Forty-eight leaders from 18 congregations gathered on Saturday, May 10 for “Spiritual Tools for Small Congregations” with Rebecca Hall from the Iona Collaborative. At this all-day workshop, Hall spoke about the “bi-vocational journey” and affirmed that “small is normal” and “small is beautiful.” At the Iona Collaborative, “bi-vocational” is understood to be any congregation that is not a community gathered around a full-time priest. According to data from Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) and Church Pension Group (CPG) in 2022, 30 percent of congregations in The Episcopal Church are led by a full-time priest and 69 percent of congregations are “bi-vocational”—either lay-led (14 percent and rising) or served by a part-time priest (55 percent and rising). And this trend has very likely continued since 2022.
In the diocese of New Hampshire, we currently have 41 parishes and missions and five gospel-oriented communities. Of those parishes and missions, 20 are served by a full-time priest, 18 are served by a part-time priest, and three are lay-led with supply priests. Of the five gospel-oriented communities, two are led by part-time priests and three are lay-led. This means that in New Hampshire, 43 percent of our congregations are “full-time,” 43 percent are “part-time”; and 14 percent are “lay-led.”
New Hampshire congregations invited to the workshop included all missions and those parishes who have part-time clergy or who are lay-led (with average Sunday attendance of 40 or less). The workshop provided strength and encouragement for the small-church journey as well as relationship building between congregations. The Iona Collaborative’s primary work is to provide tools and training for small congregations to discern what God is doing in their midst. Since small churches can’t “do it all,” they are developing their discernment skills to make Spirit-led ministry decisions with tools that help them ask questions such as: What do we have enthusiasm and energy for? What is both “good work” and “our work” in the community? What do we have the materials resources for?
The Iona Collaborative is made up of 36 dioceses who work in collaboration with the Seminary of the Southwest to develop curriculum, spiritual direction, and discernment tools for local schools of ministry and bi-vocational clergy and congregations. The collaborative hosted a Spring Workshop weekend in April in Baltimore, but so many members of congregations in New Hampshire wanted to attend that it made more sense for Hall to travel to New Hampshire.
Bishop Rob opened the gathering in prayer, reflecting on the resilience of small churches and expressing his gratitude for our partnership with the collaborative. Canon to the Ordinary Tina Pickering, who organized the gathering, said “the whole day affirmed the diverse gifts and strengths of our smaller congregations throughout the granite state, offering small church leaders an opportunity to be seen, respected, and encouraged in their ministry.” The group of small churches gathered at this workshop affirmed their desire to come together through quarterly Zoom meetings and a yearly in-person gathering to continue to celebrate and learn about the important ministry of small churches throughout the diocese.