Convention Booklet 2023

104th Annual Convention

General Convention, Clergy Deputy

The Very Rev. Boyd Evans, St. Thomas, Abingdon I have served at St. Thomas in Abingdon since 2016 and am currently the Dean of the Abingdon Convocation. I also serve on the Executive Board, Campus Ministry Working Group, and the Becoming Beloved Community Guiding Team. I was a delegate to General Convention in 2022 in which I was a sponsor of legislation on racial reconciliation. In the wider church, I am an active member of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. I served as a youth leader for several mission trips in Province IV prior to coming to DioSWVA and as a campus minister for three years at Sewanee. In 2022, my parish received a Lily Foundation Thriving in Ministry Grant for Spirit-guided leadership. Prior to ordination, I was a research scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I have been a lifelong Episcopalian and have a great love for the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement.

The Very Rev. Benjamin Badgett, St. John’s, Waynesboro If elected, I would bring interests and strengths in the areas of reconciliation, healing, and advocacy for partners in ministry with limited financial resources.

The Rev. Nina Salmon, St. Paul’s, Lynchburg Because of a COVID-compressed schedule, our next General Convention is just two years away instead of the usual three from last summer's shortened and re-imagined 80th GC in Baltimore. The Episcopal Church learned new things and new ways of doing business that at once stretched our work into a multi-month online process and compressed it into a shortened, streamlined version of its former self. I look forward to seeing old things being made new, or newly valuable, and new things that will carry us forward. It would be my honor and great privilege to serve as a deputy. I bring the strengths of experience as a returning deputy and legislative committee member and officer, as well as enthusiasm and love for this great, big mechanism of church polity that helps us all to walk the Way of Love, love and serve God, and care for our neighbor as disciples of Jesus. The Rev. Canon Mark Furlow, Non-Parochial

For over 13 years, I have served as a priest in Southwestern Virginia in a variety of roles: colleague, consultant, college minister, sabbatical replacement, rector, diocesan missioner, Chief Operating Officer, and Canon to the Ordinary. I have been a two time deputy to General Convention for DioSWVA in 2018 and 2022 serving on the Committee for Governance and Structure and as Chair of the Worship Committee. My ministry experience in all of these roles pastorally and administratively has given me unique insight into the Church and how to better support its missional work locally, nationally, and internationally. If elected, I would be honored to serve as a deputy on behalf of DioSWVA at GC 2024. 22