The Episcopalian - Winter 2023

THE LORD BE WITH YOU.

IN THIS ISSUE

5 Bishop Curry’s Opening Address

11 Convention Overview

15 Bishop Curry’s Closing Address

18 Bishop Parsley Attends 192nd Convention

20 The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee: Try Something

22 Sarah Coleman Hornsby - Youth address

23 Leadership Development

26 Congregational Vitality

28 Camp McDowell

30 Racial Healing

30 Around the Diocese

31 Diocesan Staff Update

A note from Bishop Curry

Dear Friends:

It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. When I look at the pictures of our 192nd Diocesan Convention, I’d say that is very true. Seeing us all together is a powerful reminder of God’s love for us and the world. I hope as you review this issue, you’ll see that our diocese is a network of faithful communities connected to each other, and as Paul reminds us, “many parts...that form one Body...and to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” The people in our many congregations not only know it, they also live into it. As always, I hope I see you at church very soon.

Blessings, Bishop G

Bishop’s Opening Address to the 192nd Convention of the Diocese of Alabama

February 3, 2023

“Grace to you and peace. I always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in my prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s how Paul begins his letter to the Thessalonians. Scholars say Paul is looking back and reflecting on all his visits with this church, and is able to see how they’re living out abundant faith, hope and love, what Paul calls three signs of life. Paul’s greeting reminds me of you, and fits what I see over and over when I visit you.

I am happy to say, that as I convene my third Diocesan convention as your Bishop, I see very strong signs of life all over our many faith communities. Our churches, large and small, are rebounding and growing in wonderful, surprising ways. We’ve emerged from lockdown, through ups and downs, stops and starts, into a new chapter of sharing the gospel of Jesus in ways we never thought of before the pandemic. We have many things to be grateful for and much to celebrate.

Since my first convention began in the earliest days of lockdown, I have been able to watch as you’ve adapted and rebuilt, creating new and life-giving ways to share the love of Jesus with the world and be the Body of Christ. Since last convention, Bishop Prior and I have visited 80 of our 87 churches, all our faith communities, and Camp, sometimes more than once. We’ve seen your innovation and energy turn from Covid management to inviting, and welcoming old and new friends, seekers and strangers into your communities.

One of the best things about being Bishop continues to be visiting and seeing your home bases and the ministry that has captured your hearts. During this convention I hope you’ll get a glimpse of the bigger picture and a taste of our common life, and see Jesus at work all over Alabama - and beyond.

Our theme for convention is “Deep Roots, New Growth”, inspired by God’s words to Jeremiah as translated by Eugene Peterson: “Those who trust God, shall be like trees planted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers, never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.” This year we celebrated 150 years of ministry at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, 20 years of deacon’s service in our diocese, 30 years of Sawyerville ministry, and 100 years of summer camping, eventually leading to Camp McDowell. Last Sunday I met with nine churches from our Black Belt, most dating their beginnings back to the 1830s. We have many, many examples of deep roots in the Diocese of Alabama.

As I travel the highways and byways that lead me to you each Sunday, I see deep roots and much fruit, and I am proud of you. I can see how hard you’re working and how challenging it has been. I know there have been heartbreaking losses and setbacks. Still, I see your faith and the love of Jesus holding us, helping us, and making us one body.

This past year I traveled many places, some not on this continent. Because of Covid postponements, we had both Lambeth Conference and our General Convention

within weeks of each other. The Lambeth Conference is a once every 10 years meeting of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Some 650 Bishops and 450 Spouses from 165 countries met near the Archbishop’s home base, in Canterbury, England for 12 days of worship, bible study and discussion. We talked about everything from world hunger, climate crisis to Anglican identity, all in an attempt to deepen understanding and support each other’s churches across a multitude of cultures and contexts. I’ve written about all this before, but what I’d like you to take away is that although it was exhausting and emotional, it was a great blessing to represent you.

The Anglican Church, of which we are a tiny part, is alive and growing. The American church has a very big role in the communion because we’ve reached out to so many across the globe, and built many relationships. My most powerful learning for the two weeks was that although our languages and skin colors are varied and our contexts and customs incredibly diverse, the love of Jesus bridged our differences and made the experience make sense. When all else fails, a network of common love can transcend global politics and encourage cooperation for Jesus’ sake. That’s one big reason why we should remain active there.

Just before I left for England, we held our General Convention in Baltimore, which was abbreviated into four and a half days. It was pretty chaotic and confusing and yet there were some redeeming moments that I will share in a minute. I appreciate the work of our deputation, and the good news is we get to have another convention in 2024. We’ll be nominating and electing our delegation this afternoon and tomorrow, and I hope you’ll think about serving. The next convention will be seven days long. I hope we learned that we can constructively condense the business, but we’re still in search of the perfect conven-

tion. At the 2024 General Convention we will elect a new Presiding Bishop.

Speaking of Presiding Bishops, my cousin and brother Michael’s visit in May of this past year was amazing. We had a real Revival, and from all I have heard from you, it came at the right time. On my challenging days, I remember how it looked and felt to see all you processing with your banners into the arena at Birmingham-Southern. Wow, it was something, and it brought tears to many eyes. If you missed it, you can scan the QR code at the end and watch it. Bishop Curry can preach and his message rings so true: “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”

I will never forget his time with our youth. They asked him hard and direct questions, like “Tell us about growing up and a hard time you had, how did you get through it?” And “how was it to grow up as a Black man where you lived?” “Tell us how you found God.” The youth simply reflected the good formation they’d received in their church. Our youth are hungry, curious and devoted. The Presiding Bishop’s breakfast with clergy and ECW was also a great blessing and a shot in the arm for all of us. The music at the Revival was beautiful and so inspiring. The witness talks from our three presenters gave us a glimpse of the depth and breadth of our work together. I so appreciate everyone who helped make that day so wonderful. I hope we can do it again, because we saw the power of coming together to share what God is doing in our lives. That’s what revives us.

During COVID our clergy and laity became overnight televangelists and YouTube teachers, and even though everyone is completely back to in-person gathering, our careers on the internet are still growing. Is our theology big enough to accommodate our virtual congregations and communities? As amazing as it sounds, I think it’s all here to stay. In responding to COVID, a new kind of church has been born and we’re still figuring it out. Our teaching, preaching, meeting virtually will continue and change.

General Convention delegates from the diocese gathered in Baltimore in July 2022.

Presiding Bishop Curry preaching at Revival 2022.

We’ll get better at it and understand how to make it work. We’re blessed with hard working, creative, determined, inspired and faithful clergy and I’m proud of their selfless love for Jesus and their flocks. They’ve given everything they’ve got to keep their churches going, and I want you to know I am grateful.

Everyone has worked together to relentlessly feed the hungry and the lost, in Wednesday night car lines, pop-up food banks, food trucks and more. You’ve organized vaccine clinics and clothing drives, helped with utilities, gas and rent. Name it, we’ve tried it. You’ve become nimble and responsive to circumstances in unbelievable ways. Our churches have seen their home communities as a mission field and responded with generous hearts. And you’ve become more engaged in the communities outside your parishes as a result.

Our youth ministry has rebounded with giant camp events, two Happenings, 110 kids at Christmas conference and no reports of Covid after. Youth also attended a Province IV leadership event and we added a new Diocesan Service Day with Rise Against Hunger. Campus ministry has continued to regroup and grow. I think that one thing we are learning is our strongest campus ministry happens when it’s directly connected to a parish.

The dire financial forecast that so many predicted, thankfully, has not materialized. Thanks to your careful planning and your extraordinary generosity, even with inflation, we are emerging in a healthy place and able to help some of our most vulnerable and smaller communities.

This past Sunday I was in Selma at St. Paul’s, where they are reeling and recovering from a violent tornado that destroyed homes, schools, churches, and business in both the richest and the poorest areas. St. Paul’s was spared, but every parish member lost something. We blessed their new Gamble House, which was made to be lodging space for people coming to Selma on Pilgrimage, and now is being used to house first responders and work crews who are there to help. The people of Selma will need support for months and years as they rebuild their community, and also will

need resources for those without insurance. You can go to our website and make a donation to support disaster relief.

You continued to give faithfully and sacrificially to your parishes and the diocese in support of our shared mission and ministry. When I say thank you, it never seems like it’s enough. But I do thank you, and I thank God. Your generosity and the dedication of your lay/clergy leaders has helped many churches end their year financially whole, and we can look ahead to next year with hopeful spirits, and that is something to celebrate.

In April 2022, the Standing Committee, Commission on Ministry and Diocesan Council met together at camp, and led by Bishop Prior, considered their work for the coming year. They agreed that the purpose of the diocese is to be a resource for our parishes - not just a regulatory body - but a resource: a

group of people who come together as a team to help so that our parishes can witness to the love of Jesus in us, around us and through us, therefore transforming the world. This governing body organized their work around the four areas that wherever I go seem to represent both our strengths and our challenges. The directions we affirmed last year are viewed through these four lenses:

1. Leadership Development:

Last convention I promised to strengthen our leadership with both Bishop Prior and the Rev. Canon Geoff Evans, who both just had their first anniversary with us. They are building our leadership capacity across the diocese. We are advertising and recruiting for the Diocese of Alabama all over the country, and encouraging more people to enter our discernment processes. I am happy to report we’re making significant progress. We spent Clergy conference with faculty on Adaptive Leadership, and we’ve introduced Leading in Hope to our newest clergy.

We held two Explorer’s Days in 2022, designed for those interested in discernment for ordained service, and a total of 48 people from 26 parishes attended. We currently have 15 postulants and candidates for Holy Orders in process, an increase of two from last year, and several of those are in

Bishop Prior with youth of the diocese during convention.

alternative training. Alternative training for ordained ministry is a changing area of the church. Most of our students are enrolled at Sewanee’s program, two are at Bexley/Seabury, but all the seminaries are offering low-residency training. While we can explore new ways to educate, we can’t compromise on quality. Residential seminary is still the norm, but virtual life has entered in a strong way, motivated and encouraged by COVID. I’m grateful to the Rev. Canon Kelley Hudlow for working closely with our clergy and postulants to help prepare them for ministry.

The Commission on Ministry has been incredibly active, and the Rev. Polly Robb has been a great chairperson. We’re checking our assumptions, asking lots of questions, looking at lay and ordained work, and this year we will have two cycles of active shepherding to try and accommodate more interest.

2. Congregational Vitality:

This is an idea you heard articulated in the Rev. Sam Wells’ offerings last year, and you will also hear about from our speaker, the Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee, this year. What makes a congregation vital and vibrant? Is the sharing of the gospel bringing life to those inside and outside their walls? Is the ministry inside attractive to those who are outside? How has COVID changed us?

Each parish context is different. I’m always wondering how we best support your ministries, and how is your ministry vital to the community you call home? We’re finding that when the diocesan staff partners and comes alongside people in their parishes to strengthen connections to the community, things start to happen. Two years ago, we began more deliberately considering each parish’s circumstances, asking “What are your barriers to vitality?” and “How can we help

you overcome those?” We’ve encouraged small church + large church partnerships. Some of you are doing that now. Mission and Outreach parish grants have stimulated amazing ministries. St. Catherine’s, Chelsea used $2,500 to fund a Halloween Fair for children with disabilities that’s now a tradition. St. Peter’s, Talladega leveraged their grant into a choral scholar’s program that’s revitalizing the town’s music. There are so many good stories to tell.

Clergy leadership is often directly related to vitality. We are focused on that issue and work every day to build more ordained and lay support for those who need it. Last year at convention we had 14 vacancies in rector or associate rector positions. This year I’m happy to report we have only four vacancies, and we have every reason to believe we will fill those four this year. But for those of you still waiting, we haven’t forgotten you.

At your request, we also studied salary equity issues and found that our salary differences are related to parish size, not gender or race. Larger churches are able to pay higher salaries than smaller churches. I’m happy to share details with those who raised the questions last year.

Last year we had 45 parishes being served by retired clergy, and this year that number is 24, with 17 parishes served solely by supply clergy. That doesn’t mean we don’t have some parishes that would rather not be served by supply

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clergy. We do. My point is we’re finding that developing an individualized plan for each parish according to their context is what works best. So deliberately, thoughtfully, that’s what we’re doing. I want us to develop a process so when a transition happens, we know the best way to help that group of leaders. Thank you to Rev. Geoff Evans and Bishop Brian Prior in particular, who work on this all the time, and for the rest of the team working with them.

3. Racial Healing:

This began as an effort to energize ministries that help us share God’s reconciling love with a priority on racial reconciliation. Building on the fine work of 30 years of Sawyerville, the excellent leadership of the Commission on Truth, Justice and Racial Reconciliation, I want us to support Sacred Ground groups in our parishes, expand our education and training, and do more to be part of the legacy in Montgomery, Hayneville, and Selma. To that end, the task force I appointed on Becoming Beloved Community worked for ten months to study how we might strengthen our ministry around racial reconciliation. They have finished their

work and made some recommendations, and I will give you more details tomorrow.

This summer, we had 187 youth from all around the Diocese and Hale County who staffed Sawyerville. Twelve young people participated in Person2Person. Approximately 250 people came together from all over the country to walk the Jonathan Daniels Pilgrimage this summer. We also named our first Missioner for Racial Healing and Pilgrimage, Ms. Breanna Mitchell. She will help us respond to the growing mission of pilgrimage that has come to our churches in Montgomery. We have made great progress but more is to come.

Sometimes our deep roots in the geography of the Black Belt yield a chance to help communities in unexpected ways. This year we partnered with the Black Belt Citizens in Uniontown to provide water filters to residents, free of charge. These filters are, for some, an answer to prayer. So far we’ve given away over 50, at a cost of $400 each, and thanks to your generosity and leadership we’re able to show love this way. As one happy recipient wrote us and said, “In my home I am a caretaker of two elderly gentlemen with dementia…it’s not easy…access to clean water means a lot.”

4. Camp McDowell:

Camp is a beloved resource for parishes and the diocese and a vital part of our identity. It’s been through some ups and downs in the past two years. I’m happy to report it is stable and has emerged, rebounded and even excelled. Bishop Prior’s leadership as he has worked with me and with Camp McDowell has been tremendous. The camp listening sessions and Brian’s guidance has been essential and life-giving to this ministry. Brian was just given the Hero of Camping Ministry Award from the Episcopal Camp and Conference Center. He’s been doing this a long time and I love having his help. We have learned much and will continue to learn more. 31,000 people came to camp in 2022. We’re almost back to 2019 numbers of 1,400 in summer camp, and camp got $171,000 in grants. Thank you to camp leadership, and you’ll hear more from them this afternoon.

Watching and walking with you this year I want to thank our larger churches for their leadership in reaching out to share resources, not only money, although they’ve done that, but ideas as well. Clergy and lay leaders have also stepped in special ways to share. I want to applaud everyone’s willingness to experiment and try new things. Don’t stop doing that!

As I look at how our Church is changing, I see that serving the needs of the community around you is critical to vitality. COVID time opened us to new ways and has us asking new questions every day. You’ve taught me that asking for help, planning for the future, personally inviting someone to church every Sunday, engaging music, feeding programs, collaboration with other denominations, investing in some technology, are all ways that spread the Good News quickly. As I believe our speaker will remind us: “God’s gifts are not for God’s people. They are through God’s people for everyone else…God’s gifts are the sort you cannot keep…give them away and they always replenish.”

Thinking about God’s gifts leads me to mention one of our most painful, yet most tender and powerful experiences of Jesus love in the Body of Christ this year. We all know Saint Stephen’s lost three dear people June 16, 2022, and the three, Bart, Sharon, and Jane, were definitely gifts from God, giving themselves to faithfully serve so many. In the middle of serving, they were senselessly killed. Immediately, the people across our diocese, churches, and beyond responded with love, prayers, presence, money, flowers, ribbons, and food, and it was reciprocal with the people of St. Stephen’s. The parish opened itself to receive and return the love. It was unchartered territory for all of us, and I want to thank the clergy, the counselors, and the lay leadership for leading the way. Much healing has happened and much transformation. We’ve been changed by June 16 and I dare to say God is helping us love each other in new ways. I’m grateful to all of

you for the support you showed me and St Stephen’s. They have a memorial that is being planned and will be built soon. Presiding Bishop Curry will come here for the June 16, 2023 dedication and remembrance. We can see God is working through it all.

I read about a preacher who received his first communion when he was ten years old. He described himself as an anxious kid who was very worried about taking communion correctly. After all, he knew it was really, really important and mysterious, and by the time he knelt at the altar he was crying. Being ten, he was embarrassed but he couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his face. The bishop saw his tears and as he handed him the wafer, he stopped, wiped the boy’s cheek and touched his head, and, as the author puts it, “in a gesture of blessing, I didn’t see him offer to any other kid. And in that moment, I fell into God.” He goes on to say “I’ve spent the last forty years as a minister living the results of that moment.”

We’re all here now because at some time or another we fell into God. Most of us have done so over and over. We’re bound together by the reconciling love of Jesus, who saves us and gives a kingdom where love reigns. We are blessed to share that love with a world that needs desperately to hear the story. When we testify to the hope that’s in us, amazing, life giving, lifesaving love of Jesus is unleashed and the world is a better place. Last year, Rev. Sam Wells told us “That God would restore the years the locusts had eaten.” And that we “already had everything we need”. “The joy of the Lord is our strength”. I know we have still have many challenges, but new life, new growth is underway. As Paul tells the Thessalonians as he ends his letter, “May the Lord direct our hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ”. Thank you for sharing this ministry with me. I am honored to be your Bishop.

For the visitation schedules of Bishop Curry and Assisting Bishop Prior scan the QR code. For assistance, contact Liza Lee Horton, Executive Assistant to Bishop Curry, lhorton@dioala.org, (205)358-9224.

Scan this QR code to watch Revival 2022.

Scan this code for complete coverage of the 192nd Diocesan Convention, including video recordings of speakers, business sessions, worship services, and Bishop Curry’s addresses.

An Overview of the 192nd Diocesan Convention

Deep Roots, New Growth

Debbie Donaldson, Missioner for Communications

On February 2-4, the 192nd Convention of the Diocese of Alabama gathered at Camp McDowell. This year our convention theme was “Deep Roots, New Growth,” inspired by God’s words to Jeremiah 17:7-8: “Those who trust God, shall be like trees planted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers, never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.”

Delegates began gathering at Camp McDowell late Thursday afternoon. After dinner at Doug Carpenter Hall, a service of Evening Prayer was held in the Chapel of St. Francis. The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee, who also was our keynote speaker for the convention, gave the homily.

Business Session 1

The first business session began at 9:30am on Friday, February 3, in Doug Carpenter Hall. The session was opened with prayer by Bishop Curry. Music during business sessions and the Eucharist was led by Shaun Pezant and his son, Evan Pezant. Bishop Curry welcomed delegates to the convention, a quorum was determined, and business began.

Bishop Curry thanked the Rev. Scott Arnold, Convention Secretary, and Augusta Dowd, Chancellor for the Diocese of Alabama, for their work at the convention. After voting was held for the adoption of the agenda, order of conduct, and to give seat and voice to the lay members of Council and the non-canonical/licensed clergy who were present, Bishop Curry gave her opening address. Her full remarks are on page 5 of this issue.

This year, instead of showing videos of different ministries during convention, four 15-minute “Growth talks” were spread throughout Friday and Saturday. These short talks included a variety of speakers and reflected on the four areas

Bishop Curry and leadership are focusing on: Leadership Development, Congregational Vitality, Camp McDowell, and Racial Healing.

Following the bishop’s address, the Rev. Canon Kelley Hudlow led Growth Talk 1: Leadership Development. This group included Lauren Jones, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Birmingham - Youth Leadership; Gaige Tittle, Canterbury UNA/ All Saints College Ministry – Leadership in College Ministry; The Rev. Jose Fernandez, Grace Woodlawn – Local Formation for Ordained Ministry.

Afterwards, Bishop Curry spoke about those leaders who are actively training for ordination. Our diocese supports both residential seminarians and AIMS students, which stands for Alabama Integrative Ministry School and is a non-residential course of theological studies for diaconal and priesthood education. AIMS works in partnership with Sewanee and with Bexley-Seabury and other Episcopal seminaries. Bishop Curry then recognized those training for ordination: Richard Alquist, Kristin Blackerby, Lucian Cronkite, Quincy Hall, David Hodnett, Katie Kirk, Jane Major, Sara Olson, Chris Paul, Paul Petznick, Karen Price, Kelton Riley, Jordan Rippy, Bridget Tytler, and Julia Sanford.

Following the introduction of seminarians, Bishop Curry thanked the Deans of our seven convocations for their work: Jeff Evans: St. Stephen’s, Huntsville; Paul Pradat: Christ Church, Tuscaloosa; Rich Webster: St. Luke’s, Birmingham; Candice Frazier: Church of the Ascension, Montgomery; Rob Iller: St. James, Alexander City; Carl Saxton: Holy Comforter, Gadsden; and Robert Fowler: St. Luke’s, Jacksonville.

After a short break with music, diocesan staff were introduced. Delegates from campus ministries and youth representatives were recognized and given full seat, voice, and vote: Campus ministries: Bayley St. Clair (Delegate) and Lizzy Erbach (Alternate) from Canterbury, Tuscaloosa

(Marc Burnette, chaplain); Helen Abele (Delegate) and Andrea Shipley (Alternate) from Birmingham Episcopal Campus Ministries (Emily Collette, chaplain); Jace Nixon (Delegate)- UA Huntsville/Canterbury, Huntsville (Liam Ayres, chaplain); Gaige Tittle (Delegate) and David Marsh (Alternate) from Canterbury UNA (Callie Plunket-Brewton, chaplain), and Lila Meadows (Alternate), from Auburn College Ministries. Youth representatives included Olivia O’Halloran, Nativity, Huntsville, and Lauren Jones, St. Stephen’s, Birmingham. Three worshipping communities were

also welcomed: The Abbey Birmingham, St. Martin’s in the Pines Birmingham, and Todos Los Santos, Montgomery.

Bishop Curry then made the announcement of a special visitor at convention: Bishop Henry N. Parsley, 10th Bishop of Alabama. Parsley was warmly welcomed and made brief remarks, and after a standing ovation, posed for photos and greeted friends from years past. His full remarks are on page 18.

The last business of the morning session included an overview of the election process by Hank Poellnitz. Current Standing Committee members were recognized, pre-filed nominations for the committee were named, and then nominations from the floor were accepted for open clergy and lay seats. The same process followed for Disciplinary Board and Diocesan Council.

Chancellor Augusta Dowd made a report on the four pre-filed resolutions, which were to be voted for during the business session on Saturday. Voting was conducted electronically, and convention organizer Chris Lambert was invited to the podium to conduct a practice vote. Delegates were invited to attend a working lunch in the resolution hearing of their choice. Immediately before the afternoon session began, all delegates gathered in the field across from Hall Hall for a group photo.

Keynote Speaker: The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee

The session opened with a keynote address by The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee, senior minister of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, Ontario. He was previously a full professor and the inaugural holder of the Butler Chair in Homiletics and Biblical Hermeneutics at the Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia. His primary vocation is to reinvigorate today’s church with the best of ancient and contemporary wisdom for creative, faithful living. Byassee used the work of four people in England as the basis of his talk:

- Kate Welch, a superstar in the world of social entrepreneurship.

- Rev. Robert Ward, who started a Pentecostal Anglican church and a program called “Fresh Expressions”, a church designed for those presently in no church at all.

- Rev. Mark Miller, Stockton Parish Church, Stocktonon-Tees, United Kingdom, who sees his calling as one of growing churches and “making disciples who make disciples.”

- Pastor Brian Burke, who helped launch Bethany City Church in Sunderland, United Kingdom.

Rev. Byassee asked delegates to reflect on seven questions:

1. Who is the mighty apostle right under our nose?

The preacher at the Friday night Eucharist was the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga.

2. What’s the mission opportunity we’re missing because it’s almost too easy?

3. What can we learn from what other churches are doing well?

4. What is your church desperate for?

5. If “God speaks to the church by who God sends to the church,” who is God sending, and so what is God saying?

6. Who are the people no one else wants, and how do we go get them?

7. What new thing is God trying to birth in our midst and how do we midwife that?

To hear both of The Rev. Byassee’s addresses and his homily, please scan the QR code at the end of this article. The full text of his Saturday morning address is included on page 20.

The Rev. Canon Geoff Evans then introduced Growth Talk 2: Congregational Vitality. Participants in this group included The Rev. Susan Oakes, St. Peter’s, Talladega; The Rev. Rich Webster, St. Luke’s, Crestline Park; and The Rev. Richelle Thompson-Pridmore, Church of the Resurrection, Rainbow City.

Bishop Curry returned to the podium and recognized lay delegates and alternates who were attending their first Diocesan Convention. She then named and asked new clergy in the diocese to stand. After a short music break, Curry invited Bishop Prior to the podium to conduct Growth Talk

3: Camp McDowell. Whitney Moore-Shae, Interim Executive Director of Camp McDowell, and Olivia O’Halloran, youth representative and summer camp attendee were panel members.

Dinner that night took place in Doug Carpenter Hall, and was followed by Holy Eucharist in the Chapel of St. Francis. The preacher was Rt. Rev. Dr. James Tengatenga, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Anglicanism at the School of Theology in Sewanee. Bishop Tengatenga’s sermon can be viewed online by scanning the QR code the end of this article. A group photo of clergy was taken after the service, and then everyone was invited to attend the Folk Music Jam featuring the Whistlebees, and a gathering hosted by St. Thomas, Huntsville.

Saturday, February 4

A busy Saturday morning started off with a Camp McDowell “listening session” led by Bishop Prior. This was the sixth such session held since the new year began, and was well attended. Morning Prayer, led by the youth in the diocese, followed in St. Francis. Lauren Coleman Hornsby, Chair of the Youth Department, preached, and youth participated as readers and musicians. Hornsby’s homily can be found on page 22.

New Clergy Introductions

Emily Rowell Brown – Associate Rector at Christ Church, Tuscaloosa

Donavan Cain – Rector at St. Thomas, Huntsville

Cynthia Carter – Interim Rector at Grace Cullman

Ethan Ferguson – Priest-in-Charge at St. Joseph’s on the Mountain, Mentone

Dillon Green - Associate Rector at St. Matthew’s, Madison

Shari Harrison - Rector at Christ Church, Albertville

Mike Harber – Associate Rector at Holy Trinity, Auburn

Duncan Johnston – Rector at St. John’s, Montgomery

John Kennedy – Deacon at Holy Spirit, Alabaster

Meghan Mazur – Priest-in-Charge at St. Philip’s, Fort Payne

Ally Perry – Rector at Trinity, Wetumpka

Evan Thayer – Rector at Trinity, Demopolis

Barry Vaughn – Priest-in-Charge at St. Matthias, Tuscaloosa

Larry Yarbrough – Interim Rector at Good Shepherd, Montgomery

Election Results

Diocesan Council

Northern District

The Rev. Danielle Thompson (2025)

Mr. Ed Snell (2026)

Middle District

Ms. Marisa Mitchell (2026)

Southern District

Mr. Bill Gamble, Esq. (2026)

Standing Committee

The Rev. Sally Herring (2027)

Ms. Maibeth Porter, Esq. (2027)

Disciplinary Board

The Rev. Susan Oakes (2026)

The Rev. Jay Gardner (1-year term)

Ms. Nancy Ball (2026)

General Convention Delegates

Northern District

The Rev. Shari Harrison

Ms. Patty Whitaker

Middle:

Mr. Bob Boylan

The Rev. Carolyn Foster

Southern:

The Rev. Michael Harber

Ms. Anne Kimzey

At Large:

The Rev. Seth Olson, All Saints, Birmingham

Mr. Richard Norris

Resolutions

Resolution # 1: Operating Budget of the Diocese (Adopted)

Resolution # 2: Camp Budget of the Diocese of Alabama (Adopted)

Resolution # 3 - Conclusion of a Companion Relationship (Adopted)

Resolution # 4 - Communion Forest (Adopted)

For more information about the resolutions please scan this QR code

Rev. Byassee gave his second address immediately following Morning Prayer. His entire address can be found on page 20, and viewed by scanning the QR code at the end of this article. Delegates made their way from the Chapel back to Doug Carpenter Hall, and Bishop Curry dismissed delegates to their caucus elections.

General Session III convened at noon on Saturday. After the opening prayer and song, Bishop G invited Hank Poellnitz back to the stage to lead the convention through the ratification of caucus elections, with Caucus Chairs reporting the results.

Bishop Curry then made her closing address to the convention, with an emphasis on the future and with specific ideas to help our parishes become even more vital and healthy. At the conclusion she introduced Bre Mitchell, who hosted Growth Talk 4: Racial Healing . Members of that panel included Bayley St. Clair, College Ministries: creating pilgrimage programming and trips; Larry Yarborough, Good Shepherd, Montgomery: hosting pilgrimage groups at the parish; and Michael Goldsmith, Nativity, Huntsville: Sacred Ground groups.

Jeff McCormack, outgoing Diocesan Treasurer, then introduced the budget resolution for the diocese and Phyllis Hall, incoming Treasurer, introduced the budget resolution for Camp McDowell. Both resolutions were adopted, and Bishop Curry thanked Jeff for his excellent service as Treasurer of the Diocese for the last three years.

The Rev. Emily Collette introduced Resolution #3, Conclusion of a Companion Relationship with The Diocese of the Virgin Islands, and The Rev. Sarah-Scott Wingo introduced Resolution #4, Communion Forest. Both resolutions were adopted.

Bishop Curry recognized the Rev. John Burruss, Rector of Saint Stephen’s, Birmingham, who expressed his gratitude to the diocese for prayers and other support following the shooting at Saint Stephen’s on June 16, 2022.

Bishop Curry then introduced the staff of Camp McDowell and thanked them for their hard work to make sure convention went well. They were given an enthusiastic standing ovation. She announced that the 193rd Convention of the Diocese of Alabama will be held in Montgomery in February 2024. With all the business of convention completed, Bishop Curry closed the session with a blessing and invited all delegates to join in singing the Doxology.

Closing remarks to the Convention: Bishop Curry

In John’s gospel, Jesus told us, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly”. We don’t have to look any further for a mission statement for the church. Sam Wells writes: “Ministry involves building up the church to embody that abundant life.” Jason writes in “Northern Lights”, “The God of the Bible intends to bless the whole world. Yet he’s committed to doing so through a specific people. God has no gifts that are unmediated. They always come through others. God chooses one people - the church - through whom to bring God’s new creation.” Paul tells us, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

As I’ve watched you this past day and year, I know how much we love our church communities. It is easy to see our churches embody salvation for all of us in Jesus. Yet, we have to keep reminding ourselves they don’t exist for us, but for all the people who are not yet our members. When I visit you on Sundays, you’re all working to carry out the ministry of reconciliation, embody abundant life, make the love of Jesus visible, tangible and real, to be a beacon of hope in your particular context. As we follow Jesus, we want our churches to outlive us and flourish until Jesus comes again. We pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit always to discern what God is doing around us and where we’re being led. I know you do that all the time, because you tell me about it when I visit you. To do that, it has been helpful to organize around those four areas I mentioned yesterday in an effort to build up our ministry together this next year. I’m going to give you some very specific things I want us to do.

1. Leadership Development:

1. We are going to encourage and test a pilot program to prepare a cohort of lay preachers and worship leaders. Working with the Commission on Ministry we will begin working with eight participants this month.

2. We will offer two cycles of the Bishop’s Advisory Commission process to allow for more capacity to support participants interested in discernment.

3. Continue Explorer Days and raise the visibility and understanding of ordained ministry.

4. Full steam ahead on building a network of potential clergy across the Church.

5. Offer training for clergy to focus this year on support of preaching.

6. Provide resources to bridge gaps in resources that we see across your churches, especially in our vulnerable communities.

7. Explore the development of cooperative ministry networks in the Black Belt and in other areas where full-time clergy leadership may be shared with a group or pair of congregations. We have already started doing that, and have had two meetings.

2. Congregational Vitality:

1. We want to come alongside three parishes that may benefit from team guidance and planning, and continue our Outreach/Mission grants to stimulate new ministry for outreach to the world. How can we use our entrepreneurial spirit to be with our communities?

2. Build a team of consultants within the diocese who can assist parishes in community engagement assessment, planning to stimulate new ministry. We want any plan we make to be tailored to the particular congregation’s circumstances, because we want to remove barriers to vitality.

3. Encourage experimentation wherever God raises it up: maybe we could call it the “Ministry of Trying New Things.” The goal is to make us more and more comfortable with experimentation and even failure and starting over. We’ve heard about the Yellow Church, Dungeons and Dragons, Choral Scholars, a fair for disabled children, Bible club, blessing boxes, beans and rice…and I’m sure there is more. What if we look at combining forces, team ministry, trying something for six months and sharing the results. Ask yourself how your church was started and I bet you’ll find that many were offshoots of another community – an example is that All Saints was started by some folks at St. Mary’s. Think about the idea of sending a team of people to begin something new somewhere.

4. Assist congregations with technology, website building and social media strategy. If we are currently managing your website through Digital Faith, we will recreate your website, and include support for streaming, content, and a membership to Caffeinated Church.

5. Offer a combined administrative, formation, planning retreat for small church vitality to help discover ways to come along side each other.

3. Racial Healing:

Earlier this year, the Task Force on Becoming Beloved Community, organized after our last convention, completed their work. Building on the good work of the past 25 years, they recommended the following:

1. Establish a more robust leadership team that works yearround for the Jonathan Daniels Pilgrimage weekend.

2. Merge the Taskforce for Becoming Beloved Community with the Truth, Justice, and Racial Reconciliation Commission to create a single group working together to promote racial healing, reconciliation and justice through education, truth telling and pilgrimage. The Task Force also recommended we create a study center at Church of Good Shepherd in Montgomery to encourage and support pilgrims visiting Civil Rights sites that offers teaching, speakers, historians, and researchers. As I told you last year, Good Shepherd is already a Civil Rights trail site in Montgomery. I will appoint an advisory board in the next month to help me create a vision for the work of the Good Shepherd Center in collaboration with the people of Good Shepherd. We have some facility planning to do. I will also ask the Montgomery convocation clergy to form a consortium with the assistance of the Rev. Kelley Hudlow and consider how they might work together to support this ministry.

3. In March the Diocese will sponsor a day-long training event for 50 parishes interested in racial reconciliation training. We want each of you to send two representatives

to a program called Courageous Conversations to facilitate formation at parish level.

4. We’ll also complete a website dedicated to Becoming Beloved community.

5. Finally, I will explore the development of a prayer garden in Hayneville in cooperation with the city and county leadership to offer a more formal place for prayers for the Jonathan Daniels Pilgrimage.

4. Camp McDowell:

1. We will continue our listening process leading to the formation of a search committee and the selection of an executive director.

2. Continue to develop a planning process, deferred maintenance plan and strategic vision for the future. Working with our talented staff and their leadership, we will help position God’s Backyard so it may function as the resource for our common life of ministry, Christian formation, Care of Creation and service to the Church, Alabama and beyond.

Today you heard about a resolution to begin a communion forest ministry aimed at planting a tree in honor of baptisms, marriages, births, and confirmations, as a symbol of the new life those milestones represent. The idea is explained in the resolution and actually began at the Lambeth Conference. Reforesting the earth is simply good creation stewardship.

Finally, yesterday you heard that I have asked Diocesan Council to explore the results of a feasibility study for a capital campaign. I hope I will have the results of that study by Pentecost. Here’s why I believe we need a campaign.

First, the next five years of our ministry, emerging from Covid, virtual life, demographic changes, and shifting educational processes require us to respond with intention and focus. In some dramatic ways, God is renewing us and restoring us. For the sake of building and nourishing vibrant churches outside

our larger population centers, we will need ways to consistently support those less populated areas of our state. Many of those churches are the glue that holds communities together. As we discern what God is doing we’re attempting to stay nimble and keep up with the Holy Spirit. Building and encouraging a stronger network of faith communities, both large and small, that make Jesus’ love real in their contexts is our mission.

I want us to be able to offer competitive, gap funding, support for facilities and people, music, technology, education. I want us to build stronger youth and campus ministry efforts. If we build an endowed support fund we can provide stable funding for smaller, vulnerable communities for many years into the future.

Camp McDowell would be part of the campaign, particularly the more unattractive infrastructure projects like the septic system in lower Camp, Epps Hall, Cabin renovation and Stough Lodge. Summer Camp is our foundation and an enormously powerful path to Christian formation that was once was used three months a year, but now is used 12 months a year. But before I get too far ahead, I want to see all the results of the listening sessions to define next steps.

I do believe If we leave the financial challenges for a later time, then the next Bishop will need at least five years to get ready for it, added to my tenure and it would then be ten years before we attempt to build up the Church for the future. Finally, we need a planned-giving strategy and option that can be widely shared. If we can build support, even when it is realized in the future, we can provide for thriving ministry for our babies and their babies 100 years from now.

I hear from many “Bishop, we want younger people in church.” So do I, but I want us to take care of whomever God sends us. And I know you are doing that. I’ve been reading about how ministry to young people seems to thrive, and what I know is that young people are attracted to real people who share their real life experiences of Jesus. How can we make it a habit of sharing what Jesus is doing in our lives? Maybe that’s the first place to begin.

I realize these are not easy things to pursue. But they are God-sized goals, and worth our best efforts, our money, our Spirit and our heart. We’ll all have time for questions when the feasibility study for the capital campaign is complete. In the meantime, I ask your prayers.

Last but not least, some may wonder, why are we interested in pilgrimages? Well, there is a place in the gospel where Jesus offers the lame man beside the pool of Bethesda a chance to get into the water. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” When we go on a pilgrimage, we explore and enter into the story that’s already been lived once. Visiting and rehearing the story then becomes a spiritual path, a chance to get into the water. In doing so, we open ourselves to deeper understanding and healing.

So when we travel the Civil Rights trail and we hear stories of what happened in the bad or good days, even if we were not there when the events occurred, as we think about our faith and listen for the voice of Jesus, something in us will heal. As our young preacher told us this morning, she didn’t know if her prayers healed her mom, but she did know her prayers healed her. We begin to understand our own place in the story. We’re reconciled to God and each other in small steps just by making the journey and asking ourselves the questions.

We have been given the heritage of the Civil Rights struggle as our home base. I think we are called to be part of that heritage as ministry for those who are coming to visit where we actually live. We’re in the midst of watching God reconciling loads of people to each other and themselves. He’s drawing them to him through the pilgrimage. Grace abounds.

Yes, these are God-sized goals, but Jesus has great expectations and a big job for us. After all, to those of you who are preaching Sunday, he calls us “salt and light”, capable of saving and leading the world. Jesus loves us and believes we can live the way he did. Jesus gives us an extravagant love aimed at making God’s kingdom real. He gave us himself, completely and we can’t really afford to do less.

In this exciting and dynamic time, God is leading us and God will show us how to navigate it. After all, the Church belongs to Jesus.

If you sense some urgency in all these ideas and dreams, you are correct. As far as I can tell, the Christian faith was born in urgency. It was and still is life and death stuff. Paul used athletic metaphors about running races, or battle images about wearing armor and fighting the good fight to communicate that God’s call is not optional. The world around us is not always a hopeful, serene or loving place most days. But we live among all that with a kind of hope that can’t be defeated, a kind of light that can’t be overcome. When we share it freely, God’s work with us becomes visible and lives are transformed.

To borrow from Sam Wells, “we are a community of hope whose ambition is no more or no less to be a blessing to others, and to help them bless others, and so imitate the action of God in Christ and anticipate the kingdom.”

Please feel free to send me your ideas, in email or otherwise. Our job is to take the next step and do the next right thing. I am encouraged by the words Paul tells the Philippians, “I have no doubt that the One who started this great work in you is faithful to complete it.”

Thank you for your attention, your prayers and your love. As we close out our time together, I remain blessed to be your Bishop and I hope very soon, I see you at church.

Bishop Henry Parsley Attends 192nd Convention

It’s nice to be here with you. I’ve never been in Doug Carpenter Hall before - it’s fabulous. I remember when Bethany and this new development of camp across the road was just a glint in the eye of a few people. It’s wonderful to see what’s happened here. Amazing. And I must say it was kind of odd to see my name on a little sign that says “Parsley Commons”. I’ve always felt very common. So now I have a Commons, which is wonderful.

I’ve been looking for an opportunity to say hello, particularly since Glenda became your new bishop. I couldn’t come to her consecration, I couldn’t come to the institution because of Covid and my delicate age. I’ve been wanting to come and just be able to say, I’m so glad you’re number 12, Bishop Curry, it’s wonderful. I do remember when you came to me thinking about offering yourself for ordination and guiding you through the process and ordaining you and knowing your many gifts. It’s great to see them being put to such good use now as the first woman bishop of the Diocese of Alabama.

You know, there are several kinds of bishops. Diocesan bishops and coadjutor bishops and suffragan bishops and assistant bishops and provisional bishops. I’ve been fortunate to be three of those: your coadjutor, your diocesan, and then provisional in Maryland. I would like to tell you two funny stories, because my life in Alabama has continued to follow me around. When I went to be provisional bishop in eastern Maryland, I went to a little church called St. Paul’s, Kent Island. The first thing they did was take me out into the churchyard and show me the grave of Tallulah Bankhead, thinking that Alabama saint would mean a lot to me. And she did. And the church I go to now in Wilmington, North Carolina, where we live, once elected Richard Hooker Wilmer to be their rector, although he never served. Then he got elected bishop of second Bishop of Alabama. So I keep running into Alabama wherever I go.

One of the nicest things about being retired and in my 75th year is having a huge wealth of memories to think

Clergy and lay delegates at convention were delighted by the surprise visit of the 10th Bishop of Alabama, Henry Parsley, on February 3. Bishop Parsley and his wife Becky now live in Wilmington, North Carolina. Here are his remarks made to the convention:

Left to right: Bishops Prior, Parsley, Curry, and Tengatenga.

about, many of which come from right here. The churches, the people, the places of sweet home, Alabama. I think about you often. I keep up with The Alabama Episcopalian. I read lots of enews and it’s just great to see the continued vitality and life of this diocese. I never fail to tell my friends that the Diocese of Alabama is one of the most vital, healthy, and strong dioceses in the whole Episcopal church. I consider it one of the great honors of my life to have served as your bishop for a while. Thank you for what you continue to do in God’s service to build the church.

As I was driving through Jasper, that familiar old road to camp, I saw a little sign on the road that said, “Feed and seed deliveries to the left”. I thought to myself, isn’t that kind of what the church is all about? Feeding and seeding - feeding each other with the grace and love of Jesus and seeding ministries, seeding outreach, and

seeding love and hope in the world. When I was here, I think we did some feeding and seeding, and I know you continue to do that, so I wish you every blessing as you keep going forward.

I am still doing some work as a bishop, less and less as I get older and older, but I’ll always be enormously grateful to being part of the life of the Diocese of Alabama. It’s a long way to Wilmington, North Carolina, where my family’s from and where we live, so I don’t get over here enough, but I think about you often. I pray for you regularly, and I have great hope that you’ll continue to be, if not the best diocese in the Episcopal church, one of the top two or three. Keep it up, Glenda. Thank you very much.

The Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley

The Diocese of Alabama is one of the most vital, healthy, and strong dioceses in the whole Episcopal church.

The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee: Saturday morning Convention address

You’ll notice I don’t really trust abstract principles. I’m not into giving guidelines: here, do this, there, do that. Because what works in one place won’t work in another. So I go to specific places: the north of England, for example - notice what’s working there, and then tell you the stories, so you can take away from that particularity what might work in your particularity.

I do have one principle though. It’s not abstract. It comes from these stories with real people. Try something. Experiment. Fail. Learn. Try again. An evangelical sociologist told me once this is the difference between how the mainline and evangelicals endeavor things. Evangelicals try 100 things. They underfund all of them. They notice the 10 that succeed. Then they fund those. Three to four of those succeed long term, so the success rate overall is pretty low - 3-4%. But because they didn’t pour money in at the beginning, they spend it wisely. Meanwhile, we mainline liberals try one new thing. We lavishly fund it. Then when it fails, we say ‘oh well that never works, we can never try anything like that again.’ Or we try something, it sort of works, it’s kind of good, it limps along unchanged for years. No. Try lots of things. When they fail, call it an interesting failure, learn from it, and kill it. Then start ten more things. Or 100. You get my point?

Our professionalism in the mainline might have hurt us here. It’s really, really, expensive to hire a full-time clergy person. We have seminary costs, we need master’s degrees, years and years of vetting, pensions, over-priced health insurance. But if you start something, lay people are much cheaper. Pay them a little and it’s a lot to them. It’s not their day job. They’re doing it more out of love than for money (always a good thing in ministry). I told a friend in the UK about a new church plant, Alpha style, lots of guitars and lights, and they’d hired 5 full-time clergy to start. He shook his head. Did the math. And said “I could start 50 Fresh Expressions with that money.” Most of those 50 will fail. 10 will succeed. And those will be strong new cells of church life.

Churches are really good at sustaining: staunching decline, stretching out resources, selling off bits of ourselves. We do things that are kind of good. After surviving Covid we’ll keep zoom ministries going with little thought to whether they’re bearing fruit. But we need to experiment, to try stuff, and also to fail faster. If something’s not working do something else, take those resources and redeploy them. My co-author on Eight Virtues, Matt Miofsky, says churches are aware of the risk of doing stuff. We’ve tried that, it didn’t work, it hurt, it was embarrassing. We’re less aware of the risk of doing nothing. But there is risk there too. Missed opportunity. Insurance adjustors and risk students are trying to put dollar figures to the

risk of doing nothing, it’s a growing field. I’d love to see this beautiful church in this gorgeous part of the world spend its capital not on extending life for its own sake, but birthing something new, that might look very different. That’s what church planters teach us: growth is a little unpredictable. You throw seed here and fruit comes up there. Wow, ok, weird, lets invest more there. But here’s what we can’t do. Save seed. Preserve it. Keep it “safe.” Nah, throw it everywhere, and see what the Lord of the harvest might birth.

So that’s my charge to you all. Start something. And maybe not just one thing. But lots of things. Find your folks whom others are attracted to and put them in a place they can invite their friends to pursue Jesus together. And count it as a success when there’s failure. Tell them to expect to fail. It takes the pressure off. As Christians the heart of our faith is a failure. The cross means life for all. Failure isn’t failure with our God. Success isn’t success without failure. Up is down, down is up. Mass chaos and hysteria. Or as we call it, resurrection.

Try something. Experiment. Fail. Learn. Then try again.

“We don't always have to operate in a “deficit space”. There’s not enough of this, if only we had a little of that “that” that other church has. Churches offer what our world needs - not just Jesus, but also community, connection, and a cure for loneliness and meaninglessness.” The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee

The Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee’s complete talk is available by scanning the QR code.

Youth Department Address by Sarah Coleman Hornsby, Chair of the Youth Department

My dream of being an Olympic swimmer was shattered at age nine. It was a summer day and my parents took us to Birmingham for a quick trip. We were staying at a hotel with an indoor pool, and when my mother took us swimming, I was thrilled. I was giddy thinking about showing my mother that I should join swim team, that I was a strong and fast swimmer. I started swimming in the 12-foot-deep end, practicing my skills. My brother, age seven, was playing in the shallow end, holding onto the edge. My sister was having a tea party on the stairs, and my exhausted mother was sitting in the corner reading a book.

I called out to her “Mom, look what I can do!” and swam to the end of the deep end as fast as I could. I ended my amazing swim with a somersault underwater. “Oh, that’s great, baby,” she called out as she pretended like she was paying attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my brother, holding onto the wall of the pool. “Coleman! Coleman!” he yelled out as he got closer to me. “Can you take me to the deep end? I can’t swim there by myself.” Thinking that I was basically Olympically skilled by nine, I said yes. He wrapped his hands around my shoulders, and I started swimming. We were slicing through the water at what seemed like 50 miles per hour. I was so proud of myself, and my brother was laughing. We made it halfway when my legs started to hurt.

We slowed down, and then we weren’t going anywhere, our heads just barely above the water. And then we sank. My brother, who hadn’t mastered swimming yet, kicked and kicked me down farther from the top. I looked up. I was getting deeper. As seconds went by, I didn’t have the power in my nine-year-old body to get myself to the top. All of a sudden, I saw a splash above me. I saw the outline of blonde hair and Lululemon shorts. Was it an athleisure-wearing angel coming to take me to heaven?

She got closer and closer to me until I was pulled to the surface of the water, gasping for air. She held my brother in one arm while I was wrapped in the other, shocked that I was still alive. My mother, a mere 20 feet away from us, saw us under the surface of the water, and her reflexes from years of swim team kicked in as she dove in fully clothed to save her two not-so-smart children. I didn’t step foot into the deep end for the next year and a half, and never asked my mother to join swim team again.

I believe that today’s reading, Mark 9:14-29, relates a lot to this story. When the father describes how his son acts while he’s taken over by the demon, he explains that the demon throws the boy to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. This demon had taken over this boy’s body, and I’m sure the boy felt as if he was drowning. He had lost control of his body, lost control of his life. He wasn’t holding the reins to his life. God wasn’t holding the reins to his life.

The demon tried to kill the boy by throwing him in fire or water, and he would send him rolling on the ground. But Jesus brought the boy forward. The demon brought the boy into a convulsion. When it saw Jesus, Jesus rebuked the spirit, and then the boy looked dead. He laid on the ground lifeless and the crowd believed the boy had died. Jesus lifted the boy to the ground and then he was new again. The disciples asked Jesus why they weren’t able to bring the demon out of the boy, and Jesus replied that “this kind can only come out by prayer.”

Many of us get caught up in daily life and start drowning in the balancing act of faith and routines, the overwhelming piling up of things that we are “supposed” to do. We put our relationship with God on the back burner and just try to keep up with life. We start putting in the minimum effort with our relationship with God. Check off going to church on the to-do list and then you are done until next Sunday. I’ve always struggled with prayer and in making it a constant action throughout my day.

When I was in ninth grade, my mother’s cancer relapsed. For the second time she went to her doctor in Houston, and my sister, brother, and I were hopping around different houses, all separately: a different house every week, crashing with friends but trying not to overstay our welcome. This went on for two months. I strayed from God. I prayed and prayed for God to heal my mother and bring her home, but I received no answers. I believed that God wasn’t listening to me, even that God wasn’t real. Looking back now, I see that he used that experience as a way for me to grow our relationship. I prayed that maybe he would listen to me. I prayed deeply and felt helpless. When my mother came home happy and healthy, I knew that my prayers did something. They may have helped heal my mother physically...or not, I’m not too sure. But I know that they healed me. They healed my heart that had turned so bitter.

They turned me towards the one thing that I should have been focusing on. I started incorporating prayer into my daily life little by little. I prayed every time I got in the car. It was the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did when I went to sleep.

I believe that God used this time to flourish my relationship with him and help me realize the power of prayer and a relationship with God. I think that this reading proves how important prayer is in our daily lives. God can only rescue us through having a relationship with him, and the first step in that is to have a healthy and active prayer life. How can you have a relationship with someone that you don’t talk to? Like Jesus rescued the boy from his demon and my mother rescued my brother and me from drowning, God can rescue us from our worries and struggles if we connect with him through prayer.

Leadership Development

Province IV Youth Gathering

On December 1-4, 2022, a group of three Youth Department members and two adults traveled to Cathedral Domain, the camp and conference center for the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, for the Province IV Youth Leadership and Networking Event. This event, usually held annually, is an opportunity for youth and their advisors from the twenty dioceses that make up Province IV to gather, share successes and challenges, listen to one another, and to develop ministry ideas and opportunities for all of our dioceses.

Our group was daunted by the idea of representing our diocese to the whole province, but were immediately comforted upon arriving at Cathedral Domain. The youth found it to be similar to Camp McDowell, a welcoming and peaceful place with gracious hosts Cindy and Andy Sigmon, who shared many unique and authentic aspects of Kentucky with us.

During our time at the event, our youth enjoyed meeting youth from the surrounding dioceses, and each diocese shared what makes them special, including worship styles, music, and games. Most of all, our youth left feeling both proud of the Diocese of Alabama, and impacted by a new understanding of how our diocese is part of the larger Church.

“This weekend taught me so much, reminding me that it never hurts to be the one to open conversation, and that it is always beneficial to listen to others and all they have

to share. I met some amazing friends this weekend and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to share the love of our diocese and to learn more about the church on a larger scale.” Bayley Welborn, Christ

Church Tuscaloosa

“The weekend made me think of the Episcopal Diocese on a bigger spectrum. A quote we read this weekend talked about how we sometimes read stuff on autopilot. That really spoke to me because sometimes in church we say things every Sunday and slowly lose the meaning of them. However, something we also forget is that we are saying it as a nation which is very empowering to me. This weekend was truly impactful and I’m very glad I got the opportunity to attend.” Caitlin

Martin, Epiphany Guntersville

“Our time spent at Cathedral Domain made me more aware of how large the Episcopal community is. I feel like we all have a lot of the same ideas and this weekend helped come up with plans of action for each other. There was endless love and it felt like we had all known each other for years. Thank you Cookie, Cindy, and Andy for putting this weekend together.” John

Wilson Dorlon, St. Stephen’s Birmingham

Submitted by Kristin Blackerby, Missioner for Youth, Campus, and Young Adult Ministries, and Taylor McLemore; with input from John Wilson Dorlon, Caitlin Martin, & Bayley Welborn

Youth Christmas Conference

In Winter of 2021, I was given the opportunity to go to Christmas Conference at Camp McDowell. I was in ninth grade then, and it was my first time attending an event hosted by the Youth Department. The minute I got there, I loved it. Everyone was so genuine, kind, and welcoming, especially the members of the Youth Department. Following this, I was able to go to every fellowship opportunity that the Youth Department hosted. I had the best time at each and there was no doubt that I would go to Christmas Conference in 2022.

I am always excited to arrive at Camp McDowell. I know from previous years that it’s always filled with unconditional love, endless laughter, and the most wonderful campers and staff. Going into Christmas Conference this past year, I really wanted to make the most out of it. I was eager to make lots of new friends and get closer with the ones that I already had, but I was especially excited to focus on program. This year, the theme of program was “Making Spirits Bright”. I think that Reverends Sarah Watts and Dillon Green did such an amazing job presenting program this year.

Sarah and Dillon were able to incorporate fun games and challenges into their lessons, making them more interactive and easier for us to apply to our own lives. I think that “Guess that Carol” may have been the hardest and most fun guessing game I’ve ever played. One program lesson that really stuck out to me was our second one. The theme for it was focusing on how Christ finds us in times

of darkness. I think that the past three years have been so challenging for everyone. From COVID-19 and having to be separated from friends and family, to missing activities at school, church, and camp, it made it easy to find the darkness in the world and stay focused on that. It can be challenging to find Christ in these dark moments, and that’s why this lesson was so important to me. Finding your light in the darkness can be very difficult. It’s important to remember that something beautiful always comes from darkness and no matter what you may be going through, Christ will help guide you to a place you will feel safe.

Our third lesson was discussing how to reflect the light of Christ back into the world. I felt empowered as a youth to know that I can affect the people around me. That’s not the easiest job as a Christian, so having the support of adults as well as my fellow youth gives me courage.

Programs like Christmas Conference prove the particular importance of diocesan support of Youth Department events. The youth of our diocese are the future of the church. As interest towards the Youth Department grows, the diocese grows. To youth in our diocese, these events are a place where you can come as you are and show your true self. They are a great opportunity to make connections and the best of friendships while fostering your faith. I hope that each and everyone of you make the most out of these opportunities for fellowship. They truly hold a special place in my heart, and I can only hope they will do the same for you.

By Catherine Lam, Holy Trinity, Auburn

Leadership Development

Deacon John Stewart has been named to serve a second term on the Task Force on Individuals with Mental Illness, an interim working group of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. This task force has developed educational and informational resources that will soon be available to parishes, and they continue their work as they develop proposals to make Mental Health First Aid become a component of clergy formation, similar to the requirement for completing Safeguarding God’s Children and Race Relations Training.

Deacon Stewart, who for many years served at St. Matthias in Tuscaloosa, currently supports small parishes in the Black Belt, and continues his local work serving those with mental illness. John serves in Alabama’s National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) and has served as the President of the Tuscaloosa NAMI Affiliate. With this organization, John serves primarily in the area supporting Crisis Intervention Training for Law Enforcement Officers. Deacon John Stewart received the 2022 Affiliate of the Year Award and has been awarded the President of the Year Award at the NAMI Alabama Annual Conference.

St. John’s Hosts Alabama Appellate Courts

On January 13, 2023, St. John’s Episcopal Church of Montgomery, Alabama, hosted a service of praise and thanksgiving for the members and guests of the Alabama State Appellate Courts. This service was a prelude to the Investiture of Alabama Supreme Court Justice-Elect Greg Cook who is serving his first term on the court as well as Justice Kelli Wise who is beginning her third term on the court. The service was presided over by St. John’s Associate Rector, the Reverend Doctor Deonna Neal. The service was ecumenical with the homily being given by Dr. David Eldridge, Senior Pastor of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church of Homewood, Alabama (Justice-Elect Cook’s home church). Pictured below is Rev. Dr. Neal with some of the appellate court judges who were in attendance.

From Left to Right: Judge Chris McCool (Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals); Judge Richard Minor (Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals); Justice Sandra Stewart (Alabama Supreme Court); Justice-Elect Greg Cook (Alabama Supreme Court); Chief Justice Tom Parker (Alabama Supreme Court); Justice Kelli Wise (Alabama Supreme Court); Justice Jay Mitchell (Alabama Supreme Court); Justice Will Sellers (Alabama Supreme Court); Justice Tommy Bryan (Alabama Supreme Court) and the Rev. Dr. Deonna Neal.

A note from The Rev. John Burruss to the 192nd Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama

Bishops and delegates, thank you for this privilege to share a few thoughts with you. In the 12th chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he is teaching the community in Corinth what it means to be the Body of Christ. Some of the words that speak the most to me: “If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body” (1 Cor. 12:19. “But God arranged the body… that there may be no dissension within the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” 1 Cor. 12:24b-25.

Paul concludes, “Now you are the body of Christ” 1 Cor. 12:27a.

I’ve heard these words all my life. And yet in twenty years of professional church work and ten years of ordained ministry, I’ve only begun to grasp the significance of Paul’s theology in the last few months. Almost on a daily basis, I am asked how the people of Saint Stephen’s are doing. I often respond that it has been the hardest several months and the most beautiful several months of my life. We are thriving as a church because we have experienced the pain of Good Friday and met Jesus Christ on the other side.

Friends, that is because of you – the physical reminder of God’s presence and resurrection. You have prayed, you have showed up, you have cared, you have felt our pain, entered into it, and been a part of the healing that is ongoing. I am really just here to say thank you. Thank you for teaching us what it means to be the Body of Christ. Thank you for teaching us what it means to be family. Thank you for teaching us what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

The Rev. John B. Burruss Rector, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Birmingham

A Garden Labyrinth

On June 16, 2022, our hearts were broken when three faithful parishioners were violently taken from us. Collectively embraced by the larger community and inspired by those we lost, we believe that love is the only path forward as we continue to welcome, invite, forgive, and to serve.

This proposed garden labyrinth will be a place of prayer and pilgrimage, of reflection and peace, for all who seek it. It is, also, a remembrance for the lives of Bart Rainey, Jane Pounds, and Sharon Yeager. May its path nurture our entire community leading us to a wholeness of spirit that diminishes the darkness.

Our goal is to strengthen our connection to the community by providing a tranquil labyrinth garden, where those from the community and the church may find peace through meditation and prayer. The labyrinth will be accessible and available to everyone who would like to walk, pray, or find a quiet space to reflect.

Schedule

Our goal is to complete construction by June 16, 2023, when the Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, visits Saint Stephen’s to be with us on this first anniversary.

Design

• The labyrinth is a five-circuit wheelchair accessible octagon.

• A stone wall with three sheet fountains encloses the garden’s east side.

• Contrasting stone pavers define the paths to the center, which features a sand blasted trefoil design on the center stone.

• Curved free-form wooden slat benches and a covered narrow porch are to the south.

• A bronze plaque will commemorate the tragedy we experienced as a community.

• Four sweet bay magnolia trees, ground covering, flowering shrubs, and evergreens will shape the garden.

Scan this QR code for more information about the Saint Stephen’s labyrinth project or to make a gift.

A deeper story of Love, in which the light will always return

What’s up with God’s backyard, you ask?

Bishop Prior, Assisting Bishop

One of the first things Bishop G asked of me when I arrived in Alabama last year was to walk with Camp McDowell. As we were just coming out of the pandemic, Camp, like every other organization in the service and hospitality world, was struggling. As such, the first order of business was to get Camp financially stable. Thanks to the hard work of Interim Executive Director Whitney Moore-Shea, the camp staff, and camp treasurer Phyllis Hall, Camp is now in a strong financial position.

The second order of business was to fill beds. The great news is summer camp, Farm School, the Environmental Center, Folk School and rental groups showed up in abundance. Happy to report in 2022 Camp McDowell hosted over 30,000 people! With Camp thriving again, the time is right to begin imagining the next season at Camp McDowell. It is a critical time in the life of Camp to pull the lens back and take a full view of all aspects of Camp McDowell’s life. Central to this endeavor is to provide an opportunity for everyone who chooses to give voice to their past and present experience of Camp and to dream about what the Spirit is inviting us to in the next season of Camp McDowell. To date we have offered six different in -person listening sessions throughout the Diocese, and an online version which has had over 150 responses. All of this information will now be given to a discernment team to begin putting together themes and dreams for the future of Camp McDowell. Stay tuned, and as this information becomes available, we will share the next proposed steps based on all of the great information that has been gathered. Thank you to all who have contributed! In these exciting times, as always, please keep Camp McDowell in your prayers.

We are celebrating by inviting everyone to Camp McDowell from May 26-28th for many fun activities. This is the same weekend as Primary 1 and we will be joining them for an epic Pasture Party on Saturday night and a celebratory closing church service on Sunday morning.

This weekend will be an amazing opportunity to connect with old and new camp friends, and reminiscence about all your Camp McDowell memories while making new ones.

We are offering many different registration options, including day passes as well as opportunities for those who would like to come for the whole weekend.

Programming and activities include a wide range of choices like hiking, farm tours, speakers, canoeing, McDowell Environmental Center programs, ropes courses, etc.

Questions? Email summercampdirector@campmcdowell.org.

Bishop Prior held the sixth Camp McDowell Listening Session during convention. Scan here to register.

Camp McDowell

Taking a Sabbatical at Wonderful, Wonderful Camp McDowell

The Rev. Rob Iler

It was my good fortune to spend five weeks of a recent sabbatical at wonderful, wonderful Camp McDowell. My original sabbatical plan, an RV excursion around the country, was nixed when Putin’s invasion of Ukraine further complicated an already sketchy supply chain; then, my hope to join an archaeological dig in Israel was thwarted by Covid; and a motorcycle tour of the chapels of Ireland also fell through. It seemed God was calling me to a construction

branches, clear drains and keep bugs at bay – an extraordinary feat on its own, given that Camp is deep in the woods. They don’t have time to do long term maintenance: Their plates are full as they juggle the flow of work order repairs with regular maintenance and keep firewood on the porches for the steady stream of year-round guests who visit.

Housekeeping is equally exceptional. Diana Legg heads up the housekeeping department, which includes eight employees. Diana has worked at Camp McDowell for 32 years. There are 770 beds on the campus, all of which are kept ready to receive guests. That’s not easy when it takes 18 laundry loads to put clean sheets and towels on the beds and in the bathrooms of just one Bethany Village or Miller Commons cabin. Treating stained linens adds precious time to a schedule that also includes the endless vacuuming, dusting, sweeping porches, cleaning of hearths, refrigerators and kitchens and taking out the trash in each of 26 cabins.

committee mission at our beloved diocesan camp.

What I found there was encouraging in so many ways, but none more so than in the staff who have worked for us at Camp McDowell over the years and, in some cases, generations. I say “us” because Camp McDowell is our church camp. We are all welcomed, invited and encouraged to visit often for rest, relaxation and renewal, for fun and fellowship and the deepening of our faith.

We, as a body of Christ’s own in the Diocese of Alabama, are ultimately responsible for the upkeep and financial commitment to maintain and operate Camp McDowell; however, Camp McDowell’s volunteer board of trustees and our diocesan bishop, the Right Rev. Glenda Curry, and assistant bishop, the Right Rev. Brian Prior, wisely have put the day-to-day responsibilities of running Camp’s varied aspects in the very capable hands of an exemplary staff.

Our maintenance team, headed up by Ethan Johnston for five of his 19 years at Camp McDowell, does a remarkable job of keeping up with work orders for more than 100 structures on the campus. His crew of four fulltime employees and one part time keeps air conditioners running in the hot summer months and heat flowing all winter. They clip

And the food! Camp McDowell serves 100,000 meals every year from three kitchens, with a staff that grows and shrinks with the flow of campers. This team balances their offerings to provide a healthy variety of tasty foods, taking extra care to meet special dietary requirements for guests whose health or preferences dictate heart healthy, gluten free, diabetic and weight loss meal plans and more.

These are labor intensive jobs, and these Camp McDowell employees make sure we only need to drop our luggage and dive into a wide spectrum of activities when we arrive. We can immerse ourselves in folk school, Cursillo and other training and renewal opportunities, environmental education, farming, hiking, canoeing, singing camp songs and rocking

on the porches because this crew does a great job of minding our accommodations. In fact, our arrivals and departures at Camp McDowell are so seamless that it’s easy to take the efforts of our operations staff for granted.

While 14 staff coordinate programs from the central office, four staff – including interim director Whitney Moore-Shea –currently keep up with the bills, budgeting, and bookings. This small but efficient team harmonizes the schedules, orders supplies, troubleshoots the unexpected and maintain relations with 101 churches and places in the diocese. In addition, they coordinate and support environmental education programs for thousands of school children who attend camps at McDowell, as well as farm school and more. In addition, there also are many organizations across the Southeast that visit Camp for training, retreat, and renewal.

Their efforts are supported by a 16-member board of trustees and a diocesan staff – under the careful hearts of our bishops, who all work to preserve this sacred space that is our beloved Camp McDowell. Our trustees serve for as many as six years, setting policies and directing the growth and future plans of Camp’s role in the body of Christ.

Spending five weeks at Camp – watching the day-today operations function like a well-oiled machine – gave me a new appreciation for the staff that makes it possible for us to partake of the blessings we find there. I am grateful for them and for the board and our bishops who take seriously their commitment to maintain God’s backyard for the benefit of Christ’s kingdom. And I encourage us all to greater gratitude for those who take such care of Camp McDowell.

Racial Healing

Summer 2023: Celebrating 30 years of Sawyerville!

This summer, Sawyerville will be celebrating 30 years of ministry! We are thrilled for Summer Camp, Summer Learning, and JumpStart. In order to make these programs run smoothly, we need your help. Here are some ways to be involved.

1. If you are 16 years old or older, apply to be on staff for Summer Camp. Applications are now available and can be found on our website: www.sawyerville.org

2. We need meals for 100-120 people. If your parish, reunion group, or Sunday school class would like to come visit camp and donate a meal, let us know. For more information, please contact Claire Cotten at ccotten@dioala.org.

Sawyerville Person2Person

One of Sawyerville’s three goals is to improve race relations in Alabama. Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, we offer a 4 day experience where youth and young adults are able to have meaningful conversations on race in Alabama, pilgrimage to sites throughout Montgomery, and worship together.

We welcomed 12 participants and staff from all over the Diocese to a retreat hosted at St. John’s Montgomery. High school students, college students, and adults spent the weekend learning about race in Alabama. We visited the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Civil Rights Memorial, the Harris House, Freedom Rides Museum, and St. Paul AME Church.

We’re so thankful to St. John’s, Montgomery for hosting the event and to those who offered their prayers! If you’d like to be involved with Person2Person, contact Bre Mitchell at bmitchell@dioala.org.

DIOCESAN STAFF UPDATES

Bishop Curry is pleased to announce two new diocesan staff roles, effective January 1, 2023.

The Rev. Kelley Hudlow is now serving as the Canon for Vocations and Community Engagement. In this work, Kelley will continue to develop and implement initiatives for formation of ordained and lay leaders, and seek to develop new opportunities for community engagement for our diocese and parishes. She will also support the diocesan staff and programing of Sawyerville; Racial Healing and Pilgrimage; and Youth, College, and Young Adult ministries. Hudlow has served on the diocesan staff since 2016.

In addition, the bishop has appointed Dr. Jordan Rippy as Assistant to the Bishop for Special Projects. Rippy is a seminarian from the Diocese of Alabama, and is completing a program of study at Bexley-Seabury and Wesley Theological Seminary.

AROUND THE DIOCESE

18th Annual Gumbo Gala benefiting Episcopal Place

April 29, 2023 from 12-3 PM Cahaba Brewing Company

Episcopal Place is currently soliciting cook teams, event sponsors, volunteers, and attendees for the 18th Annual Gumbo Gala. All proceeds benefit affordable housing and the residents of Episcopal Place. All information regarding teams, sponsors, and attendees is available at gumbogala.com. If you are interested in volunteering, please email ajohnston@episcopalplace.org. Please contact Adam if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

The Episcopal Church in Alabama

521 North 20th Street

Birmingham, AL 35203–2682

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The Episcopal Church in Alabama

Carpenter House

521 North 20th Street

Birmingham, AL 35203–2682

Bishop: The Rt. Rev. Glenda S. Curry

Assisting Bishop: The Rt. Rev. Brian N. Prior

The Alabama Episcopalian

Debbie Donaldson, Editor

Miles G. Parsons, Art Director

Volume 108, Number 1

Winter 2023

USPS 070-910

ISSN 1041-3316

Periodical postage paid

POSTMASTER: Please send address corrections to Liza Lee Horton, The Alabama Episcopalian, 521 North 20th Street, Birmingham, AL, 35203-2682.

The Alabama Episcopalian is published quarterly. Please send stories and photographs (full color, at highest resolution possible) to Editor Debbie Donaldson, ddonaldson@dioala.org. The submission deadlines for each issue are February 1, May 1, August 1, and November 1.

Parishes and individuals, please send all address changes or additions to Liza Lee Horton, lhorton@dioala.org or Carpenter House, 521 North 20th Street, Birmingham, AL 35203–2682.