Dear people of Vermont:
I will attend a CREDO conference from November 26 – December 3, 2012 at the Bishop’s Ranch Conference Center located in Healdsburg, California.
The eight-day conference provides participants with the means to find direction and clarity in four component areas: spiritual, health, vocational, and financial. CREDO provides a foundation for participants to embrace wellness and to prayerfully discern the direction of their vocation. CREDO was founded in 1997 as a pilot program funded by The Church Pension Group. Episcopal clergy, deacons and bishops from virtually every diocese in the country have taken advantage of the CREDO benefit. Participants are selected at random from all active clergy with more than one year in the Pension Fund. The Church Pension Fund pays all but $500 of the conference costs. This is my second CREDO conference as a bishop. Many clergy in Vermont have participated in similar conferences.I will join approximately 30 other bishops in this CREDO conference. Over the course of the conference, we will meet in plenary sessions, small groups and private consultations with faculty members. We are also provided ample quiet time to reflect on our personal and professional lives. Sadly, there is no time for golf, but plenty of time to walk in the beautiful setting of Bishop’s Ranch.
Each of us commits to extensive reflection through pre-conference instruments and surveys that focus on personal and professional wellness. The work of CREDO is organized around four major areas in each person’s personal and professional life. Each of these components is explored as an integral part of the whole.
Spiritual – offers a sacred space where we can reflect on our interior life and relationship with God in Christ.
- Vocational – provides opportunities for reflection, discernment, and planning in the professional areas of vocation, career, and work.
- Health – encourages reflection on physical and emotional health and well-being, stewardship of the body, and development of a plan to address the individual’s health needs.
- Financial – explores all aspects of personal financial management and encourages reflection on God-given resources and how best to use them in response to God’s call.
Through this discernment and visioning process, and with the help of a faculty team of professionals, each of us builds a CREDO Plan – a personal covenant based on our CREDO work and a formal expression of the CREDO experience. The CREDO Plan provides a personal baseline and strategy for effective implementation.
I am grateful for this time and the opportunity it provides for me to reflect on my life and ministry. I ask you to keep me, and all those gathered at Bishop’s Ranch, in your prayers.
Faithfully,
+Thomas