Spiritual Growth :: Sermons

Sunday, January 31, 2010.
Annual Meeting

The Rev. Kate Ekrem

I’m so glad you are all here today. Are you glad to be here? It’s been quite a year for the Church of the Redeemer. A very tough year, but a year that has shown the faith and resiliency of this community. You’re all still here. And ready to begin another year, a new year. A friend of mine recently came through some hard times, and she said about that experience, it was tough, but I learned a lot about myself. I think this community can say the same.

So what have we learned? One thing perhaps is that the things that have always made this parish strong still make it strong. Children and youth are loved and valued here, and their gifts for ministry are given space to flourish. Serving those in need is a core value, and there is a commitment to making a difference around hunger and education. Worship and music are the heart of all we do, and there is both willingness to experiment and embrace newness in liturgy and at the same time be rooted in our great Episcopal tradition. And there is just a wonderful sense of community. You people really like each other. Nothing more important to a church than that, God’s love made tangible is what it’s about. Those things were true thirty years ago, they were true 10 years ago, they were true last year and they are true today.

Another thing we perhaps have learned is that, no matter what else is going on, we do stuff. . The rector of the church where I grew up used to always say, Christianity is not a spectator sport! But he wouldn’t have to say it here. We make a difference in our community. If I named all the successful events last year we’d be here all day, but there was the J2A pilgrimage the fantastic FunFest for Eperanza, the Grow clinic holiday party, the absolutely sublime Advent Procession, the giving garden, this great new floor in the church and all the work done on the rectory by the property committee, not to mention all the week in week out ministries of teaching Christian formation, altar guild, and so on. You know, sometimes people say “lay ministry” was a new idea with the 1979 prayer book, but really the church has always been and will always be about lay people exercising their leadership and ministry.

Something I’ve learned, and I hope you have, too, is that you have a wonderful hard working vestry. There is a diversity of gifts and skills and viewpoints that everyone contributes to the whole. There were some very tough decision about budget this year but what stood out for me, listening to the vestry work through it all, was care and thoughtfulness everyone had, the willingness to listen to each other, the respect for each other, and strong feeling of unanimity about the final result. I think those of us on the vestry have learned that it’s important to do as good a job as possible at communicating and making the whole parish aware of what’s going on in our life together. I think you’ve all seen a lot of evidence of that in these past months.

Maybe you haven’t learned, so I want to tell you, how many many hours of love and care your wardens Connie and George put into this community. They are the ones who have to field all the crazy phone calls from me from where are the forks in the kitchen to what are we going to do for the bishop’s visitation. And not just from me but probably lots of others as well, and they handle it all with patience, dedication, and grace. I know they have some thank-yous to hand out downstairs, but they also deserve your thanks and appreciation.

So what does the year ahead hold for us? Well, clearly it’s going to be a year for doing some careful strategic planning about our future. Where do you want to be at the end of this three year Priest-in-Charge period? What will set things up for the next stage in the life of this community of faith? What obstacles do we need to clear away so that the things that have always made this parish strong and health can continue to do so? There are a few things I already see happening in that regard. One is a growing sense of unity and coming together. At the cottage meetings this fall, many asked for more opportunities for small groups, for fellowship, for getting to know each other better for getting together just for the fun of it, like we did at the Donahue’s and Haussleins for the December party. I wonder if the reason that was voiced by so many was out of sense that we aren’t just part of whatever mission or ministry we are involved with, but we want a sense of unity with whole community, same unity we have gathering around altar table. That’s where we get that transcendent feeling that tells us that being connected to each other somehow, in some mysterious way, makes us more connected to God. There’s been some discussion already about re-starting a parish life or fellowship group, and if you want to be a part of that, let’s talk.

That sense of unity and community especially come from worship, and already, as you know, there has been a conversation going on about our worship life with a wonderful group of people who feel passionate about worship. How do we bring the best elements of the old 9 and 11 services to our new 9:30? We’re working on that and you’ll see more results of it later on this year.

Of course strategic planning about mission and ministry also includes financial and physical planning for that. We have a great group of folks working on a year-round stewardship committee – and not just money, but good stewardship of all our resources, including people resources. Our music committee is carefully collecting information on what can be done about our aging organ. And I have a feeling you’ll be hearing more about a possible capital campaign over next 12 to 18 months.

You know why you’re all glad to be here? Because of the joy we get from being part of this community united in Christ, the joy we get from sharing our lives together in this way, the joy we get from going out from here to do God’s ministry in the world together. It’s not always easy, it’s not always even fun, but it’s mostly fun and it’s always good and holy and worth doing, worth being a part of. So today, let’s eat together, enjoy the slide show of our year together, and listen carefully to what your vestry shares with you today downstairs, knowing how much work and prayer and thought they have put into it, support your new vestry as they come onboard, and may God bless us as we begin again a new year in the life of our church.