Dear Friends,
One of the extraordinary values of life in community, at least a healthy community, is that we are urged over and over to deal with issues with which we would rather not deal. These are usually issues we probably need to take on, but find them too uncomfortable or seemingly complicated to face. That’s where I am right now. Since I announced my retirement back in November, I have been deferring the inevitable conflict with myself about how exactly I feel about retirement. Better put, the issue is how do I feel about being disconnected from the community which has meant so much to me and my family for so long? The truth is I don’t feel very good about it. It is still the right decision, but there is nothing that says that what is right and good must also be comfortable or easy.
Perhaps it was Holy Week and Easter that brought on the mood that is motivating this writing. I found myself wondering in the midst of it all, “I wonder where I will be next year?” More important, I asked myself, “I wonder with whom I will be observing Holy Week and celebrating Easter next year?” Then came the realization that the events and occasions which have given order to my life will change radically in the next few months. April, May, and June – a Vestry Meeting in each month and then none. I calculate that in the last thirty two years I have probably attended, participated in and from time to time presided over more than four hundred Vestry meetings. Come the June meeting, if the pattern of years past holds true (i.e., the Vestry usually does not meet in July), no more Vestry meetings for me. The list of looming “last times” can be lengthened on and on from the Adult Christmas Party (at least as part of the two person team that hosts it) to Wednesday morning eucharists and the commemoration of all those marvelous saints to parochial reports to seeing the Seekers off on their Kanuga pilgrimage. Of course, there are things about one’s work which he or she is happy to see the end of. But I must confess that for the most part, the majority of the tasks I perform I like. Mostly, I will grieve that prolonged absence from this community which retirement will mean.
So, what does one do when he or she faces loss. The first thing I am resolved to do is to relish the time I have left with you. There are such happy events coming up: another Discovery Weekend, baptisms again in July, and weddings galore, it seems. And Sundays – though diminishing in number for me – each can be a happy time, and always meaning-filled. The second thing I am going to do, is actually something I am NOT going to do. I’m not going to look too much at what we were not able to do together. This is the way of regret, and it is pointless. Besides, the truth is I don’t think we have a lot to regret. Instead, the third thing I intend to do is concentrate on what we have done together. It has been a lot – a lot of very good work. Some may remember the Silverdome work and the Thrift Shop and the parking lot that became a treacherous mire when it rained a lot. It seems so long ago when we expanded the building and massively redecorated, but it really was only about ten years ago. Some may still remember when the Church was not barrier free and the red carpeting in the nave was threadbare and there was no multipurpose room and the sacristy was, well, it was really little more than a glorified hole in the wall – and there was virtually no Church School, no Seekers, no Adult Education program to speak of. There were no Lenten Alms or Christmas Appeal for the working poor, no Memorial Garden and peace pole, no Apigian Scholarships, no Andrew Hartke Memorial Scholarships, no parish Almoners and Parish Discretionary Account, and no St. Andrew’s Endowment. It is a list that could be lengthened and lengthened.
How things have changed in the last decades! None of it is anything for which any individual can take credit. The wonderful thing about St. Andew’s has been not so much what we have done, but how we have done it. By and large, there has been considerable unanimity, enormous cooperation, a lot of plain ol’ elbow grease and an emerging confidence that what we were about was God’s work. We must always remember that it is never God’s work that we should merely survive. Rather we are called to live and give for others, both those within the household of faith and those outside of it. It is the servant model set for us by Jesus.
When I think about the way things were, my most powerful recollections are of the people, saints really, who have graced our common life at St. Andrew’s. They were and are extraordinary. It is pointless to try to name them for they are too numerous and the feelings too deep.
I am aware that these reminiscences probably are of only passing interest and only to an increasingly smaller proportion of our community. For many, the concern now is the future. This actually leads me to the fourth thing I am going to do. I am going to think about, plan for and eagerly anticipate the future. I am not talking just about Lisa and Kate and my future. To be sure there are lots of exciting possibilities here. More to the point, I am thinking about St. Andrew’s future. If I permit myself rational, clear thinking, I realize that I have every reason to be confident about St. Andrew’s future. Financially, the parish is relatively stable, though, of course, times are very difficult in Michigan right now. If the past teaches us anything, it is that, this will not always be so. We are blessed with an extraordinary corps of lay and clergy leadership. The tradition of St. Andrew’s blessed common sense has been continued into the next generation of leadership. The buildings, grounds and equipment are sound and attractive. All the ingredients are in place for continuing and expanding the work that God has given us to do. Oops. ….continuing and expanding the work that God has given you to do. The fact is, that in just a few short months I won’t be part of this work in quite the same way that I have been in the past. Only in a more general and more distant way will I share this work with you. But it is good and hopeful work and St. Andrew’s community is well positioned for it.
Chris
