Episcopal Diocese of Dallas

Clergy Conference 2018

Clergy Conference 2018

Monday, April 16, 2018 - Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Location: Camp Allen, 18800 FM 362, Navasota, TX US 77868

Website: http://www.edod.org

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Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! 

I write to welcome you to our 2018 clergy conference, coming up April 16-18.  This year, we are pleased to welcome as our guests Dr. Joseph Mangina, Professor of Systematic Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto, and the Rev. Dr. Emma Ineson, Principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England.  Both are scholars with a deep heart for the Gospel and the flourishing of the Church.  I look forward to our time together and hope each of you will find it to be a time of creative conversation, careful study, and the enjoyment of our common bonds in Christ. 

Our theme this year is “The True Vine: The Church in the Gospel of John.”  Dr. Mangina has been working for some time now on a book project that seeks to understand the Church via a careful reading of John’s Gospel, and he plans to share with us the fruits of his labors in this rich biblical vineyard. 

Dr. Ineson grew up in Kenya, and met her husband Mat while they were both training for ordination.  Before joining the faculty of Trinity College to teach practical and pastoral theology, she and Mat spent several years together in common ministry.  She brings her global experience and heart for Christian community to her scholarship, to her service on the Lambeth Design Group, and now to our diocese as our conference preacher.  Mat will be joining us, and happens to be an evangelical and an accomplished soccer player (let those with ears to hear, hear!) 

“I am the vine,” Christ tells us, “you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.  …As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” (John 15:5, 9).  We as leaders of Christ’s Church can bear no fruit that lasts on our own, and indeed all of us and each of our churches stand in need of pruning.  But as we abide in Christ, in his word, his commandments, and his love, who knows what God may do through us!  “Ask for whatever you wish,” Christ promises, “and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). 

Come and spend a few days to abide with Christ.  I pray that this will be a time of refreshment and renewal for all of us.  Please fill out with all due haste the registration form (online at http://edod.org/resources/articles/clergy-conference-2018/), and join me in thanking the diocesan staff and planning committee.  I will see each of you soon at Camp Allen! 

In Christ, The Right Reverend George R. Sumner Bishop of Dallas
For more information, please contact Laura Faulkner - or 214-826-8310