The Bishop of Nevada shares his thoughts on Convention

The Right Reverend Dan Thomas Edwards, 10th Bishop of Nevada, was keeping a blog I didn't know about until today when he posted about it on Facebook. His message is directed toward those in his diocese of course, but really, it's to all of us in the Episcopal Church. He discusses and explains exactly what issues dominated Convention and what Do25 and Co56 really mean to all of us and to those whom it will most greatly effect.

I met +Dan when I was researching Celtic Eucharistic services for my priest--by email--and at the time he was the rector of a parish in THE South ;-). As it turns out he and his wife have on occasion come to Ashland on vacation to attend the Oregon Shakespearean Festival. He said he would try to come again. Of course he was still a parish rector at the time before, less than a month later, he was elected the then new bishop of Nevada, taking the place of ++Katharine who had been elected PB in 2006.

I give to you a preview with a link to the blog itself and his letter to his diocese. And if you continue reading beyond the letter, you will find blog diaries of Convention from said bishop:

"Brothers and sisters in Christ, the 76th Convention of the Episcopal Church is drawing to a close. It has been a benchmark in our common life, the beginning of an exciting new stage in our mission. So many things were accomplished.

Among the most important were: The adoption of the Charter for Lifelong Christian Formation. This charter gives structure and encouragement for our efforts in the Frensdorff School. It marks the Christian life as one of ongoing learning and commits the church to being a learning community.

We endorsed parish partnerships with local schools. Nevada’s developing partnership with Communities in Schools puts us on this track already. It is not acceptable that only 44% of our Nevada children graduate from high school. We can do better.

Several bold steps were taken to strengthen evangelism. The most important for Nevada is a process for training and licensing lay evangelists. I hope every Nevada congregation will have a licensed lay evangelist soon and that they will form a dynamic network for sharing the gospel of Jesus with our neighbors.

We formed a Provincial Partnership with the Church in Brazil, set up a plan for shared mission projects with Anglican churches in the Americas, and strengthened the program of companion diocese relationships. Nevada presently does not have such a relationship but we are negotiating a partnership with the Diocese of Santiago in the Philippines. This is a more important way of being a Communion than formal mechanisms and institutional structures that do not have the human ties of diocese to diocese and parish to parish bonds.

We provided pensions for lay employees, reduced our health insurance costs, reformed the disciplinary process, and passed a budget against all odds.

We had some opportunities to depart from the traditional faith of the church. There were resolutions deleting the word “virgin” from descriptions of Mary in our prayers and authorizing alternative forms of the Baptismal Covenant. We did not do these things. The bishops and deputies were emphatically orthodox..."

Please read the rest of his blog post at Bishop Dan's Blog.