The Keynote Address (found in its entirety on the Diocesan website at http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/1308/Southern_Ohio_address-_Tom_Ehrich.pdf) focused on the changes in churches of all denominations today and noted that we need to be nimble, flexible, and able to change as society changes. Instead, in the past 60 years the Episcopal Church has not really changed with the world around us as well as we could have. What changes we did make were mostly symbolic and turned out not to be the changes we needed to make. He also commented that we need to be good stewards of all our gifts and resources, and that a “good steward” is “someone who gives even when s/he doesn’t get his/her own way.” Moreover, because increasingly we are in less of a position to “throw money at the problem,” the Rev. Ehrich believes we have an even more valuable resource to work with: people.

The first day concluded with reports from numerous Diocesan committees and ministries, then an evening prayer service, followed by a nice banquet served at the Convention Center.