| |
May 2001
Common threads weave
us together
May, Easter, resurrection, spring
these are some of the common threads connecting our lives in
this Episcopal Diocese in northern New Jersey. There are others
that I want to share with you. One of the commitments the management
team and I made during our appreciative inquiry/visioning work
was to report and act on the trends identified during our work
together at the Visioning Convocation. The first step in this
information sharing was to give the collaboration charts and
the district mind-maps to each of the District Conveners, so
they might bring that information before you at District Convocations.
The hope was that those who weren't able to be at the Visioning
event might understand the work that took place and move onto
the common ground from which we are working.
I have said on several occasions recently that the most intriguing
and future-oriented information that has come out of the Visioning
Convocation is on the mind-maps from the baptismal vow groups.
(These are available on line at www.dioceseofnewark.org/visionmaps)
It was in those groups that participants rowed into deeper water;
they broke out of old thinking and stretched themselves to think
of new possibilities. In order to honor that work and to deepen
our understanding of it, each member of the management team
took one of the baptismal vow mind-maps to analyze and review.
We each spent several hours analyzing the lines and dots on
the maps, trying to determine the common patterns and threads.
We prepared our individual responses (some of us with detailed
tables and graphs, others with handwritten tallies). In our
off-site retreat in early March, we reported the patterns we
had each discovered. Then as a group, the management team wrote
down what we heard and saw as common threads - the patterns
that were repeated and rephrased and replayed from one baptismal
vow group to another. None of the common threads will come as
a surprise to you; in fact, the reality is that there aren't
any real surprises in this report. What are these common threads
that connect us as a resurrection people? They are: spirituality;
diversity (and anti-prejudice); community development (and outreach
and mission); education (and lay ministry development); elderly
(at risk, mental health, personal ); youth (at risk, programs,
education, worship), parish collaboration. No surprises. Common
ministries, common opportunities, common concerns that connect
us all. We are already doing much of the work the Visioning
Convocation participants identified as important and necessary
to our ministry and life - we just don't always recognize and
name what we are doing. What we really need is to focus on how
we may expand these ministries.
I've reported these common threads to Diocesan Council and to
the district conveners. As you can see in the report on district
activity on page 3, many of the districts are already organizing
subcommittees to work on programs or activities around these
identified needs.
If you recall, a question about how we should be organized as
a diocesan staff to support the work of the diocese launched
us into our appreciative inquiry process. I have asked another
eight members of the staff to meet with the management team
as a Congregational Development Team. We have met twice already
and will gather again in a few days. This team is talking together
about how as program staff we can better support ministries
in the areas identified in the common threads, and how as staff
we may better communicate and coordinate our efforts to minimize
duplication and to encourage the work of our congregations and
districts.
Our task now, as staff, as clergy, as laity, is to find the
arena-congregation, youth group, task force, District Convocation,
Council- to which we are most drawn. Let's then put our best
efforts into living the vision of our common life in Christ.
 |
