From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

This past week, I’ve heard the full range of parishioner’s opinions about this year’s schedule change—everything from enthusiastic endorsement to threats to withhold pledges. This particular change obviously has stirred some emotions up, especially for those who felt like it meant we were losing the 11:15am service in this consolidation.

I expect that we will have elements of both services at the combined service. I don’t know specifically what that will mean yet and I’m certain it will evolve organically. Whatever we do, however, will be done with reverence and joy, which are essential to lovingly offered worship.

We don’t have a perfect sense of how the new weekday morning schedule will sort itself out. We’ll be looking at what options work best.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Sunday Forum and Mosaic schedule will come out. And our music calendar will be ready for release soon, as well.

I am excited to see Choral Evensong and Joyful Noise take on their own character and welcome people into life here, too.

One thing I’ve noticed with the summer schedule is that I have time to sit and chat with folks in a way that just doesn’t happen when there are two choral services. There’s a relaxed quality to the mornings that allows for deeper relationship and conversation.

Ultimately, the Church exists for worship. That is what we form and equip people to do: to grow into such an awareness of God that their whole lives become a living sacrifice offered to the glory of God.

Each class or study we offer ultimately points back to how we related to God in worship. Indeed, the shape of our whole lives has the shape of the liturgy. We gather, hear God speak in Scripture, offer our gifts, see them transformed by grace, receive the strength of the Sacraments, and go out sharing Christ’s love.

The operative word in that last sentence is “we.”

We do these things together. There is a powerful interplay between our will be done and thy will be done. We don’t always know the will of God, but we can find in one another’s gifts, a glimpse of God at work.

This past week, Mtr Taylor met with eight newcomers. I met with three more. In one week, 11 new people have come to Saint Philip’s.

Having one choral service on Sunday mornings will enable us to get to know one another as new people enter our life together. It is one way we become “we.” The other ways will be through discussion, formation, service, and fellowship.

The Church exists for worship. With one voice and one heart we are called to sing the praises of God and to give thanks for the innumerable gifts we have been given.

In this season we will do this with simplicity at 7:45am, with joyful reverence at 10:00am, with constant prayerfulness at Evensong, with old time faith at 3:00pm on Saturdays, and asking the hard questions at Come and See at 4:00pm on Sundays. We will also do it with morning prayer and daily mass during the week.

This new pattern helps shape our days in the ancient patterns of the life of the Church by offering worship from morning to evening. It also gives us space and time to explore Scripture, theology, and more together as we dive more deeply into the mystery of faith. It makes Evensong not a thing we do on occasion but something essential to our life together—as it has been for Anglicans for centuries.

The services will be full. Maybe too full! We will see how it all unfolds and then respond appropriately. We may find we really do need that second service. We may find that we need a second but maybe with music offered with more simplicity to keep the choir load manageable. We may find that what makes sense is to add morning prayer to our Sunday schedule.

We don’t know yet. One thing we do know is that change creates anxiety. And for some there will be a real sense of loss or disconnection. These are signs of a deep love for life here and for the rhythm of worship that has developed over the years. I have a heart for those who are hurt by these changes because I am someone who gets frustrated by change in Church and especially in the liturgy.

I hope you’ll know that I do not entertain or embark on such change lightly. I’m reflexively conservative in matters of worship and so to make this change now has not been done without prayer, thought, and deliberation. In this, I’m trusting the Holy Spirit and trying not to close off what might be possible because it makes me uncomfortable.

It has taken me some time to come around to this new pattern of life together. But I do believe that my own internal resistance—combined with a sense of pull toward it—is a sign that the Holy Spirit is doing something new that I can’t quite see yet.

We don’t have all the answers. All we have is our faithfulness to bring to the Table. A faithfulness that will be transformed by grace as we seek to follow together wherever God leads.

I look forward to sharing more in the weeks ahead and hearing your feedback as we explore this new pattern and see how the Spirit is moving in our life together.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert