Since Bishop Jennifer took office in 2017, diocesan convention-goers have grown accustomed to hearing about new initiatives, reorganizations and commitments. But this year, as convention met entirely in-person for the first time since 2019, the bishop told delegates and clergy that the top priority for 2023 will be rest.
“2024 is coming, and it is going to be quite a ride here in Indiana. As we approach another presidential election, our state and our country continue to experience record rates of child poverty and infant mortality; decreasing life expectancy, and ever-widening income and health disparities between the super-wealthy and everyone else,” Bishop Jennifer said.
“We are divided from one another in deep and profound ways that seem to grow every single time I open up the newspaper. I have the sense that a storm is brewing, and, as followers of Jesus and his way of love, we will be in the midst of it. That is why it is so important that we seize this time to rest, to nourish our gathered community, to strengthen our understanding of what it means to live guided by the hope to which God has called us.”
Bishop Jennifer, who will take a sabbatical from May through September next year, encouraged congregations to use the season of rest “to dream even bigger about the ways that we are called to participate in God’s mission and serve God’s people in our midst.” To that end, she asked the Rev. Canon Carrie Schofield-Broadbent, canon for transition and church development in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, to give the convention keynote.
Schofield-Broadbent spoke about a College for Congregational Development model for congregational growth and vitality called Gather-Transform-Send. Convention delegates also attended workshops, organized according to the Gather-Transform-Send theme, on Friday afternoon.
“I’d like you to think about a moment in your parish where you felt the deep love of God,” Schofield-Broadbent told convention delegates, urging them to invite people in their communities to church. “As you know, for anyone with a heart and a head and a soul, it is hard to be a human right now. Think about the roads that go by your church and the cars that travel on them. Think about the people who live near you. … And they may, in fact be looking for what you’ve got.”
During the convention’s business session on Saturday, delegates and clergy:
- Approved a $3.87 million diocesan budget for 2023.
- Passed a resolution approving a nominal monthly payment to deacons, which will to enable them to participate in programs and benefits of the Church Pension Fund.
- Approved a package of changes to the diocese’s constitution and canons.
- Approved an amended resolution titled “Covenant to Root Out Racism,” which commits the diocese to a covenant developed by the Diocese of Missouri and asks both the diocese’s Executive Council and its congregations to implement the covenant and report to the conventions in 2023 and 2024 on their progress.
Find a list of leaders elected to diocesan office at convention.
Download the updated Diocesan Constitution and Canons.
Watch the convention business session on YouTube.
