Pentecost Greetings:
I am pleased to welcome you to the new website of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. If you are a member of one of our 48 congregations, or have familiarity with The Episcopal Church, then my hope is that you will find this website useful and helpful in the exercise of your ministry. If you are a person who happened upon this site as you were searching for information about The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Vermont, or in connection with a general inquiry about faith and spirituality, then let me extend a warm and personal greeting to you to enter this “doorway” into the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, where I hope you will feel our glad welcome and hospitality.
This new website project has been a priority for quite some time, so it feels exceptionally good to see it come to life. The target date for launching the new website was Pentecost. We almost made it and I am pleased that we are able to launch the new site in this first week of the “Season of the Spirit” on Trinity Sunday. As with any new project like this, there are many factors that come into play, so I’m asking for your patience as we work to make this new website fully functional. In the meantime, the old website www.dioceseofvermont.org will continue to be available as a source of information. There are two main tasks beyond some technical “tweaking” that need to happen now, and both will take some time. The first is migrating and integrating all the information from our previous website, and believe me there is a lot of content to move and edit and place in the proper location. The second is the completion of the new database system that is a separate but related project taking place in the Diocesan Office.
While we complete this work, I encourage you to visit the new website often and become familiar with its many features. We have tried to create a site that is “user friendly,” in the sense of being easy to navigate and logical in organization. We have also tried for a good balance between up-to-date technologies and the fact that many places in Vermont still lack the high speed internet capability that is required for fast loading and effective use of some potential features. We intend this site as a “destination location” for seekers as well as members. Those features especially designed to welcome inquiries about the Episcopal Church offer us a great opportunity for evangelism and witness to our faith and life as God’s ministers in the world. Please note, sign up for and make use of the “social networking” features of the new web site. I am still finding my way around some of that area of the website, but it promises some effective ways for us to stay connected as a diocese.
I am most grateful to Anne Brown, our diocesan Communications Minister, and to Loida Thamn (Lo) our web design consultant from North 100 Design, for their hard and creative work in bringing us to this point in time. They have served us well and their patience with me as I “reviewed and commented” throughout the construction phase of the new web site is noted and much appreciated.
Of course, a new website is not “the answer to all our problems,” but it can be an effective tool for our communication with one another, an effective way to reach out and let others know who we are, and an effective means of building trust and relationship throughout our diocese and with the work and ministry of the Bishop and Diocesan Ministry Support Team and other aspects of our diocesan ministry structure. My hope is that we will use the new website not only as a source of helpful information, but also as a tool for telling our story and staying connected as a diocese. Together, we ARE the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont serving God’s reconciling mission in the world.
The Peace of Christ be with you,
+Thomas
The Rt. Rev. Thomas C. Ely
Episcopal Diocese of Vermont
5 Rock Point Road
Burlington, VT 05408
EMAIL:
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The Mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont is to pray the prayer of Christ, learn the mind of Christ, do the deeds of Christ. We envision a lively, mission-oriented church that discerns and welcomes God’s call to us as a Diocese. Five interwoven themes emerge from this call:
Formation + Liberation + Communication + Connection + Celebration