Convening Circular – 50th Synod (2023)

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The congregation at St. John the Divine in Kelwood celebrated Harvest Thanksgiving early with a food drive and pot luck after their September service.  This enabled them to collect food in time to be given to others in time for their Thanksgiving family dinners.

(The Former) Christ Church, Roblin, photos submitted by Joanne Goodman

Members of the Pelly Plains Parish gathered on Sunday, September 24 to mark a sombre occasion in the life of the parish: the deconsecration of Christ Church, Roblin. The church was built in 1929, and served the community well for almost 100 years. Presiding at the final Eucharist was the Ven. Jonathan Hoskin, the Archdeacon of Brandon. Assisting in the service were the Regional Dean of Parkland, the Rev’d Chad McCharles OSBCn and the Rev’d Karen Binding.

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Our diocese continues in a time of transition, and that can be somewhat unsettling for us. This month will be a month of decision for us, however, and so I have felt led to offer some solid common ground, at this time. By the end of the month we will have held our electoral synod, and so the decision regarding our next bishop will have been prayerfully made with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The one who will lead us into the future that God has prepared for us will have been chosen, by divine selection. To get us to that place of clarity from the uncertainty that we currently face, it is important for us to remember where we have been and where we are going.

Perhaps because, at time of writing*, our Sunday lections have included the Exodus stories of the people of Israel in the desert, this has become my metaphor for our diocesan journey. We are not in a settled state – either in Egypt or in the Promised Land – but the in-between place of the wilderness. To get through the journey and to arrive at our destination holding on to the faith that God has led us to, it is important that we hold on to the truths that we have learned from the struggles we have faced in the past; important that we continue to trust our Great Provider to attend to our needs again.

We are not a stepping stone. The Diocese of Brandon is not a holding place for clergy to raise themselves up by degrees in preparation to go elsewhere. The Diocese of Brandon is a place of vital ministry, where the Name of Jesus is proclaimed and people’s lives are transformed by God’s Spirit.  Bishop William did not consider the work of this diocese to be some kind of dress rehearsal for 

“the real show” somewhere else.  He saw the intrinsic value that the ministry of Jesus held for the people within this diocese.  What we continue to labour at, in the freeing service to our great Redeemer, is an end in itself – not a means to some other end.

In our parishes we have become accustomed to clergy who come and go in the midst of what God has called them to. For a time, God calls them to serve in our parish; then God calls them to serve somewhere else. The lessons they learned while serving in previous parish settings will inform the shape of their future work in the Church – but those earlier experiences in ministry were not steppingstones. They were the exact places that God had prepared for them, and prepared them for, for those times. There is nothing more delicious, in life, than to live with the assurance that we are where God would have us be, doing what He has invited us to do there.

So it has been with Bishop William. He has been called to a different episcopal ministry in another diocese, but we were not a stepping stone to something else, in his mind. We were the place that God had called him to be; the people that God had moved him to work among; we were the place of God’s delicious life for him, while he was here. God has now called him to minister elsewhere, and we wish him well in that, recognizing that while God uses his experiences among us to inform his ongoing work in the Diocese of Ontario, God will also use our experiences with Bishop William to inform our ongoing work in carrying out God’s mission for us, here.

And if God has been preparing us for a next stage of ministry in our diocese, with a new leader, then we know that God has also been preparing that new leader to come to us. The experiences that they are having in faithfully serving God where they are now will inform their leadership of our diocese when they come to us. While we don’t yet know who this person is, we know that God does; we know and trust that God is moving in our next bishop those formative experiences in ministry and in discernment which will serve the ongoing work of this diocese in powerful ways. Please pray for our next bishop, as yet unknown to us yet even now in God’s hands.  Please pray for our diocese as it continues to seek God’s Kingdom first as God’s mission is carried out through our parishes.

If there is a stone associated with our diocese, it is not that we are – collectively – a stepping stone, but that Jesus Himself, who is the stone rejected by the builders but has become the chief cornerstone upon which He has built His Church; this is the stone of the Diocese of Brandon. And we, ourselves, are living stones built into His Church – fitted together according to His will upon the testimony to Jesus and the trust in God handed down to us by the generations of Christians who were in this diocese before us.  And we place ourselves in God’s hands to form His Church as He will, that the way would be prepared for those generations who will follow us.

Our task is to rise to the faithful discernment of God’s choice for our next leader – may God’s will be done among us!

*Editor’s Note: this article went to print around the Thanksgiving long weekend.

The post This Is Our Cornerstone: A Word from the Archdeacon of Brandon appeared first on The Mustard Seed.

If there are any questions about what you see or want to learn more about a specific act, do contact the Secretary of Synod.

October 20, 2021
St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Brandon, MB

• To accept the minutes of the Executive meeting of March 11, 2020.
• To accept the motions made by Executive Committee since June 2020:
  • BE IT RESOLVED THAT the parish of St. James’ Swan River be empowered to sell their rectory and the proceeds be placed in the Diocesan Consolidated Trust Fund (DCTF). Draws on the interest of the proceeds may be made yearly for the purposes of housing costs for the Clergy in the parish. Any other Draw on the Principal will require the permission of the Executive of the Diocese of Brandon.  CARRIED May 17, 2021.
  • BE IT RESOLVED THAT we approve the Offer to Purchase in the sale of the rectory in Swan River, 348 Crescent Drive. CARRIED August 31, 2021.
• That Christ Church, Roblin can sell their church building.
• That Executive take $2,000 from the Tess Meadows Reserve for use at the Easterville Gospel Jamboree to be held nightly on January 14-16, 2022.
• That Executive accept the 2019 audit as received.
• That Executive accept the 2022 budget.
• That Executive accept the budget of Henry Budd College.
• That Executive accept the financial statements ending September 30, 2021.
• That Executive approve the following Diocesan expenditures:
  • Cheques #4200-4392
  • Payroll auto debits and bank service charges
  • Online payments

March 18, 2022
St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Brandon, MB

• To accept the minutes of the Executive meeting of October 20, 2021.
• To accept the motion made by email poll on December 22, 2021.
  • BE IT RESOLVED THAT the parish of St. George’s, Brandon, be authorized to withdraw a maximum of $30,000 during 2022 from their rectory account held in the Diocesan Consolidated Trust Fund (DCTF).
• To increase travel rates to 61¢ a kilometer (for travel up to 5,000 kms in a year) and 55¢ a kilometer (for kilometers travelled after 5,000 km), retroactive to January 1st, 2022.
• To set the travel rate for committee work to 55¢ a kilometer.
• To receive the 2020 audit.
• To approve the Diocesan Financial Statements ending December 31st, 2021.
• To approve of the following expenditures from October 1st, 2021 to December 31st, 2021:
  • Cheques # 4393 – 4500 
  • Payroll auto debits & bank service charges 
  • Online Payments
• To approve the Diocesan Financial Statements ending February 28th, 2022.
• To approve of the following expenditures from January 1st, 2022 to February 28th, 2022:
  • Cheques # 4501 – 4545
  • Payroll auto debits & bank service charges 
  • Online Payments
• That the Diocese of Brandon move to a notice to reader system with a full audit every three years.
• That the Executive approve the camp budget for 2022.

June 23, 2022
St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Brandon, MB

• To accept the minutes of the Executive meeting of March 18, 2022.
• To accept the 2022 year to date financial statements as presented.
• To accept the income statements as presented.
• That the Executive Committee approve the Diocesan Expenditures from 03/01/2022 to 05/31/2022, including:
  • Cheques #4546-4660
  • Payroll auto debits and bank service charges
  • Online payments
• That the Executive Committee create a committee to implement this Bishop’s Housing Equity Fund and report back to executive in the fall.

October 14, 2022
Church of the Redeemer, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, MB

• To accept the minutes of the Executive meeting of June 23, 2022 as amended.
• To change the name of the parsonage fund to “the Bishop’s Housing Equity Fund”.
• To keep the Bishop’s Housing Equity Fund in investment until the Bishop leaves by transfer or retirement, at which time a committee will be struck in concert with the Bishop’s wishes on the manner of transfer of at least 50% of said fund with consideration to the growth of the real property asset.
• To receive the budget of the Henry Budd College for Ministry.
• To accept the accountant’s compilation for 2020 & 2021.
• To accept the diocesan financial statements ending September 30, 2022 as presented.
• To approve the diocesan expenditures from June 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022, namely:
  • Cheques #4661 – 4828
  • Payroll auto debits & bank service charges
  • Online Payments

March 15, 2023
St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Brandon, MB 

• To accept the minutes of the Executive meeting of October 14, 2022 as amended.
• To accept St. George’s, Brandon’s request for a fair share reduction.
• To endorse St. Paul’s, Churchill’s application to the Anglican Foundation.
• To allow St. Agnes’, Carberry to give their property back to the diocese.
• To ask St. James’, Swan River for more information regarding their request, and that they work with Greig to clear up their finances.
• that Executive approve St. George’s, Brandon request to start the process to sell their property, having regard to the appraisal value.
• that Executive approve St. Luke’s, Souris request for a fair share reduction.
• that Executive approve the 2022 budget ending December 31, 2022.
• that Executive approve the diocesan financial statements ending December 31, 2022.
• that Executive approve the 2023 budget ending February 28, 2023. 
• that Executive approve the diocesan financial statements ending February 28, 2023.
• That Executive approve the following expenditures from October 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023:
  • Cheques #4829 – 5000
  • Payroll Auto Debits & Bank Service Charges
  • Online Payments
• That Executive authorize the Bishop and Greig Scott to put together a plan for the hiring of a part-time staffer to assist in camp administration (as well as other duties). 

June 16, 2023
St. James’, Swan River, MB

• To accept the minutes of the Executive meeting of March 15, 2023.
• To ask Holy Trinity, Killarney for more information regarding their Fair Share reduction request.
• To deny the request of the neighbour to purchase land from St. Peter and St. James’, Flin Flon.
• To refer the question of giving the pastoral elders a vote at Executive to the Canons & Constitution Committee for discussion prior to discussion at Diocesan Synod.
• To accept the Diocesan Financial Statements YTD 2023 ending May 31, 2023. 
• To approve the following expenditures from 03/01/2022 to 05/31/2023:
  • Cheques # 5001 – 5088 
  • Payroll auto debits & bank service charges. 
  • Online Payments.
• That with the understanding that the money for the first year will come from Council of the North funding, the proposal for an “Indigenous Liaison for AMC” (title subject to change) be accepted by this body. 
• To refer the question about voting program representatives on Executive Committee to the Canons & Constitution Committee. 
• That Executive approves the Rev’d Chad McCharles’ proposal to repair the countertop at Cropthorne Cottage. 
• That the Executive Committee of the Diocese of Brandon recommend to our upcoming Synod (scheduled for October) the adoption of a diocesan-wide programme of Christian formation, focusing on Prayer and Bible Study. 

The Executive Committee met in October 2023, but acts from that meeting were not available in time for the publication deadline.

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