After a year of discernment, exploration, analysis, and conversation, a vision and mission statement for the Diocese of East Tennessee has been published. After months of engaging the work of diocesan convention, clergy, and parish leadership, the visioning team, comprised of the Rev. April Berends, Rev. Amy Morehous, Rev. Zac Settle, PhD, Canon Beverly Hurley Hill, Emily Kirk, and Bishop Brian Cole, has composed the following:
Vision
We seek to be a healthy system of Christ-centered communities marked by prayerful practices, spiritual maturity, faithful action, and joyful worship.
Mission
To equip disciples of Jesus Christ to grow and be grounded in the reconciling witness of the Gospel, for the love of our neighbors and all of God’s creation.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Bishop Brian. I want to give you an important update on our diocesan visioning process.
In 2024, we decided to enter and engage a visioning process to allow us to have a new vision and mission statement for our work. This has energized conversations for the last several months, impacted in our work at a leadership summit at convention and listing sessions across the region.
This work was then given to a leadership team of Beverly Hurley Hill, Emily Kirk, the Reverend April Berends, the Reverend Zach Settle, the Reverend Amy Morehouse and myself. We had so much good work that was given to us of images and ideas, dreams, and hopes, words, and what might God be doing next in our diocese.
I’m now prepared to share with you a vision and mission statement.
Our vision for the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee in the next three to five years is to be a healthy system of Christ-centered communities, marked by prayerful practices, spiritual maturity, faithful action, and joyful worship. Our mission is to equip disciples of Jesus Christ to grow and be grounded in the reconciling witness of the gospel for the love of our neighbors and all of God’s creation.
That is our vision, that is our mission, and that was given to us by listening to each other and the spirit in our midst. Now is the time to take these words and to share them with you.
So, I would encourage you to share this video, to take these words, and then to study these words. So share the words and study the words. Unpack them, engage them. Consider what they might mean for your parish, for your individual ministry, for our work together as a diocese. And then you’ll hear more from about us about how we will commit strategies that will allow us to enact this work across the region.
Share, study, and strategy, that is what’s next for us in this work.
I’m so grateful that you’ve engaged this process so far. I’m grateful for what is now in front of us and what we will do together as a diocese to live out this vision and mission.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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