A Prayer to Guide our Search
Be with us and guide us, Holy Spirit of God, as we seek your will for the future of our Diocese. Help us to discern the needs and hopes of your people in Western New York, so that our search for a Bishop may proceed with clear vision and joyful obedience. We pray through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Western New York Episcopal Search
Buffalo, New York
| Looking Ahead |
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I delight to do your will, O my God: your law is within my heart."Whatever is needed." "Anything." "Whatever it takes."
St. Mark's N. Tonawanda looking ahead
Where are we going?We want to shift our focus from maintenance to mission. We want to become a new kind of church, one that finds strength in our economic weakness, thrives in the intimacy of our small congregations, and boldly lives out the Gospel in communities that have lost their purpose. We want to grow from being a group of individual congregations into a community with deep relationships, guided by a spirit of collaboration, a community that visibly embodies the healing and reconciling love of Christ and is imbued with a shared sense of purpose. We want to weave our various stories into a single proclamation that we are a people of God among whom the Holy Spirit is active and moving to bring about wholeness and joy. The illiterate of the twenty-first century What are our priorities for ministry?We have identified five ministries that we would like to see thriving in the Diocese of Western New York within the next five years. Recognizing that all our ministries are interconnected, we do not list these in order of importance; rather, we know that by developing these five ministries, together, we will strengthen our relationships both among our congregations and with our communities. They are already central to our mission, and we have the tools with which to build and grow them; we look to our next bishop for guidance in transforming our community through them. Youth & Children's Ministry - Individually and together, our congregations place youth and children's ministries at the center of our hopes and concerns. We would like our next bishop to be comfortable with young people, spend time with them, and be engaged in dialogue with them. Christian Education & Formation for all ages - We have several longstanding programs and regular opportunities for Christian formation at both the diocesan and parish levels (The Bishop Brent School for Ministry, Education for Ministry, conferences, workshops, retreats, Quiet Days), and we recognize that education is essential to the strength and vitality of our faith. We look to our next bishop to be a teacher who is engaged in today's theological debates and who has the skills to guide us in building a coherent and multi-layered educational program for all ages. Leadership development - Our diocese is blessed with strong and passionate lay leaders, many of whom have served in various capacities for many years. We hope that our next bishop will be a visionary leader and a pastor with the skills and knowledge to teach us how to develop new leaders and new leadership styles. Communication - We now use various different forms of media to build relationships among our congregations and to build up our relationship with the community around us. We expect our next bishop to have the skills to be a good listener, to speak out on important community issues, to be visible in our communities, and to articulate a vision of what God might do through us. Ministry to refugees & migrant workers - Because of our proximity to Canada and our agricultural economy, Western New York is a center for refugee and migrant worker communities, and Episcopal Migrant Ministries are vital to our mission. We are looking for a bishop who appreciates the complexities of cross-cultural ministries and understands how to build them into catalysts for social and spiritual transformation. Continue Reading ...
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