Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit within me.Psalm 51, verse 10 Like so many others, I’m especially concerned about Ukraine. I’m feeling powerless, frustrated, and angry about how systems of injustice collude with the whims of a few people who can harm so many. There are reports of Africans…
On February 5, Bishop Brian Prior, retired bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, led the members of the diocese’s governance bodies in a Zoom retreat. Bishop Shannon began the event, called the Same Page Retreat, in March 2021 as a way to make sure that the leaders of the diocese are able to reflect…
Last week, Bishop Shannon introduced clergy and lay leaders to a new process for examining the future vitality and sustainability of diocesan congregations. The process is outlined in A Manual for Congregations in Discernment: A Resource for Congregations Facing an Uncertain Future, available for download on the diocesan website. “As we consider how new models…
On January 26, the standing committees of the Dioceses of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine met via Zoom to explore opportunities for collaboration and shared ministry. “We know that whatever we do will take prayer, experimentation, relationship building, creativity,” Bishop Shannon said in welcoming the group. “We don’t know what our formal three-diocese relationship will…
Before the pandemic began, the people of St. Andrew’s in St. Johnsbury provided a free monthly dinner for the community. This fall, as they considered how to resume their feeding ministry, congregational leaders took the opportunity to rethink how best to match their own gifts and resources to the needs of their neighbors. “The congregation…
The impetus for THRIVE, the task force appointed by Bishop Shannon last summer, was an impending diocesan financial crisis. But in the last few months, the group of lay and clergy leaders has dug deeper than the immediate problem, strategizing about ways that the diocese can help congregations become more vital and connected in their…
On January 6, the Covid Response Team sent the following letter to clergy and congregational leaders. Greetings to you and your congregations in this New Year and new season of our life together. Given the rapid rise in COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations, as well as COVID-19 positivity rates across Vermont, the Covid Response Team…
In 2021, as the leaders of the Diocese of Vermont began discerning the future of its ministry and its possibilities for collaboration with other dioceses, Bishop Shannon realized that the diocese needed a statement of its belief, mission, vision and values to guide its work. “When we discern with other dioceses, we need to enter…
On Thursdays from January 6 to February 17 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Zoom, Bishop Shannon will lead a diocesan book study of The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community by the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers. Spellers is the presiding bishop’s canon for evangelism and reconciliation and was the…
“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” Luke 2:20 During this Christmas season, when we praise God for the child in the manger, may we find strength to return to our own challenging and ever-unpredictable path together. It is an honor to…
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