Mission Task Force 2010: Where Meaning and Mission Collide

The vitality of any organization depends upon a periodic review of its mission. The mission priorities in the Diocese of Rhode Island have long been the Hispanic Ministry, Episcopal Camp and Conference Center, Congregational Development, and Christian Formation.

Last year a group of RI Episcopalians believed that it was time to look at these priorities again, and so they presented a resolution to Diocesan Convention in October calling for their review. The resolution was adopted by the clergy and delegates of Convention, and the “Mission Task Force” was created.

The Mission Task Force will spend this year listening to you, parishioners, clergy, committees, and other leaders of our diocese as you reflect and express your sense of purpose, meaning and mission as Christians and Church in our communities and the world. Our goal is to present a report and resolutions to Convention next October, which will articulate the energy and commitment of our diocese to new and/or renewed mission priorities.

So far we have been busy at work. In February we began our communication launch with an exhibit at Convocation and our blog.

The months of March, April, and May will be spent in the actual listening process. We will seek feedback from the youth and adults in our parishes, the leaders of the current mission priorities, and the diocesan staff and committees. At this same time, Diocesan Council has convened four groups to review the effectiveness of our current mission priorities.

The listening process is probably the most important part of our work. So we hope, dear reader, that you will be looking for opportunities to pray, reflect, and share your ideas with us about where you find meaning and mission colliding in your personal experience of being Christian and Church.

It is important that our conversations in this process reflect the diversity that we find in our churches and communities, so we request your feedback on these key questions:

• What are you doing when you feel most passionate and alive in the spirit?
• What is your congregation doing that you can celebrate and share with other parishes?
• What could we do as RI Episcopalians that would bring us together and make a difference in our community and the world?

In April and May we will be having regional gatherings to hear your reflections, and we also invite you to share your thoughts and enter into a conversation with others across the diocese by going to the Mission Task Force blog.

We intend to use the latter part of May and June to synthesize, discern and meet with Bishop Wolf and Diocesan Staff about our findings. During July and August we will prepare our reports and formulate resolutions for October’s Convention in plenty of time for your review.

We hope you’ll think about this in the days ahead and offer your feedback at the meetings listed below,as well as on our blog. Feel free to email us your thoughts.

Listening Gatherings:
Saturday April 24th, 10 am, St. Paul’s, Pawtucket
Wednesday April 28th, 7 pm, The Cathedral of St. John, Providence
Thursday April 29th, 7 pm, St. Mark’s, Warwick
Wednesday May 5th, 6:30 pm, St. Columba’s, Middletown
Saturday May 8th, 10 am, Epiphany, East Providence
Wednesday May 12th, 7 pm, St. Luke’s, East Greenwich

Clergy will gather:

Wednesday May 19th, 10 am, St. Paul’s, Pawtucket

Task Force Members: Modesta Pellot, Diocesan Council; Fran Gammell-Roach and The Rev. Jennifer Pedrick, Standing Committee; Brian Ehlers and Scott Nicholson, appointed by Bishop Wolf. Deanery Representatives: The Rev. Pam Mott, Aquidneck; Jim Segovis, Central; Susan Wright, West Bay; The Rev. Dcn. Ricky Brightman, Narragansett; David Isherwood, East Bay; and The Rev. Buck Close, Blackstone. The Rev. Bill Locke is the Mission Task Force Chaplain.