I am in Victoria B.C. attending a conference called Epiphany Explorations held at First Metropolitan United Church. The United Church of Canada encourages its clergy to take three weeks of study time per year and while I have rarely used all three weeks I usually manage one or two.
Cathy and I are fortunate in that years ago an education fund was set up at St. Paul's in the name of Ed Schammerhorn, a former minister. In 2010 a little over $4000 will be available to us for spiritual education and growth programs. It has meant that I could spend time at the Taize Christian community in France, and take a course offered by Celtic Christianity specialist, Philip Newell, at Ghost Ranch centre in New Mexico. I have also had retreat time at other locations and I have never had to use any of the church budget amount for continuing education to do so.
This time I am in Victoria and avoided having to fly to the States where travel restrictions are very tight at the moment. Take a look at the agenda for the next few days. I look forward to filling you in on what I have heard and seen. You can bet I will get in a few walks by the ocean while I am here as well.
Cathy and I are fortunate in that years ago an education fund was set up at St. Paul's in the name of Ed Schammerhorn, a former minister. In 2010 a little over $4000 will be available to us for spiritual education and growth programs. It has meant that I could spend time at the Taize Christian community in France, and take a course offered by Celtic Christianity specialist, Philip Newell, at Ghost Ranch centre in New Mexico. I have also had retreat time at other locations and I have never had to use any of the church budget amount for continuing education to do so.
This time I am in Victoria and avoided having to fly to the States where travel restrictions are very tight at the moment. Take a look at the agenda for the next few days. I look forward to filling you in on what I have heard and seen. You can bet I will get in a few walks by the ocean while I am here as well.
The logo for the conference is above. Here is the website http://firstmetvictoria.com/1609
3 comments:
I am sure one of the ten commandments covers envy. I have it, Victoria and all those great speakers! It sounds like you will have a great time. Enjoy!
A big part of staying fresh in the workplace is professional development, and it's great that our present fearless leader can be supported in the name of a long-serving former fearless leader in this regard.
The fact that we have such a talented pastor at St. Paul's, and that he works hard to keep his spiritual game sharp makes us doubly lucky.
Enjoy the time, David.
PS - You and Ed are like the Larry Bird and Magic Johnson of St. Paul's long history. Gretzky and Lemieux? Churchill and Roosevelt? Chocolate and Vanilla? You get the idea ...
It looks like there would have been lots of food for thought. I have heard many share enthusiasm for Epiphany Explorations. Going to BC just isn't practical for me though. Although, I noticed Linnea Good and Bruce Harding on the list. Were they presenting or were they the musicians for the event, or both? I so enjoy their music!
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