Following the presentation on contextual mission and new worshipping communities, Bishop Shane Parker outlined how a new forward-looking initiative will involve every parish:
“By 2028, each one of our parishes and congregations will be engaged in contextual mission, and each one will have initiated or collaborated in at least one identifiable new venture. By 2032, the 135th anniversary of the founding of our diocese, we will have 35 new worshipping communities in a great variety of shapes and sizes. Resources to support the formation of lay and clergy leaders in contextual mission and the creation of new worshipping communities will be shaped by the new contextual mission subcommittee. A microgrants program to support new initiatives will also be rolled out. Today, we are launching the essential foundation of our vision and goals. As I now call our diocesan church into a time of prayer as we listen for the divine sparks in our midst.“
The Action 2 team thanked the Rev. Michael Garner for suggesting that this new diocesan-wide venture begin with a diocesan-wide time of prayer.
“We believe if we listen as a diocese, really listen, take time and discern, test the things we hear, that indeed God’s spirit will speak to us…,” said Garner. “Active listening to and for God can become the turning point for us as people of faith and the turning point for our diocese. If we have the courage to say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening,” we also have to be willing to act on what we might hear. So, there’s risk in listening to God, in responding to Jesus, to moving as the Holy Spirit leads, because the Spirit will move us to where Jesus is.”
He shared a quote from former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, “Where might you expect to find the followers of Jesus? One answer is in the neighborhood of chaos. It means you might expect to find Christian people near to those places where humanity is most at risk, where humanity is most disordered, disfigured, and needy. … If following is being led to where Jesus is, then following is being led towards the chaos and the neediness of a humanity that has forgotten its own destiny.”
Garner said, “Thankfully, this is not something that God has left us alone to accomplish in our own power. God has sent the Spirit to dwell within and amongst us, to give us the ability to do, what? More than we can ask or imagine. And we must remember that the actor in the renewal of the cosmos is God. It is not us. But God is inviting us to participate with them in their work.”
St. John, Antrim — Deanery of the Southwest