One of the traditions at our annual Diocesan Convention is the “Bishop’s Address”.

This is an opportunity for me to review the work we have engaged during the past year and to look toward the future as our journey goes forward. I suspect that sometimes what I have offered has been inspiring and focused, while at other times my words have, at best, been forgettable.
This year, however, things are going to be different! My annual address is going to be given by you, the people of our diocese. That’s right. Rather than have me tell you what my perspective is on our life together, each congregation of the diocese will tell the other members of the diocese what your per-spective is on your life and our life together. We are doing this as part of our work in pre-paring to elect our next bishop, so it is very important that your congregation be prepared to tell the rest of us who you expect to be in the year 2015.

We have selected 2015 because it will probably be near the mid-point of my succes-sor’s tenure, and this is a good time to see where we have been and test the reality of where we want to be going as congregations and as a diocese. As you share with the rest of us what life has become for you by 2015, we will compile our various stories and from these develop descriptions or statements of who we believe God is calling us to be and what God is inviting us to do.
Here is how it will work. On Friday evening of convention (October 26th), every congregation will have two to three minutes to tell the rest of us what your life is like in the year 2015. Then on Saturday these stories will be gathered, and from them we will develop a series of statements, called Provocative Propo-sitions, which describe our expected life to-gether in the 2015. These statements will then become a central part of the diocesan profile which tells us and prospective candidates for the episcopacy where we expect to go in our congregations and in the diocese. In other words, this is a very important part of our preparations to elect the next bishop.

Here are some examples of what congre-gations might report: Having painted our building char-treuse, recognition of our presence and location in our community has grown to 85% of the population. Not bad for a congregation of 35 folks. The healing service we instituted four years ago (e.g., in 2011) now has an average of 100 people par-ticipating every Wednesday eve-ning. We are known throughout our community for this ministry, and we receive requests from all segments of the community for prayers for healing. Our honest focus on each Chris-tian’s responsibility to be faithful stewards of all of God’s gifts has blessed us with an abundance of resources to do ministry in our community. Every year we send at least two teams of workers on mission trips, one in the U.S. and one abroad, and from these trips we have enlarged our vision.

And how might you make your presenta-tion? The options are many. How about a poem? Maybe a song and dance routine. Or perhaps you wish to make a PowerPoint pres-entation. Use your imagination! You want your presentation to be as memorable as your church aspires to be. Whatever you do, re-member that this is an opportunity to have fun and offer some entertainment for the rest of us as well. We will videotape every offering so that nothing is lost.

So, brothers and sisters – 2015. It’s not that far away. Decisions we make today will shape our action tomorrow. The future is wait-ing for us to claim it.

You continue in my prayers. Thank you for your prayers for me and Kit as we journey through this cancer in my body. Your support makes an immense difference in how the jour-ney goes for us.