“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”
Jesus (John 15:1)
The theme “Tending Toward Growth,” draws on scriptural references to plants and sheep to show how those tended by good gardeners and good shepherds tend to grow and thrive. In terms of the congregations of the Diocese of Georgia, we know that faithful tending bears fruit. The fruit of faithfulness will differ in our various contexts, but everywhere we are called to minister, we are to be faithful, like a good gardener or The Good Shepherd, Jesus.
The clergy of the Diocese found this theme a fruitful one in discussions at the clergy conference in the fall. The conversation now continues at the diocesan level. Many of the things to which we will attend during Convention 2011, such as the budget, and changes to the canons, may seem to have little to do with the work of the Gospel. Yet, we know that in tending properly to our common life as a Diocese, we can work to assist one another in bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God.
“If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.”
~Isaiah 58:10-11
