Episcopal Press and News
CENTRAL NEW YORK: Mission strategy session to redefine goals
Episcopal News Service. June 1, 2007 [060107-04]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Diocese of Central New York meets June 1-2 as part of its goal of redefining its priorities.
The Strategic Change Summit at the New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls is part of a process begun in the fall of 2005, when trustees of the diocese called for a strategic plan. It is hoped that every congregation will participate by sending a team of five persons: one clergy person, one lay person, one youth and two additional individuals of the congregation's choice.
"Our time of dreaming our future together will be grounded in our Baptismal promises and occur in a combination of small groups and plenary sessions -- all 500 of us -- set within the context of our liturgy," Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams wrote in an April letter to the diocese. "Prayer, song, silence and laughter will fill our halls and our time."
Leading up to the gathering, nearly all the congregations of the diocese responded to a questionnaire which yielded information the summit will use to discuss how their church can create programs, the Rev. Karen C. Lewis, Gladstone's canon to the ordinary, told the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper.
"As a result, we will staff, budget, prioritize," Lewis said.
Diocesan leaders will present a plan and budget at the annual convention in November.
She said that the summit will take into account the changing world in which the diocese lives.
"How people understand religion and seek truth in God, that's changed dramatically," she said. "No longer do we have churches filled on Sunday with 500 or 600 folks."
The idea, she said, is to encourage a bottom-up approach rather than implement plans created by church officials.
The diocese includes more than 19,000 people in 97 congregations in Central New York, north to Alexandria Bay and south to the Pennsylvania border.
During its annual convention in November, diocesan delegates adopted a $2.1 million budget for 2007. That includes $15,000 for grants to congregations that offer programs related to the Millennium Development Goals and $75,000 for diocesan Vision Grants, which are awarded for creative local ministry projects.