From The Editor

The fact that income among the parishes in the diocese has increased 14% from 2001-2005 is definitely a good sign.
“God gives us the gifts for the work He calls us to do,” said Bishop Neff Powell.
While most would agree that God is calling the diocese to action, no one, including the bishop or the standing committee or the executive board, has claimed a five-point plan, a detailed road map or even a holy fortune cookie.
Where’s the voice in the burning bush when we need it?
What is the work God is calling the diocese to do?
Because the answer may not be on the tip of every tongue, perhaps God is calling the diocese to discernment. Discerning God’s call will require both a vision for the future but also an assessment of gifts being used today.
To assess how diocesan gifts are being used today, it helps to understand what the gifts are. Diocesan ministry is a combination of active ministry (such as youth programs, campus ministry, Grace House Learning Center in Wise County, etc.) and supportive ministry (insurance coordination for clergy families, the Bishop Marmion Resource Center, parish transition and development coaching, etc).
Although the diocese is the base unit in the structure of the Episcopal Church, its visibility to the average person in the pew varies. While it may not always be as observable as the parish one attends, diocesan ministry is a quiet, constant foundation for the denomination and at times it is a strong, active presence, like it is for campers at Phoebe Needles.
These ministries are the day-in, day-out work of the diocese. They can be reviewed, assessed, tweaked to become more effective, but in the end, they make up the core of the work of the diocese. They require resources, like money and time, and effort that is for some, literally, a full-time job. Yet, concentrating on them exclusively may miss God’s call to us to do new things together as a diocese.
Seeking God’s vision for the future, His call to do something new, can be hard for an individual much less for a widespread community of 10,000 Episcopalians across Southwestern Virginia. But discerning a vision for the future can deepen our understanding of God’s plan for us. The bishop and diocesan leaders have wrestled with assessing current ministry and guiding the diocese into new territory, such as new church plants in growing areas. But as long as leaders work alone, the average parishioner is less likely to have a chance to hear God’s call for how the diocese can best work together.

At this crossroads in the life of the diocese, several things can be done. The first is prayer; pray for guidance for God’s call to you and pray for the leaders of the diocese that they may be led to wise decisions.
The second is to be generous in your giving to the church. The need for the ministry of the church in this often-complicated world is more, not less. While most of what you give will stay with the local church that provides Sunday services and ministry in your community, some goes on to support the wider work of the Episcopal Church in the diocese and the world.
The third is to prayerfully consider how you may be involved with the diocesan Mutual Ministry Review (MMR) that is going to be undertaken in this, the tenth year of Bishop Neff Powell’s episcopate. The MMR will be considered by every vestry of churches in the diocese. It is a combination of assessment of current gifts and discernment for God’s vision for the future. Perhaps your role is to simply pray for the vestry to engage with God’s call or perhaps your call is to react more dynamically than with prayer alone.
Whatever the future holds for the diocese, God will be with us, like a loving parent eagerly waiting for us to ask for His guidance. //