156th Annual Convention of the Diocese of Easton Date & Format Change
At its recent May meeting, Diocesan Council approved the following: The 156th Annual Diocesan Convention will be a hybrid format. We will convene via Zoom on the evening of Thursday, March 7th for Business Session One and voting. We will gather together, with those who can join us, for a Friday evening, March 8th Eucharist at Emmanuel Church, Chestertown followed by a reception. On Saturday, March 9th, our in-person only convention will convene at Washington College, Chestertown.
Our theme will be: Imaginative Leadership & Congregational Vitality in Re-emergence and Resurrection: A Mission and Ministry Imperative for the 21st Century Church.
The vote came in response to the outcome of a meeting between diocesan staff, the Very Rev. Frank St. Amour, Dean of the Northern Convocation, Rev. Claire Nevin-Field, Rector, Emmanuel Parish, Rev. Darcy Williams and Elaine Grant, Representative of Washington College on the possibility of using the college for hosting the Diocesan Convention 2024 in the Northern Convocation. We had a very informative tour and productive meeting on the use of the facility and decided that the college would fulfill all the requirements for a fruitful and productive convention. The dates would need to be changed to the second Saturday, March 9th to accommodate a few developments: (1) The bishop would be at the Spring Meeting of the House of Bishops, Texas, on the first Saturday of March and (2) The college hosts the annual George Washington observances on the last weekend of February. This proposed change is still in keeping with the dates required by Canon 201 cited for Diocesan Convention. Canon 201 states: Date and Place of Annual Convention. 201.1 Time and Place. The Annual Convention must be convened each year on a date between the third Sunday in January and the second Sunday in March and at a time and place as the Bishop must determine and announce at least one hundred twenty (120) days prior to the date of Convention.