The 213th Annual Council - Diocese of Virginia

Proceedings
Buck returned from the Sudan just last Saturday, where the Diocese of Virginia sponsored
a training session on peace and reconciliation for leaders of the Church in the Sudan. I
spent a week in Spain in July with some 23 American bishops and 30 African bishops at
a consultation on mission and found my African colleagues very open to continuing to
work with us for the spread of God’s abundant love through the church that we share. Buck
has helped a number of churches assemble and send mission teams for overseas ministry.
I hope to go to the Sudan myself in late March and early April to help dedicate a school
people from our Diocese helped build. Many of you have visited the Sudan on mission
trips, and our diocesan partnership with this devastated part of the world is so strong
through the Episcopal Church in Sudan, I want to witness, first-hand, to the reality of their
lives, and share with them the joy of the Gospel message of love and hope.
Buck’s ministry in overseas mission aims to help local churches expand their own
outreach and mission and that is the deliberate pattern echoed across the diocesan staff.
The Diocese of Virginia is not an isolated institution headquartered in Richmond and
independent of you. You are the Diocese of Virginia—you and the people you represent.
The bishops and staff are here to serve you in your ministries and to assist you in the
development and exercise of those ministries.
I am particularly thankful for our small but dedicated staff. Of the five largest dioceses,
Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Los Angeles and Virginia, Virginia has the smallest
staff. Our 24 staff members, some of whom are part-time, are dedicated, effective and
responsive but you may have of them expectations that exceed the hours of their day.
For over a decade, the maximum increase in compensation for your diocesan staff has
been the minimum suggested increase for diocesan clergy. I believe we risk unwanted
turnover in the staff if we cannot do better.
Currently, the only full-time ordained persons on the diocesan staff are the three bishops.
This is the first time that has happened in my 24-year episcopate and it lessens our
capacity to respond to your requests when we cannot send an ordained person into a
parish to represent the bishops, to celebrate the Eucharist with you and to help a local
parish address its needs.
The limitations on staff are a direct result of the churches’ in the Diocese of Virginia
continuing inability or unwillingness to meet the suggested guidelines for proportionate
giving of parish income to what we do together as a diocese. Mike Kerr does a wonderful
job of putting together imaginative ways of stretching resources but the lack of funds
limits what we can do in every area of diocesan services from parish development to
summer camps.
I spoke earlier of the strong work in global mission led and coordinated by Buck
Blanchard. His work this year is expanding out into local outreach. We are working to
move the cost of his very effective work into the diocesan budget over the next three
years. Our capacity to do that, however, is at risk, and therefore our work in global
mission is at risk, because of the pattern of giving from parishes.
Another diocesan initiative to support local mission is the Mustard Seed Fund. Since
2002, the Mustard Seed Fund has provided $1.2 million in grants to nearly half the
churches of the Diocese for new outreach, educational programs, expanded facilities
and increased mission at home and overseas. Patsy Bjorling, the diocesan director of
stewardship, administers this fund in addition to her making herself fully available to
the churches and institutions of the Diocese to offer support on stewardship. Recently
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The Diocese of Virginia t Journal of the the 213 th Annual Council