Diocesan Convention 2017

The Diocese of Georgia gathered for its 196th meeting last week in Valdosta, GA. Valdosta is a very nice city with a very clean and bustling downtown and it is at the end of the earth! Well not quite, but almost, being situated right on the Florida – Georgia state line. There is truly no easy way to get there from here, so the drive is 4.5 hours no matter which route you take. Our friends at Christ Church and Christ the King were most welcoming. We all appreciate the road time the Bishop and Diocesan Staff spend traveling around the Diocese of Georgia, which is the largest diocese in terms of geographic area east of the Mississippi.

Good Shepherd was represented by Cissy Bowden, Kelley Norris, Brice Wright, Lisa Barrowclough, Andy Menger and Robert Fain. We enjoyed our time together and it was quite nice to see other Episcopalians from around our Diocese, which is comprised of 70 congregations.

A lean budget of $1,642,632 was approved for the Diocese and a budget of $458,844 was presented for the operation of the Diocesan Camp and Conference at Honey Creek. The Diocesan Staff and the Honey Creek Staff do an excellent job and practice good management of our gifts and resources.

Other business included the passage of a canonical and constitutional change that recognizes all of our congregations as either Parishes or Aided Parishes, doing away with the old distinction of Parish and Mission congregations. Also approved was a change to allow for more proportional representation at convention. Every congregation will send two, three or four lay delegates based on the three year average of Sunday attendance. These changes will need to voted on again next year before they take effect as they involve changing the constitution. Good Shepherd’s delegation will grow from three to four delegates in 2019. We also enjoyed delightful presentations on evangelism from Carrie Headington from the Diocese of Dallas.

See you Sunday as we welcome Bishop Benhase to EDS and Good Shepherd.

- Robert +