February 28, 2008

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, meet­ing February 22 – 23 for its 136th Diocesan Convention host­ed by the state’s Northeast Convocation and St. Mark’s Church, Jonesboro, heard Bishop Larry R. Benfield offer a new vision for the diocese. 

In his con­ven­tion address, Benfield told approx­i­mate­ly 250 del­e­gates, who came togeth­er despite inclement weath­er, that the Episcopal Church in Arkansas shares ​“the trans­form­ing pow­er of Christ’s res­ur­rec­tion in wor­ship and rela­tion­ship” and acknowl­edged that as the focus the dio­cese will use as a new gen­er­a­tion is wel­comed into the church.

Benfield unveiled a new web­site, which is cur­rent­ly in devel­op­ment, and com­mit­ted the dio­cese to con­tin­u­ing to explore new media and ideas for evan­ge­lism and outreach.

The busi­ness of con­ven­tion includ­ed the approval of a change to the con­sti­tu­tion, depen­dant upon a sec­ond read­ing, for the appor­tion­ment of con­ven­tion del­e­gates from con­gre­ga­tions. A res­o­lu­tion was passed in sup­port of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the con­ven­tion urged mem­bers of con­gre­ga­tions to back the initiative.

In keep­ing with the con­ven­tion’s theme of glo­ri­fy­ing God through music, work­shops in litur­gi­cal music were offered by the Rev. Canon Victoria Sirota of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, and Scott Weidler, asso­ciate for music of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas com­pris­es some 14,000 Episcopalians wor­ship­ping in 56 con­gre­ga­tions through­out the state. Read about their Death Penalty Moratorium Campaign.