Above: The diocesan Visioning Team at the end of a weekend retreat focused on articulating a shared vision for our diocesan community.
Visioning Team members shared the glimpses they’ve had of our shared future—glimpses that make them feel willing to show up as their best selves.
What glimpses of our shared future might compel you to offer your best self?
This question, posed by facilitator the Rev. Tom Brackett of The Episcopal Church, inaugurated the work of a two-day visioning retreat last weekend. The retreat brought together the Diocesan Board, Standing Committee, diocesan staff and representative voices from parishes across the Diocese.
Starting from intense personal reflection and storytelling, this Visioning Team began a conversation about the vision of our Diocese: the impact God is calling us to have on the world in the years to come. In the course of this discernment, participants began to articulate a shared rule of life for the Diocese—the everyday practices and attitudes we’d need to embrace if we want to realize God’s vision.
Building relationships: Visioning Team members Regina Grantham (Grace & Holy Spirit Church, Cortland) and Charlene Fix (St. John’s, Cape Vincent) at the close of the weekend retreat.
Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe and the Visioning Team will continue to build on the work of this retreat in the coming months. In a video message released just prior to the retreat, Bishop DeDe emphasized that everyone in the diocese will be “part of an unfolding of this good work…this vision is to have impact for all of us, in each way that we minister.” The bishop and members of the visioning team will share some of their learnings at the upcoming Leadership Day (March 23rd), and conversations will continue at the pre-Convention regional meetings in the fall.
Bishop DeDe and the Visioning Team are grateful to the entire diocese for your prayers, which are the underpinning of this discernment.
