Dear Friends in Christ,
This Sunday is the annual meeting. Why does it matter?
There’s a technical answer here, which has to do with the canons of the church. If we are to govern ourselves rightly, we pay attention to the rules our denomination and our diocese have set for us. Our meeting is necessary to give transparency to parish finances and legitimacy to the vestry that charts our course.
But we do not gather to follow the rules. We gather to follow God.
I am excited to at last share an in-person annual meeting with you (as I begin my third year!) because of the shared moment of identity that it gives us. Meetings like this prompt us to take stock of the past year. Do you remember how we were back on livestream during omicron? What about that time we had our first reception in the auditorium? Do you remember those words at that funeral? Can you see how much those kids have grown in just a year?
But these meetings also insist that we look at who we are becoming. Where are relationships bringing us joy and fulfillment? What needs stir in our hearts? What legacies do we want to continue? Which traditions to we need to release, and which do we need to deepen?
This is not legal work. This is theological work.
I hope you will gather with your people this Sunday. Gather for worship, of course (remember: a single bilingual, choral eucharist at 10:00 a.m.). And then gather in the auditorium, to continue the eucharist, becoming more fully the church, preparing to embody Christ in the world.