Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s annual Diocesan Convention, on Saturday, Nov. 7, will take place online via Zoom and livestreaming.
Online registration is open, here, until Oct. 30.
"When 'Embracing Brave Change' was adopted as the encapsulating theme of our diocesan mission strategy several years ago, none of us envisioned the extraordinary sorts of 'brave change' which would be required of us in 2020," Bishop Alan M. Gates wrote in a July letter to convention participants.
"Swift innovation has been demanded in our ways of worshiping God, supporting one another and engaging our world. This adaptation has been challenging, often painful. At the same time, some necessary changes have cracked open new insights into how God’s grace can be mediated, what priorities are emerging with new clarity and how things that had grown old might be made new. Among the places that we cannot do 'business as usual' in our life together will be the annual convention of the diocese." Read the full letter here.
A modified resolutions process, reflecting this year's special circumstances, will provide online opportunities for discussing and refining proposed resolutions during an open comment period, Sept. 24-29, after which they will be refined and resubmitted in final form to be voted up or down at the convention on Nov. 7.
The regular series of pre-convention forums takes place in October, offering an important opportunity for learning and discussion about the issues and business to come before the convention. All are welcome; clergy and delegates are especially encouraged to participate.
All forums will be held online via Zoom this year, and will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) on the following dates:
- Tuesday, Oct. 6: Cape & Islands and Mt. Hope-Buzzards Bay deaneries
- Wednesday, Oct. 7: Taunton River and South Shore deaneries
- Thursday, Oct. 8: Charles River and Alewife deaneries
- Friday, Oct. 9, 2-3:30 p.m.: Daytime forum option
- Tuesday, Oct. 13: Neponset River and Boston Harbor deaneries
- Wednesday, Oct. 14: Mystic Valley and North Shore deaneries
- Thursday, Oct. 15: Merrimack Valley and Concord River deaneries
For all materials, links and updates, visit www.diomass.org/diocesan-convention-2020.
Questions about Diocesan Convention may be directed to Chelsea Smith, Assistant for Governance and Administration, at csmith@diomass.org or 617-482-4826, ext. 406.
Updated Sept. 30 to remove links related to open comment period, now closed.