Convention Booklet 2024 FINAL (01-22-2024)

105th Annual Convention

The Rev. Matt Rhodes, St. Stephen’s, Forest Born and raised in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, I returned home to Lynchburg after accepting the call to serve at St. Stephen's in Forest in 2021. A member of the board for Grace House on the Mountain, I also serve on the board of directors and as chair of the Members and Friends Committee of Interfaith Outreach Association in Lynchburg and as a member of the Parent and Family Advisory Committee, the President’s Advisory Council, and the curriculum committee for the LIFE@Lynchburg program, all at the University of Lynchburg. As much as the word “disciplinary” is clearly visible in the name of the body for which I’m standing for election, perhaps the greater and more important unwritten word is “pastoral.” I feel that by offering myself for election to the Disciplinary Board, I’m following a call to exercise my pastoral and discernment skills in collaboration with the other members in seeking resolution, reconciliation, and healing in the situations brought before the board .

The Rev. John Adams, Christ, Martinsville I have served Christ Church, Martinsville, as Rector since February 2022, following more than seven years as a priest in the Diocese of Nebraska, where among other things I spent four years on the Executive Commission and Bishop & Trustees (overseeing Diocesan finances and related issues). While I have no personal experience of a formal disciplinary process, I have offered informal pastoral support to both clergy and laity going through a process, and, as part of recent conversations around Title IV revision possibilities, I’ve spent more time looking at Title IV than I (or most people) ever want to. I thus hope that, if elected a member of the Disciplinary Board, I would bring to the table a necessary combination of pastoral sensitivity and canonical attentiveness.

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