wfn.org | Pittsburgh challenged to '1:1:3' discipleship

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2000-204

Pittsburgh challenged to '1:1:3' discipleship

by Beth Bogard Vander Wel

     The banner outside the ballroom read "1:1:3--Each One brings One other to 
Christ every Three years." That was Bishop Robert Duncan's call to the Diocese of 
Pittsburgh at its 135th annual convention, held November 3-4 at the Radisson 
Hotel Green Tree and at Trinity Cathedral. 

     "Making Disciples" was the convention theme, the third of five goal areas 
(Building Congregations, Establishing Partnerships, Making Disciples, Gathering 
Resources and Recruiting Youth) around the vision of "One Church of Miraculous 
Expectation and Missionary Grace." 

      "If congregations are the principal way we do what we do, disciples are, in 
fact, what we do. The chief work we have as Christians is to be disciples (The 
Great Commandment) and to make disciples (The Great Commission)," said Duncan in 
his convention address. 

     "I am convinced that nothing will do more to raise our maturity as 
disciples, to transform us into disciples who make disciples, and to alter the 
face, direction, and future of our diocese," he added. 

Quadrupled

     The "1:1:3" strategy was created by Bishop Yong Ping Chung some ten years 
ago during his episcopate in the Diocese of Sabah. "Bishop Yong reasoned that 
bringing each disciple to the point of such maturity, and expecting each disciple 
to bring someone else to discipleship every three years, would change his diocese 
forever," Bishop Duncan remarked. "It did. Sabah became a diocese of 'disciples 
making disciples'...in ten years' time, Ping Chung's diocese quadrupled." 

     Duncan's goal is to grow the Diocese of Pittsburgh from 20,000 to 40,000 
baptized members and from 72 to 85 parishes by 2010.

     Workshops on practical evangelism were held on Friday morning before 
convention and offered training in friendship and workplace evangelism as well as 
evangelism to the elderly and youth. The Rt. Rev. Harold Miller, Bishop of Down 
and Dromore, Church of Ireland, and the Rt. Rev. Daniel Herzog, Bishop of Albany, 
led workshops and also participated in the convention program. Miller was keynote 
speaker at the Convention banquet and Herzog preached at the closing Eucharist.

Common Life Center approved

     Deputies voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution supporting "the 
concept of building a Common Life Center in Donegal Township" and that "the Board 
of Trustees of the Diocese of Pittsburgh be charged with oversight of this 
project including but not limited to decisions which need to be made regarding 
the amount of funds to be raised, the cost of the facility, and whether or not to 
proceed or terminate the project based on the information available to them." The 
resolution also included an amendment that, should the Board of Trustees decide 
to proceed, the bishop will call a special convention for a final decision.

     Deputies also carried a resolution allowing Bishop Duncan to appoint an 
episcopal assistant as funds become available.

     Miraculous expectation abounded as deputies celebrated the healing of the 
Rev. John Fierro from pancreatic cancer just weeks before. Fierro is Deacon-in-
Charge at St. Paul's in Monongahela, that church's first full-time leader in a 
decade. He will be ordained priest on December 10. 

Young Priests Initiative celebrated

     Canon Mary Hays, whose responsibilities include deployment, described 
Pittsburgh's robust health in this arena: there are just three openings for 
rectors, and several openings for assistants exist because churches have grown. 
At a recent conference she attended with representatives of 37 diocesan 
deployment officers, 253 full-time positions were presented, but only 52 clergy 
candidates. 

     Pittsburgh's enviable condition is "a result of miraculous expectation and 
missionary grace on the part of the clergy and lay leaders of this diocese," 
Canon Hays said. "We are not finding it impossible to fill our congregations, 
even our 'handyman specials.'"

     Clergy in Pittsburgh average 46 years of age, significantly lower than the 
national average of 58. Presently, 21 postulants for priesthood and nine 
candidates are in the ordination process, with an average age of 38. The diocese 
also celebrated the successful completion of its first Young Priests Initiative 
program, 20 being the average age of the five participants, in the summer of 
2000.

     An exuberant closing Eucharist continued a tradition begun last year of 
welcoming diocesan youth who participated in a concurrent event as well as the 
ECW Fall United Thank Offering. 

     One young woman who had attended the morning's youth gathering announced to 
the congregation that she had decided that day to follow Christ.

     Herzog reiterated the challenge to make disciples in his sermon. If any 
diocese is going to be fruitful, he said, then we need to let Christ convert our 
whole lives, he said. "We all leak. We all need to be renewed and replenished."

     "I invite anyone here who would like to renew their commitment to Christ to 
come to the rail and we can pray for that," he added. Nearly two-thirds of the 
congregation went forward for prayer. 

 --Beth Bogard Vander Wel is Director of Communications for the Diocese of 
Pittsburgh.