The Diocese of Mississippi seeks to gather a group of young adults prepared to live for several months as a simple, prayerful Benedictine community actively responding to the needs of the world.

In support and preparation for this mission, a further forty day experience will be held at the Gray Center, June 4th - July 14th, 2007, for which applicants are now being sought. The Forty Days is for people aged 20 to 26 (and if at college at least in their junior year), who are seeking a group for support and friendship as they reflect and make decisions upon the meaning of vocation and faith.

It has several components:

- A daily routine of prayer, worship, Bible study, silence, manual work, and table fellowship

- A course of study re-familiarizing the participants with the basic building-blocks of Christian faith. Many young people comment on their own relative lack of knowledge about the rudiments of Christian belief and practice. Several visitors, lay and ordained, will help provide a course of study teaching the basics of Christian belief.

- Camp Caritas

- Many field trips, looking at various contexts in which modern Christians live their lives: industry, agriculture, commerce, education, church, relief work, prisoners and their families, the media.

- Free time - Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays will usually be free for people to do as they please.

- Enjoyment - the Bishop's Mission Corps is serious, and will involve a lot of work, but it is intended to be valuable and enjoyable. It is not summer camp for grown-ups.

The Bishops Corps has three major strands

- Preparation and planning for the dedicated mission community lasting several months in a Mississippi town yet to be determined.

- An opportunity to engage deeply in a period of personal vocational discernment, seeking better to understand Christianity and the call to discipleship. The shared community, time of theological study and reflection, and intentional, structured spiritual direction are intended to provide a context in which the participants can address themselves to the choices that people in their early 20s typically find themselves having to make. The Bishop's Mission Corps is not about providing people with answers; it is about providing people with a context, out of which they can address themselves to the questions.

- Time lived in surrender to the mission of the Church

Not all those participating in the Forty Days need to commit to the subsequent much longer mission project (probably running August 2007 - May 2008), but all those who seek to be part of that project will need to go through the Forty Days. As more work is done preparing for the long mission project, details will be posted here.

COSTS: The Diocese of Mississippi subsidizes most of the costs associated with the Bishop's Mission Corps, an indication of the extent to which the Bishop and the Diocese consider it to be a very significant new endeavor in our mutual life and work. It is important that this opportunity and the resources allocated to it are used as wisely as possible. There is a particular concern that applicants and participants are committed to this venture, and do not pull out at the last minute as other opportunities for the summer arise. Therefore, applicants are asked to contribute $250 with their application, payable to the Diocese of Mississippi. Any applicants who are not accepted as participants will have their $250 returned immediately; otherwise, the $250 is non-returnable.

For further information please email Rev. Tim Jones at clergy@saintpaulscorinth.org or telephone him at (662) 286-2922

To Apply click Application on the menu to the left