Dear Friends,
As retirement nears I am sometimes asked good-naturedly if I am counting down the days. I can say, in all honesty, that I am not. There just isn’t enough time. Of course, I have a general idea about how much time I have left as your rector, but I think about the remaining time not in terms of months, weeks or days, but in terms of tasks I must accomplish. Measuring time in this way is prompted by the way the Vestry and I have been figuring out what is going to happen “in the meantime.” There will be a time after I retire and before an interim priest comes when St. Andrew’s will be served by Sunday supply priests. This period of time will extend from the latter portion of August through most of November. During this period, in addition to Fr. Bob and Deacon Marlyn, there will be a priest here on Sunday to celebrate mass and to do other chores as the Vestry may request. If all goes according to plan, then comes an interim priest who will be with you each Sunday, and whose specific job it will be to help St. Andrew’s prepare for a new rector. So, we’ve got this “in between time” when all the threads have to be picked up. Folks will need to be looked after and administrative tasks will need to be done and… well, there is just a lot to do.
If the truth be told, the “meantime” can be a very creative time. I suspect that many of the duties that folks will pick up for the “meantime” will really extend beyond it, and really ought to extend beyond it. New things can grow and flourish if we let them.
So, I am making lists, and the Vestry and I together are devising strategies. A Transition Committee has begun its work, (Do not confuse the Transition Committee with a Search Committee. The Search Committee comes later). I have begun to hear that “hum” of creative activity which is so reassuring and so gladdens the heart.
But there is one thing, one task, which I cannot put on the list, one task that cannot be easily assigned to a committee or individual. To be sure, the Vestry needs to be particularly sensitive to this, but each has a responsibility for it. For it is so basic that, in the most practical ways, I don’t think we can claim to be a church without it.
I am not talking about what we do as much as I am talking about how it is we do it. I am not talking about outcomes as much as I am talking about process. In our parish everybody has a say in what we will do. If one is sincere and thoughtful – respectful of one another and open to the will of God -- then whatever we do will be just fine. What the rector strives to do – or what this rector has striven to do – is to influence how we do what we do. I am talking about how decisions are made, who gets included in making them, how decisions are executed and who is invited to participate in carrying out these decisions. I am talking about who participates in the discussion at every level and who gets included or excluded. I have felt that it has been one of my responsibilities to ensure the fairness of the process not its out comes. I have not always been as successful in this as I have wished to be. But I have always tried. So, who is going to do this when I am gone? This is the only real fear I have for our Parish.
How we decide to do what we do – I am asserting that this is a crucial factor in maintaining our identity as a Church. The how is as important as the what. I think of St. Paul and his characterization of the Church as a Body – all the parts organically related, all of equal value and each part affecting the others. The whole Body gets sick when any one of its parts is neglected or undervalued. I think of Christ’s insistence that those who lead, those who make decisions, must be driven by the model of service. For the one who would exercise power must be willing to be the servant of all.
St. Andrew’s Parish is not to be like any other institution. We risk too much if we make efficiency and the exercise of power a high value. With us the demands of efficiency are secondary to the requirements to listen, to include, to serve. So what if our common life is not efficient? I do not recall the word “efficiency” appearing in Holy Scripture, nor do I recall our Lord identifying it as a virtue. Matthew 5 does not say that when Jesus saw the multitude on the mount, he sat down and taught, saying: “blessed are the efficient for they will get the job done fast with no muss or fuss.” The fact is, muss and fuss can be wonderfully creative….provided that intentions are constructive, agendas are above-board, the good of the whole body has priority and God is glorified.
We glorify God – we demonstrate that God matters – when we ensure that the process is fair, when it is respectful and well-motivated. People want to be part of a community which in its common life glorifies God. It is what we are called to do first. It is who we are called to be.
Chris
