From the Rector
Dear Friends in Christ,
Some of you will remember a sermon from a couple of months ago in which I talked about gathering folks in the fall to talk about mission and ministry in the coming year and years.
I’ve been looking at things parishes are doing across the country and making notes of things we might want to consider taking on here in our own community. One very gratifying thing I’ve seen is parishes and dioceses across the Episcopal Church taking on medical debt in the way we did in 2020.
Some ideas I have seen that are intriguing include:
1. Gathering folks across political and social differences for a series of conversations designed to help us remember how to disagree with charity and seek common sense solutions to problems together.
2. A “Santa’s Workshop” where churches coordinate gift donations from individuals and businesses and invite kids from around the community to come and pick out gifts at Christmas.
3. A movement to build low-cost “tiny houses” to create small-scale communities to address homelessness.
4. Blended intentional communities in which young adults live with women rebuilding after abusive relationships or after incarceration. These communities help the women gain new relationships and confidence and deepen their faith.
5. Business start-up partnerships in which congregations provide seed money and business know-how to women seeking to start their own businesses and create new economic opportunities for their families.
6. Creating alternatives to predatory payday lending by raising capital from area businesses and non-profits to form small credit unions.
7. Creating alternative services designed to welcome those turned off by churches or harmed by them—these services often take place outside the church in local bars, theaters, warehouses, and the like and create a place for folks to reconnect after feeling distant from God.
8. An arts community designed to bring local artists, musicians, playwrights, and other creative professionals together to create camps and programming for kids to discover new interests and learn new skills.
9. A program designed to create partnerships in which elders teach young people skills that they have like woodworking, knitting, and more and young people teach the elders about technology or other skills they have.
This list could really be endless. These are just a few that have popped up that I’ve found intriguing.
The thing I keep pondering is really about people. Who do we imagine being able to reach? Who is God calling us to serve? How is God calling us to learn from them?
There are ministry possibilities inside the church, too—making meals for those who are ill or lonely, newcomer welcome, connection with the homebound, and much more.
A part of our stewardship campaign this fall will focus on the range of ministries here and how to be involved in them. We have a broad foundation of ministries here and we will need to think about how they will change or adapt to this post-pandemic season as so much has been given a shake by the last eighteen months.
There are folks who joined our life here in late 2019 and 2020 who haven’t really had a chance to be involved in the wide range of what happens here.
It’s easy to get caught up in the overwhelming nature of an issue. When we shift back from a focus on issues to a focus on people, the scale becomes more manageable. Fixing homelessness, for example, is beyond daunting. Housing one family is something else entirely. Solving hunger is overwhelming. Creating a way for a few folks to find a meal is easily imagined.
As we emerge from this pandemic, we all probably have a different awareness of the issues facing us and our neighbors. We all may have thought of some way we can serve, or some need we’re seeing in a fresh way.
All of this is to say that there are new possibilities. There are things we’ve long done that we will need to assess, re-commit to, or change. There are new people waiting to serve. There is a whole community of folks we’re being called to serve.
This pandemic has presented us with real challenges in how we’ve worshiped, prayed, sang, learned, and served. As much as we all might wish that we’re moving quickly toward normal, it’s probably not the case. We’re moving into a kind of assessment period, I think.
On a flight, the pilot doesn’t just land the plane. There’s that announcement, “flight attendants prepare for landing.” Things are secured and packed away, windows are opened, lights come on, strange noises start happening, seats are buckled, your tray tables are out in their full, upright, and locked position, and devices are turned off and stored.
I feel like we’ve all been on a turbulent flight, we’re going to land soon, but we’ve got to prepare for landing. We’ve got to prepare for being in a new place, a new time zone, with new people. So, as we look to the year ahead and what’s possible it’s all part of the work of preparing for landing.
We’re not there yet but let’s start dreaming about what we’ll do when we’ve landed together.
Yours in Christ,
Fr Robert