Notes from the Timothy Discernment Retreat - February 29th and March 1st, 2008; Manchester, NH

The discernment retreat was a pivotal point for Timothy!  A decision was made to begin the serious planning to

plant two new churches.  One in the Chittenden County-Burlington area and one somewhere along the

Vermont-New Hampshire border in the Upper Valley.

These steps were unanimously and whole-heartedly agreed to by the 21 members who braved heavy snow at

times to attend a discernment retreat at Joseph House in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday night,

February 29th and Saturday, March 1st.

The retreat was lead by the Rev. Alex Cameron appointed by Bishop Bill Murdoch to provide pastoral

oversight to this church planting discernment process.

The setting was Joseph House, managed by Sister Mary Anne Laughlin, a comfortable 21 room house,

with a chapel, dining room and large conference room.  The hospitality was outstanding!

The entire time was grounded in prayer, study of His word and worship.  This set the stage for prayerful

consideration of:  the "baggage" that each of us brings to the table, and how we must strive to turn it

over to the Lord; what the future might include; the costs that each will bear if we should decide to go

forward; and the next steps.

Friday night included Compline, Saturday began with Morning Prayer and the Retreat ended with a

magnificent Holy Eucharist.

At the end Sister Mary Anne rose and proclaimed:  "This is a Holy group, go and multiply!"  

Amen!

Some of the highlights:  

Alex+ will be giving up a number of his other commitments  to create more time to lead this process.

Alex+ is signing up to attend an ACN Church Planting conference in Orlando, Florida in late April.

Both the Burlington area and the Upper Valley area will have their own 6 to 8 member steering

            committee, which will meet for 2 hours per week for at least 8 weeks.  Ross will lead the steering

            process in the valley and Alex+ in Burlington.

Alex+ would love to build a church which includes major outreach to university students and faculty.  

            (While this remains to be discerned, it was noted that we have excellent relations with both the

            Navigators and Campus Crusade).

We prayed for all those unable to attend because of illness or other commitments.

Those who were there were:

Alex+ and Tamara Cameron, Ross Kimball, Dwight and Toni MacPherson, Bob and Jan Brochu, Kathy

Carpenter, Judy and Nathaniel Norton, Barbara Richart, Flora Kangas, John and Kay McCrillis, Arabella

Hubbard, Aare Illves, Elizabeth Price, Norma Rigby, Diane Ames and Ann and Bill Hogan.

Next Steps:

Any one who would like to be considered to be on the steering committee should send an email to either

Alex+ or Ross.  We'll need intercessors, administrators and all kinds of other gifts.

If from the Upper Valley area send to:  ross.kimball06@comcast.net

If from the Chittenden area send to:  awcameron_vt@hotmail.com