ECMN Convention 2024
ECMN Convention
Sanford Center, Bemidji (1111 Event Center Dr NE, Bemidji, MN 56601)
What a weekend! Thank you all for the gifts of your time, presence, faithful discernment, and deep love for God and one another, which showed up so abundantly in this weekend together. Below, please find wrap-up information about Convention:
Bishop's Address
You can find the video and text of the Bishop's address here.
Puedes encontrar la dirección del Obispo en español aquí.
Summary of Business
You can find here a summary of the actions taken during the business portion of convention, including those elected to various leadership bodies.
You can find the extended report of convention by clicking here.
Storyteller Videos
We were delighted by the stories we were able to hear throughout the day on Friday from amazing Episcopalians from across the state. If you'd like to revisit any of these stories, or the Eucharist service, you can find all of those by clicking here.
Mission Shaped and Rural: Your Next Faithful Step
At the 2024 Convention in Bemidji, Archdeacon Sally Gaze and Diane Grano from the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich in Suffolk, England shared about their work with Anglican churches in small towns and other rural areas outside London facing many of the same challenges as rural Minnesota faith communities. They shared a message of hope and depth as they told stories of all the many ways they're learning and watching the Holy Spirit show up. Find the video and handout for this gathering by clicking here.
Business Booklet
The business booklet, which contains all the information from the business portion of convention can be found here.
You can find the presentation given about the items in the Business Booklet at Mission Area Gatherings ahead of convention by clicking here.
The Eucharist offering was directed towards supporting Good Courage Farm. You can still donate online, please click here.
Convention Theme
Three of the four gospels recount a decisive moment when Jesus asks his disciples a critical question - ‘Who do you say that I am?” By the time Jesus asks this question, the disciples have sat with Jesus, walked with Jesus, prayed with Jesus and eaten meals with him. They have watched him heal, prophetically call inherited power structures to deeper faithfulness, bring hope where there was only despair, life where there was death, and proclaim liberating good news to the poor and to the oppressed. They rightly acclaim him as the Messiah. But, of course, Jesus did not turn out to be the Messiah anyone expected. Jesus gives himself away in an act of sacrificial love, and invites those who would follow him into a life of love and service that offers a radical alternative to business as usual.
This year at convention, we will be focused on how we are answering this question in our own day. Who do we say Jesus is by our lives as individuals, as congregations, and as a diocese? In every generation, in every context, the church of Jesus thrives when it looks and acts like Jesus. How can we most faithfully confess, follow, and bear witness to this Messiah in our own unique moment?
I’m very excited to welcome as a guest throughout our convention the Venerable Sally Gaze, Archdeacon of the Diocese of Suffolk in England. Sally is leading an initiative that is supporting some of the most visionary, Christ-centered and creative new expressions of church that I’ve ever seen. Suffolk is a rural part of England, so she’s also doing this in some of the smallest places in England - illustrating the ways that God will meet God’s people in the most practical ways and the most out of the way places.
I’m eager for you all to hear some of the stories Sally will share, and learn from some of the work they’ve done as we seek to follow Jesus into the church that we are being called to become here in Minnesota.
I so look forward to seeing you all in Bemidji as we learn, pray, and laugh together, as we delight in the gift we have in each other, and as we wait once again on the gift of the Holy Spirit to heal us, renew us, and set us free to love and serve the world as Jesus has loved and served us.
Grace and Peace,
The Right Reverend Craig Loya
X Bishop
Episcopal Church in Minnesota