Dancing Together: Uniting in Worship at the Clergy Conference

By: The Rev. Tom Adamson, Priest-in-charge, Holy Family Episcopal Church, Angola and The Rev. Mary Taflinger, Missioner for Pastoral Care for the Diocese of Indianapolis

“We’re learning to dance together.” A “first dance” metaphor emerged in the conversations of the joint liturgy team planning worship for last week’s clergy conference at Waycross. This was the first time all the clergy from the diocese of Northern Indiana and Indianapolis had been able to meet in person. Covid cancelled the first joint in-person gathering several years ago.

Worship is central to our common life and at clergy conference it is often a place of refreshment for those who are usually leading weekly worship. It’s also one of the few times when those who serve smaller congregations are able to pray Morning and Evening Prayer in community. Liturgy planning and leadership are ways clergy care for one another when we gather.

In our first conversation together, our liturgy planning team of The Rev. Tom Adamson, from Northern Indiana, and The Rev. Jason Haddox and The Rev. Mary Taflinger from Indianapolis discovered that our two dioceses do the “liturgy dance” a little differently at clergy conferences. Northern Indiana takes a more informal approach, having clergy volunteer to lead and make choices about canticles and music. Indydio’s recent practice has been to plan liturgy ahead of time, put a worship booklet together, and recruit leaders before the conference. We agreed to a hybrid of these two approaches and worked to have a balance of leadership from each diocese. In order to facilitate the “dance,” materials which would be broadly familiar were selected from the Book of Common Prayer and the Hymnal 1982.

Creating a welcoming and prayerful worship space in the large assembly hall was important to the liturgy team.  To this end Bishop Sparks brought a large icon that was written for him several years ago.  It is often present at clergy gatherings in the Diocese of Northern Indiana. 

The Rev. Jason Haddox and The Rev. Tom Adamson led the music with their considerable talents – The Rev. Jason on piano and The Rev. Tom on violin.  The musical gifts of everyone were called forth at the Eucharist as we learned a Kyrie Eleison in three-part round taught by Jason.  The joy of making music together spilled into a fun impromptu sing-a-long in the evening as folks from both diocese gathered to enjoy old songs and new friendships.

Compañeros en Cristo Update

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The Rev. Canon John Schramm emailed the following Compañeros en Cristo update on April 29, 2024.

It is with great delight that I send you this message. I heard from Madre Rosa Angélica today. You know that we have sent some money to her on behalf of her parish, San José de la Montaña. St Thomas sent $500 from money they had earmarked for Honduras, and the diocese also sent $500 through Compañeros en Cristo. 

I heard today what Madre Rosa actually did with the money. She hired a bus and took the whole parish to the diocesan retreat center, Muchilena, Omoa. Yesterday the bus took the whole parish and they had mass and teachings in the chapel whose foundations and first structure the Diocese of Northern Indiana began. Then they played games with the children and adults, and went swimming in the ocean nearby. Even the hard-working women who always do the cooking and such were able to spend time in the water. I have pictures appended to this email.

I hardly need to tell you what a blessing to the people of San José this was. These are poor folks, as you know, and a trip by bus to Muchilena and much less the beach on the ocean, these are things they cannot afford. I daresay that this will be a blessing that they will remember for a long time to come. And we can be pleased to think that somewhere along the line they will remember us in Indiana who enabled their priest to give them this blessing. Madre Rosa spent most of the money on the parish and so still lacks $170 for her alb. But I think I have a source from which I can secure this amount. Enjoy the pictures and keep Madre Rosa Angélica and the Church of San José de la Montaña in your prayers.