McKellar Attends Executive Council Meeting Virtually

Diocesan Ministry Developer Andrea McKellar, joined Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple and the Rev. Anne Kitch in sharing their new song “I Have Decided to Zoom with Jesus” as part of their finance report.

Diocesan Ministry Developer Andrea McKellar, who also services on the Executive Council for The Episcopal Church, virtually attended the group's latest meeting over the weekend. She shared the following update on this most recent gathering:

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending my seventh Executive Council meeting. The meeting, originally scheduled to take place at the Maritime Center in Baltimore, MD, was conducted on Zoom from October 8-12. Executive Council is the body that administers the program and policies adopted by the General Convention. The group is composed of bishops, clergy, and lay persons from across The Episcopal Church that are elected at General Convention or by their province.
 
At this fall’s meeting, we addressed a number of issues including COVID-19’s effect on the church, alcohol and substance abuse, a revised parochial report for 2020, and the 2021 budget. We also approved a large number of grants for Becoming Beloved Community, UTO, and new Episcopal Communities. On Monday, we had a worship service in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and took time to explore the lands where we live and the native peoples that reside or resided there. While many tribes of South Carolina are now extinct, the Catawba, Pee Dee, Chicora, Edisto, Santee, Yamassee, and Chicora-Waccamaw tribes all have descendants of the original tribes still organized today (source: sciway.net).
 
Find a full summary of the meeting on Episcopal News Service at this link. Read the opening remarks shared by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry at this link, and those offered by the President of the House of Deputies, Gay Clark Jennings (who recognized the 50th anniversary of women serving in the House of Deputies), at this link. 

---