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Please note that the in-person events listed below may be re-scheduled due to coronavirus/COVID-19. Updates will be posted as decisions are made.
 

Come away with me and rest a while - A retreat for clergy
September 28-30
Chanco on the James, also via Zoom

On Monday through Wednesday, September 28-30, the Diocese is offering a clergy retreat for a time of rest and reflection. The retreat may be experienced in person at Chanco on the James for those who feel ready to venture out to that sort of gathering (Rooming options will be limited to single occupancy except for clergy couples or others who currently quarantine together). It will also offer a virtual option for those who wish to experience retreat in their homes. The goal of this retreat is to rest. Bishop Haynes will offer times of meditation and times of prayer and silence. Outside experts on church programming, worship and evangelism will be saved for another gathering. The focus, once again, is rest. We will also offer opportunities for waterfront activities including swimming, paddle-boarding and kayaking. Compline will be conducted each night around the campfire. Click here for more information and registration.

Repairers of the Breach Speaker Series: “Unlawful for Any Christian”? Slave-owning Anglican and Episcopal Churches in Early Virginia
September 29, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
via Zoom

Repairers of the Breach, our diocesan task force for dismantling racism, begins a speaker series on September 29 with a talk by Dr. Jennifer Oast, professor of history at Bloomsburg University. Continuing the work of Becoming Beloved Community, the Episcopal Church's long-term commitment to racial healing and justice, this series will build on the learning of our March pilgrimage, "Walking Toward Truth," which visited sites of memory in Hampton, Jamestown and Williamsburg. Dr. Oast, author of Institutional Slavery: Slaveholding Churches, Schools, Colleges, and Businesses in Virginia, 1680-1860 (Cambridge, 2016), has entitled her talk “Unlawful for Any Christian”? Slave-owning Anglican and Episcopal Churches in Early Virginia."  Anglican parishes were the first institutions in Virginia to own slaves, which were acquired initially through donations and later through deliberate purchase. The parishes became the masters of slaves with little hesitation; while one eighteenth-century minister declared he thought it was “unlawful for any Christian and in particular for a clergyman” to employ slaves, his view was the minority one in the early eighteenth century, when few Englishmen, either in the colonies or back in England, questioned the existence or morality of slavery. The Anglicans’ success with institutional slaveholding sent Virginians the message that not only was slaveholding not “unlawful” for a Christian, but that it could be of great benefit to them. This talk explores how slavery was used and thought about in Anglican and Episcopal parishes. It also examines the lives of individual African Americans who were enslaved to the churches. Join us via Zoom for this informative session on September 29th from 6:30-7:30. Click here to register and access the Zoom link. Program will be recorded and will be available on the Repairing the Breach page of the diocesan website after the event.

CE-Net: A Conversation with author, pastor Traci Smith
October 1, 6 to 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Join CE-Net (Christian Education Network) for a Zoom meeting/conversation on Thursday, October 1, 6 to 7 p.m. with author and Pastor Traci Smith.  In this workshop, Traci will share her perspective on faith formation at home, informed by her research and work with churches and families around the country. She will also give practical ideas for empowering families to create a sacred Advent at home, as well as ways to empower families during this time of COVID. Click here for more information and registration.

Grief Recovery Handbook Study groups
Beginning October 6
via Zoom

Beginning in October, a six-week Grief Recovery Handbook Study will be offered via Zoom. Grief Recovery defines grief as the normal and natural human response to change. For better or worse, change involves loss. We’re pretty good at celebrating adding things to our lives, and not so good at routinely cleansing, healing, or processing things when we experience change, particularly when it involves loss. The experience of life during COVID, the death of a beloved human or pet, change in job, home, school, partner, health or economic status all cause grief. Grief Recovery provides simple action steps to become a cleansing/healing machine and live a lighter, happier life. This study will also give you new skills in responding to losses in others’ lives and can be the foundation or expansion of a healing ministry in your parish. There are three opportunities to participate in this study which will be facilitated by the Rev. Sarah Shirley, interim rector of St. Luke’s in Powhatan and a Grief Recovery Outreach Specialist. Click here for more information and registration.

Cursillo #168 Weekend
April 22 - 25, 2021
Chanco on the James

Applications being accepted now. Go to cursillodiosova.org for more info and application form.