Dallas Assembly Annual Meeting 2012

“Jesus told his disciples to go and do, not to go and watch.”

“We are all called into discipleship,” says Bishop Bruce MacPherson, retired Bishop of Western Louisiana, speaking before the annual meeting of the Diocese of Dallas, Brotherhood of St. Andrew assembly December 1, at St. Michaels and All Angels in Dallas.

Bishop MacPherson emphasized that the church works throughout the ministry of all its members, not just the clergy. And, although we may be timid or crippled by anxiety when we are called to be disciples, “Don’t worry about what to say. You will be given the words through the Holy Spirit.”

Prior to being elected as the Bishop of Western Louisiana in 2002, Bishop MacPherson served in the Diocese of Dallas as canon to the ordinary from 1993 and was elected bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas in 1999. He also served as National Chaplain to the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, an organization that he has been a member of for 45 years.

The annual meeting began with Eucharist followed by breakfast. Diocesean Brotherhood President Robby Gerber began the business meeting by introducing Bishop MacPherson.

The first order of business was Robby Gerber officially handing over the presidency to John Curtis, who was elected as “president elect” at last years annual meeting and served with Gerber for the past year.  Gerber was presented a beautiful crystal plaque to commemorate his three years of service. Gerber will remain on the Diocesean Council as Past President. He has also been elected as the Brotherhood National Council Chairman.

Curtis introduced a new Brotherhood of St. Andrew video produced by Fred Williams. The video debuted at the Diocesean Convention last month. As a result of the video and a Brotherhood booth at the convention, several area churches have expressed interest in having Brotherhood chapters.

Curtis announced that the next Brotherhood quarterly meeting will be Saturday, March 2, 2013 at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, our newest brotherhood chapter.

Vice-President Jim Vineyard announced that the annual Brotherhood Golf Tournament would be June 4, 2013 at Canyon Creek Country Club.  He said that the 2012 tournament netted $7400+ for Patriot Paws.  He is optimistic about 2013 because we have already added a major sponsor.

Fr. J.D. Brown praised the work that Patriot Paws is doing both for wounded warriers and also for it’s rehabilitative efforts through the women’s penal system where a lot of the initial training takes place.  He added that Holy Trinity, Garland has started a sponsorship program through their church where they are covering the $30,000 cost of training one dog, named Trinity, by members pledging one day’s training cost.

It was announced that we will host the Brotherhood National Council Meeting on June 22, 2013 at DFW Airport.  Watch for further details soon.

In other business Fr. J.D. Brown was re-appointed as Diocesean Brotherhood Chaplain. John Phipps asked for chapters to submit Brotherhood news for the website. He was applauded for the outstanding job he does on the website. Jim Vineyard and Larry Maxwell were re-elected by acclimation as Diocesean vice-president and treasurer. It was announced that the Brotherhood would continue its relationship with Hearts and Hammers for another year, with efforts to be made to make the efforts more closely tied to local parishes.