This workshop, presented by the diocesan Congregational Business Consultants, is aimed at parish treasurers and other parishioners and church employees who are interested in acquiring the tools and resources to make maintaining a vital and viable parish easier and less fraught with stress. For maximum benefit, it is recommended that parishes send two- or three-person teams to one of the offered workshops (all Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.):
All congregations should conduct an annual financial audit. The goal of these workshops is to provide the tools that church treasurers, volunteer auditors and others need to prepare for a financial audit.
Education for Ministry is a four-year distance learning program which provides a basic theological education, including the old and New Testaments, church history, liturgy and theology.
To create a more interactive learning environment, the diocese sponsors seminar groups of six to twelve participants and a trained mentor who meet weekly during the nine-month academic year. Students who complete the program successfully receive a certificate and 18 continuing education credits for each of the four completed years.
The National Council of Churches offers a collection of eco-justice resource material, on topics of climate and energy, biodiversity, Earth Day Sunday, environmental health and justice, food and farming, green building and land, wilderness and water issues. Find them here.
Eucharistic visitors are lay people who have been trained to give the Holy Eucharist to shut-ins and other people who are unable to attend Eucharist services. Eucharistic visitors must be licensed by the diocese.
There are two types of Eucharistic visitor training:
This is a six-hour training session designed to increase awareness regarding sexual misconduct and abuse of power, to outline steps toward preventing abuse, to offer ways to intervene when misconduct occurs and to equip anyone in a position of parish leadership with ways of healing and rebuilding the body of Christ.