I recently joined the Lay Organization and I attended my first biennial in Jacksonville last July 2001. The LO is my chruch is going on retreat tomorrow and I wanted to know what kinds of topics are most effective to address the laity that the LO should discuss at a retreat session. Please help. Thank you in advance and May God bless you.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2001

Answers

Congratulations Pat! on your service to the church. We will be setting up our lay organization in the next few weeks. But please tell me about the Lay Convention in Jacksonville. Also perhaps there were one or two workshops from the convention you can use for your retreat. Keep us posted. And again thank you for your service to the church.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2001

At our regular Lay Org. meeting yesterday (08/19) we received glowing reports about the Biennial. I attend part of this gather a few years ago when it was here in Columbus. I was new to the organization at that time and did not realize the bigness and importance of this gathering.

There were virtually no negative reports. A comprehensive printed report was prepared, but the delegate had only 3 or 4 copies ready for distribution. I hope to get a copy at a later date.

BTW, our Bishop (R V Webster) appears to be very supportive of the Lay Org. and ensured that delegates from the Terrific Third were well entertained while in Jacksonville.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Bishop Webster is in fact the chairman of the Lay Commission. This post comes too late to help with the originator's retreat, but some good topics for any lay meeting or workshop are: lay/clergy relations, duties of officers, church government, new church ministries and history of the AME Church to name just a few. It is a good idea to have a mini workshop as part of regular Lay Orginization meetings as one of the main missions of the LO is education.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I would encourage the Lay Organization to become more active in Church Expansion and Development. Encourage your Presiding Elders and Bsihop to make establishing new congregations a priorty at every conference. Take an active role in starting new congregations.

Blessings,

Pastor Paris

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Pastor Paris the Person in charge of Evangelism and Church Expansion in the Pacific Northwest Conference is Dr. Thomas Carpenter. He has worked wih our congregation from it's formation and continues to work with us. This weekend he will be coming from Seattle where he lives to worship with us and to see the community. He will also do that with the other new church in Portland, Oregon. Also the President of our Conference Lay organization Ben Franklin, pledged financial support to both new churches. And he has been in contact with me on how to set up our lay organization. He too will be coming to visit both new churches to offer support. Bishop Bryant and our conference are sending people to teach the church mechanics to the members of the two new churches. And churches in our conference are sending money. In my many years of ministry I have not seen such powerful examples of connectionalism as I see in the Pacific Northwest Conference. I have colleagues in other denominations that are church planters who did not receive the support that the A.M.E is giving to the two new churches in my conference. Our Bishop, Episcopal Supervisor, clergy and laity are reaching out to help and to make sure we receive the training we need. Without Laity there is no church. Just wanted you to know that Laity plays a big part in church expansion. For 90 percent of those who volunteered to come and do workshops for our church are lay people from churches across the conference. They are so generous. Praise God!

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

I believe that Bishop Richardson is the present Chair of the Lay Commission. However, Bishop Webster has also served in this capacity and has without a doubt demonstrated his support of the Lay.

I would also note that I have attended several Biennial Sessions now, and I found that each one was simply wonderful. Without a doubt much of the success of these events is directly related to the work of the Director of Lay Activities as well as that of the host Episcopal District.

Therefore, I think Kudos; accolades and applause are in order for the outgoing Lay Director, Ms. Margaret Fields who has demonstrated excellent skills of planning and executing appropriate training and workshop activities. Additionally, she has developed and published handbooks, which will be useful for anyone who servers in this capacity, on any level, both now and in years to come. We also must applaud the Eleventh District for a job well done.

-- Anonymous, August 22, 2001