Join Us Sunday with Bishop Ruth

Bishop Ruth is Visiting this Sunday, July 23, 2023

Join us for Worship at 10 O'clock AM, Sunday, July 16.

Bishop Ruth Stanley-Woodliff is visiting Church of the Messiah this Sunday, July 23 at 10am. She will preach, lead worship and greet parishioners afterwards at coffee hour in the Upper Room. After coffee hour, Bishop Ruth will meet with the vestry for conversation and reflections. The heart of the conversation is likely to be the Visioning Process for the future of Messiah. Last Weekend, much of the parish membership participated in the two-day visioning retreat to begin planning for our future in a new location (see below).

After the vestry meeting, Bishop Ruth will have lunch with our three clergy, Jim, John & George, and their spouses!

Bishop Ruth visits each congregation in the Diocese of South Carolina every year, and our visit is typically during the Summer. Above is a photo of Bishop Ruth and our congregation from her visit with us in June, 2022. We'll try to take a similar photo this Sunday as well.

The Bishop's visit coincides with the intercession calendar of the Diocese off South Carolina, so that the entire diocese is praying for the parish that the bishop is visiting the week before the visit. You can read more about that in the weekly Diocesan Newsletter by clicking on this link. There is also an article in the newsletter about our Visioning Retreat last week!

If you would like to read the Bible lessons for this Sunday, please click on this link to the Lectionary Page.

Messiah Visioning Retreat Concludes

The Parish Planning Process Begins!

Dear People of Messiah Church

Friday and Saturday, July 13 and 14, over 40 parishioners joined us for one or both days of our two-day retreat. About 35 people were with us for some or all of Friday, and over 27 finished the work with us on Saturday (photo above). I’m excited that our Visioning Retreat with Ann Fleming of the Episcopal Church Building Fund is now complete. Now, the planning work begins.

At a meeting with the Vestry and other church leaders, after church on Sunday, July 15, Ann began the process with us of taking the work of the retreat as the foundation for a planning process whose goal is the creation of a new Church of the Messiah at a new location in Myrtle Beach. We outlined 4 Teams and a Steering Committee that will lead this research and planning.

A Steering Committee organizes the work of the four teams, and assembles an application to the Episcopal Church Building Fund and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina for the re-establishment of Messiah at a new Location in Myrtle Beach. Kristi Burch and Peggy Kovacs are the Co-Chairs of the Steering Committee that will coordinate the tasks of the 4 teams. The Steering Committee Leadership Team, which is Kristi and Peggy joined by Fr. John, Vicar and Warden Rick Stall, has been working to clarify the team tasks, goals and a time-line. A number of parishioners from the vestry and the retreat volunteered to participate on the teams. When that team-organizing work is more complete, a new Messiah e-News will be sent out to the congregation explaining the details and inviting congregational participation as needed.

When this stage of the work concludes, Ann will visit us again in October to review that work and the application and plan our next steps.

This is an exciting time for the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Myrtle Beach. As your Vicar, I deeply appreciate the dedication of the forty or more people who spent many hours on the two-day retreat, beginning a Visioning Process for Messiah. I'm equally grateful for those who volunteered for the four teams, and for those who are waiting for an opportunity to participate. Our future is bright!

Many Blessings,

Fr. John Sorensen

Vicar