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Diocesan News

Diocesan Leadership Conference teaches and inspires

On May 19, at Christ Church, Greenville, Bishop Henderson set forth his priorities for the diocese's next steps in mission. "It is time to get down to the nuts and bolts of mission," he said.  Diocesan priorities, the bishop noted,  include "the Healthy Church Initiative, planting new congregations, a plan for lifetime Christian formation, and a commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. Bishop Henderson's complete address is available here.

Following the bishop's address, the Rev. Canon Mark Clevenger led diocesan Leadership Conference participants in a visioning exercise designed to foster the development of a new diocesan long-range plan and to train participants to conduct the same process in their home congregations. The conference grew out of the recent restructuring of the Upper SC community for mission effectiveness, including the diocesan Healthy Church Initiative and a new Statement of Mission (SOM) process that would build the SOM (or diocesan budget) "from the pew up."

As the day got under way, diocesan Healthy Church consultant Tony Watkins announced that more than $18 million dollars in pledges had been raised in two years for the support of local growth initiatives. The money will fund the new Healthy Church Foundation of Upper South Carolina.

Episcopal News Service carried this account of the day.  And check out the photo gallery.

Three ordained to the transitional diaconate, May 26

Praying the Litany for Ordination (Click to enlarge.)	Bishop Henderson celebrates with his new transitional deacons: To his right the Revs. Mark Abdelnour and Joseph Smith; to his left, the Rev. Joseph Whitehurst.

On May 26, at Trinity Cathedral, Bishop Henderson ordained three to the transitional diaconate: Mark Anthony Abdelnour, Joseph Kershaw Smith, and Joseph Stewart Whitehurst. The three are recent graduates of General Seminary, The School of Theology at Sewanee, and Seabury Western.

It has been announced that the Rev. Joseph Smith will serve at St. Matthew's, Spartanburg.

Congratulations to Camp Gravatt!

Camp Gravatt received the 2007 Palmetto Parent Family Choice Award for best residential summer camp. Palmetto Parent magazine asked its readers to vote on the most family-friendly businesses, events, and destinations in and around the Midlands. Camp Gravatt was the winner in the residential summer camp category. Way to go, Gravatt!!!

SC State Day at National Cathedral

Have you made YOUR plans???

By Nell Barr

Our once-every-four-years special SC State State Day at National Cathedral, coming up on July 15, promises to be exciting and one of the best we have ever had. Four years ago, in November 2003, we had more than 300 people attend, and the staff at the cathedral said that it was one of the best State Days they had ever had.

Everyone from South Carolina is invited to join our bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr., for this special time, which coincides with the 100th anniversary year of the cathedral, which was begun in 1907.We are hoping to have acolytes, with church banners, in the procession from every church in our diocese. Please contact the Rev. Bob Chiles  (803.736.0866) immediately if acolytes from your congregation are planning to attend.

State Day preacher will be South Carolina native the Rev. Canon William ("Bill") H. Barnwell, National Cathedral's canon missioner. Barnwell, born in Charleston, is a graduate of Sewanee and Virginia Theological Seminary. He is the author of In  Richard's World.

Another opportunity for this weekend is a contemplative pilgrimage through the cathedral and grounds on Saturday morning, July 14, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Pilgrimage costs are $25 for adults, $20 for youths and seniors, $15 for National Cathedral Association members. (Visit the link above for more info and registration instructions.)

The Arpad Darazs Singers, members of the Palmetto Mastersingers, folks from the choirs of St. John's, Florence, St. John's, Columbia, and St. David's, Columbia, and others  will offer a prelude to the 11:00 a.m. State Day service (beginning at 10:30 a.m.). Following the service there will be reception for all South Carolina visitors and an opportunity to take guided tours of the cathedral.

It's a great time to visit the nation's capital and our National Cathedral.  Still Hopes in West Columbia is sponsoring a four-day bus tour centered on State Day. A few spaces are still available. Please contact Still Hopes (803.796.6490) if you are interested. St. David's,Columbia, also has few spaces to offer on their bus. Contact the church at 803.736.0866.

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) responds to needs of Gulf Coast hurricane victims, calls for more volunteers

A first-hand account from our diocesan ERD representative, Scooty Burch (Holy Trinity, Clemson)

I returned late Sunday evening from a very moving visit to the Gulf Coast.  Four ERD diocesan coordinators met in New Orleans before the ERD Network Meeting and stayed at the St. Paul’s Homecoming Center, also known as The Beacon of Hope.  We slept on cots upstairs and had portable showers out back.

All ERD diocesan coordinators traveled on buses to sites in Mississippi and New Orleans. My impression is that Mississippi is beginning to come back.  Camp Coast Care, which initially served as a main distribution center for emergency relief (food, water, clothing, and medical supplies) needs volunteer skilled workers to rebuild homes.  The Diocesan Mobile Medical unit is no longer needed, because the local health clinic is up and running.  Some of the homes along the coast are beginning to be rebuilt.  Some of the churches along the coast are still in plastic Quonset huts.  The Diocese of Mississippi, in partnership with ERD, is still helping those in need.  Assistance programs are in place, such as soft 2nd loans that help residents reopen their businesses and rebuild their homes sooner.

New Orleans recovery has been a little slower.  Because of local and state complications, the Diocese of Louisiana has had a much more difficult time addressing the needs of the poor and lower income residents.  I worked with the Diocese of Louisiana’s Mobile Respite Unit which serves the Lower 9th Ward and St. Barnard’s Parish.  In four days over 650 people were given canned meat or soup, granola bars, snack crackers, small zip-loc bags of laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and bottled water.  Each person was given a sheet of paper listing phone numbers of government, community and church resources.  Children received the same items as adults along with a tootsie roll and a beanie baby.  In addition to giving food and water, the respite unit helpers welcomed those in need. The volunteers would shake people’s hands and ask them how they were that day and listen to their stories.  A few of the people were living in abandoned houses.  Most of the people expressed appreciation, sometimes hugged us, and one said how grateful she was for the continued presence of the Episcopal Church. 

St. Anna’s Free Mobile Health Clinic, which provides nurses, doctors, and medical supplies; and St. Anna’s Loaves and Fishes mobile unit, which provides sandwiches, lemonade or ice tea, fresh vegetables and fruit, served with us for two days.  The Loaves and Fishes mobile unit is refrigerated (I think).  This unit also gave small toys to children.  Funds for relief programs such as these mobile units are going to be needed for a few more years. 

We can be very proud of how the Episcopal Dioceses of Mississippi and Louisiana in partnership with Episcopal Relief and Development have responded to and continue to respond to the needs of the hurricane victims along the Gulf Coast.  Please ask your congregations to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and consider making a contribution to Episcopal Relief and Development for Katrina Relief.  Gifts may be made online at www.er-d.org, or by calling 1.800.334.7626, ext. 5129.  Contributions can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development “Katrina Relief” P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.

Volunteers are still needed!  Have your congregations check these Web sites:  Diocese of Louisiana www.edola.org and click on Volunteer Resources;  Diocese of Mississippi www.dioms.org and click on Camp Coast Care-Katrina Relief.

News from Heathwood Hall Episcopal School

Heathwood students best in SC on national language exams

Healthwood's Spanish 1A—Bravo

Middle school students at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia earned some of the highest scores in the state on high school Level 1 national exams in Spanish, French and Latin.  Heathwood students finished #1 and #2 in SC on the Spanish Level 1B, first in SC and #2 nationally on the French Level 1A exam, and earned distinction in three of the four levels of achievement for Latin I.

 

 

Heathwood graduates 31st class, June 1

Commencement speaker the Rev. Mike Kinman focuses on faith, passion, Millennium Development Goals

Families, friends, teachers and fellow students gathered on June 1 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral to celebrate the 52 members of Heathwood Hall’s Class of 2007. The event—part worship service and part graduation ceremony—began with the traditional grand procession of seniors, faculty, administrators, and Episcopal clergy including the Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr., Bishop of the Diocese of Upper SC. The procession was led into the cathedral by twin bagpipers.

The Rev. Mike Kinman, executive director of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation (EGR), delivered the commencement address. EGR is a grass-roots movement of Episcopalians connecting and collaborating to follow Christ, end extreme poverty ,and heal a broken world through steadfast commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. In 2000 leaders from 189 nations—including the United States—adopted the MDGs and agreed to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. They unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, pledging: "We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty to which more than 1 billion of them are currently subjected."

Kinman charged the graduates with identifying a need somewhere in the world that each of them could serve, and with having the faith and passion to change the lives of those less fortunate. At one point in his talk, he paused dramatically for a time and then began to snap his fingers in a slow and steady cadence. “What’s he doing?” Kinman asked knowingly. “Every three seconds (snap), a child dies somewhere in this world (snap). There’s one (snap). There’s another one” (snap). Kinman then challenged the graduating seniors to fight the many preventable causes of such deaths worldwide by devoting themselves to giving their time, talents and resources to people in need.

Read it all— Kinman's address to Heathwood grads. (It's great!)

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