Church of the Ascension, Buffalo, New York--a W-TAG Congregation
Welcome! Because being part of a blogging community might be new to some of you, let's start with an easy ice breaker. Simply click on the comments button below, write something about your congregation (Where you are located, what your interest is in the pilot, or ???) and then click publish. You can either do this anonymously, or have your words reflect your name, or name and photo (you must register as a blog spot user to have the latter option, which is free, easy, and only takes a moment.)
In the coming days you will receive an invitation and permission to post to this blog at any time. That way, you too can post a picture of your congregation, share the joys and bumps on the road ahead, and become better acquainted before and after we meet in New Orleans.
Now go ahead, don't be shy. Try out the process of leaving a comment...you can even post it anonymously and just right "test" so you know how easy it is!
Blessings, S.
13 comments:
St. Thomas, Alamosa, Colorado
We are located in the San Luis Valley, a beautiful 9,000 square mile high altitude valley surrounded by mountains. This is an exciting time for us and I am looking forward to the opportunity to reach out in a deep and spiritual context with our community here locally and within the greater world. I want to find ways to create a safe place for people to connect on a deeper level that will affirm the gifts that each of us has to offer to one another. I would invite if you would like to see pictures to go to our website at www.slvepiscopal.org.
Dawn Simpson
Looking forward to seeing you in New Orleans and hearing your story.
So glad to see that some have visited and ventured a post. We have 85 people coming together in New Orleans, and it promises to be an incredible time. Right now I'm matching up congregations by their homework and putting them into small groups. It is exciting to read of the stories of what is working, what is challenging, etc. Many are the same, and it looks like most are planning a Sept 08 launch date. See you in NO! :-)
We're about a mile from Staten Island, New York, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and are 301 years old, now in a very demographically changing community, maybe up to 80 percent Hispanic. We already launched our new service a few months ago, a Spanish eucharist at 4 PM, but need to relaunch with a very necessary Christian education component. We have a few pictures of our bilingual Christmas Eve Eve service on our web site at http://sjnj.org on the Parish Photos page. We have been blessed with three hispanic Episcopal priests as volunteers.
Actually I am not actually anonymous, but they call me Rev. Joe (Parrish).
I am checking to see if my new 'blogger' name, Joe, is working now.
Rev. Joe (Parrish)
Test seems to work!
Glad to see you here Joe, and see you Wed and in NO! Can't imagine not wearing boots and a down coat--I can't wait!
Hi - We are in Salinas, CA, where all the lettuce comes from - and are in a country setting - beautiful but not too many folks around! So looking forward to meeting you all in New Orleans this week - it will be wonderful to hear stories and to learn from each other.
Patti Barrett, Rector, Good Shepherd
We're in Union City New Jersey, which is one of the old factory towns in Hudson County NJ opposite Manhattan. Our congregation was founded about 150 years ago by people who worked in a silk mill. The group of workers debated what denomination to affilate with; eventually the group split in two, one faction founded a presbyterian church, the other founded our church, St. John's West Hoboken.
We are located at the point where several towns intersect and the past few years have seen an influx of young professional people and families into the neighborhoods near us. Our challenge is to reach out to these people and bring them in our pairsh family.
We have not set a launch date for a new service. Our attendance on a sunday is about 30 people.
I really enjoyed the New Orleans conference. We are going to make a presentation to our congregation and then have the TAG team work on what we learned. All of the "experiments" in worship struck a cord. Blessings on each of us as we reach out to the inactive members and unchurched within our communities.
Brad - Holy Trinity, Churchville
We at Holy Trinity, Churchville, MD are participating in your program, but frankly we are spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. Do you have a step by step procedures/recommendations for how to proceed? e.g. How to identify and contact the population we hope to reach with a survey about a new service? How to evaluate the survey we have designed before sending it out? If responses suggest we should try to develop a "contemporary service", are there any established forms we can use as models? We need guidance beyond the inspirational meeting in New Orleans.
David Workman
PPM, Project Coordinator
dworkman@outreach.com
800.991.6011 ext. 3281
760.454.2449 - Fax
has a program that mails a unique postcard to each new family who has moved into your area monthly for a modest set up fee and 79 cents per card, that gives you names, addresses, and phone numbers (about half to three-fourths have listed phones). So far we haven't mailed to enough to have results, but you might consider this.
Peace and blessings,
Joe Parrish
St. John's, Elizabth, NJ
Phone 1-908-352-2220
We are a very small (30/Sunday)parish in a struggling, rural/small village area in upstate NY. Christ Church grew up on the Erie Canal. Some members are descendants of those who came to work on the canal 100 - 150 years ago. It's an area where things change very slowly, which both a strength and a weakness of course.
We are engaged in a two-year renewal program we're calling "Operation: Restore." It's almost one year into the program, and we've done a lot, but there's a lot more to do to reach the surrounding area.
The area has pockets of terrible poverty and deprivation, and those who get a good education usually leave. But the parish is serving the community creatively.
Special greetings to Joe Parrish! We went through the process together back in NYC and I served in NJ, also, some years back.
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