Greetings Friends;

I want to pass along some of the highlights from the April meeting of the CDC.

The commission voted to approve a grant in the amount of $2100 to Trinity Church in North Scituate.  This grant is to help that parish continue the work of putting the systems in place to enhance their ability to  serve the larger congregation as a result of the recent merger with St. Alban's, Centredale. 

The comission then received an update from the subcommittee, as it continues to work with the several grant applicants.  Full reports and presentations will be received later in the spring.

The Learn & Lead Subcommittee also presented a report, and this work took up most of the meeting.  Reports on many of the details were outlined, and there was considerable conversation on speakers and workshops.  Please follow this link 

http://tinyurl.com/csd5j6c

To the Learn & Lead website to get more information regarding the schedule for the day, and how to register.

Peace

Joel Gardner

Meeting Notes March 5, 2013

Greetings Again Friends!

Here are some of the highlights from our March meeting:

 
 

As a follow up to our redevelopment of CDC Work, membership of the subcommittees was revised as follows:

·         Learn and Lead: Jim Burgess and Susan Carpenter Co Chairs, members Jane Jellison, Catherine Thenault and Joel Gardner

·         Grants: Jacky Kirby Chair, members  Dennis Bucco, Kevin Lloyd, Charles Cowen, Pam Gregory

 

The subcommittees will work between CDC meetings and present reports to the CDC at requested intervals.

Reports were received from those subcommittees:

Jacky Kirby presented the report from the grant subcommittee along with their recommendations on several proposals from parishes and missions. The CDC considered their proposals and recommendatoins and made the decisions to request full applications from the following"

Mission Churches:

Holy Spirit, Charlestown, 

 Parishes:

Trinity Church, Newport  

Emmanuel Cumberland

From the Learn & Lead Subcommittee:  

Contacts have been made with potential keynote speakers.   Workshop presenters are being put in place.  The date and location have been confirmed as June first at St Mary’s Church in Portsmouth. 

Next steps, finalizing the remainder of workshop facilitators, hospitality for the day, publicity, and finalizing the keynote speaker.  These will be delegated to the subcommittee.

 A communication was received from the 2015 Task Force regarding The Spiritual Renewal Survey that has been put forth by the task force to help parishes take inventory of their core spiritual disciplines. Subsequent  discussion centered around the possibility of using this as a congregational development tool and publicizing this use to the churches in the diocese.  This will be discussed further at a future meeting.

Please watch for further updates in the coming weeks!

Peace

Joel Gardner

Meeting Notes February 5, 2013

Greetings Friends,

Here are some of the highlights from our February Meeting:

We recieved a detailed report on the development of their Tuesday Tutoring Program  at St Alton's., Alton.  Bettine Besier brought us up to date with the progress of the program which is partially funded by a CDC grant.   Questions and answers, and discussion followed her presentation.

 

Work continued on the Learn & Lead program.  We narrowed down the list of  potential keynote speakers to two, with contact to be made within the next few weeks. Additionally names for workshop presenters were discussed and approved.  The date was set as June first at St Mary’s Church in Portsmouth.  

The application process for the current year's grant program was reviewed, and benchmark dates were discussed.  A draft letter specifically for mission churches was reviewed and edited.  Conversation regarding emphasizing participation by mission churches ensued.  

The possibility of approving grants for a portion of handicapped accessibility projects was discussed at length and the following motion was approved: “The CDC will consider requests processed by the bishop’s office from missions and transitional missions for handicapped accessibility projects that are integral to a strategic development plan.” 

We also discussed reconfiguring the resposibilities of the CDC.  In order to make the best use of our people resources it was decided two subcommittees of the CDC would be formed as follows:

·        

       Learn and Lead: Jim Burgess and Susan Carpenter Co Chairs, members Jane Jellison, Catherine Thenault and Joel Gardner

·         Grants: Jacky Kirby Chair, members  Dennis Bucco, Kevin Lloyd, Charles Cowen

Members not present were assigned to the committee(s) of their choice.

The subcommittees would work between CDC meetings and present reports to the CDC at requested intervals.

In another matter Jane Jellison has graciously agreed to become the CDC member of this task force.

The Rev. Canon Linda Grenz joined us and  discussed the need for more direct involvement with parishes and missions by members of the CDC.  This would include working with parishes in “restart” and in other forms of transition, and would be beyond the scope of the grant process.  Discussion followed as to what form this could take and most members expressed interest in being involved in the related activities.

Thanks for reading!

Joel Gardner

Meeting Notes January 8, 2013

Greetings Friends,

The January 2013 meeting of the CDC was a very busy one.  We started the meeting with establishing group norms. 

We then  continued working out the details for the upcoming (June 1st) Learn & Lead.  This included narrowing down the list of possible speakers, and locations, and firming up the workshops that will be offered. 

We also reviewed and  approved a grant request from Trinity Church in North Scituate.  This request was related to their merger with St. Albans, Centerdale, and is separate from our grant process which will begin later in the spring.

More coming soon!

Joel Gardner

Meeting Notes December 4, 2012

Greetings Friends,

I want to pass along some of the topics of recent meetings of the CDC

At the meeting held on December 4th 2012, the first meeting of the CDC following the diocesan convention and we welcomed new members the Rev. Pam Gregory,  Ms. Jane Jellison and
Mr. Charles Cowan  We also  expressed gratitude for the services of retired members  Ms. Carol Drought and the Rev. David Lucy

We began working on details for the 2013 Learn & Lead (to be held on June 1st at St Mary's Church in Portsmouth).  We began working on developing a list of possible keynote speakers, and on a list of workshops and possible presenters.  

The CDC also approved and implemented a Conflict of Interest Policy as follows:

“Members of CDC may not be signatories on grant proposals. If a CDC member, or someone in the member’s immediately family, belongs to a church that applies for a grant, that member may not participate in or be present for conversations about the proposal and must recuse him/herself from all votes pertaining to the grant or grant renewal.”

Look for more updates coming soon

Joel Gardner 

Hello, My name is Joel Gardner, and I am the new "blogmaster" for the Congregational Development Commission.  Please look here for regular updates about CDC programs and grant activities.  This has already been a very busy year for us, and as I write, plans our well underway for this year's  Learn & Lead Day; "Hospitality For Evangelism" which is going to be held on June 1st, at St Mary's Church in Portsmouth.

Please watch this blog, and the diocesan website for workshop details, and registration information both of which will be available shortly.

Peace

Joel

February 7, 2012--Meeting Notes

OPENING AND ATTENDANCE A meeting of the Congregational Development Commission was called to order at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Betsy Fornal attended the meeting along with Commission members: Dennis Bucco, Jim Burgess, Susan Carpenter, Carol Drought, Joel Gardner, Mercedes Julian, Jackie Kirby, Kevin Lloyd, David Lucey, Casey Shobe, and Catherine Thenault.

LEARN & LEAD—COMMUNICATIONS
Learn & Lead went very well with 120-125 attendees. There were five “no-shows” and two unregistered. Registrations came from 30 churches. Twenty-two churches did not participate. Casey suggested that the next Learn & Lead be comprised of two 90-minute workshops with poster sessions or roundtables presented during lunch. CDC members agreed that there would be one Learn & Lead per year going forward.

Survey—Ruth is going to send out a survey on Constant Contact. The survey will ask for suggestions for next year. Commission members came up with the following topics: Hospitality including Greeting/Ushering, Signage, Coffee Hour, Welcome Packages, Newcomer Incorporation as well as how well do churches treat outside groups using their facilities;
Christian Formation; and Evangelism. The survey will also ask about the length of the sessions, the level of information imparted and what participants will do differently going forward.

CONVOCATION
Convocation will take place at St. Luke’s, East Greenwich on March 9 & 10. Friday night’s Eucharist will start at 6 p.m. with a pot-luck supper to follow. Saturday’s programs will run from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

CDC has been asked to do the “take-away”—a handout with a menu format including questions for reflection and ideas to encourage networking. It was suggested that there be discussion about Convocation at Deanery meetings following Convocation and prior to the “Walk Abouts” for the Bishop search. An e-mail follow-up was also suggested. The e-mail would ask next-step questions such as “How will your congregation do things differently?” Casey will contact Jennifer Pedrick to ask if what we have in mind is appropriate.

GRANT PROCESS
March 1 is the deadline for preliminary (paragraph-length) grant proposals. Members were asked to look at these on the collaboration site before the next meeting.

NEXT MEETING AND ADJOURNMENT
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 6, at 5 pm. The meeting adjourned with a prayer at 6:30 p.m.