Episcopal Diocese of Albany - Priests and Deacons Update

Business Office: 68 South Swan Street - Albany, NY 12210 - (518) 465-4737
Christ the King Spiritual Life Center: 575 Burton Road - Greenwich, NY 12834 - (518) 692-9550

August 29th, 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Much has happened these past few weeks, but before bringing you up to date on all of that, there are a few upcoming events to be aware of.

As many of you know, Sister Mary Basil passed away on Aug. 15th, the Feast of St. Mary. A Solemn Requiem will be celebrated at the Convent of St. Mary, this Wednesday, August 29th, beginning at 12:00 noon. Clergy planning to vest, are asked to wear a cassock alb and white stole. While all are welcome, if you plan to attend the service, please contact the Convent at (518) 692-3028.

The Deans will be meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 4th, beginning at 11 a.m. at Barry House Library at Christ the King SLC. Two new deans have been appointed. Fr. Christopher Brown is the new dean of the Saint Lawrence Deanery and Fr. David Collum is the new dean of the Susquehanna Deanery. I am very appreciative of both Fr. Brown and Fr. Collum’s willingness to serve. I would also like to say a very special thank you to the two outgoing deans, Mother Geri Bissell-Thompson and Fr. Michael Shank for their faithful and dedicated service as past deans of the Saint Lawrence and Susquehanna Deaneries. I greatly appreciated your leadership and service to the deaneries and the Diocese. May God bless you both as you continue to serve our Lord and His Church.

The Postulant and Candidates Retreat begins Friday, Sept. 7th at 5 p.m., ending Sunday the 9th, following lunch. All postulants and candidates unless otherwise excused are asked to attend.

Retired clergy, spouses, widows and widowers are invited to meet on Wednesday, Sept. 12th beginning at 11 a.m. at the Spiritual Life Center Chapel. Following the Eucharist and lunch, Ros Warren, from Church Medical Trust, will give a presentation on retiree medical benefits and will do a Q&A.

An Evangelism and Healing Conference entitled “To Know Christ and Make Him Known” will be held on September 14th and 15th at Christ the King SLC. The keynote speaker will be Canon J. John, a world renowned speaker, author and evangelist who has worked closely with TV evangelist Joyce Meyers. To date he has led conferences in 49 countries on six continents. Fr. Nigel Mumford will also be speaking. For more information, please call Lynne at the SLC (518)692-3198. Space is filling up so please call soon. It should be an excellent conference. Limited scholarship assistance is available.

This year’s Clergy Conference is scheduled for Tuesday thru Thursday, Oct. 9th -11th at the Spiritual Life Center. With the opening of the new King’s Inn Retreat Lodge, we now have 26 additional rooms available for the retreat, providing some of the finest, most comfortable Christian lodging in the Northeast. More information concerning the conference will be coming out soon. All clergy are invited as well as their spouses, so mark your calendars. Limited financial support is available if needed.

Now, to bring you up to date on the last several weeks, as many of you know, Karen and the kids and I were blessed by going on a two week mission trip to Bolivia as part of a 20 member mission team made up of 10 adults and 10 kids from around the Diocese. To the best of my knowledge this is Albany’s first mission trip to Bolivia. The team leader, Fr. Gus Calvo, did an outstanding job. We participated in a couple of building projects as well as outreach ministry in the children’s ward at one of the local hospitals, street ministry with the “Shoe shiners” on the streets of La Paz, Bible studies, and prayer and healing ministry with members of the local Anglican Church. More on the trip will be shared in the upcoming issue of the Albany Episcopalian. It was truly a Spirit-filled, life transforming experience for all those who went. Thank you so much to everyone who was holding the team up in prayer. We felt and were very appreciative of all the prayers that were offered on our behalf.

Shortly after my return from Bolivia, the Cathedral of All Saints hosted a regional Confirmation Service in which over 20 individuals from surrounding parishes were confirmed or received into the Church. Bishop Harold Miller, from the Diocese of Down and Dromore, was the guest preacher. It was a beautiful and meaningful service.

The following Sunday, Bishop Miller accompanied me in visiting St. James Church, Ausable Forks, where we greatly enjoyed the lively music co-led by some of the migrant workers from Jamaica. Deacon Ousley and the people of St. James are working hard to build up the Church. In addition, I have also enjoyed and been blessed by my other recent parish visitations to the Church of the Holy Name, Boyntonville; Zion Church, Colton; St. John’s Church, Ogdensburg; St. Hubert of the Lakes Church, Lake Pleasant; and Grace Church, Cherry Valley where we were joined by folks from St. Mary’s Church, Springfield Center. I have been impressed with the various ways in which the parishes are ministering to their communities and sharing the Gospel.

I am very appreciative of those parishes who have invited me for mid-week parish visitations, making it possible to visit more parishes sooner than I might have been able, when only visiting on Sundays. If there are other parishes who are open to mid-week visitations as opposed to Sunday visitations, please call Jerry Carroll at the Diocesan Office and we will schedule them.

Other recent events included the Diocesan Bible Conference and First Annual Chili Cook-Off on Aug. 18th. Mother Laurie Garramone-Rohr did an outstanding job organizing the event. Our keynote speaker, Mrs. Robin Capcara, did an excellent job as well, in her presentations entitled “From Genesis to Revelation in one Hour” and “Building Small Groups in Your Parish.” Mother Diana Freeman, Fr. Derik Roy, and Patti Gibbons are also to be commended for their very helpful and informative workshops and Bible teaching. As mentioned at the Diocesan Convention and at the recent Bible Conference, I can’t stress enough the importance of Bible Study in our individual lives and that of our parishes. EVERY parish in the Diocese needs to have an active Bible Study going on, in which people can increase their knowledge and understanding of God’s Word, helping them to grow in faith and a closer relationship with our Lord.

We finished off the day with the Chili Cook-Off and Ice Cream sundaes. There were a variety of chili entries, all of which tasted great. I offer my congratulations to St. Luke’s, Catskill, for winning the award for the “Best Chili” and to the Church of the Holy Cross, Warrensburg, for winning the award for the “Hottest Chili.” Next year we would love to have your favorite pot of chili entered in the competition.

While offering thanks for special people, I would like to say a special thank you to Judy Heffern and her talented group of fellow quilters for the beautiful hand sewn quilts they made for each of the 26 rooms at The King’s Inn. As most of you know, each of the rooms were sponsored by a parish or ministry group within the Diocese. The generosity of each of the sponsoring parishes and ministry groups is greatly appreciated and is such a blessing to everyone who will be guests at The King’s Inn, as well as to the Diocese at large.

It is with great joy and excitement that Fr. Bill Small and Darleen Tector announce their engagement. They are to be married on Sunday, Nov. 11th, during the Sunday morning service at St. Luke’s, Saranac Lake. Fr. Bill and Darleen, we wish you all God’s blessings in your new life together.

Finally in closing I want to extend a special welcome to Fr. John Wingert, the new Interim-Rector of St. Paul’s, Albany, and his wife Jacqueline. In addition, we congratulate Fr. Gus Calvo on being called as the rector at St. John the Evangelist Church in Stockport (effective 9/16) and Mother Ellen Neufeld as the new rector of St. Luke’s, Chatham (effective 9/2). May the Lord bless each of you in your new ministries.

Yours in Christ,
+Bill

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