Convocation at Camp Weed

CONVOCATION ONE DOCUMENTS:

Day-of and Homework Packets
Please click the corresponding links below to access the packets prepared for this Convocation.

• Day-Of Packet
• Homework Packet

Forms for Convocation 1

• Lectio Divina
• Breakout Groups 1
• Homework Session 2

The first Convocation will take place on January 27, 2024 at Camp Weed & Cerveny Conference Center. The second and third convocations are now scheduled for April 6 and May 18 of this year.

The Steering Committee hopes to create three fruitful gatherings which build upon each other. These will offer a safe space for diocesan members to engage in processes that will lead to reconciliation between groups and individual members of the diocese, the wider diocese, and the Episcopal Church. Please note it is the Steering Committees intention to have varying configurations of clergy and lay participants at each of the gatherings in order to create a broad body of those committed and equipped to do the work of reconciliation over time.

For the first gathering those that attend should come with some commitment to the healing of the diocese. Participants can anticipate that they will worship and study scripture together, and experience a safe environment in which they can respectfully learn and reflect together.

The Steering Committee hopes that participants will want to engage the process going forward. Learning objectives will include:

• Engaging the practice of holy listening without feedback or judgment,
• Creating safe space to hear one another’s experiences, and
• Ultimately developing relational skills that will empower leaders to solve their conflicts collaboratively.

The longer-term objective of the convocations and the homework built into the process is to cultivate tools for reconciliation and healing that will ultimately become part of the cultural pattern in the life of the diocese.

Attendance
Clergy

• All canonically-resident clergy, active or retired.
  All non-canonically-resident clergy actively serving within parishes or ministries of the Diocese of Florida.

Laity

• We ask rectors and vestries to work together to appoint two representatives from each parish or mission.
• These should be individuals who are well-suited to engage productively and honestly in difficult conversations with the goal of understanding, blessing, and healing across deep differences.
  • These individuals should be prepared to attend all three sessions, and to lead opportunities for their parish to engage in the process between the sessions.

• Additionally, lay members of the Standing Committee, Diocesan Council, and General Convention Deputation are invited.

Basic Format
For January 27, the Steering Committee expects for the format to approximate the following:

8:30 a.m. Gather
9:00 a.m. Welcome by Teresa Seagle and Joe Gibbes
9:15 a.m. Morning Prayer; Bishop Scott Benhase, preacher
9:45 a.m. Break
10:00 a.m. Opening Remarks by Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves
10:15 a.m. Lectio Divina on 1 Corinthians 12:14-26
11:15 a.m. Introduction to Psychological Safety and conversation over lunch
11:30 a.m. Prayer over Lunch
11:35 p.m. Table groups pick up box lunches and assemble for conversation over lunch with their group
12:45 p.m. Break
1:00 p.m. Communication norms for diocesan use going forward
1:30 p.m. Introduction to homework assignment and congregational resources
2:00 p.m. Prepare for worship
2:15 Closing Eucharist; Bishop Scott Benhase, preacher