November 23, 2022 | Volume 12, No. 47

Feast of Feasts to begin on Sunday

The Diocese of Georgia will offer daily devotions written by Bishop Frank and Victoria Logue for a 7-week study from Advent through Epiphany. The short daily readings use the lens of Franciscan ideals including humility, simplicity, and peace as a focal point of each week. This will be perfect to enjoy as a solo study, a small group, or as an offering for the whole congregation. The devotions will be posted online daily starting the First Sunday of Advent, November 27.

No need to purchase

You do not need to buy anything to take part in this study as the Diocese of Georgia Facebook page will offer the content daily. Each week the Facebook page will also feature a companion video that is posted on the diocesan YouTube Channel that expands on the theme of the week.

Each registered attendee to the Diocesan Convention will receive one free printed copy of the book. In addition, the full text of the devotional is available now at no cost in two formats:

Feast of Feasts PDF

Feast of Feasts ePub (for Nook and ebook readers)

A free Kindle version will be available on Amazon from November 10-14 only and for $2.99 afterward, in keeping with the bookseller permitting only one free promotion for 5 days. Feasts of Feasts Kindle

You may purchase printed copies of the book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $5 each. To view on Amazon, click here. To view on Barnes and Noble, click here.

The reflections will also be posted on our website each day as well as our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The Rev. Michael White named

Dean of the Savannah Convocation

Bishop Logue appointed the Rev. Michael White to serve as the Dean of the Savannah Convocation. "I am grateful to have Dean White in this important role that assists me in the oversight and pastoral care of clergy in Savannah," Bishop Logue said. "His thoughtful parish leadership and deep sense of collegiality make him ideal for this ministry."

In July 2008, White became Christ Churchin Savannah’s forty-first rector. He is married to The Rev. Helen S. White, and they have two sons, Ethan and Jay. Previously, he served as the priest-in-charge for Christ Church, Georgetown in Washington, D.C.; a religious advisor for the U.S. Senate; rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina; rector of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Richmond Hill; and as an associate at Trinity, Statesboro. He graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1995 and was ordained to the sacred order of priests on January 5, 1996. He has a Certificate in Non-profit Management from Duke University and was selected for the Trinity Wall Street Clergy Leadership Project. In the Diocese of North Carolina, Michael served as the Diocesan Ecumenical Officer. He served as a member of the Diocesan Council and a member of the Alumni Alumnae Executive Council for Virginia Theological Seminary.

The Rev. Leeann Culbreath joins AED Board

The Rev. Leeann Culbreath was recently elected to the board of The Association for Episcopal Deacons (AED), an association of persons and dioceses working for the diaconate and servant ministry. AED includes the Episcopal Church, USA, and the Anglican Church of Canada. and AED promotes the servant ministry of all the baptized, leads the Church in seeking justice and peace for all people; and supports deacons within the Church. Rev. Culbreath was an active member of AED when she served as a deacon for 7 years, co-launching the Young Episcopal Deacons Taskforce. In 2016, she received AED’s St. Stephen’s ministry award. Two priests always serve on the board to help build stronger ties between priests and deacons. The term is four years. 

“I am honored to be elected and look forward to working with clergy colleagues across the country and Canada to strengthen the diaconate. Deacons play a critical and prophetic role in the mission of the church, and the church needs more of them,” Culbreath said. She encourages all lay persons and clergy alike to join AED to support their work and learn more about the ministry of deacons. The website is https://www.episcopaldeacons.org/.

Music library giveaway

The music office at Christ Church Episcopal in downtown Savannah is paring down its choral music library. Rather than throwing away several hundred pieces of music, we would like to offer these scores to any church, school, or community choir who could put them to good use. Most are in good condition, with various pencil markings from use in the music program over the past 40-50 years. The number of copies of each piece vary, and all details can be found in the spreadsheet linked here. To inquire about picking up scores, please contact Director of Music George Fergus at george.fergus@ccesavannah.org. Please share this notice with anyone in your community who may benefit. Scores will be available until early January.

Creation Care listening session online

If you missed the Creation Care Commission's Listening Session, or if you attended and want to listen again, the recording of the session can be found here: Creation Care Listening Session. If asked for a passcode, use care4creation!

Founding missions for African Americans

As we approach the bicentennial of our founding in 2023, we will share the story of the Diocese of Georgia. This week we remember the creation of new African American congregations.

Bishop F.F. Reese’s greatest area of expansion in the early part of the 20th century was in creating new African American congregations. He told the diocesan convention in 1910, “My brief experience as a Bishop, ministering to the negroes, has excited in me a much greater degree of sympathy and interest in the Church’s work among them than I felt before.” 

He said, “Just in so far as we believe ourselves to be a superior race are we responsible under God to be calm and patient and just and kind,” and then later in the address added, “We cannot, dare not, look God in the face and say we will have nothing to do with it or them.”

He spoke to the faithful work underway by African American clergy, “Our colored clergy are, I believe, faithful, earnest men. Some of them are exceptional men among their people, men of character and devotion. They are laboring under great difficulties and with poor and inadequate support. They are making bricks with but little straw.”

When the diocese elected Bishop Reese in 1908, the congregations noted as “colored” in the convention journal comprised one parish and seven missions. The sole African American church among the 14 parishes was St. Stephen’s in Savannah. Among the missions of the Diocese were the African American missions of St. Mary’s in Augusta, St. Athanasius’ in Brunswick, St. Bartholomew’s in Burroughs just south of Savannah, St. Cyprian’s in Darien, Good Shepherd in Pennick, Our Savior in St. Marys, and St. Augustine’s in Savannah. 

By 1910, six more missions were started for black Episcopalians: St. John’s in Albany, St. John in the Woods in Inwood near Darien, the two congregations of St. Ignatius’ and St. Perpetua’s on St. Simons Island, St. James in Tarboro, and Good Shepherd in Thomasville. By the end of his episcopacy, he would also start the African American missions of St. Ambrose in Waycross and St. Philip’s in Hawkinsville.

Throughout this time, the congregations met for a separate council for the Colored Churchmen of the Diocese of Georgia. The conventions remained segregated though Bishop Reese’s tenure with separate councils held from 1907 to 1947. In 1911, Bishop Reese told the all white convention of the meeting for black Episcopalians, “every possible opportunity should be given this Council and responsibility laid upon it for the direction of the work among their own people.”

At this same time debate at the church-wide level focused on two competing plans for expanding work among African Americans. One plan would elect from black clergy some suffragan bishops who served under the bishop diocesan. The second plan would create missionary districts served by blacks bishops who did not report to a diocesan. The Diocese of Georgia preferred raising up a Bishop Suffragans as a report read, “We believe that there is a real necessity and a justifiable demand on the part of the negro Churchmen for authorized leaders of their own race if our Church is to command the allegiance of that Race.” Suffragans would not be given a vote in the House of Bishops or the right to become a diocesan bishop. The same report noted that this was the “only plan by which complete control on the part of the white Bishop of the Diocese can still be maintained.”

In 1918, the dioceses of Arkansas and North Carolina did elect the first black Episcopal priests to serve as bishops. Many black Episcopalians delighted in seeing African American bishops while many others saw the move as a hollow gesture. 

Pictured: St. Athanasius in Brunswick (top); Good Shepherd in Thomasville (bottom).

Diocesan Convention Feedback Requested

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend Diocesan Convention either in-person or online. The generous spirit shown by so many allowed us to have a wonderful gathering, and we are already looking forward to next year’s Convention!

As we prepare for the 202nd Convention of the Diocese of Georgia, we’d like to take a moment to pause and learn from this year’s event, and for that, we need your feedback!

If you attended Convention please fill out this survey to help us better plan for next year: 2022 Survey.

St. Luke's in Rincon participated in the annual Christmas Parade.

The staff of Happening #106 pose for a group photo after the Closing Eucharist.

The Very Rev. Leslie Dellenbarger (right) and the Rev. Leeann Culbreath (left) recently attended the Leading Women conference in Richmond, Virginia. Leading Women is a 4-day conference for ordained women to discern and hone their leadership skills for ministry in traditional and emerging roles in the church and the wider world. Around fifty women attended from across the country. They enjoyed reconnecting with The Rev. Sierra Reyes (center), a former colleague in the Diocese of Georgia, who served on faculty for the conference. The Diocese of Georgia was a conference sponsor. 

If you would like to have your submission considered for From the Field, it needs to be sent to Communications Manager Liz Williams (lwilliams@gaepiscopal.org) by noon on Tuesday.

Our one-year prayer cycle combines prayers for every congregation in the Diocese of Georgia with prayers for our ecumenical partners and for our Companion Diocese of The Dominican Republic.  

The 2022 one year prayer cycle is online here: 2022 Prayer Cycle.     

November 20 - 26

In our diocesan cycle of prayer, we pray for our congregation in Waycross, Grace Church. We also pray for our ecumenical partners in Waycross, especially St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. In our companion diocese of the Dominican Republic, we pray for the congregations in Santo Domingo, especially St. Ann’s (Santa Ana).

November 27 - December 3

In our diocesan cycle of prayer, we pray for our congregation in Waynesboro, St. Michael’s. We also pray for our ecumenical partners in Waynesboro, especially Sacred Heart Catholic Church and our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Sylvania. In our companion diocese of the Dominican Republic, we pray for the congregations in Santo Domingo, especially St. Margaret (Santa Margarita).

Newly Revised 31-Day Prayer Cycles

We also offer 30-day prayer cycles for those who wish to pray daily for the clergy and clergy spouses: Diocesan Prayer Cycle and Clergy Spouses Prayer Cycle. (Updated 7/1/2022)

Bishop Logue will make his visitation to St. Andrew's in Douglas on Sunday.

To view Bishop Logue's full visitation calendar, click here. (Updated for 2023 - 8/30/2022)

Picture: Bishop Logue with the congregation at Christ Church in St. Mary's on Sunday.

Executive Assistant to the Bishop Maggie Lyons and Canon Katie Easterlin are on maternity leave.

The office will be closed today though Friday in observance of Thanksgiving.

The best way to reach a staff member is via email as we will always get back with you promptly in many cases and in 24-72 hours when working on more pressing matters. Staff e-mails can be found here with a list of responsibilities so you know who to contact for what.

You may also reach diocesan staff by phone at (912) 236-4279.

Canon Katie Easterlin and husband Travis welcomed Mary Amelia on November 15.