tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post38611219537078140..comments2024-03-23T18:50:32.902-04:00Comments on Telling Secrets: Annual Clergy RetreatElizabeth Kaetonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06787552280232329081noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-72388739536545966712008-10-28T11:47:00.000-04:002008-10-28T11:47:00.000-04:00I do not go to Clergy Conferences any more. Even ...I do not go to Clergy Conferences any more. Even when there are some good things, the difficult ones become so negative that in the end there is a higher emotional and spiritual cost than there is benefit. For a while, they balanced some years, and I went in hope that it might edge over onto the positive side. The conversation you give as an example is all too common.<BR/><BR/>The only thoroughly positive clergy conferences I attended were in the Diocese of South Carolina when Bp Alison was bishop there - great fellowship, authentic worship, engaging and edifying teaching.<BR/><BR/>Most other clergy conferences I have been to were variations on the pschodynamics of parish life, the "latest thing" on syncristitic theology, or a combination of the two. It takes a week or two of contact with the real people of my parish to recover from such saddening experiences.Hiramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00845924600039905182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-34676008901850477572008-10-27T13:13:00.000-04:002008-10-27T13:13:00.000-04:00At least you have a speaker that is worth listenin...At least you have a speaker that is worth listening to. We don't even have enough money in the diocese to pay for a speaker. So---the Clergy Conference was as inane as the conversation that you were talking about. I couldn't even bring myself to go.<BR/><BR/>I did go to the Lutheran clergy conference and it was awesome! First, the conversations were much better and much more honest. The relationship of the bishop to the clergy is quite different--it doesn't have the sense of parent/child that I often find among Episcopalians. But most of all the liturgy had been well planned--by the chosen chaplain of the conference. There was a chapel where we could go during the day--there was a glorious place to walk around and there were events during one afternoon that encouraged us to go shopping, winetasting, golfing and other relaxing venues. I came home uplifted and rested. It was all that I could hope for from a Clergy Conference.<BR/>You are in my prayers as you Conference, Sistah!Muthah+https://www.blogger.com/profile/10589837671378205837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-63541364902259744112008-10-27T12:37:00.000-04:002008-10-27T12:37:00.000-04:00Well, I'm depressed, now. This sounds as bad as m...Well, I'm depressed, now. This sounds as bad as medical meetings. No one wants to look like they're not doing well, but no one wants to look like they're doing overly well, either!Kirkepiscatoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02651684515435040529noreply@blogger.com