Are You Listening??

This past Tuesday evening, PBS Newshour aired a long, one-on-one interview with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. At one point in the discussion, the interviewer asked, “How did this current round of negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians get started?” Mr. Olmert replied, “We began by sitting down and talking – just the two of us, alone – over a period of two weeks. We usually met in my study. We got to know one another.”

Is it possible that a bunch of Anglicans with large egos might actually learn something from this Jew and this Muslim?

We can only pray…

Louie "Does the Numbers"

The never-dull Louie Crew has done an interesting analysis of the largest parishes in the Episcopal Church, along with those with the best attendance. His results, summarized in a note to selected leaders recently, are interesting:

“In the decade 1997-2007 the number of congregations with 1,000+ members increased by 15%. During the same decade, the total number of communicants in the Episcopal Church increased from 1,529,302 to 1,864,312, or 21.9%.

The 7,635 congregations of TEC average 244 confirmed communicants each.

22.7% of all Episcopalians are members of churches with 1,000 or more communicants, yet those 258 congregations represent only 3.4% of all Episcopal churches.

80 (31%) of the 258 congregations reporting 1,000+ communicants failed to show up in the list of the congregations with the best attendance. 40.4% of the congregations with the best attendance reported fewer than 1,000 communicants.”

What is particularly interesting locally is that three parishes in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania did make it onto the list of those with the best attendance. They are St. John's, Carlisle; St. James, Lancaster; and St. Andrew’s, State College. Further proof that, as one of my better clergy friends says, 99% of good ministry is just showing up.

You can read the entire report here.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

‘Tis the season, apparently, for news and information received a little too late for the December Tidings, and too important to hold until our next edition. Therefore, please take heed of the following:

Bishop Baxter will be the preacher for the annual Absalom Jones service, February 16, 2008, at historic St. Agnes Episcopal Church, Miami, Fl. You can read the details here.

The Winter Youth Retreat takes place from February 1-3, 2008 at the Christian Retreat Center. Registrations are due by January 16, 2008. You can find more information here.

Operation Understanding has completed a new round of grant awards, and applications are now being accepted for the spring round of grants. You can find details about recent awards, as well as instructions for the current round, here.

The Spiritual Life Commission retreat for diocesan clergy and leaders takes place on Saturday, December 15, at St. Cyril Center in Danville. The retreat will be led by our former presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Frank Griswold.

Compelling Visions

Parish vision statements are popular; everyone has to have one. I recently found one such statement that struck me as particularly good:

Passion for God; Compassion for People

A tip of the editor’s hat to the folks at St. Luke’s, Altoona, whose passions apparently also include brevity. Well said.