COB Sends Missionary to Nashville Area

I confess that I could not resist the above headline.  Thursday evening at the Council of Bishops (COB) meeting, the Council on a motion from the South East Jurisdiction College of Bishops (SEJC) approved the assignment of Bishop Ben Chamness to the Nashville Episcopal Area (Memphis & Tennessee Conferences) effective September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2012.   Bishop Chamness will be completing the term of Bishop Wills, who needed to take early retirement.  Think of Bishop Chamness’ new assignment in these terms – we are sending a missionary to the Nashville Area!  Bishop Chamness will be presiding at our Annual Conference on Tuesday, June 7^th from 8:30 – 10:30 am at my invitation as we begin our second hundred years as a Conference.  I invite us to keep Bishop Chamness and Joye in our prayers. Amid a great deal of other work, the Council of Bishops continued its work on the Call to Action.  The Four Focus Areas (New Places for New People/New Church Development, Leadership Development, Imagine No Malaria, and Ministry with the Poor) were strongly reaffirmed as a critical part of the work of building vital congregations.  Vital congregations are engaged in the four focus areas as they reach out with God’s love in Christ through the power & presence of the Holy Spirit.