The Rector's Annual Report (The Rev. Dee Anne Dodd)
From today's second reading,
from our namesake Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (8: 1b):
"...love builds up."
We've had a pretty interesting year. Even with all the turmoil in the world and the private burdens we may each bear, we as a parish have managed to try a few new things, learn a few new things and spread a little joy.
I'm thinking, for instance, of the new model for our Lenten series. Bringing it back here to church and serving dinner managed to double and some weeks triple participation. During Eastertide we introduced a celebration of Rogation Sunday. Maybe you recall bringing in impatiens that were blessed before planting them out front to call attention to our beautiful church all summer long. Also outside we installed and blessed enhancements to our Memorial Garden: new gates, privacy screen and plantings. Around that same time we rocked the house at the St. Luke's Steel Band concert.
We also said good-bye to one beloved seminarian and welcomed another -- each so different, so very gifted in their own unique way. We began the school year by blessing our backpacks with the help of our own Dixieland band.
I'm thrilled that we made great strides in taking advantage of our location-location-location here on Main Street. We had a great turn-out of parishioners to help greet folks for the Summer Stroll. We won (as I knew we would!) the Best Apple Pie at the Celebrate Wallingford contest. We parlayed that into good press and good attendance for the newly revived St. Francis Animal Blessing. Later in the year we provided Christian hospitality during the downtown merchants' Holiday Stroll, the highlight of which was a community carol sing.
Along the way I think we're slowly appreciating the importance of sharing one another's joys and burdens by informally gathering in the parish hall for Coffee Hour week by week. What was it St. Paul said? "...Love builds up."
Speaking of which, we hung our beloved drawing of St. Paul's -- or shall I say Dan Lyon's drawing of St. Paul's -- in a place of honor in our welcome center (where the elevator and stairwell converge). Appropriately we have it on the cover of today's bulletin and Annual Report. By the same token, we introduced a new letterhead featuring our cherished logo: "In this Church there will be no outcasts." And, perhaps to prove that point, we ended the year wearing goofy PJs to church on Christmas morning.
Some of these things worked out better than others. Some were clearly experiments. Some were one-time-only events, and others bear repeating. And I imagine there are plenty of things I should apologize for having forgotten. But these are all new things we managed to pull off while maintaining a full array of our longtime traditions. Thank you thank you thank you to every one of you who made this possible.
So now the question becomes: WHY do we do any of this stuff? Just for the sake of doing something new? Or because we've always done it? Or because in some way it builds up this community in love and helps us serve the world that God so loves?
Obviously I'm setting it up so that the latter is the "correct" answer. Because I really believe we should ask the WHY question of everything we do. So I urge you to ask this question of everything you hear at today's meeting: WHY? Why are we doing it? Does it build up this community in love to help us serve the world that God so loves?
Because for all we do, and all the new things we've tried this year, there's plenty more yet to address. I'd love to work with some of you to develop creative ways to integrate more church school students into worship more regularly. We need a stronger ministry with our youth. There's talk of doing a parish mission trip which I think we should pursue. And, as you'll see at the Annual Meeting, our financial pledging is well below the national average -- and that's creating an ugly gap in our parish budget.
Just these four things alone -- (1) not involving children more regularly in worship or (2) having a stronger youth ministry, (3) not pursuing more mission work, and (4) not fully funding the work God has given us to do -- could undermine all the good things we do.
But it doesn't have to be this way. To your credit, this congregation has already shown itself willing to tackle new things. For by the love of God in Christ we can -- and frankly, we must -- address these challenges in order to build up this parish community in the year to come.