Last weekend was the Diocese of Texas Episcopal Church Women Annual Meeting and Retreat. Four Twenties and Thirties members attended the retreat: LisaDiane Etheredge, Misty Hopper, Lindsay Porter, and Lee Read.
The retreat is two days at Camp Allen, including fellowship, worship, and workshops. The weekend started with an opening service. Bishops Wimberly, High and Harrison were present. Also, Canon to the Ordinary Ann Norman and Bishop-elect Andy Doyle were at the service. There is a banquet on Friday night; during the banquet we elect new officers for the Diocesan ECW. I was nominated (prior to the meeting) to be Communication Chair on the Diocese of Texas ECW Board of Directors. Lee, Lindsay, and Misty were good enough to vote "aye" to elect me and the rest of the new board members.
We attended three workshops. Our first workshop was How can I keep from singing with Brother Gallagher of Holy Cross Monastery. We were not, in fact, able to keep from singing. We practically sang ourselves hoarse. We sang some songs we knew, and some we didn't, but we sang with gusto, and some of us sang with skill - I won't name names ;-)
Our second workshop was Top ten misconceptions about the Saints, led by the Reverend Mary Vano of St. David's Austin. The presentation was interesting, and there was some fun discussion. Among other things we learned that St. Clare is the patron saint of television.
The final workshop we attended was Walking the Labyrinth with All Saints' own Elizabeth Gibson. Elizabeth gave a great introduction about preparing to walk. We got to spend plenty of time on the Labyrinth, and I believe we were all touched by the walk. The workshop was very popular - lots of different people from different churches attended, but there was a strong All Saints' showing!
The final organized event of the weekend was the Closing service, Morning prayer, including the installation of the new Diocese of Texas ECW Board of Directors. at the time of the retreat, the existing Diocesan ECW President was Anne Hart Rea, also an All Saints' parishioner. Her three year term came to a close at the Closing Service. She did a great job serving on the Diocesan ECW board. Everyone spoke well of her, and I am sure she will be missed. I have some big shoes to fill when it comes to representing All Saints' on the Diocesan ECW Board of Directors!
Misty, Lindsay, Lee, and I finished our weekend with a walk down a lovely trail. Camp Allen has lots of pine trees, and the ground was littered with needles and pine cones. We collected some pine cones for the kids at All Saints' to use to decorate advent wreaths the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
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