Delegates of the church will elect officers, approve a 2012 budget and pursue a new capital and congregational development campaign called A New Era of Mission.
The program aims to reverse the declines in membership the Episcopal Church has experienced over the past 40 years, said the Rev. Frank Logue, the assistant to the bishop of the Diocese of Georgia.
“It focuses on nine areas of funding, nine priorities for us,” he said.
A check of the diocesan website shows only one bizarre resolution up for the convention – something about restructuring General Convention. Perhaps it would make sense to someone more aware than I of such things. A resolution to do away with General Convention might make more sense.
For that, see: http://convention.georgiaepiscopal.org/?page_id=310
There’s a posted schedule, but no agenda. Bp. Stacy Sauls will address the convention and preach at the Eucharist, but no hint of anything else controversial, or any yabadabadaba. This has been a Windsor diocese that has a morality canon forbidding clergy to be in extramarital sexual relationships, and as far as I know there have been no SSBs. If this holds up, then I suppose there’s some hope for their future.
If the diocese heads into the sewer on blessing same-sex (etc.) relationships, then I’d speculate that they can forget about their “new capital and congregational development campaign” and focus on paying the light bills.
In the link, scroll down to a comment made by one Bruce Garner, trying to educate us all. Haven’t heard from him in a while.
A similar resolution was considered at the Western NC diocesan convention and in several other places. The Presiding Bishop recently addressed by internet the deputies to General Convention 2012.
The fact that they invited that archrevisionist, +Stacy Sauls, to preach bodes ill. He is poison.
They will be trying to figure out how they can pay for Christ Church Savannah, now that they have stolen the building from the faithful. I predict “lights” off for smaller Savannah-area TEC churches, and the directive will go out for the TEC congregants to head to the downtown church building.
As for outreach, they will have to settle for those who do not believe in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy-Spirit-provided truth of Scripture. I suppose they can offer some New Age enticements and perhaps obtain a few New Age-believing congregants. But frankly, why should New Age-er give up sleeping late on a Sunday morning or a golf game to hear the same secular religion of relativism and “niceness” (s)he can hear (and probably from a better speaker) at his or her Kiwanis, Toastmasters, or other fraternal organization?
A friend in the diocese believes that the convention will include informal “dialogue” (gag me) about the blessing of extramarital sexual relationships. Not just homosexuals. Only offering the blessing of an extramarital sexual relationship to homosexuals would, of course, create a dual standard.
I’m sure that such a practice would “reverse the declines in membership” in the Diocese. Why, certainly! People would flock to diocesan churches!
Christ Church Savannah could be converted into a really nice indoor mall and concert hall.
I assume that ACNA remains on full alert for a major invasion of this diocese. The Ordinariate, too.