HOPE ABOUNDS

Our priest, Lois, is in the process of interviewing and hiring a nursery care person for Sundays. It has been over a year since we lost our last one and did not replace her. There were no children. Well, children, but not infants and toddlers who needed nursery care during worship.

As is usually the case in organizations, that which is not used falls into unkempt disarray. Thus the state of the nursery is not up to Diocesan standards -- by a long shot. The call went out. We need a new crib and changing table, new mattresses, toy sorting and cleansing.

The nursery is a very important piece of hospitality. It needs to be the best that we can offer. Parents need to feel confident that they are leaving their children in a place of comfort and safety. I was eager to answer the call and asked if others would join me. Others will. People will donate their time to sort and clean and organize. People will donate curtains/shades for the windows, people will donate mattresses. AND when I was doing an evaluation of the necessary work to be done, I found that someone had donated a large, new chest/bench for storing toys.

I am overwhelmed with this response. Who would have thought that a call to clean and sort and bring the nursery up to safety standards would bring such a response. I am overjoyed. Hope abounds!

And this is what seems to be the beginning of some new energy that is surfacing at Grace. The Mission Congregation is bubbling with eagerness to begin doing some outreach. Maybe not on our own -- yet. And that is more than okay. There are other churches that need more helping hands than they have of their own right now. Helping with another denomination's Thanksgiving Dinner is a possibility. And yet another denomination needs help with their Soup Kitchen commitment. Hope Abounds! We're on our way!

"PRAY FOR ME"

This is Bishop Gene's plea to us in his blog from Canterbury. Go on over and read the whole message. He is hurting -- and angry. He is feeling the pains of being a gay person in what is assumed by straight people to be a straight world. Well, people, it ISN'T a straight world. It is a great big conglomeration of a LOT of differences, sexuality being probably one of the least of differences. I will pray for Bishop Gene.

I remember being different. For some reason, around the age of twelve, my style of walking was just not right. I walked with my forehead leading the way and my butt bringing up a prominent rear. And my strides were very long. I didn't know about this difference until one day in the classroom a fellow student did a gross imitation of my walk and the resultant sniggering from my classmates was so embarrassing. Humiliating. I looked different. I was different. The same but different. Why is it that some differences are so painful? I think in many instances it is because other people are not willing to accept differences and are very quick to make issues about them. I will pray for Bishop Gene.

Bishop Gene is different because he is a Bishop -- we don't have many of those. He is also gay. I don't really know how many gay Bishops there are -- probably a lot more than we think. Bishop Gene has chosen to be honest and forthright about his life. I will pray for Bishop Gene.

The pain of living amongst the reactions of others to being different is always present. I know that my son, Jeffri, does not generally talk about it, but once in while something slips into our conversation together and I know that he experiences a LOT of discomfort from being who he is -- a gay man. There is hurt and anger, sometimes fear, self doubt. Life isn't easy. I pray for Jeffri and I will pray for Bishop Gene.

All of the Bishops need my prayer. And I will certainly pray for them as they come together at Lambeth -- without Bishop Gene, of course. I am personally angry that he was not invited. They all need to be given a time out. Who's right? Who's wrong? Who cares? Just grow up and learn that walking in the other person's shoes gives everything a whole different sense of being. I will pray for the work at Lambeth. I will pray for bishop Gene.

MISSION CONGREGATION

The Mission Congregation of Grace Episcopal Church. 'What's that?' people ask. There have been Sunday announcements. There have been articles in the last three monthly newsletters. When I try to encourage people to try it out, they say to me 'what is it?' and in return I ask if they have read about it in the newsletter. 'Oh I don't read the newsletter."

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

SO... here it is again -- in MY own words this time.

A group of 'seeking' people come together about once a month on a Saturday morning to support and encourage one another in our questions and our search for more. More than Sunday worship. More than Bible study. More than just talk. MORE!! And it has become more because we share in the search. We share our stories. We listen. We pray together. We learn.

It is interesting that this group first came together in an effort to determine what was holding up progress in the parish. We called ourselves the Visioning Committee and our purpose was to talk about why were we not drawing in new people; where the families with children were . Why were people so complacent? Why was there no interest in educational offerings? And on and on and on some more. We realized after meeting two or three times that we were going over and over the same old stuff. Questions we have been asking ourselves for the past fifteen, twenty, thirty years. Dreams we have all shared for the past fifteen, twenty, thirty years. And still no answers. And still no progress.

Toward the end of our last 'fixit' session we began to express our own personal needs and hungers for more. As the wheels were spinning some of our sorrows and hurts spilled onto the table. We were hungering and thirsting for something we did not have. The 'same ol' just wasn't cutting it any longer. We wanted more. More intimate worship, more meaningful Bible Study, more opportunity to ask questions and hear the questions and longing of others. We were not UNhappy with the same ol' Sunday Worship, but we felt that there could be more.

And so we began to meet to try to fulfill some of our needs. We schedule three hours and are reluctant to depart when the time is up. We are learning to share our deepest doubts, and share how, we personally, have been trying to find answers. We involve ourselves in scripture and seek how it is meaningful to our current lives. Our prayers are open and from our hearts -- shared, heard, and held sincerely one for the other.

We all continue Sunday worship with the parish. It is part of who we are. We still long for more people to join us with our Mission Congregation. When there is more, it needs to be shared.

TRANSITION/TRANSFORMATION

I have avoided talking about "my" church on this blog because it is listed on the "Resource" page of our web site and I was uncomfortable really speaking my mind for all those parishioners to read. BUT, as you notice, I have not posted in over a month. My prayer and ponder time is pretty much focused on the health and well being of my parish and the ability to express that was being stifled by this feeling of exposure. And so I am not going to hold back any longer. I am going to put it out here for any and all to read. Read and respond -- with respect, dignity and integrity for all who choose to share

We have made the transition of healing from our past life into this new life with our new priest. She is titled "Priest-in-Charge" because we are not financially stable enough to call a rector. We are drawing down our endowment at an alarming rate -- all things being equal we will be out of endowment by mid 2011 and will have to close our doors. (I think I got that right. Anyone reading may make a correction of this statement.) That does not give us very much time for transformation.

Many in our parish are still into the thinking that whatever we do going forward is to save Grace Church. OR, even worse, fix Grace Church. It isn't about paying the oil bill and the electric bill and putting on a new roof. It isn't about pulling in more people to help share the financial load. It's about US. Too many of us are not willing to look to ourselves, individually and collectively, and see that WE, we persons, we Christians, are the ones that need saving. So many of us have decided that we're done. DONE? How can that be? How can we sit in the pews Sunday after Sunday with the smug, snug feeling that we have done whatever we needed to have done. WRONG!!!

There is more. There is always more. More to learn: a deeper experience of God; a closer relationship with neighbor -- pewmate, lifemate, workmate, streetmate; a sense of responsibility to our own small community, and even more to the community outside our doors. AND there is more than Sunday worship. Of the 168 hours of our week we spend 1.25 at worship. Of the 166.75 remaining hours, how many do each of us give to ministry? I'm talking about 'in-house' ministry and the ministry we do in our week-day lives. Do the math, make a pie chart. Be accountable to yourself.

This is only a beginning. I'm just getting started.