85th Convention affirms mission, emphasizes MDGs, considers the road ahead (cont'd)
Upper South Carolina ’s "Healthy Church Initiative" (HCI) is funded by a generous gift from a member of the diocese and spearheaded by Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Mark Clevenger and HCI founder the Rev. Tony Watkins. The initiative is designed, in Bishop Henderson’s words, to assist congregations in developing a plan that will enable them “ever to be more and more effective in reaching and converting the unchurched, while simultaneously enhancing Christian community, spiritual growth and renewal.” If fundraising is required to carry out a local plan, HCI assists and local congregations are asked to pledge 10 percent of the amount raised to fund the diocesan Healthy Church Initiative Foundation, so that, Bishop Henderson said, “for the indefinite future we can continue to provide for our parishes and missions the support they need for mission effectiveness.” More than $18 million dollars’ worth of capital projects have been identified to date.
Upper SC ’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals began with a resolution passed at the 83 rd Convention in 2005 and was reaffirmed by a resolution adopted at the 84 th Convention the following year. Citing the MDGs as a “great opportunity that we have—unique to our day and time—to . . . ‘do the work that [God] has given us to do,’ Bishop Henderson said that MDG activity is “not so much a goal in itself as it is a way to measure how effective we are in meeting the three challenges I have set before you: the Healthy Church Initiative, development of a mission strategy, and Christian formation.”
“Beloved,” Bishop Henderson concluded, “it is my most fervent desire that, when the time comes I have the ability to deliver into the hands of my successor a vibrant, confident and healthy diocese and episcopacy. But my desire is not sufficient. It requires the faithful commitment of each of you and that of each person in each pew in each congregation. I need your help to reach this point of clarity and promise. . . . ‘Come, labor on.’”
Convention adopted one resolution—the single resolution proposed—in support of the state of " South Carolina's Faith-based Organizations United to Reduce Tobacco Use Resolution" that would, among other things, mandate "Increasing South Carolina's cigarette tax rate to at least the national average of state tax rates . . . to reduce youth smoking and help fund prevention and cessation programs and other health care needs."
Several changes were adopted to the diocesan canons, most involving “technical,” or editorial, changes to make the language of the canons consistent throughout (i.e., the word deanery/deaneries was replaced with the word convocation/convocations in passages where the need for alteration had previously gone unnoticed).
The single significant canon change adopted was one guaranteeing youth representation at convention. Added to the canon on “Lay Members of the Convention” was the provision that lay members would include two youth deputies from each convocation, elected to a one-year term.
The diocese approved a Statement of Mission (or budget, as some call it) totaling $2,846,709.
The Diocese of Upper South Carolina comprises 28,000 communicants in 64 congregations in 22 counties in the northern part of the state of South Carolina—“One Body . . . One Mission: Changing Lives.”
