Trinity News

« Father Mike's Passing | Main | The RUMMAGE SALE is back! »

May 26, 2008

NOTES FROM THE DIOCESAN CONVENTION

The special convention of May 2008 was held at Grace Cathedral. Our attending delegates were: Violet Lyon, Terry Moore, Lucy Strandberg, Beth Foote, Fred Heard, Frannie Hall Kieschnick and John Strandberg.

The focus of the convention was to change our canons to restructure the governing board formerly called the diocesan council to an executive council. The diocesan council was an elected body of clergy and lay delegates from the six deaneries. The new executive council has five positions that can be appointed by the bishop and two delegates from each deanery. The ability for the bishop to appoint delegates allows the bishop to call individuals with specific talents for tasks requiring special expertise that is not available from the elected membership. Additionally, canons were changed to incorporate a large fund, similar to a bishop’s discretionary fund, under the management of the diocese.

The bishop is also looking at reinvigorating the deaneries which may mean reorganizing them to be more effective in serving the parishes of the deaneries. There has been several discussions on the possibility of sharing resources within the deaneries. For example, having youth ministery shared within the deanery or possibly having parishes within the deanery contracting a lawn service or janitorial service as a group rather than individually. The bishop then identified five areas for the diocese to focus on over the next five years: embodied justice, church vitality, rooted spirituality, organizational development, and inclusive community.

Lastly, at the October 2007 convention, we approved the addition of an assistant bishop to the staff. At the May convention Steven Charleston was introduced as our new assistant bishop. See his biography which follows.

John Strandberg, Deanery Commission

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston is President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the historic theological seminaries training both lay and ordained leadership for the church. A citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Bishop Charleston was born and raised in that state in a family that has had a long history of service in the Christian Native American community. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were ordained ministers of the Presbyterian Church, serving among the Choctaw People in rural Oklahoma. Steven received his Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1971. His Masters of Divinity was from EDS in 1976. He holds two honorary doctorates, one from Alaska Pacific University and the other from his alma mater, Trinity College.