Story by Canon Amy Cook; Photos by Canon Stephanie Martin Taylor, Caren Miles, and Rev. Merry Chang Ong.
About 120 people gathered on Saturday, March 29, 2025, for the Leadership Training for Vestries and Bishop’s Committees, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Orinda. Participants from 37 churches gathered to connect, collaborate, and gain knowledge and resources to take back to their communities. Everyone gathered for bi-lingual Morning Prayer and then Bishop Austin shared a vision for congregations and the balance of our business and mission:
When we meet to do the business of the church, our work should be modeled on the best practices that we can learn from the business, human resources, governmental, and community organizing worlds. I would love to see all our vestries around DioCal empowered and enabled to manage the temporal affairs of our churches with the highest degree of expertise and professionalism possible.
But beyond that duty of care, we have a responsibility to the message and the tradition that we’ve received—to take our place in the great cloud of witnesses that have gathered, prayed, learned, marched, testified, built, accompanied, and served together as living witness of the living God. That responsibility involves a fair share of personal commitment to devotional practices that develop one’s spiritual muscles, but without a community of practice rooted in a living tradition, those devotional practices alone will not transform the world into a foretaste of the kingdom of God in our present day.
I believe that our congregations are workshops where we get to practice living the gospel together, and that once we align our best practices for business and organization, with our unwavering commitment to the upside-down wisdom of the gospel, our churches can become centers of partnership and transformation for our larger neighborhoods and region.
Canon Sierra reminded folks of their calling as the laity of the church and encouraged collaboration between churches with similar needs, ministries, and circumstances. Participants then attended various workshops addressing specific needs of wardens, vestry and bishop’s committee members, treasurers, and other workshops for parish lay leaders.
Here are some of what participants had to say about the event:
“I was looking forward to the day, but my expectations were exceeded. The fellowship was uplifting.”
“My folks were very excited and glad they had participated. I think it engendered a sense of unity among attendees.”
“I was engaged the entire time and enjoyed getting to know folks from other parishes.”
“The day was terrific! I hope it will be an annual event in the early Spring so that new vestry members can experience this orientation.”
“It was a very useful time. Especially enjoyed hearing how other churches approach issues that are common to us all.”
Diocesan staff are planning on offering a vestry/bishop’s committee training each spring as well as other diocesan-wide trainings.
