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Celebrating an Ordination, and a new call

5/16/2017

Jason Daniel Roberson was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons on May 6 in a beautiful liturgy at Grace Church Cathedral. People came from all around the diocese and the United States to celebrate this milestone on his journey toward becoming a priest. See more photos from the day here.

The preacher for the ordination was the Reverend Donald S. McPhail, Rector Emeritus of Grace. Listen to the sermon here.

Clergy Transitions
The Rev. Jason Roberson to Holy Cross Faith Memorial, Pawleys Island

Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church in Pawleys Island has called Deacon Jason Roberson to serve as Curate effective June 1. Jason, who is set to graduate from Virginia Theological Seminary this Thursday, was the first-ever recipient of the new SIM/Mercer Challenge Scholarship from the Society for the Increase of the Ministry and the Mercer Fund of the diocese of Long Island.

His first Sunday at HCFM will be June 25. According to HCFM Rector, theRev. Wil Keith, Jason will focus on pastoral care. The parish has announced that Jason will begin as Curate and become Assistant Rector as he moves from the transitional diaconate into the priesthood.

The 2017 Diocesan Clergy Conference

5/16/2017

About 50 clergy from around the diocese gathered with Bishop Skip Adams at Santee State Park for the annual Diocesan Clergy Conference May 7-9, reflecting with the Bishop on what it means to be an ordained person in the Church, and enjoying some relaxed time to be together as friends and colleagues.

The format for the three-day conference was a series of four meditations from Bishop Adams on a theme drawn from a quotation by Father Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016), the Jesuit priest, poet and peace activist who said, “If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood.”

Bishop Adams prefaced the event by asking the clergy to go into “retreat mode” with one another for a few days. “One of my favorite things to do is to talk about God, he said. “I enjoy that conversation – not just the conversation in prayer with God, but the prayerful conversation with God’s people.”

Recalling the ordination to the diaconate of Jason Roberson on Saturday, May 6, he talked about being an ordained person as a gift: “not just for me, but a gift to be giving away.”

The Bishop’s meditations drew from the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, as well as John 21 in which Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” and tells him to “Feed my sheep.” He then offered some of his own experiences in Calcutta, India and Amman, Jordan.

He detailed several moving, personal encounters with people living in great poverty and pain, but also in faith and joy, and how those experiences shaped his own ministry and his understanding of who God is calling him to be. After each meditation, interspersed with periods of silence, Bishop Adams left the clergy with some questions to ponder about their own lives and ministries, and encouraged them to share their thoughts and stories with him, and with each other.

Monday afternoon was devoted to free time for the clergy to enjoy the beautiful lakeside setting and the fine spring weather before the evening social time and supper. The retreat concluded Tuesday with Holy Eucharist, the Bishop’s final meditation, and a time for conversation with Bishop Adams.
See photos from the conference here

June 25 designated as 'Bishop Guerry Sunday'

5/2/2017

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina will remember William Alexander Guerry as Bishop, Reformer and Martyr on Sunday, June 25, as the diocese continues to share the remarkable story of our 8th Bishop.

Bishop Skip Adams told the Diocesan Council on April 25 that he will encourage congregations in the diocese to use readings and prayers for Bishop Guerry's feast day. Dean Michael Wright said the Diocesan Liturgical Commission will be preparing materials for congregations to use; they will be made available in mid-May.

Bishop Guerry died June 9, 1928, five days after being shot in his office by a priest who had attacked the bishop’s position on advancing racial equality in South Carolina, and his proposal to install a black suffragan bishop in thediocese. The priest then took his own life. Bishop Guerry, in the hospital before he died, said of his assailant, “Forgive him, Father, he knew not what he did.”

Dean Wright, Bishop Adams, Chancellor Thomas Tisdale and many others in thediocese have been working to share Bishop Guerry's history with the wider church. Canterbury Cathedral now remembers him each June in its Chapel of Martyrs, and Bishop Adams recently related the story to a group at theSpring House of Bishops meeting.

"The more the story is told, the more it resonates," Dean Wright told theDiocesan Council.

Learn more about Bishop Guerry on the diocesan website. Liturgical resources and bulletin inserts will be mailed to congregations, shared in this enewsletter, and posted on the website later this month.

Celebrating an Ordination, and a new call

The 2017 Diocesan Clergy Conference

June 25 designated as 'Bishop Guerry Sunday'

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