To the Delegates, Clergy, and People of
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan:

The information for the business meeting of our special joint convention is now available. All information is in the Agreement of Union including the proposed name, the Episcopal Diocese of the Great Lakes; the draft constitution and canons for the proposed new diocese; financial information; steps toward the election of a bishop diocesan; and more. The text of the resolutions on which the conventions will be voting and the rules of order are also attached. The Agreement document is a final draft and no further changes are expected before our meeting.

The original Call to a Special Convention was distributed on February 1st.

For information, please read below and visit the convention page of our websites, www.eastmich.org/special-convention and www.edwm.org/special-convention.

This notice has been sent to all clergy and general subscribers as well as to 2023 senior wardens, delegates, and alternates and some 2024 Eastern Michigan delegates. We are currently in the window of updating our contact lists for delegates following parish annual meetings, and have an early deadline (Feb. 15) for the submission of Parish Annual Reports in order to better communicate directly with delegates who will serve this special convention and annual convention in 2024. It will be especially important that parish leadership communicate internally to ensure that all delegates have the information for our meeting.

Peace,

IMPORTANT DATES & DEADLINES

THE AGREEMENT OF UNION

The Agreement of Union is the packet of materials that would be submitted to the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church for ratification, should our conventions vote “yes” on the resolutions at our Special Joint Convention. It contains the proposed name of the new diocese, the draft constitution and canons, financial information, steps toward the election of a bishop diocesan and more.

At this convention, the action taken will be to vote on the resolutions for juncture, not to “pass” or “adopt” the Agreement of Union. The Agreement essentially demonstrates to the dioceses and the wider church that we’ve done our homework to prepare for this moment. Should we vote to juncture, the draft canons and budgets would remain amendable prior to adoption at the First Convention of the Diocese of the Great Lakes.

>>  Click here to access the Agreement of Union document, plus additional materials: the text of the resolutions before convention and the rules of order for the convention. 

The convention will not have printed copies of the 63-page Agreement available. It is available digitally and for printing at home or at church before you travel. The text of the resolutions will be printed and available as a standalone, one-page document.

A note on what would come after our vote: 

Should each diocese vote to approve juncture, our dioceses would submit the Agreement of Union to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church for formal affirmation this summer. We would remain separate dioceses until the adoption of the new constitution and canons at the first convention of the new diocese in October. The transition period of formally aligning processes, structures, and policies would begin in the summer, expand following the convention in the fall, and continue over time as we would live into being one body.

SCHEDULE

*This basic schedule is subject to change. Breaks will be taken as needed.

PRE-CONVENTION MEETINGS

All in the dioceses, especially voting delegates and clergy, are invited to join via Zoom for a pre-convention meeting to prepare for the business session of our convention. 

Both pre-convention meetings will be recorded for later viewing for those unable to join in-person. Delegates are encouraged to attend the pre-convention meeting for their respective diocese, but may attend the meeting of the other diocese should schedules conflict.

You must RSVP separately from your convention registration to receive your Zoom link to participate in the pre-convention meeting.

Eastern Michigan – Tuesday, February 20th at 7pm – Click here to RSVP
Western Michigan – Thursday, February 22nd at 7pm – Click here to RSVP

PRAYER & WORSHIP

Prayer and worship will be built into our time together during our convention, consistent with our call as followers of Christ and in accordance with our canons for convening a diocesan convention.

Holy Eucharist – 11:00 am
We will begin our gathering with Holy Eucharist. The Rt. Rev. Gladstone Adams, III, our bi-diocesan assisting bishop, will celebrate and preach.

Due to space and timing constraints for this special convention, this service will not include the procession of church banners and clergy are not expected to vest for the procession unless holding a role in the service.

Post-Business Prayer
Before departing from our special convention, our liturgy team will lead us in a short (10-15 minute) service of prayer.

Our planning team recognizes that, no matter the results of our vote on juncture, this is a significant moment in the life of our dioceses and a range of emotions and reactions will be present in the room. Grounding ourselves in prayer at the beginning and end of our day sets the tone for our work in this moment and in the months ahead, and reminds us of our call as disciples in this church and in the communities we serve.

YOUTH DELEGATES

High school-aged young people are invited to participate at the special convention by expressing interest in serving as a Youth Delegate.

Youth Delegates are leaders in their congregation and in the diocese and have voice and vote at convention. For this special convention, youth delegates will be appointmented by the ecclesiastical authority. There is no out-of-pocket cost for the youth delegates to participate. Food, and registration fees are included; no overnight accommodations will be provided for this one-day convention. 

Youth with interest should contact Director of Children and Youth Formation McKenzie Knill at mknill@eastmich.org or mknill@edwm.org by March 1.

BOOK EXCHANGE

At the request of some in the dioceses, we will offer an area for a book exchange.

Books related to the church and ministry are welcome to be offered at no-cost to other convention attendees. Any books left over at the conclusion of our convention may be reclaimed or will be donated.

CONVENTION LOCATION

St. Christopher’s, Grand Blanc

The joint special convention, including worship and business meeting, will be held at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, located at G-9020 South Saginaw St., Grand Blanc, MI 48439. 

The church building and parking lot are totally handicap accessible.

HOTEL & ACCOMODATIONS

We have several hotel blocks to provide options for those requiring overnight stays, available Friday night. Please read below for information including rate and booking instructions.

All reservations under our hotel blocks must be made by March 1st. A limited number of rooms are available at each site and blocks may fill before the deadline.

—

Hyatt Place Flint/Grand Blanc

Rate: $109/night
Features: Free breakfast, free parking, pool
Address: 5481 Hill-23 Drive, Flint, MI 48507
Distance from St. Christopher’s: 9.2 miles or a little over 15 minutes

Click here to reserve our rate.

Hampton Inn Flint/Grand Blanc

Rate: $109/night
Features: Free breakfast, free parking, pool
Address: 6060 Rashelle Drive, Flint, MI 48507
Distance from St. Christopher’s: 9.4 miles or a little over 15 minutes

Click here to reserve our rate.

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Grand Blanc

Rate: $119-124/night
Features: Free breakfast, free parking, pool
Address: 3405 Regency Park Dr Grand Blanc, MI 48439
Distance from St. Christopher’s: 2 miles or a little over 5 minutes

Click here to reserve our rate.

Fairfield Inn & Suites Flint/Grand Blanc

Rate: $139-149/night
Features: Free breakfast, free parking, pool
Address: 9044 Holly Rd, Grand Blanc, MI 48439
Distance from St. Christopher’s: 1.8 miles or a little over 5 minutes

Click here to reserve our rate.

Home2Suites Flint/Grand Blanc

Rate: $139-149/night
Features: Free breakfast, free parking, pool
Address: 9020 Holly Rd Grand Blanc, MI 48439
Distance from St. Christopher’s: 1.7 miles or a little over 5 minutes

Click here to reserve our rate.

REGISTRATION

FOR DELEGATIONS – One person from the congregation (usually a parish secretary, senior warden, or clergy person) must complete the registration form for their group, including all lay delegates and clergy. Additional visitors and attending children may be added to the group order form if desired. Please be prepared to provide accurate email addresses and dietary restrictions for each person. ($25/person.)

UNASSIGNED CLERGY ($25/person) and VISITORS ($25/person) may register individually, regardless of congregational affiliation.

CHILDREN UNDER 12 ($10/person) may be registered individually or with a delegation to have meals provided. High chairs and booster seats are not available. A soft space with quiet toys for the youngest attendees will be set up for use during our worship and business meetings. Please note that there is no childcare or programming for children provided; kids must be supervised by their responsible adults at all times. Children in this age group who will not eat the lunch provided do not need to register.

The deadline to register and submit all payments is March 1.

>>  Click here to register.

 

 

Greetings to Eastern and Western Michigan,

Lent is about getting honest: honest with God, honest with ourselves, honest with the community of faith, about who we really are before God. Perhaps you’ve heard the old one-liner about a very non-emotive German farmer who said, “I love my wife so much I nearly told her once.”

We need to be able to speak honestly—as Isaiah does, as Jesus does, not for the purpose of making us feel bad about who we are in our human condition, but in order to establish, maintain, repair, and transform our relationship with God and our relationships with one another, indeed, the entire creation. The purpose of the disciplines of fasting, praying, and almsgiving are gifts to us from God to do just that.

First, we must be honest about who we are. We start with our baptism, and in so doing we are reminded that the entire season of Lent originated in the Church as a time of preparation for Easter baptism. We hear again our baptismal reality from the holy Mount of Transfiguration on the Last Sunday After the Epiphany a couple of days ago, when the welcome words from Jesus’ baptism are echoed and repeated: “This is my Son, the Beloved.” This is the reality for us all as daughters and sons of God. As it is spoken to Jesus, it is spoken to us. You are God’s beloved. If you hear nothing else, go into Lent with that truth close to your heart.

Our honesty must start there—in Christ as God’s beloved. So even as we are reminded today that we are dust, that is, mortal, broken, and not yet fully whole, remember also that we are redeemed dust, totally loved and embraced by the God of all creation. Hopefully, this then prepares us to hear the difficult yet honest words from Jesus, that we sometimes misuse our giftedness, the gifts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, in order to be noticed, even thanked by someone. In other words, doing the right things for the wrong reasons.

Or hear the bold honesty from Isaiah, not holding back, but shouting out and declaring that Jacob’s fast was not bringing about the desired result. Our life as a people of faith is to participate in the loosing of the bonds of injustice, undoing the thongs of the burdensome yoke, letting the oppressed go free, sharing one’s bread with the hungry and homeless, bringing the poor into our house, and covering the naked. It’s why we pray, “thy Kingdom come.” If we do not see this happening, Isaiah is telling us our faith is a sham, a false representation of the purpose of life in God.

So, we find that we are dust, mortal and finite on this earth, yet we are beloved, made in the image of God, and united to Christ in our baptism. It has been said that the glory of God is a human being fully alive! At the same time, we are broken and in need of love, healing, and transformation, as we are always needing to be made new. We are, as Martin Luther said, “simul justus et picatur,” at the same time a saint and a sinner. Or to hear it a different way from John Dominic Crossan: “Heaven is in great shape; earth is where the problems are.”

If we are honest then, we must admit, even confess, that we have a problem as a human race that Ash Wednesday is calling upon us to address. We are out of proper relationship with one another, with God, and the creation itself. Contrary to the manner in which Lent has been too often overly individualized in personal piety, Isaiah and the prophets show us a way of repentance, walking a new way, not merely as an act of individual piety, but an action of the entire community as we make ourselves available to the world. The gifts of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting are not only good Lenten piety, they are ways to move into the heart’s journey of peace, and being awake to addressing the issues of humanity.

Isaiah and Jesus are calling us to see once again why we are here as a faith community. Only when our piety is about God’s justice for the world will our light break forth like the dawn, and healing spring up quickly. If we offer our food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then our light will rise in darkness and the gloom be like noonday. That is a church people want to be a part of! It has integrity. It is honest.

If we dare to enter into the way to which Ash Wednesday calls us, we find that the call to return to prayer, almsgiving, and fasting is for our sake, yes, but even more for the sake of the world. It calls us once again to do the work we are given to do, knowing who we are and whom God calls us to be.

A blessed and holy Lent to everyone.

Bishop Skip

Saludos a Michigan Oriental y Occidental

La Cuaresma consiste en ser honestos: honestos con Dios, honestos con nosotros mismos, honestos con la comunidad de fe, sobre quiénes somos realmente ante Dios. Quizá haya escuchado el viejo chiste de un granjero alemán muy poco emotivo que dijo: “Quiero tanto a mi mujer que casi se lo digo una vez”.

Tenemos que ser capaces de hablar con sinceridad -como hace Isaías, como hace Jesús-, no con el propósito de hacernos sentir mal por lo que somos en nuestra condición humana, sino para establecer, mantener, reparar y transformar nuestra relación con Dios y nuestras relaciones con los demás, de hecho, con toda la creación. El propósito de las disciplinas del ayuno, la oración y la limosna son dones que Dios nos da para hacer precisamente eso.

En primer lugar, debemos ser honestos sobre quiénes somos. Comenzamos con nuestro bautismo, y al hacerlo se nos recuerda que todo el tiempo de Cuaresma se originó en la Iglesia como un tiempo de preparación para el bautismo de Pascua. Volvemos a escuchar nuestra realidad bautismal desde el santo Monte de la Transfiguración en el último domingo después de la Epifanía, hace un par de días, cuando resuenan y se repiten las palabras de bienvenida del bautismo de Jesús: “Este es mi Hijo, el Amado”. Esta es la realidad para todos nosotros como hijas e hijos de Dios. Como se le dice a Jesús, se nos dice a nosotros. Eres el amado de Dios. Si no escuchas nada más, entra en Cuaresma con esa verdad cerca de tu corazón.

Nuestra honestidad debe empezar ahí, en Cristo como amado de Dios. Por ello, aunque hoy se nos recuerde que somos polvo, es decir, mortales, rotos y aún no totalmente enteros, recordemos también que somos polvo redimido, totalmente amado y abrazado por el Dios de toda la creación. Esperemos que esto nos prepare para escuchar las difíciles pero honestas palabras de Jesús, que a veces abusamos de nuestros dones, los dones de la oración, el ayuno y la limosna, con el fin de ser notados, incluso agradecidos por alguien. En otras palabras, hacer lo correcto por las razones equivocadas.

O escucha la audaz honestidad de Isaías, que no se contiene, sino que grita y declara que el ayuno de Jacob no estaba produciendo el resultado deseado. Nuestra vida como pueblo de fe es participar en soltar las amarras de la injusticia, desatar las correas del yugo gravoso, dejar libres a los oprimidos, compartir el pan con los hambrientos y los sin techo, traer a los pobres a nuestra casa y cubrir a los desnudos. Por ello rezamos: “Venga a nosotros tu Reino”. Si no vemos que esto sucede, Isaías nos está diciendo que nuestra fe es una farsa, una falsa representación del propósito de la vida en Dios.

Así, descubrimos que somos polvo, mortales y finitos en esta tierra, y sin embargo somos amados, hechos a imagen de Dios, y unidos a Cristo en nuestro bautismo. Se ha dicho que la gloria de Dios es un ser humano plenamente vivo. Al mismo tiempo, estamos rotos y necesitamos amor, curación y transformación, pues siempre necesitamos ser renovados. Somos, como decía Martín Lutero, “simul justus et picatur”, al mismo tiempo santos y pecadores. O para escucharlo de otra manera de John Dominic Crossan: “El cielo está en plena forma; en la tierra es donde están los problemas”.

Entonces, si somos honestos, debemos admitir, incluso confesar, que tenemos un problema como raza humana que el Miércoles de Ceniza nos llama a abordar. Estamos fuera de la relación adecuada entre nosotros, con Dios y con la propia creación. Contrariamente a la forma en que la Cuaresma se ha individualizado demasiado a menudo en la piedad personal, Isaías y los profetas nos muestran un camino de arrepentimiento, recorriendo un camino nuevo, no sólo como un acto de piedad individual, sino como una acción de toda la comunidad al ponernos a disposición del mundo. Los dones de la oración, la limosna y el ayuno no sólo son una buena forma de piedad cuaresmal, sino también de adentrarse en el camino de paz del corazón y de estar despiertos para abordar los problemas de la humanidad.

Isaías y Jesús nos llaman a ver una vez más por qué estamos aquí como comunidad de fe. Sólo cuando nuestra piedad se centre en la justicia de Dios para el mundo, nuestra luz brotará como el alba, y la curación brotará rápidamente. Si ofrecemos nuestro alimento al hambriento y satisfacemos las necesidades del afligido, entonces nuestra luz se alzará en las tinieblas y la oscuridad será como el mediodía. Esa es una iglesia de la que la gente desea formar parte. Tiene integridad. Es honesto.

Si nos atrevemos a adentrarnos en el camino al que nos llama el Miércoles de Ceniza, descubriremos que la llamada a volver a la oración, la limosna y el ayuno es por nuestro bien, sí, pero aún más por el bien del mundo. Nos llama una vez más a hacer el trabajo que se nos ha encomendado, sabiendo quiénes somos y quiénes Dios nos llama a ser.

Bendita y santa Cuaresma a todos.

Obispo Skip