Here is another example of the implementation of Goal 3: Recreate the Diocese as a Network.

Region VII (East/Southeast Metro) will launch a region-wide parish events calendar in the next month. The idea for the calendar came out of an awareness that with the loss of traditional Diocesan communications avenues (Soundings and the central Diocesan calendar) there was no convenient way for congregations to let their neighbors know of events that would appeal to people beyond their own church walls.

Some congregations have Facebook groups with the ability to invite people who join their group to events in their parish, and while this is an exciting and new way of communicating, not everyone in the Episcopal Church is on Facebook. How then, to let people know what’s happening at congregations other than their own?

Region VII is already a network in its own right (as are the other regions), so having its own calendar of events seemed a logical outgrowth of the Mission Strategy Network’s Goal 3. The Rev. Deacon Rex McKee of St Mary’s, Saint Paul, and the Rev. Diana Rogers of St Paul’s on-the-Hill, Saint Paul, are working together to create a Google calendar similar to the one the church musicians have launched (see previous story). The calendar will be open to all the congregations of Region VII to advertise any of their events to the Region, and to the Diocese and wider church through links at the Diocesan website. User IDs and passwords will be available to key parish leaders.

All congregations are facing critical limits in funding, yet growth is predicated on people beyond the walls knowing that the Episcopal Church is alive with faith, energy, and imagination. As all the congregations of the Diocese wrestle with how to live and grow in the new reality, banding together in mutual networks that are also accessible to those outside the membership is one important way to be together as the wider community.

Submitted by:

Luke Tegtmeier, Director of Music-Organist, Trinity Excelsior; Chair of the Episcopal Youth Music Festival
The Rev. Diana Rogers, Priest in Residence for Young Adult and Campus Ministry, St Paul’s on-the-Hill, Saint Paul