Now available: the full roster of Ministry Institute courses, seminars, workshops from September through December 2010.

From an African Evensong and 'Any Given Sunday' to 'Twenty-Five Words' and 'Urban Ministry: Faith and Works', you'll find a variety of interesting and engaging options throughout the autumn.

You can browse the offerings by audience or by date. Or you can peruse the full description descriptions in chronological order.

Registration is easy: you can do so online via a secure server. Or if you prefer, you have the option of mailing in your registration. Forms are right on the website.

Like a quick overvew? Download the one-page flyer. It will give you the basics.

Good Stewards . . . Thank God . . . Thank God!

When and Where:
September 11: Grace-St Paul's, Mercerville
September 18: Grace Church, Haddonfield September 18: Holy Spirit, Tuckerton

Time: 9 am to 3.30 pm

Do you have responsibility for stewardship in your church? Gather new ideas and be refreshed by new information from leaders who will all have attended the Provincial Mentor's Workshop in Augus 2010.

And you can tap into the expertise of other presenters will have attended the The Episcopal Network for Stewardship's national conference.

For details, click here.

Sponsored by the Diocesan Stewardship Commission.

Christ Church, Woodbury at Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue, New York

Catherine Burgess of Christ Church, Woodbury and Katherine Merwin of St Peter’s Church, Morristown (Diocese of Newark) represented the State of New Jersey at the sixth annual summer girls chorister program at Saint Thomas Church in New York City.

The nine-day residential program is offered by the acclaimed Saint Thomas Choir School. This year, 31 girls from throughout the US and Great Britain were in attendance. Mrs. Sarah Baldock, organist and master of the Choir at Chichester Cathedral in England, served as music director.

The girl choristers are chosen annually by application, essay, recommendation by their parish choir master, and phone interview. The girls offered two services of Evensong, as well as the musical setting for the Sunday Mass with the men of the Saint Thomas Choir.

Catherine Burgess is a freshman at Woodbury Senior High School and Katherine Merwin is a freshman at Morristown High School.

Founded in 1919 and located in the heart of New York City, Saint Thomas Choir School is the only church-affiliated, boarding choir school in the United States. The school’s mission unites three great traditions: music, education and Christian community.

Congratulations to Catherine and her parish of Christ Church, Woodbury!

The Finance Office: Open for Business!

Right Onward! We hear it and read it all the time. A clearer, more concise statement of our vision as a diocese would be hard to find. Harder yet would be finding anyone who embraces and embodies that vision more than Bishop Councell. It’s a vision that informs the discussions and guides the recommendations and decisions of every governing and advisory body in the Diocese.

Perhaps the latest step in our journey right onward, encompassing the recent changes in our Finance office, was best described by the Reverend Canon Lee Powers when he used the phrase “Open for Business”.

Our core group in the Finance office, pictured above, liked that one so much we’ve decided to keep it, and to present under its banner a series of articles to better acquaint you with what that means, how it works, and why it means so much to us.

Reading the job description for the Diocesan CFO’s position — and thereby for the Finance office as a whole — is not for the faint of heart. It’s three pages long, and the list of people to whom we report and are responsible reads like a roll call of the entire diocese.

But here in Finance we are, after all, “bottom line” people. And when we get down to that bottom line, our mission and ministry are to support the efforts of everyone on that list as we move forward to execute our vision together, from the Bishop right on through to the smallest congregation or committee.

Read the rest here. (And see a larger photo, with identification, too!)

The Diocese on Facebook

If you're on Facebook, friend us! Check out the page and join Jersey Episcopalians who already there. On the Diocese of New Jersey page you can

• Share events and activities in your parish with others in the diocese.

• Connect with others and discuss your church's evangelism, initiatives, adults and children's formation, and exchange ideas. Why reinevent the wheel?

• Say hello to fellow Episcopalians across this far-flung diocese.

(If you're not on Facebook, joining is easy and takes a minute or so. See facebook.com for more.)

Making the Millennium Development Goals a Reality

When and Where
September 19, St John's, Elizabeth: 3.30-6pm
October 23, St Peter's, Medford: 1-3.30pm
November 13, St Thomas, Glassboro: 9.30am-noon

Leaders: Members of the Diocesan Millennium Development Goals Task Force and others

Learn about the internationally agreed upon Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to consider what they have done and might do to eliminate extreme poverty in the world.

Each workshop incorporates a DVD on the MDGs, a powerpoint presentation on the status of the MDGs today, personal and congregational reflections on what each has done to date, information about ways to take action and become more engaged in the world and the development of a preliminary action plan to bring back to each congregation.

For more information, click here.

Sponsored by the Diocesan Millennium Development Goals Task Force.