A Nonstop Encounter with Generosity: The 2023 Reawakening Conference
If I had to choose one word to describe Reawakening 2023 it would be generosity. There was a deep sense of generosity in every aspect of the weekend. This was felt almost instantly the moment the worship team began to play Goodness of God. The Spirit of the Lord was so generously present in that place. Within the first verse you could feel Him pulling us into his heavenly throne room to join our voices with the Saints and Angels already singing out and rejoicing in his goodness. This only grew stronger and louder when we launched into the beautiful hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. It was truly breathtaking. And the Lord didn’t let up! He just kept pouring out his Spirit upon us and that generosity saturated the entire weekend. It was the focus of Bishop Drew’s and Kate’s excellent preaching and talks… Jesus and his amazingly generous work of continuously bringing us back to him and his unfathomable love and mercy for us in his death and resurrection. The resounding truth that he is constantly at work in us and through us, bringing his love and forgiveness home to us in new ways and in new areas of our lives.
You could see and hear the generosity in the hallway as people walked from session to session. There was laughter and attentive listening, catching up and checking in. It felt more like a family reunion than a diocesan conference. It was seen in the art show where members from around the diocese generously and vulnerably shared their artwork with us, giving us all another language with which to connect to Jesus’ intimate and tender work of bringing new life out of places of death.
Dan Miller, who provided a sculpture titled Somnium Mortuum (first in series above), shared his own experience of this: “I am grateful for the opportunity I was given to create and show a piece in the reawakening group art show. I have never created art that was autobiographical in nature, largely because such a piece requires uncomfortable vulnerability, and I had no venue to show such a piece. This art show was a safe haven for me to share testimony in the form of sculpture of how God brought forth life out of a place of death in my life.”
Then there were the brave volunteers for childcare…a first at Reawakening. Not that it’s a competition, but I can’t think of a better example of generosity than these volunteers. They gave of their time and energy taking turns during the plenary sessions playing with the children and opening up God’s story of love for them using toys and art. This allowed the parents to go and soak in the Lord’s word for them during Bishop Drew’s powerful talks. And this is only on day one so far!
Saturday morning showed us the power of the Holy Spirit moving through our diocese to give to our brothers and sisters in Uganda and Kenya. We saw the Lord’s generosity to us bear the good fruit of the new well recently built in Uganda, funded by you ADNE! Acres of banana trees, cabbages, and coffee cash crops to allow the Rev. Amos Friday to help his church and school become more self-sustaining. One well of water bringing new life to thousands in the neighboring villages, creating safe drinkable water available at a safe distance for the families to use. (See article below!) Then we got to celebrate with The Rev. Eliud and Leah over how the Lord had brought new life for them and their church, Holy Trinity, after so much hardship and trial in previous years. It was deeply moving to see the Bishop give them the Bishop’s Building for the Kingdom Award, honoring them and the Lord for his generous grace to carry them through to this new chapter.
And the worship only got richer and richer as the weekend went on. We were blessed by members of the choir at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, who led us in Alpha and Omega and blessed us with songs they had prepared. The sole male baritone in their group had such a powerful voice it sounded like there was an entire section of baritones! As Bishop Drew said during his talks, the Lord was just showing off through us…displaying his pride in all of you in our diocese. We saw and heard his generosity flow through the Rev. Piper Loveless’ church, Incarnation, in a fall festival for the Manchester community and through the Revs. Bill and Cinnamon Blomquist’s church, Andover Community Church, in their outreach to the homeless in East Andover. They witnessed to God’s grace and presence in their congregations.
The new song The New Has Come written by a group of our diocesan musicians was another example of him pouring out his generosity. Lord willing an actual studio recording is coming, so stay tuned! Cellist Sarah Hoskins of Imago Dei, Bangor not only enriched our worship with her music, she did much of the legwork to elevate the conference’s hymnody and brought several musical settings to the Eucharistic liturgy.
Everyone who led or read during the various services helped to continue to expand that space where the Spirit was moving. With the help of the leadership from Fr. Brian Chase, Fr. Scott Donis, and Fr. Sam Alberty from Christ the Redeemer, the Communion service served as the crescendo to the weekend. They were so generous in supplying the direction, vestments, and instruments for the service. It was beautifully reverent and superbly organized, which again just made it easier for everyone else to continue to enjoy the Lord’s sweet presence and abounding grace for us at his table.
Bishop Andrew testified to his own experience of the Lord’s generosity, saying, “for me, one of the most meaningful moments was looking out over our clergy as they renewed their vows to the Lord, and seeing in their faces so many stories of faithfulness and sacrifice and deep love for the people in their churches. It was deeply moving to me, and I was reminded what a privilege it is to serve such an extraordinary group of women and men in this diocese.”
At the end of the conference the generosity poured over into cleanup. I even saw the chair of the Standing Committee, Josh Vanada, up on a tall ladder taking down signage! So many offered to stay and help the conference team stay and clean up.
Scott DeLong, who prepared and ran the 600+ slides and other multimedia throughout the conference shared, “with everything that needed careful attention I started to believe I wouldn’t receive much myself from the conference… but as Bishop Andrew preached on there being no limits to the pursuing love of Christ, so even there behind the glass of the A/V loft, the Lord’s grace was at work – as the conference progressed toward the Eucharist, this space with unbalanced music piped-in, and technical demands became a real space of devotion for us. I say us, because the young men with me in the loft could have sat back, but instead leaned into worship and engaged in prayer. On Monday morning I woke up with renewed spiritual vibrancy; in awe of the Lord who is so faithful to do his Reawakening work.
Rev. Kevin Ryan, a priest fairly new to the ADNE, wrote to his church on Cape Cod following the conference: “As we moved through the two-day conference, we experienced all of the various streams… Great preaching and teaching, times of worship and waiting on the Holy Spirit, and a focus on encountering Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist or Holy Communion. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to attend the 2024 conference. Come and experience what God is doing in and through the people of the Anglican Diocese of New England. You won't be disappointed.”
Beatrix (Grade 8) shared “I enjoyed meeting nice people. I liked the workshop with Piper about comfort zones, and being able to share with everyone. I really liked to hear what others had to say too. I loved being able to sing with beautiful singers, and singing with the community. It was fun to play with the little kids too! I had a great experience and can’t wait for next year!” Her sister, Juniper (7th grade) added: “I met a lot of nice people and I liked the workshop that Piper did because it was inclusive of everyone and she let everyone have a chance to talk.”
The Rev. Micah Thompson, who led the workshop titled “Growth in Season” refleced, “The Annual Reawakening conference is becoming a highlight of a very busy fall season. With all of the business of family, life, and church, it’s a gift to step away for a few days to worship, learn, and connect with the diocese. It’s so encouraging to be together with people who have the same vision and mission in their own spaces. This year, the diocese very kindly made space for me to lead a workshop. The downside is that I missed out on attending some wonderful learning opportunities in other workshops (which I heard were outstanding!) As a workshop leader, I was able to share and discuss a discipleship theory that has worked well at St. Timothy. I was so encouraged by the attendance and interaction with everyone that came out. It has helped me think more clearly, and I am hearing reports that it has been a helpful challenge to the group. The Lord is blessing this work, as we share the ways that He is leading us, and considering how that might bless the Church of Christ in other settings. Praise the Lord!”
There are so many more ways we saw the Lord’s generosity at Reawakening 2023, but these are just some of the stories of how Jesus continues to grow and deepen our fellowship and our ministry in New England and beyond. I thank everyone who was involved in all of the various aspects of making this conference so anointed and special. I want to extend a special thanks to the team who made it all work. Thank you, Kathryn Miller (and the whole Miller family who helped with set-up and tear-down), Scott DeLong, Elena Williams, Bishop Andrew Williams, and Kate Norris.
To see all photos by Ian Drummond, visit the Reawakening 2023 Page
