Selected Mailings online posted Feb 06, 2008
Assisting Bishop's Message
FAMILIAR GROUND, NEW ROLE: A Greeting to Friends New and Old
I was touched and honored by the Standing Committee’s invitation to serve three days a week as Assistant Bishop of Pennsylvania, pro tempore, until one able to serve longer could be found. I accepted, but it was not easy. My plate was at least half full with things I enjoy doing, and the joys of retirement are not lightly relinquished.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Feb 05, 2008
Bishop Bartlett begins ministry as Assisting Bishop Pro Tempore
From: The Standing Committee
Date: February 5, 2008
Dear Diocesan Family:
We are pleased to announce that Bishop Allen L. Bartlett has agreed to be the Assisting Bishop Pro Tempore while we maintain our search for an Assisting Bishop. We continue to work with Bishop Clay Matthews of the Presiding Bishop’s Office in this endeavor.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Jan 25, 2008
Candidates for Assisting Bishop
From: The Standing Committee
Subject: A message from the Standing Committee
Date: January 22, 2008
Dear Diocesan Family:
We have endeavored to call an Assisting Bishop since November 3, 2007. Two candidates were under serious consideration. One withdrew from consideration in mid-December. On Friday, January 18, 2008 another bishop withdrew from consideration.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Dec 21, 2007
Bishop's Ball moved to January 12, 2008
Dear Clergy and Lay Leaders:
The Bishop’s Ball has been moved by the Youth Council to January 12, 2008. The reason for this is to give parish youth groups more time to prepare after the holidays for the dance. The dance will be at St. Paul’s Church in Chestnut Hill located at 22 East Chestnut Hill Avenue, Philadelphia, 19118. All registration forms are available on on the website in the youth section.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Oct 18, 2007
Volunteers needed for ushering at Convention
Convention Memo
To: Clergy, Convention Deputies, Lay Leaders
From: Jeff Baker, Head Usher at Diocesan Convention
Subject: Diocesan Convention – November 3, 2007
Date: October 17, 2007
Calling All Congregations of the Diocese of Pennsylvania:
We are looking for robust volunteers for ushering at convention. We will need up 20 people.
Convention ushers will be required from 6:30AM – 5:00PM. If required we can accept volunteers that can only commit to part of the day, in which case we, of course, will require additional volunteers.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Oct 08, 2007
Reports and Committee Listings to Convention
Convention Memo
TO: Charis of Committees, Commissions and Agencies in the Diocese of PAFROM: Henry Carnes, Director of Education and Training
SUBJECT: Reports and Committee listings to Convention
DATE: 9/20/2007
Please send your report by October 3:
You are invited to submit a report about your group’s work to the 224th Diocesan Convention. If received by the deadline, the reports will be posted to the Diocesan website for review before the Diocesan Convention.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Sep 07, 2007
Pre-Convention Meetings
Convention Memo
TO: Clergy and Lay Leaders and Delegates of the Diocese
FROM: Susannah Hunter, Canon for Youth Ministry
DATE: September 6, 2007
RE: Pre-Convention Meetings
Following are the Uniform Guidelines for Pre-convention Deanery Meetings as stated by the Deans of our Deaneries:
1) State name, parish, deanery
2) Only speak if adding something new no repeating others statements
3) Talk about ideas and proposals not people
Selected Mailings online posted Aug 22, 2007
Draft Slate of Nominees
Convention Memo
FOR: ALL DIOCESAN LEADERS, CLERGY AND LAY DELEGATES
FROM: SEAN C. SLACK, SECRETARY OF CONVENTION
SUBJECT: DRAFT SLATE OF NOMINEES
DATE: 8/21/07
Nominations by Petition will close at 5PM on October 3rd for Diocesan Convention. Attached to this email you will find a Nominating Petition and the DRAFT Slate of Nominees. If there are further candidates that you would like to nominate please do so by the deadline.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Aug 22, 2007
Nominations, Reports, Deputies and Handicap Assistance
Convention Memo
TO: CLERGY, CONVENTION DEPUTIES, LAY LEADERS
FROM: SEAN C. SLACK, SECRETARY OF CONVENTION
SUBJECT: DIOCESAN CONVENTION
DATE: August 21, 2007
This year Convention will gather at the Philadelphia Cathedral, 3723 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. All Convention activities will occur on one day, Saturday, November 3rd. The fall Convention emailing will contain more information about the agenda, arrangements and resolutions please also check www.diopa.org periodically for more information.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Aug 22, 2007
Resolutions for Diocesan Convention
Convention Memo
TO: CLERICAL AND LAY DEPUTIES TO CONVENTION
FROM: SEAN C. SLACK, SECRETARY OF CONVENTION
SUBJECT: RESOLUTIONS FOR DIOCESAN CONVENTION
DATE: 8/21/2007
Download the diocesan Standing Order IV (4)
Proposed changes to the Diocesan Constitutions and Canons are due 90 days prior to the Nov. 3rd Convention. Resolutions are due 60 days prior to the Nov. 3rd Convention. Resolutions should be emailed to the J.D. Lafrance at jdlafrance@diopa.org.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Aug 10, 2007
Deadline Extension for Certificates for Lay and Youth Deputies
Convention Memo
FROM: SEAN C. SLACK, SECRETARY OF CONVENTION
SUBJECT: DEADLINE EXTENSION FOR CERTIFICATES FOR LAY AND YOUTH DEPUTIES
DATE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 7TH, 2007
The deadline for returning one copy of the certificate for Lay and Youth Deputies has been extended. Please return one copy of the certificate by August 31, 2007. We will email the first of the convention materials directly to your deputies. Please provide a valid email address. If we do not have the names of your deputies and their correct contact information, they will not receive convention materials.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Jul 05, 2007
Certificates for Youth Representatives
Convention Memo
FROM: SEAN C. SLACK, SECRETARY OF CONVENTION
SUBJECT: CERTIFICATES FOR YOUTH REPRESENTATIVES
DATE: MONDAY JUNE 18, 2007
In accordance with the Diocesan Convention Standing Orders IV-6, “each parish shall have the right to approve two youth representatives who shall have the right to sit with the deputies from their parish and who shall have the privilege of speaking but not voting on matters coming before Convention”.
Download the Youth Representative Certificate [doc]
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Jul 05, 2007
Certificates for Lay Deputies
Convention Memo
FOR: ALL CONGREGATIONS
FROM: SEAN C. SLACK, SECRETARY OF CONVENTION
SUBJECT: CERTIFICATES FOR LAY DEPUTIES
DATE: MONDAY, JUNE 18TH, 2007
Enclosed are the certificates on which you record the names and addresses of those lay persons that have been elected to represent your congregation at the Diocesan Convention on Saturday, November 3, 2007.
Download the Lay Deputies and Alternates Certificate [doc]
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted May 31, 2007
Letter from the Bishop about Youth Programs
June 1, 2007
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Recently I met with our Diocesan Youth Council – a group of extraordinary young people increasingly notable for their love of Jesus, their commitment to the church’s faith, their moral integrity, and their leadership. They come from across all the lines of class and race and school in our diocese. Their beauty rests in the energy they display in their endeavors to help each other be all that God made each one to be. As one girl said to me, "I change everyday, because of my involvement... Everyone in my school and neighborhood looks like me. Through the Youth Council I discover we all are different and look different, and yet we have a common faith as Episcopalians."
To make a secure donation online, click here:
Selected Mailings online posted May 08, 2007
Letter from the Diocesan Council Executive Committee
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
As members of Diocesan Council Executive Committee, we write to you at the request of the Diocesan Council to seek your assistance in addressing both the financial needs of our diocese in support of the ministries authorized by the 224th Diocesan Convention on January 6, 2007 and our present cash flow crisis.
The 2007 Program Budget adopted by Convention called for $3,454,000 in program expenditures for various ministries, including youth development, camp, aid to mission churches, congregational development, campus ministries, and support for The Episcopal Church, and the Millennium Development Goals.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Jan 19, 2007
223rd Convention Adopts Reduced Budget and Numerous Canonical Changes
The 223rd Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania met on November 11, 2006, but unable to complete its business on that day, recessed and reconvened on January 6, 2007. The theme of the Convention was "A Church for Others."
The Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray, the Bishop of Mississippi, addressed the Convention about the Campaign to rebuild the churches in his diocese and the Diocese of Louisiana devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Bishop Bennison presented Bishop Gray with a check from the offering at the Convention Eucharist for more than $13,000.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Jan 05, 2007
Revised Budget from the Program Budget Committee
FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE RECONVENED CONVENTION
Download the Revised Budget
At the first portion of the Diocesan convention, a Program Budget was passed. Subsequent to that event, the PBC received new information about the revenue sources. In spite of the approved budget with pledge revenue at $1,650,000, the actual pledges received to date total approximately $1,200,000 and there are still pledges to be received. A significant scrub of expected investment income that can be used in the Program Budget was done by the Treasurer, Church House Financial staff and the Church Foundation and that indicated that investment income would come in around $1,233,500 and not $1,429,000 as previously hoped for. Finally, a revised revenue figure for the Parker Bulmer fund resulted in reduced revenue by $35,000.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Dec 21, 2006
Latest information on Reconvened Convention - January 6, 2007
December 8, 2006
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
In accord with Canon 3.2.2, the Secretary of Convention has notified you that the 223rd Diocesan Convention will reconvene at Philadelphia Cathedral on the Feast of the Epiphany, Saturday, January 6, 2007, at 10:00 a.m., to take up the unfinished business of considering Resolutions R-4-2006 through R-15-2006.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Nov 14, 2006
223rd Convention to Reconvene on January 6, 2007
Letter from the Secretary of Convention
The Consecration of Samuel Seabury
November 14, 2006
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
As you may know, our clergy and deputies did not complete the business on the agenda adopted by the Diocesan Convention last Saturday and voted instead to recess and reconvene within sixty days.
In accord with Canon 3.2.2, I am writing to notify you that the reconvened 223rd Diocesan Convention will be held at Philadelphia Cathedral on the Feast of the Epiphany, Saturday, January 6, 2007 beginning at 8:30 a.m. with the Holy Eucharist and Rites of Initiation. Registration will begin at 7:00 a.m. in the Undercroft. The reconvened business session of the Convention will begin at 10:00 a.m. The main business will be to consider Resolutions R-4-2006 through R-15-2006.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Oct 04, 2006
The Feast of St. Francis
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
G.K. Chesterton observed that none in his life ever more perfectly imitated Jesus than Francis of Assisi. Both the growing environmental crisis and gun violence in Lancaster County and the mounting homicide rate in Philadelphia certainly call for our emulation of Francis’ example of commitment to the natural order and peace among our people.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Sep 11, 2006
Letter from Bishop Bennison on Sept. 11th, 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Five years ago this morning, we, the clergy of our diocese, gathered together at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, Chestnut Hill, for Clergy Day, and first heard the terrible news of the terrorist attacks on our country and its people. Little did we know then, and only vaguely do we know now, the extent to which from that moment on our world would change. We completed our prayers, embraced one another, and went our separate ways to open our church doors, and be with, not just our people, but all who came.
Read more of this letter...Selected Mailings online posted Jul 01, 2006
General Convention a "Pentecostal Moment"
Thirty years ago, building on our nation's bicentennial celebration of the revolution of 1776, I taught a course on liberation theology as part of an annual week-long adult education conference in the Diocese of Los Angeles. In those days liberation theology was novel, fresh, and provocative. Through a series of events - the approval of the ordination of women (1976), the consecration of Barbara Harris (first woman bishop, 1989), the consecration of Gene Robinson (first openly gay bishop, 2003) - today, in the Episcopal Church, God's liberating purpose in sending Jesus Christ is a basic assumption that at this month's General Convention became incarnate in historic event.
Read more of this letter...