The Discernment Conference, sponsored by the Commission on Ministry of the Diocese of Missouri, is open to candidates, postulants, aspirants, and those contemplating discernment for ministry. It is also intended for clergy in the Diocese of Missouri who are new to the process of discernment in this diocese or for those who wish to renew their understanding.

The conference will feature talks by the bishop, clergy and laity of the diocese. There will be time for questions, fellowship and sharing.

If you are interested in learning about discernment for ministry in this diocese, if you are already in the process, or if you are a priest or deacon new to the diocese and think you will be overseeing discernment processes in your congregation–this conference is for you.

Cost: $115 per person

Scholarship help is available through the Commission on Ministry on a limited basis. Please consider asking your congregation for financial assistance.

Cancellations submitted after May 18 may not be refunded.

*Spouses and partners of participants are invited to dinner and a panel discussion on the family life of the ordained on the evening of June 3.

Dinner is served at 5:00 p.m.

Reservations are required.

If your spouse/partner would like to attend, please include an additional $8.00 with the registration fee.

All registrations must be received no later than Friday, May 18.

Late registrations will not be accepted.

Conference fee includes the dormitory room, four meals, snacks and materials.

All dormitory rooms are single occupancy.

Reservations to Robin Weisenborn,
Episcopal Diocese of Missouri,
1210 Locust St.,
St. Louis, MO 63103,
rweisenborn@diocesemo.org

METRO    St. Timothy’s – Creve Coeur on Saturday, June 16, 2012 from 10 to 11:30 AM

WEST      Calvary – Columbia on Saturday, June 16, 2012 from 10:30 AM to Noon

SOUTH     All Saints – Farmington on Saturday, June 23, 2012 from 10 to 11:30 AM

Unable to attend and still have a question? Please send it to gc12@diocesemo.org, or leave it in a comment on the deputation’s blog.

After General Convention, the deputation will offer one or more reporting sessions. If your congregation would like to host the reporting session, please contact the deputation at the above address.

For any technical help with posting on the blog, or reaching the deputation, please feel free to contact diocesan communications director Beth Felice at 314-398-2209 (cell) or bfelice@diocesemo.org .

These grants are meant as start-up funds to develop new projects that are “do-able, manageable, replicable, and sustainable by congregations.”

Grant awards range from $2,500 to $15,000.

The complete announcement and grant timeline is available online as a PDF. Project abstracts are due June 1, 2012.

Grant applications are available only from the Offices of the Bishop. Please contact Tracy Grigsby, tgrigsby@diocesemo.org, or 314-231-1220.

From Missouri to Moruland

The next mission trip to Lui is organized by the Blackmore Vale Deanery, (Church of England). Four of their members, one missioner from Lund, Sweden, and our Deacon Susan Naylor make up the group that will travel to South Sudan from April 13-28, God willing.

Team members hope to help the Mothers’ Union in their goal of starting a pre-school group in Lui Town, and possibly in two other locations in the diocese. Others will help the Lui diocesan office with training in computer skills, basic accounts, and project and report writing. They will bring some funds that Blackmore Vale’s parishes have donated to provide additional basic transport (bicycles and motorbikes) for pastors in Lui.

Naylor will serve as team medic and chaplain, work with Lui Hospital nurses, and advise on children’s health for the pre-school project. We’re also still hoping she’ll be able to see the two wells to be dug in Lakamadi and Minga archdeaconries between now and then.

Praying each day as a community. Again we will pray together each day at the same hour, and invite you to join us at 7 AM central time, 3 PM Lui time. We’ll use social media to mark the prayer time as well; look for prayers on Facebook and Twitter (@diocesemo).

From Moruland to Missouri

When Bishop Stephen Dokolo and his wife Lillian were in Missouri for a month last Nov-Dec, plans were made to bring four key members of Lui Diocese to Missouri for two months. A lot happened in the interim.

Debbie Smith writes on the Luinotes blog, “First we were on hold because Archbishop Daniel’s letter to the Presiding Bishop called our whole Lui relationship into question. Finally we got some closure on that and have affirmed the relationship with Bishop Stephen, and so we tried to wire the money for the four travelers to get their new South Sudan ID cards and passports and apply for US visas.”

The money didn’t get there.

Smith details the complexity: U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan require a special license to wire money; the U.S. has no sanctions against the new country South Sudan but the Episcopal Church of Sudan operates now in both Sudan and South Sudan; each bank in the transaction chain seems to have its own interpretation.

“In any case, we have a month’s leeway. If we can get the money to them and they can get visa appointments soon, the visit is still a go. April-May becomes May-June, that’s more or less OK. (After that, not so much.) Both dioceses and the companion diocese committee are making plans on the assumption that it will happen. Please keep the travelers and the process in your prayers.”

Gordon, Margaret, Noel, and Veronica. Missouri missioner Deb Goldfeder has written and introduction to the four Lui pilgrims, which will be published on her blog and in Church of the Advent’s April newsletter. The Rev. Gordon Solomon is the diocesan secretary and hopes to spend some time in the offices of the bishop with Canon to the Ordinary Dan Smith and Financial Officer Desiree Viliocco. Goldfeder writes Gordon can cite chapter and verse of any scripture but his favorite verse is Jeremiah 33:3–Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

The Rev. Margaret Obedayo, priest, former head mistress of the Lui Senior Secondary School and head of the Mother’s Union, worked with Goldfeder to fix treadle sewing machines, and open a combination gift shop and sewing house to make income for the women in Lui.

The Rev. Noel Knight, formerly priest of Lozoh parish (the sister parish of Advent in Crestwood) has recently been appointed diocesan Education Coordinator. He will be working with the archdeaconries to establish church schools.. He was also appointed assistant to the Dean of Fraser Memorial Cathedral in Lui, and attended a training of Deans last November, organized by the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

Goldfeder writes she is excited to Veronica Sosthen. “She is one of the best nurses I have ever had the pleasure to work with.  She is tall and beautiful and is the one woman I got to know the best while I was in Lui.  We worked together in the Pediatric Ward at the Lui Hospital.” Veronica’s husband is one of the most gifted translators in Lui Diocese, Sosthen. He remain in Lui to take care of their son Buna whose nodding disease requires “a lot of attention at times.”

Time in Missouri. So first the money to get passports in Juba has to actually arrive. Then passports and visas procured. And if we get there, the plan is for the four to spend time with their counterparts in Missouri diocese, to attend some diocese-wide events (maybe May confirmations at the cathedral, for instance), and to visit with Missouri parishes and diocesan members. As we get clarity about the dates of the trip, we’ll have more information for how you can participate.

But first, a prayer…

(Photos from (c) Deborah Goldfeder of, top to bottom, Gordon Solomon, Margaret Obedayo, Noel Knight, Veronica Sosthen)

His announcement can be found here.

After the announcement, Williams met with the press. You can watch a video or read the transcript here.

The best part of the job has certainly been seeing churches at grass roots worldwide – seeing why and how they matter to people.  And being given the privilege and the possibility of sharing what you hear in one part of the world, or in one part of the Church of England with other parts.  You can become a kind of ‘switchboard’ for good news.  You can receive good news about what’s happening in one part of the world and pass it on elsewhere, and feel very much enriched and stretched in the process. 

The worst aspects of the job I think have been the sense that there are some conflicts that won’t go away, however long you struggle with them.  And that not everybody in the Anglican Communion or even in the Church of England is eager to avoid schism or separation.  I’ve certainly regarded it as a real priority to try and keep people in relationship with each other.  That is what bishops have to do – what archbishops above all have to do.

The process for selecting the next archbishop is detailed here.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church made this statement,

I am grateful for Rowan Williams’ service as Archbishop of Canterbury during an exceedingly challenging season. We can all give thanks for his erudition and persistence in seeking reconciliation across a rapidly changing Anglican Communion. His leadership of that reconciling work through Indaba and Ubuntu is bearing remarkable fruit, and I believe this will be his most important legacy. I give thanks that his spiritual and intellectual gifts will continue to bless the larger world, albeit from a different vantage point. May the coming months bring well-deserved peace to him and his family, and may we join in blessing his ministry. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

March 16, 2012

“As Bishop, I have primary pastoral responsibilities to the survivors of the abuse perpetrated by a now deposed priest of this Diocese. I also have pastoral responsibilities to the people of Christ Episcopal Church in Rolla. My responsibility begins with hearing from victims and taking them seriously. It continues with holding abusers accountable and meting out consequences. A crucial point in healing comes with telling the truth about the matter, insofar as it can be known, in the midst of the affected community. This is what Diocesan leaders and I did among and for the people of Christ Church last Sunday [March 4 church meeting in Rolla]. It is important to know that these are first steps toward healing, and by no means the last ones.”

Wayne Smith
Bishop of Missouri
March 6, 2012

The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri has a zero tolerance policy for any type of clergy sexual misconduct.

The Offices of the Bishop first received reports in August 2011 of the sexual abuse of boys and adolescents by Joseph Carlo, rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Rolla from 1960-1991.

Under Title IV of the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church, Canon to the Ordinary the Rev. Dan Smith, appointed by Bishop Wayne Smith as diocesan intake officer, began initial investigation. At the time of the initial reports, as a mandated reporter, Canon Smith contacted the State of Missouri Child Abuse Hotline and was informed the criminal statute of limitations had expired.

Canon Smith interviewed in-person and by telephone the lay and ordained leadership of the congregation. After those interviews he interviewed primary and secondary victims of the sexual abuse. The reported abuse by Carlo happened between 1975 and 1985.

In November of 2011 the Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri, the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith, visited Joseph Carlo and informed him of the charges. By the conclusion of this interview Carlo agreed to all the essential points of the charges and submitted himself to judgment. Under Title IV, Canon 9, Bishop Smith deposed Joseph Carlo [meaning he is no longer a priest]. This is the strongest sanction available to a bishop.

The primary concern of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri is the healing of any and all victims of this sexual abuse. Canon Smith has interviewed five people who report incidents of abuse by Carlo between 1975 and 1985.

The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri has offered the victims of this sexual abuse professional counseling by the counselor of their choice. The diocese will cover the costs of any such counseling, including offering to the victims the opportunity to meet with Joseph Carlo if that will aid in their healing process.

The Diocese of Missouri deeply regrets that this investigation took place long after the events of sexual abuse transpired.

On March 4, 2012, a meeting was held at Christ Church with the bishop, the canon, the Chancellor of the Diocese, counselors from Care and Counseling, some victims, clergy and lay leadership in addition to members of the parish. In his report at that meeting, Canon Smith answered the question why do this investigation after such a long period of time, “As Intake Officer I have three responses to that question. Under Title IV of the Canons there is no statute of limitations for this type of offense. Secondly and most importantly, we owe the victims of this type of abuse the truth and our support. This is not canonical it is moral. Victims of this type of abuse often spend the rest of their lives seeking healing. Bringing into the open that which was a secret aids that healing. Third, Congregations whether they realize it or not suffer wounds as the result of secrets and rumors. The only way for the healing of congregations to occur is to take away the power of secrets and innuendo by being as open and transparent as possible. I acknowledge the many feelings that are probably present in you personally and corporately. I have shared in many of those feelings during this process. This is a lot to take in and I appreciate that fact. We want you to know that the Diocese of Missouri and your Bishop stand ready to help in any way possible with the healing process that now begins.”

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March 13, 2012