Midwest Annual Gathering

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Easter Tuesday 2014

My dear brother rectors,

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

What a joy we shared as his priests this Easter Day when we were able to proclaim those words again.  I so look forward to hearing about your Holy Week Services when I see most of you over the next month.

I am writing to ask each of you personally to do two things for me and for our diocese as the Midwest Annual Gathering (May 16-17) approaches.  First, commit this time to your regular and intensive prayers.  And, second, please ask your leaders and your people to do all they can to be a part of this Gathering.  I fully understand that this event comes at the end of an intense ministry year for all of us, and that we could be inclined to slide into this Gathering.  But I think our Gathering is too important to our vision of seeing a Revival of Word and Sacrament to do this.

For those of us who attended the March Clergy Retreat and the April Church Planting Conference we had a striking experience of seeing our diocese and her mission embodied in a way we had never encountered before.  That is exactly what so many throughout our diocese need.  They need to know the power of the Holy Spirit with us now, they need to be fed and led by the spiritual fathers and mothers of our diocese, and they need to discover that there are other brothers and sisters who are three stream Gospel partners.

This is how we will plant more churches, equip a new generation of leaders, and reach many more of the lost.

Toward this end please consider:

1. Meeting face to face with your senior leaders, asking them to attend, and asking them to invite others from your parish to come with them.  Share with them and others the Training Sessions that will be available (details attached to this letter).
2. Regularly cast the vision for the Gathering at your Sunday services and other opportunities (vestry meetings or team gatherings).
3. Send people to our website (Midwestanglican.org), distribute my video invite (click here for video) and personally hand out the communication pieces you received at the Clergy Retreat.

Thank you brothers.  As the rectors of the diocese, you are our most influential leaders.  If you have any questions about the Gathering please don’t hesitate to call or email me.

Your brother,

+Stewart