2008 Convention will vote on parish status

 

Four new congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh have formally gained mission fellowship status.  The newly recognized mission fellowships are Grace in Slippery Rock, Seeds of Hope in Bloomfield, Somerset Anglican Fellowship in Somerset, and Charis247 in Coraopolis.  Diocesan Convention will vote on formally welcoming them to the diocese as parishes at Diocesan Convention October 4.

 

New congregations abound in diocese   Since the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh set the ambitious goal of creating ten parish or parish-like structures in ten years, new congregations have abounded in the diocese.  Some have been unable to continue after a few years, many have grown and matured into stable congregations.   Active congregations that have come into existence in recent years are Grace Anglican Fellowship in Slippery Rock, Grace Episcopal Church in Edgeworth, Somerset Anglican Fellowship in Somerset, Jonah’s Call at Church of the Ascension in Oakland, Charis247 in Coraopolis, Three Nails, and Seeds of Hope in Bloomfield.

To gain missionary fellowship status, church plants have to demonstrate that they hold regularly scheduled worship services, that their members look to the church plant as their primary church home, that the church plant has a vestry-like leadership structure in place, and that other leadership and organizational structures of the church plant fulfill the requirements of the diocesan canons.

 

The four new mission fellowships have all shown that they meet these conditions, said Mrs. Jenni Bartling, the diocese’s congregational developer for church plants.  They have all been presented to Diocesan Council and approved to go before the Diocesan Convention on October 4, she added.

 

It will be up to Diocesan Convention to decide whether or not to seat the mission fellowships as full-fledged parishes of the diocese.  If seated, the mission fellowships will have full voice and vote at the diocesan convention, just like any other parish. 

 

Bartling is pleased that four of the current diocesan church plants fulfilled the requirements for Mission Fellowship status this year.  With Mission Fellowship recognition, Diocesan Convention can now consider recognizing them as parishes before the second vote on realigning the diocese to another province of the Anglican Communion.

 

“This is the most important organizational decision that Pittsburgh congregations will face for years to come.  Because all of our church plants will be directly affected by the decision of Diocesan Convention, we believe it is important that as many as possible are able to vote on this issue, just like any other congregation of the diocese,” explained Bartling.

 

Mission Fellowship status also marks the maturing of the diocese’s church plants.  According to the Rev. Ethan Magness, vicar of Grace in Slippery Rock, there has been much growth since Grace was founding in 2006.  “We started with eight people and we have about 140 now... we see the Gospel reaching new people for Jesus, which is great,” he said.