From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

I was thinking the other day that I’ve put off lots of “normal” health stuff this year. For example, I haven’t done my annual checkup with the doctor. It’s such a weird year that not only did I just lose track of time, I’m also not sure I want to go and sit in a waiting room. I guess I could do an online checkup, but I’m not sure what that looks like. So, I’ve just sort of ignored it!

I’ve always thought of a parish annual meeting as a kind of checkup. It’s a chance to talk about what went well, what needs attention, and to set goals for the year ahead.

I try and approach checkups with an eye toward maintenance. I don’t expect any one checkup to reveal some news that will shock me into new action — though that may just happen. More often though, they are an evolutionary not a revolutionary exercise. We show progress made and chart the progress we hope to see.

This last year is such an odd one that we don’t even have benchmarks to report that have been the hallmark of church annual reporting for a century. How do we describe Sunday attendance, for example? How many baptisms, funerals, or weddings have been postponed? Sure, we have pledging numbers but, in many parishes, those have been devastated by the economic downturn.

So, this year, I am thinking of the annual meeting less like a doctor visit or check up and more like a group of friends sharing what the year has been like. We all know this has been no normal year. So, we will share how we’ve coped and then hear how you’ve been doing. We will share what we’re hoping to have happen in the year ahead and then hear what you’re hoping to see, too.

 Out of that mixture of sharing and listening I hope the “real” annual report will emerge. It won’t be a story of numbers this year (though it never really is). The annual report will be the shared stories of hope, heartache, transformation, loneliness, and support that are always part of any parish’s year.

So, this Sunday, you will be able to find the “normal” reports from me, the treasurer, and the senior warden. There will be written reports from different committees online. I hope you’ll use next week to watch and read those. Then, each Sunday morning in February we will use our Sunday coffee hour time to discuss some aspect of parish life in more depth and hear what your hopes and dreams are for that area, too.

Afterward, we will synthesize all of that, learning from what has gone well and charting the course for the year ahead based on what emerges from our sharing. It will be a strange annual meeting — but that only seems fitting for a strange year!

My hope is that once we get the annual meeting done together, I will then get that annual doctor check-up scheduled, too!

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert