The Rt. Rev. Lloyd Allen, Bishop of Honduras, addresses Council about ongoing and new mission partnerships between our dioceses. Consecrated on October 20, 2011, Bishop Allen is the first Honduran born Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras. During his tenure, the Honduran Episcopal Church has undergone major changes and growth. Upon taking office, he immediately began encouraging the Honduras church, a mission diocese, to aspire to self-sufficiency.

Bishop Allen speaks to the complicated nature of immigration, addresses issues of social instability in his home diocese as well as areas where the Episcopal Church in Honduras is serving and striving to, “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”

He talks in detail about their diocesan ministry to the people who are returned to Honduras, and their goal to open a community center to meet basic needs of food, clean water, and shelter; to empower individual and family growth through job training; to promote gender justice; and to help reconnect them with their families and local communities.

Sarah Kates, Chair, delivers the report of the Committee on Christian Formation. Kates discusses the results from a survey that was distributed in the Fall to better understand what members and staff feel is their greatest asset and greatest struggles in regards to Christian Formation, where respondents indicated “small groups, bible study, and youth group” as strengths, and “volunteers, young families, and space” as challenges.

Sarah shares, “It is important to recognize, celebrate, and use our assets, and to find common ground in our struggles. In order to be better at church and formation, we have to connect with each other in our community of churches that we call our diocese. Our committees hope is to continue checking in with you periodically, and track what we find…Our goal is to connect people from all over our diocese. Large with small, medium with large, small with medium. Whoever you are, you are doing good work and someone else might what to know how you are doing it. Share with us, contact us, call us, email us, we have over forty years of experience on the Christian Formation Committee.”

For more resources on Christian Formation visit christian-formation-dwtx.org.

To connect with the committee, email sarah.kates@att.net.

Dexter Lesieur, Bishop’s Warden at St. Matthew’s, Devine and enrolled in the IONA program, presents on the diocesan Military Ministry. He shares about the cooling scarves sewing project, the Thanksgiving lunch hosted at the diocesan offices, and the results of Council in Action’s partnership with ProjectMEND.

• Connect with the diocesan Military Ministry group on Facebook, by clicking here.
• Find resources to build a Military Ministry in your congregation at dwtx.org.
• To learn about Sewing Scarves Kits, contact Leslie Mixson, leslie.mixson@dwtx.org.

Greg Richards, Director of College Missions, presents about what’s happening on college campuses in our diocese and around the country. He shares about the growing presence of Vital University Missions in the Rio Grande Valley and explores the joy of sharing Jesus Christ and the Episcopal Church with college students. He says that,

In College Missions, we believe friendship is how Jesus came into the world (evangelism), and there are three core beliefs about friendship that inform our ministry:

1. The status quo is wrong and must be overthrown if the world is going to be livable.
2. There is another world aborning that is livable. (The Kingdom of God, here with us!)
3. The usual means by which one kingdom is thrown out and another put in its place (military force or democratic elections) are not available to us.

Ministry on college campuses can be changeable and sometimes feel overwhelming, but it is a blessing to join the ministry that Jesus Christ has already started in the hearts of our college students and to walk in love with our students.

• Contact College Missions (college.missions@dwtx.org) or visit vitalum.org for information about campus ministries near you.
• Support Vital UM in the Rio Grande Valley at the Bishop’s Valley Golf Classic; click here to sign up or donate.

Emily Kittrell, incoming Board Chair for the Bishop’s Happening Movement, joined by student leader Maddie Callier, report on the vitality for the student-led spiritual renewal weekend geared for tenth through twelfth grade high school students.

The diocese sponsors three Happening weekends each year – March, August, and November – in different host churches throughout the diocese.

Emily shares, “We live in a world of competing narratives about where value and worth exist. The pressures our youth are growing up under can give a false sense of reality, one that pulls them further and further from the truth of their belovedness as creations of God. As adults, it is incredibly difficult to figure out how to speak to, relate to, and especially to convey the message of God’s truth…The beauty of Happening is that youth share the message of hope, belonging, and love with each other. And I’m here to tell you, it works like magic.”

• To learn more about Happening, or register a student, visit dwtx.org/happening.
• To offer to host a Happening or H.I.S. Love weekend, or express interest in serving as a Spiritual Director, email emily.kittrell@dwtx.org.