Bishop Brian Cole reflects on the upcoming season of strategic visioning for the Diocese of East Tennessee, commencing with the Leadership Summit at Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Bishop Brian. I want to give you an update on the next chapter ahead for us as bishop and people in the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. Over seven years ago is when we began this work together and a part of what got us to that moment was the good work you all did as a diocese. In dreaming and considering what you needed next, in your bishop, that document, that search profile is what has guided my work now for seven years and that document and that work is now seven years old. So, it’s time for us to dream new dreams and consider a new vision of where God is calling us now as the people and bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee.
So, next week, diocesan leaders will gather at Grace Point for a summit. We will gather with the Reverend Gary Butterworth, who is serving as our consultant in this process of visioning, looking at what is in front of us now as the diocese, what is growing, what is emerging, what maybe is dying, what maybe needs to be renewed and reborn.
This is a chance for us to gather. So we will begin with diocesan leadership next week, but I want to invite you or possibly VOLun-tell you that you will have a chance over the next several months to help us think through what will be the guiding document in the years ahead. It is my intention next summer to go on sabbatical in the summer of 2025.
We hope to have this work done before that. That way, once I return from sabbatical, you and I together will have a clear sense of where God is calling us next and where we want to go together as God’s people in the Diocese of East Tennessee. It’s a joy to serve as your bishop. It’s a joy to know that many of us get up every day and give our all for the Diocese of East Tennessee.
Keep us in your prayers next week as diocesan leaders gather at Grace point and know that along with the work of Gary, Gary Butterworth and diocesan leadership, you’ll hear more about how you can be a part of this visioning process to continue to renew and deepen ministry in our diocese in this moment. Thank you.
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