Region One Notes from a meeting on Feb 6, 2013 At its February meeting, Region One:
1.Approved $1,000 for Aquia Episcopal for providing scholarships for teenagers and adults to go to Elizabeth City, North Carolina for home improvement projects to include repairs to doors, windows, floor, ceilings and roofs, painting, and for small scale construction projects such as building wheel chair ramps and repairing decks. They will be part of a 400 person workcamp.
Elizabeth City suffers from a number of weather beaten homes bought years ago by homeowners whose current age and poverty prevent them from maintaining them well. This is an example of Region One‘s mission to “enable the local parish and Diocese in carrying their mission to the world as witnesses to God’s love“ and also because we intend “to be a visible and stable presence of the Body of Christ.” The project is a part of the Diocese of Virginia’s 5 Priorities for mission and ministry – Youth and Young adult formation, Mission Beyond Ourselves and Evangelism and Proclamation. It is a continuation of what Bishop Susan said at Annual Council to participate in hands on ministry and service to others. Furthermore, the project is another example of Aquia’s mission projects serving communities which have had economic challenges – Smithers, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Scranton Pennsylvania.
2. Approved $1,000 for Shrine Mont Camp’s tuition fund which will go to helping youth campers to attend one of the many Shrine Camps over the summer. As Bishop Gulick said at the recent Annual Council, “Great things happen on the mountain for our campers, seeds of faith are sewn, and the harvest is abundant.” Region One desires to be a leader in supporting these camps now and in the future to help with building improvements scheduled for the next few years.
3. Affirmed that we would be sending a youth delegate and alternate to the next Annual Council as part of our support of youth. Richie Gannon from Aquia Episcopal, one of our youth delegates in 2013, made a suggestion to add special youth activities at the next Council and also to develop closer links to Parish Youth Ministry (PYM) at the Diocese level. Dean Jeff Packard promised these ideas would be taken to the next Dean’s meeting. One of Region One’s 8 initiatives from 2010 was to explore the possibility of adding new youth activities. Youth and Young Adult Formation is also one of the Diocese’s 5 Priorities of Mission and Ministry.
4. Approved $1,000 to help one of the Region One churches, Church of the Incarnation in Mineral complete a septic field project. One of Region One’s goals is to further links to our 19 churches. We do this in our common goal in extending the love of Christ and furthering the Diocese goal of strengthening our congregations.
5. Approved $1,000 for a project in Haiti to build new bathrooms for 300 children and teachers at the Notre Dame Episcopal Church and school in Port Au Prince. There is only one toilet which is decrepit by our standards. Through the leadership of one of our Churches, St. George’s Episcopal, we now have a partnership in ministry with this church and school in the poorest country in this hemisphere and one who suffered untold damage in the 2010 earthquake. Other churches in our Region, Trinity Episcopal, Christ Episcopal and Church of the Incarnation have contributed their donations and time and money toward developing this partnership. The project is keeping with Diocese 5 Priorities for mission and ministry for multiculturalism and proclamation and mission beyond ourselves.
6. Learned about Centering Prayer and Spiritual Direction. This was one of our four program topics of 2013 and one where we utilized the resources within Region. Appropriately our meeting was held a week before Lent begins. The Rev. Thomas Hughes, Priest-Associate at St. George’s, provided an introduction to Centering Prayer which is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God’s presence within us. Tom holds a certificate in Centering Prayer and schedules regular Centering Prayer retreats. The Rev. Catherine Hicks, priest-in-charge at St. Peter’s Episcopal, is also a Spiritual Director at Virginia Theological Seminary. She shared her work in helping students understand the process of their spiritual growth while in seminary. She holds a certificate in Spiritual direction studies from Washington Theological Union.