General Convention #1 Question: got vergers?

The 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will gather the first week of July in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Vergers’ Guild of the Episcopal Church will be there! From Tuesday, July 3, 2012 until Tuesday, July 10, 2012 the VGEC will welcome visitors to General Convention in booth #713 in the Exhibit Area in the Indianapolis Convention Center.

The Vergers’ Guild message for the the convention is one simple question: “got vergers?” For many Episcopal parishes around the country, the answer to this question is, “yes!” Others may want to learn more about the ministry of verger and how vergers are serving an active role in the Episcopal Church in the 21st century.

The VGEC will also be sponsoring the “Verger Olympics” which is part of the “Indianapolis Experience” at Indianapolis Victory Field (directly across from the JW Marriott and Indianapolis Convention Center) on Sunday, July 8, from noon to 4 p.m.

“We are all really looking forward to General Convention this year as it should be a great opportunity to share exciting news about what is going on with vergers across the country,” said Pat Allen, Vice President of the Vergers’ Guild. “We will also need help from all vergers to staff the booth, hand out literature, talk with visitors, and help with the Verger Olympics.”

Anyone interested in helping with the booth should contact Kate Pendzuk at [email protected] who will be coordinating the booth staffing schedules. The Verger Olympics will be organized by Pat Allen at [email protected].

General Convention Exhibit Schedule

Mon, July 2, 8am-5pm, booth setup
Tue, July 3, 8am-10am, booth setup
Tue, July 3, 12noon-5pm, exhibits open
Wed, July 4, 9am-5pm
Thu, July 5, 11am-7pm
Fri, July 6, 11am-6pm
Sat, July 7, 10am-6pm
Sun, July 8, 11:30am-6pm (Verger Olympics in the afternoon)
Mon, July 9, 11am-6pm
Tue, July 10, 8am-2pm, exhibits close
Tue, July 10, 2pm-7pm, booth take down
Wed, July 11, 8am-4:30pm, booth take down (if needed)

got vergers? Merchandise

The VGEC offers a complete line of got vergers? merchandise at the Vergers' Guild Shop online store.

24th Annual VGEC Annual Conference in Lakeland, FL

The Vergers' Guild of the Episcopal Church will gather for their 24th Annual Conference on Thursday, October 11th through Sunday, October 14th at All Saints Episcopal Church in Lakeland, Florida.

Each year, approximately one hundred vergers come together for a weekend of fellowship, training, business, and worship. This year’s conference is being coordinated by Cheryl Cantrall who is also the VGEC Membership Secretary and Sid Glynn, Master Verger at All Saints.

“Our goal for this year’s conference was to include a lot of fun with our workshops that will provide some serious verger-related training and discussion,” said Cheryl. “We are also very pleased that the conference hotel, The Terrace Hotel, is so nice, reasonably priced, and right next to the church campus.”

The workshops available at this year’s conference are:

Verger 101 - Hands on for the new Verger: Designed to support the new verger as he or she embarks on this ministry. Hands on demonstrations and discussion.

Vergers in Transition: Discussion about the position of Verger not necessarily being a lifetime appointment. How to deal with change in the verger ministry.

Security in your Parish - Do you have a plan? Many people believe that security does not belong in the church. Many vergers maintain that is does.

Developing a Worship Council/Liturgical Committee: Led by Suzanne Gaines, All Saints' Episcopal Church.

Making your own Eucharistic Bread: This year at the Vergers' Guild Annual Conference Duke DuTeil, head verger at the Washington National Cathedral, will lead a discussion about different bread for the Eucharist. Hands on demo of making honey whole wheat Eucharistic bread.

Order of Saint Luke (OSL) Healing Ministry: Led by the Rev. Richard Hoover.

Events for the conference include an opening Evensong at the church Thursday evening followed by a dinner with entertainment by Tim Williams dean of gator wrestling at Gatorland, Friday lunch with keynote speaker the Right Rev. Greg Brewer, and an afternoon tour of the Annie Pfeifer Chapel and Church. Friday evening continues with dinner and floor show at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City followed by the Saturday evening reception, dinner and awards ceremony at the Lone Palm Golf and Country Club.

The Vergers’ Guild Shop hospitality suite will be in operation again this year demonstrating all of the items available in the shop, including the new virge and chimere in the processional gear department, as well as all of the training course materials that were received for recognition at the conference.

Registrations on or before September 10, 2012 are $200.00 per person. Registrations after September 10th are $225.00 per person. Conference registration is available online through the Vergers’ Guild Shoppe Online Store using Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. Online registration is the easiest method of registration for the conference. The vergers.org web site also has a manual registration form available.

If you need help, please contact Sid Glynn, event co-chair and registration coordinator, at [email protected] or call 863.644.5170.

Complete information about the conference is available at vergers.org/conference/2012.

New 2012 Edition of the VGEC Training Course is Released

The Vergers’ Guild of the Episcopal Church has released the 2012 edition of “A Course of Training for the Verger.” This is the first major revision of the course since the original edition was published in 1996. Among the changes is a new section entitled, “Getting to know the VGEC” that takes course participants on a tour of the resources and programs available to members of the Vergers‘ Guild. Another new section, “Outline for Course Completion and Submission” was added to help course participants through the process of completing their course materials for review at the end of their course.

The 2012 edition took many months to complete and began in early 2011 with a comprehensive course review with recommended updates by VGEC Training Mentor, Walt Kindergan. The VGEC Board approved those recommendations at their meeting in October, 2011 and began the process of updating the course. The changes went through multiple revisions and review by members of the Board, clergy, and academics.

According to Margaret McLarty, President of the VGEC, “The Vergers’ Guild Training Course is helping us fulfill our mission to effectively train and educate those who take part in the ministry of verger. We have long wanted to update the course to keep it current with the state of the ministry and our membership. I am pleased that we have been able to release this new version with additional content, improved writing and layout, and clearer instructions for putting the course submissions together for course completion.”

The basic course outline and content remains consistent with the original version. Additional improvements include an updated style consistent with current VGEC publications, a tribute to Mark Emery Graham, the original course author, improved table of contents, an outline for course completion and submission, and an updated suggested reading list including detailed publishing information.

VGEC Training Course Registrar Kate Pendzuk added, “Although the course remains very much consistent with the original content, this new edition represents significant work from a number of people which has resulted in a course that is easier to use and understand than before. We have over 350 courses in use and we do not recommend that everyone upgrade to the new course unless they want to.”

Because the course content remains the same as the prior version, those who are currently working on their course are asked to continue with that version. Course participants who wish to receive a new electronic version of the course are asked to contact Kate at [email protected] or 914.523.8464 for details.