Clergy Day - "Self Care"

The second Clergy Day of the young year of 2019 (the first Clergy Day focusing on PWRDF was January 10) took place at the Synod Office on Tuesday, February 5. This day, organized and designed by the Executive Archdeacon of the Diocese of New Westminster, the Venerable Douglas Fenton looked at various issues facing clergy, clergy spouses and Synod Staff lay employees as they continue in their ministries moving forward toward that time when they will retire.

The full title of the day was: "SELF CARE: CONTINUING EDUCATION, FINANCIAL PLANNING, EAP AND MORE."

More than 60 clergy, clergy spouses and Synod Staff lay employees attended the all-day session which ran from 9:30am until 3:30pm.

The plenary participated in presentations from:

• Homewood Health, an holistic physical and mental health coaching and counselling organization. Homewood representatives, Ashley Beun and Sandy Sidhu presented a comprehensive overview of Homewood’s services with a focus on the general support offered by an Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP). Confidential counselling, career coaching, pre-retirement planning and both health smart and life balance services are components of what Homewood offers its clients.  
• Dean Peter Elliott, whose pending retirement scheduled for September 30, 2019, has motivated him to do a great deal of study about the topic. In a presentation aptly titled “What I have learned in preparing for my retirement” Dean Elliott covered many of the issues that will arise when faced with this major life change which will have the effect of creating many more life changes. Many agreed that this was a presentation that could be “bottled and sold” as Dean Elliott has put considerable thought and planning into his and his husband, Thomas’s new reality that will be his retirement following more than 25 years as Dean of the diocese and Rector of Christ Church Cathedral.  As often happens at church meetings, Dean Elliott had the plenary form small discussion groups of 3-4 to share their reflections on what they had learned from the presentation.
• Journeying to Vancouver all the way from Toronto, keynote speaker Judy Robinson from the Pension Office of the Anglican Church of Canada gave two presentations covering: The General Synod Pension; Manulife - Supplemental Benefits and the Continuing Education program.
• The Reverend Stephanie Shepard, Administrator of the diocesan Murrin and HR McMillan Funds spoke to the plenary about this sometimes under-utilized funding opportunities.
• Trevor Short and Max Hager, Portfolio Managers from Odlum Brown Investments presented clear concise information intended to encourage folks to take advantage of the benefits of financial planning and more specifically assembling with the aid of investment professionals an all-equity portfolio that will over the long term perform positively adding to the investor's financial security as they move into the retirement years.  

Archbishop Skelton closed out the day with some announcements and information including the information that everyone already knew about the January 19 election of the Reverend Dr. Lynne McNaughton to be the 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Kootenay but added the news just confirmed that day that she the Consecration Eucharist and Installation will take place in Kelowna on May 16.

IMAGES

• The plenary listen attentively to keynote speaker Judy Robinson's General Synod Pension presentation
• Clergy Day organizer, the Venerable Douglas Fenton
• The Very Reverend Peter Elliott built his presentation around the 5 categories contained in this Venn diagram.
• Judy Robinson
• Trevor Short and Max Hager, Portfolio Managers at Odlum Brown
• Archbishop Skelton closes out the Clergy Day with announcements
• The Reverend Dr. Lynne McNaughton smiles as her friends and colleagues applaud the news of the confirmation of the date for her Consecration and Installation as the 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Kootenay.