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Rector's Adddress to the Annual Parish Meeting 2009

Rector’s Address to

The Annual Parish Meeting

December 6, 2009

My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is indeed a great honor to address you today at our Annual Parish Meeting.  This is my chance to give my annual “state of the parish” address.  It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone.  This time last year we wrapped up our 50^th anniversary year with a type of family reunion.  Former clergy who served this church in years past joined us and it culminated in a special visit from our Bishop, John Chane.

In the gospel lesson we just read we heard John the Baptist’s message proclaiming a “baptism of repentance.”  I suppose most of us think of repentance as wallowing in sack-cloth and ashes with feelings of remorse and regret for the wrongs we have done.  That’s not the meaning of the word “repentance.”  The Greek word “METANOIA” actually means to make a new choice, an “about face” and choose a new path through the wilderness.  John the Baptist was crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”   The wilderness is not necessarily a bad place; it can be a holy place devoid of things that can distract our attention as so much can, especially during the days leading up to Christmas.  There are many Biblical characters who discern God’s call in the wilderness, Moses, Elijah, even Jesus.  Our “wilderness” is around us here at 1700 Powder Mill Road as well.

A quote comes to mind from Frederick Buechner an ordained Presbyterian pastor, writer and theologian.  He said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  The “world’s deep hunger” is literally knocking on our door here at Church of Our Saviour.  You’ve heard me say recently that some homeless men have come knocking on our door asking for food and coats.  They are Jesus in disguise.  How will we respond?  Our “deep gladness” is that God had placed us here at Church of Our Saviour to minister in his name taking our neighbor’s needs seriously.  As Kathy Staudt, our Rector’s Warden said this week on the blog Episcopal Café about what’s happening here at Church of Our Saviour, “We are clearly being called to some deeper discernment about how we can best and most responsibly provide the right kind of help to our near neighbors in need.  The church building, with its carving of Our Saviour, arms outstretched, over the front door, says to the world, ‘There is help here.’  Somehow the building and the people alike are called to give solid form to that help.”

This is the wilderness to which God has called us to work and serve in Jesus’ name.  The Gospel lesson for next Sunday is a continuation of the story we read today.   The crowds ask John the Baptist “what should we do?”  Some of you have asked me that same question.  “What should we do?”  “What should we be doing in the next year, 5 years, 10 years?” “What’s your vision for the future?”  It’s interesting to hear John the Baptist’s answer to the question, “what should we do?”  He said to the crowds, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”  It seems so simple.  The pathway was to take their neighbor’s needs seriously.  That’s my vision too.  The pathway for us through the wilderness comes as we make crooked paths straight.  Where there are deep valleys of hunger, our job is fill them.  Where there are mountains and hills of problems that seem insurmountable, our job is take our neighbor’s needs seriously that through the wilderness everyone will see the salvation of God.  That’s my vision for our future.

2009 has felt to me like a lot like a wilderness.  In the wilderness you can’t see a beginning or an end.  There are things done and left undone.  Things begun in previous years are still not done this year.  Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begun some years ago still have not ended.   The world-wide recession begun last year still is not ended.  Many people who have lost their jobs and homes are still struggling.  Here at Church of Our Saviour we began our Capital Campaign last year for a new heating and air conditioning system and the Campaign is still not ended.  The good news is, we now have a completed HVAC system and it’s working well, but it’s not paid for yet.   We still have a long way to go.  We’ve kept before you in the bulletin every week how much was pledged to the Capital Campaign and how much has been received.  Our vision for this Capital Campaign is much bigger than simply a new HVAC system.  Beyond that we want to make this building handicapped accessible.  We want to see a playground area that is a beautiful and safe place for our children to play.  In many ways the Undercroft is the cornerstone of this church building as it served as the original worship space.  We want to renew the vision of our founding members for the next generation by renewing that space for Christian formation and fellowship events in the years to come.   We have much work to do in the next few years and it will take all of us to make it happen.

Today we have a special “red envelope” walk-up offering.  Those red envelopes are available all year long for your offering to the Capital Campaign.  We need to do some “catching up” with our Capital Campaign.  We were told by our Campaign consulting firm to expect about 35% of what was pledged by now.   So far we’ve received about 28%.  In the middle of one of our nation’s worst recessions I think we’ve done well but we still have a long way to go.  I’m encouraging each of us to keep both our Capital Campaign pledge and Annual Stewardship pledge current. 

My vision of stewardship is threefold: a one year commitment to our annual Stewardship Campaign; a three year commitment to our Capital Campaign; and a long term commitment, a legacy society here at Church of Our Saviour.  The legacy society is just beginning to take shape.  A legacy society is a group of persons who choose to leave a portion of their estate in their will to the church.  Our Endowment Board here at Church of Our Saviour, is already set up to oversee and maintain our endowment and investment funds.  This spring our Endowment Board and the Stewardship Committee will be working together to begin providing education and information around “final affairs” planning, and ways of leaving financial legacies to this church.  I am grateful, and encouraged, as some of you have already expressed an interest in this.  This legacy society will allow this church to live, to carry on the works of Christ for many years to come.  You’ll be hearing more about this in 2010.

As you know we have a very active Latino ministry here at Church of Our Saviour.   Next year our Latino ministry will celebrate its 10^th anniversary.   I’m hoping that we join together in ways to celebrate this momentous occasion as we did to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of this church last year.  I envision a grand “Fiesta” where we join together with the English and Spanish speaking members of our church in worship, music, dance, and, of course, food. 

I want to bring you up-to-date on some good news about Peter Schell’s future with us.   You may remember at last year’s Annual Parish Meeting I left us hanging about this.  Last year I said, looking at our persistent budget deficit, we would not be renewing Peter’s contract after March 2010.  Well, I’m very happy to announce to you today that through a very generous grant from the Diocese of Washington we are able to keep Peter with us through June of 2013.  The Diocese has agreed to pay Peter’s health insurance and pension through June of 2013.  The Diocese is funding this from its Latino Ministries budget.  The Diocese is committed to seeing this ministry expand and we are too; it’s part of who we are as a parish.  Earlier this year the Vestry and Diocese agreed on an addendum to Peter’s Letter of Agreement which states that (1) the Diocese will provide for Peter’s pension and health benefits through June 30, 2013 and (2) We expect that as Peter begins his search for a new call in 2012 (that’s still 2 years from now), Church of Our Saviour will simultaneously begin our search for a new bilingual assistant.  This way continuity in our Latino ministry will be assured.  We have another two years before we begin to plan for Peter’s successor.  

It is my hope – and my challenge to this congregation – that by that time we will bring our congregational giving up to a level where we can afford to fully cover the cost of that second clergy position without continuing to go into deficit.   This would mean that we would increase the congregation’s regular giving by about 10%-12% of what it is currently, so that our operating budget can be fully funded.   We can do this both by increasing our own levels of giving and by inviting new members to join us in committing to the unique common life of this congregation.  I appreciate the generosity and the growing commitment of people in this congregation, even in these difficult economic times, and especially as we’ve begun to embrace a variety of ways of giving in keeping with our cultural diversity.   I believe that we are equal to the challenge of fully supporting the staffing that we need.  Working together with the Vestry, I want to invite your prayers and your continuing attention to our financial stewardship as we seek to meet this goal – to close the deficit gap and fully fund the 2^nd clergy position by the beginning of 2012.  

Peter has now been with us for nearly three years.  I highly value Peter’s ministry here at Church of Our Saviour and I know you do too.  He’s an amazingly gifted preacher and my dear friend and colleague in ministry.  I know I speak for everyone here when I say he is a delight to have as our Assistant.  Because of his excellent leadership, today I would like to announce that I’m changing Peter’s title from Assistant to the Rector to Associate Rector.  It doesn’t add another dollar in his wallet, sorry about that Peter.  But it does raise the profile of his work to share with me some of the more administrative responsibilities that currently I do.  The new title will give him the experience he needs for his future in the church.  Would you stand with me and recognize our Associate Rector, Peter Schell?

This year I established a Building Use Committee.  Under the leadership of Leslie Pelzer, a member of our Vestry, the Building Use Committee is charged with the task of setting norms and expectations for how this building is used.  The Building Use Committee also came up with a fee structure which in now in place for the use of our building and has already begun to create an income stream for us.  We hope to see more use of the building in the New Year, both for events that generate income and for programs that reach out to the community around us.  We already have some groups who use this building putting us on the map as a place where the community’s needs are met and welcomed.   One of our tenants, Oasis, is offering programs for seniors on some weekdays in our Undercroft.  In 2010 we will be welcoming a new program called “Our Kids’ Room”, run by Angel Spence-Holliman, wife of our Administrative Assistant.  The program brings parents and children together for a “mom’s day out,” providing a safe and attractive play-space for children, and an opportunity for socializing and networking for their parents.  “Our Kids’ Room” will be a mission of Church of Our Saviour, meaning that it is not an income source.  We hope it will say to the community around us that children and families are welcome in this place. 

Last year, you’ll remember, we had to make the painful decision to cut our full-time sexton position because of budgetary limitations.  We’ve had a cleaning service come in once a week and do very basic cleaning.  In a church as active and busy as ours with so many events going on here nearly every day and night this has been far from ideal.  The Undercroft has been difficult to keep as clean as we would like, especially during the installation process of our new HVAC system this past summer.  That said, I have to admit, overall this past year has exceeded my expectations in keeping the building clean.  The Building Use committee has been very active and helpful in establishing guidelines for groups using our Church building, including the expectation that users will provide and pay for additional cleaning services as needed.  The expectation is that we “leave it better than the way we found it” and “treat it as you would your own home.”  Overall, I would say most groups have done quite well cleaning up after themselves.  I will be working closely with the Building Use committee in the coming year as we continue to monitor and provide guidance for the increasing use of this building for both hospitality and ministry.  This is how we make Church of Our Saviour as welcoming as possible, doing the work of Christ, arms outstretched.

Many of you know and have met Joe Holliman, our Administrative Assistant.  Joe was hired permanently from a temp-agency just before Christmas last year.  He is a delight to have in the church office.  He brings exceptional office and computer skills that frankly, I don’t have.  I am not a computer guru; far from it.  Peter and I are glad to have him in the church office.  We have been working toward making the office more efficient and reliable in its management of membership information, communication, accounting and financial reporting.   Over the next few months, Joe will be working to update the membership records, and he and our Treasurer Bob Mann will be transferring the financial accounts to a newer and more flexible software system, integrated with the membership and givings records.   We hope to have the accounts transferred to the new system in time to begin the New Year.  The transition with the membership and contributions database may take several more months, but we believe it will lead to a system that is easier to manage and that offers better support for our volunteers in the various ministries of the church.  While we are working toward having the main administrative tasks covered by our paid staff rather than by volunteers, we will be calling for some “office angels,” volunteers to help with simple tasks like data entry, envelope stuffing and bulletin-collating. Please let Joe know if you are available to help in this transition time, as he tries to focus his energy on ways to make the office run more efficiently as the “hub” of information and communication in the parish. 

At today’s Annual Parish Meeting we will be voting on a new revision of our Church’s bylaws.  Over the last year the Bylaw Revision Committee Chaired by Perry Anderson has worked hard going through every one of our bylaws.   The need for revision came about because one of our current bylaws requires that we have two nominees for every one vacant Vestry position.  Normally, there are 4 Vestry vacancies every year.  Under our current bylaws that would require 8 nominees.  We’ve not had that many nominees each year.  With the new bylaws we would only require 2 more candidates than the 4 vacancies totaling 6 nominees.  We have 6 nominees this year.  There are many other significant changes to our Bylaws.  I hope you’ve read the revision.  The revision has been up on our church’s website for several months now and the Bylaw Revision Committee hosted a workshop on a Sunday back in October to explain all the changes.  The Committee will make its final presentation at the meeting today and then we will officially vote on our new Bylaws.  I want to thank Perry Anderson, Bernice Shook and Sarah Crooke for all their hard work on this Committee over the last year.  It was a true “labor of love.”

On a personal note I want to let you all know that I have been selected by the Diocese to be one of a small group of 6 Diocesan clergy to enter the Doctor of Ministry program in congregational leadership at Virginia Theological Seminary beginning next month.  I’m told we were selected because the parishes we lead are widely seen as highly successful “change agent” parishes in the Diocese where exciting things are happening.  That tells us that people think of Church of Our Saviour as an exciting, cutting-edge place.  I think sometimes we forget, when we're here, how very special our life together is here at Church of Our Saviour.   I am looking forward to this program as a way to improve my own skills in congregational leadership.  It will require me to develop a specific mission-based project that will involve the congregation more directly in planning for some next steps in our common mission.  I believe that leaders in this congregation have much to learn and much to share about building and supporting a shared vision and mission in a multicultural congregation.   I expect that this work in the Doctor of Ministry program will equip me, working together with you, to begin to ask important questions about “what is next” for our work together here at Church of Our Saviour.   As a practical matter, the D.Min. requires me to attend classes in Alexandria for 2 weeks in mid-January beginning next month and then again the following January with more time that following summer.  In between the first two January terms I’ll be developing a project centered around building and carrying out a shared mission in a multicultural congregation.  I am looking forward to sharing more with you about this exciting opportunity, funded by the Diocese, as I learn more about the program, myself. 

Referring back to the gospel lesson with John the Baptist where the people asked him “What should we do?” to each of them he pointed them down new pathways through the wilderness, new ways of living that made the way for Jesus to come.  What should we do?  I’ve shared with you today my vision for our future.  That when people look at this church and see Jesus’ arm outstretched to everyone over our front door they will see us as a place that welcomes them and takes their needs seriously.  When they see us they will say “what they have they share in Jesus’ name.”  “What talents they have they offer them in Jesus’ name.”  “What God has given them they give in Jesus’ name and all to his glory.”  When they come to this door, and see Christ with his arms outstretched, saying “there is help here.”  They will say in return, “I want to be a part of a church like that.”