Five members of the Diocese of New Westminster are back from College—that is, the College for Congregational Development sponsored by the Diocese of Olympia. Archdeacon Lynne McNaughton, Director of Mission and Ministry Douglas Fenton, and MAP Resource Associate Marnie Peterson participated as students while Jeremy Clark-King and Tasha Carrothers joined in as trainers. The program focused on applying models and theory that will help congregational leaders—lay and ordained—strengthen their parishes, making them more faithful centers of transformation. Does this sound familiar? This is the program that the Diocese of New Westminster is offering at Rosemary Heights Retreat Center from July 22 to 28.
Participants from the Olympia session reported that highlights included using real cases to deepen their understanding of the material and working intensively in small groups. Asked to comment on the strengths of the College, Lynne McNaughton observed, “It’s a combination of thinking about the person as leader and also looking at the current edge that the church is living into—not looking back at where we have been but pushing the edges while being deeply rooted in the church. It’s good for very small parishes as well as large parishes, and urban and rural. I learned a lot from watching my colleagues.”
Images: Top left to right, Tasha Carrothers, Rev. Douglas Fenton, Rev. Marnie Peterson, Archdeacon Lynne McNaughton. Right, Rev. Jeremy Clark King