The Deacons' Council
will be holding the first of four regional meetings Wednesday February 11 at
6pm at St Mary's Church Manchester. This meeting is open to all providing an
opportunity for deacons to have a further voice in their community. We
plan to begin the meeting with a light supper followed by business. To celebrate council member Marsha McCurdy-Adell’s twin girls
coming soon we are requesting diapers to support newborn ministries in regions
around the ECCT – Episcopal Church in CT.
The February meeting donations will be given to St Mary's Outreach
Committee in support of newborns of low income families at MACC Ministries (Manchester Area
Council of Churches).
Save the date: Deacons' Retreat Friday June 5 at 6pm through
Saturday June 6, 2015. The retreat will be held at Holy Family Retreat Center
West Hartford, CT more info to follow.
Look for deacon demographic forms to be sent via email gathering
contact information for networking.
Lenten discipline reading: The deacons' council is
supporting the discipline to read the book. Hand To Mouth Living in Bootstrap
America authored by LInda Tirado. There will be opportunity to discuss and
review this book with peers at a later date.
In an effort to expand the gifts of the Deacons’ Council,
the council is looking for additional clergy and lay members to serve on the
council in both permanent and ad-hoc capacities.
The council meetings occur at 6PM
on the second Wednesday of each month. Meetings are hosted at Trinity Church
Hartford. In order to incorporate a wider voice in the deacon community we are
implementing quarterly regional meetings to take place throughout the state.
In order to serve the deacon
community, Core values have been adopted to guide the mission of the council.
To create opportunities to
strengthen the deacons’ community, exploring how we can build and deepen
connections among the deacons
To help deacons maintain the zeal
of call by introducing new ways to think about our faith and our work.
Exercising these values, we have
begun to build networking among deacons through increased fellowship such as
the deacons’ breakfast at convention, regional meetings and articles from
deacons about mission opportunities that have impassioned deacons throughout
the state.
In the coming months we plan to
identify additional means to support a deacon’s, spiritual, missional and
liturgical life through educational, networking and retreat opportunities.
Most recently we have chosen to
honor deacons who have died or left the state of CT by expanding and updating a
collection of books that have supported, challenged and nurtured deacons in
their ministry. This collection of books is housed in the Deacons’ Library at
The Commons and is open to all.
In order to accomplish this
important work we are looking for persons who are passionate about supporting
the work of a deacon. Their passion may be expressed through creative thinking,
participation in social justice work, they may have skills to lead educational
sessions, or they may have leadership skills. If you or someone you know has
these skills please let us know who they are.
We would like to better inform
them of the work of the council in hope that they would serve with us.
Please contact The Rt Rev Laura
Ahrens at lahrens@epsicopalct.org or the Rev Deacon Bonnie
Matthews, Deacon Council Chair at bmatthews228@comcast.net.
We hope to hear from you soon.
