?
4. What am I getting myself into?

The where part is pretty easy, but previously I depended on a link to a Google map. Now we will have easy written turn-by-turn directions for the person who just wants to get here. The when part is easy too.

Now we get into the accepting part. That's difficult to write. Yes, we do have four or five gay people who attend regularly, but I certainly don't want to put them on display. When a person walks into our sanctuary, the gay people don't just stand out. That's partly because gay teenagers will present themselves differently from gay middle-aged people, and partly because a person 40 or 50 years old has had a lifetime of trying to fit in. We're mainly a congregation of older white people, so you won't see young people, immigrants, or African-Americans. It's not that we would reject them; it's just who we are and who shows up. If you come to our annual Winter Convocation, you'd see a lot more diversity because people from the whole diocese show up. How do I write all that down to emphasize that we really do welcome folk regardless of race, sexual orientation, or wealth? That's a challenge.

A pastor at a church I used to attend would refer to the church's DNA. I like that term. What are the basics that are baked into the mix—not just layered on the top? How do I write about that DNA? That's even more of a challenge than the article on accepting. Do I go all the way back to King Henry VIII and comment that a church started by a guy who had six wives isn't likely to be judgmental? Do I point out that we're really more Scottish than English because we didn't have a bishop of our own after the Revolution, and the English church refused to consecrate one for us, so the Scots did? (Thus beginning a tradition of our being the "loyal opposition.") What about immigrants? What about electing leaders who are not always drawn from he pool of straight white old men? How do I convey, in just a few words, our tradition of thoughtful response to both Scripture and tradition? It's quite a task.

Beginning Again Again

From its beginning, this blog has been sort of an odd mixture of personal opinion, announcements, and church news. It's being written by a guy who has (a) an incredible amount on his plate, with teaching several English courses and keeping up with church business, and (b) isn't too sure whether he has the right to speak "officially" for either the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) or the local parish.

So I have made a couple of changes. One is that the local parish's website now contains two new blog items for "Announcements" and "Transitions." That way I can simply stick items such as coming meetings and the like in the places where they are more natural. The other is that a new disclaimer appears at the bottom, listing me as the real source for this material and (I hope) getting both St. Matthew's and the Bishop off the hook if I say something stupid.

Commenting on Posts

As I point out in the "How to Blog" box at the right, responses to posts here will be moderated. Watching over this blog is not my full-time job, so I may not see things you post for a day or so, but I do want a positive, helpful conversation on this page. Some posts, however, will not make the cut:

• Responses that are attempting to sell something.
• Responses that contain abusive or inflammatory language.
• Responses that are attempting to pick a fight.
• Responses that are really off-topic. (If it's a good one, I might copy your material start a new thread, giving you credit.)

If I do not choose to publish your comment, it is not because I am a coward; it's because I want this Internet resource to reflect the nature of our congregation. People who want to start fights or sell things can always do so on Facebook.

By the way, one other category of responses that will not be published (and quite a number of these come in) is items entirely in Chinese.