January 2023 Rector’s Message
All three of my cats are rescue cats, all came to my heart and home after they were two years old. There are parts of their history that I know, or at least what I was told by the rescue groups. Yet there is so much more that is a mystery, experiences that shape the way they act and relate to me and to each other. Congregations are very much the same. They are shaped by a deep history and network of relationships that are both evident and lifegiving, and those episodes of life that are hidden or difficult. Life goes on, with all of that known and unknown background: and these lives go on not as rocks but as living beings who adapt and change. I am tickled by how my middle cat Poppy has become more snuggly and playful since I brought silly sweet Molly home in the COVID summer: but she is still anxious and peculiar. We are changed by our relationships with newcomers, even as we still journey with what is in our roots. I will never know the congregational life and neighborhood life that was lived before I entered into this mutual ministry with you, but I also know that personally and communally, we are learning and growing in the power of the Spirit.
All of us who hear the call of Jesus, in all our relationships are called to the kind of love that forgives the past and the errors that we don’t understand and cannot erase. We may disagree or chafe or celebrate or be befuddled, but that love holds us and leads us to simplicity and acceptance. Holding onto the imperfect guests with our imperfections, in the contexts of pasts that do not match or even blend well. I enter this year of our life togehter wondering more about what I have learned about your history, the intermingled family trees, the reasons why you practice and congregate. These networks are not mine, and I chose to hear the call of God to a life of faithfulness, while I know many of you haven’t really thought of it that way. So we, a cluster of rescue critters, are still learning to live together in Christ’s name. We hold on, bound by the grace of the sacraments, continuing in the caregiving of each other and strangers day by day. This month, like every month, there are a dozen ways to connect and learn and pray and grow and find peace. It may not be the same as something in your memory, but it is what God is offering us now.
We have begun a new year, and we may be brimming with curiosity about what the days ahead will bring, and/or fraught with uncertainty looking at the same landscape. I certainly feel both of those. We have all that we need to live into our baptismal promises, to learn and grow in the practices of the Christian faith, to be good news for the neighborhood. However, we also have several known challenges to meet in the days ahead. As 2022 wrapped up our amazing Deacon Dennis had emergency brain surgery on Christmas Eve. He is doing well, and is at home, but this sudden need certainly left a noticeable gap in our life together. We are in the midst of the search for new parish administrator. Our good friend Carole Nasella is ready to not sit in an office four days a week, and our hiring process for her replacement is going slower than expected, but we have high hopes. She is willing to stay with us in a reduced capacity until we finish this hiring. I couldn’t have made it through the last three years, or gotten to know the neighborhood very well, without her. We have been richly blessed by her love of God and willingness to give. (Read a note from Carole Nasella here) We also know that Carol King, our wonderful Accounting Warden is finishing her term. Our friend Nicole Bowden, who serves with the Finance Committee, Vestry, and Altar Guild, has accepted the invitation to take over that role. Thank you to both of you.
Lastly, before spring is here our dear Mackenzie Alexander is going to make a tremendous change in her life: relocating for parts of the year to Guatemala with her wife Ammi. She is going to remain with us part-time and partially remotely as our minister of communications, but not continuing as our youth and young adult minister. Having done that work in the past myself, I know that there is a myriad of little things she does each day that makes this community run smoothly and faithfully, but go unnoticed. She is one of the best I have ever served with, offering amazing heart and programming, and a presence that is of God’s goodness. This shift, along with all of the others, in the context of all that has changed over the last three years, calls us to a time of discernment, self-examination, and commitment of hands and hearts. The staff and volunteers of this parish are life-giving and hard serving, but we cannot do it without your hands-on help. I hope we will explore and try and wonder into grace as we encounter the year ahead.
We love you and we miss you if we have not seen you face-to-face in a while. We know that some are simply overwhelmed by the demands of life, others hampered by illness, others perhaps befuddled by the shifts that returning after a time away highlight. We are all imperfect creatures who are changing and changed, and we are called to love and forgive and adapt if we are to be true to the faith. If you are still tuned in, if you are reading this, and we haven’t glanced your face or heart lately, please reach out to us. Call, write, stop by. And to all who made the Advent and Christmas lovely, thank you.