Dear Parishioners,
The vestry and clergy have been reflecting on the approach we should take for the coming year as we navigate our transition and how we might best prepare ourselves for the coming of a new rector. Interim periods are necessarily times of change, which may produce some sense of discomfort at times. Such transitions may be welcome or challenging depending on the perspective of the individual, and we ask for your patience and consideration as we move forward.
One of the many tasks ahead of us is to restore the relationships within the congregation and re-affirm our commitment to each other. In the past months, we have become painfully aware of how little we know of each other across the worship and ministries of the church. This impacts our life at many levels.
Consequently, beginning in Lent, we have decided to commit to one service of worship on Sunday mornings for the interim period. This combined service will incorporate aspects of the current 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services, with seasonal variations, and prepare us for the coming period of worship in Scott Hall.
Our Sunday regular morning schedule, beginning February 18, the First Sunday of Lent will be:
8:30 a.m. Breakfast (will not be held during Lent)
9:00 a.m. Faith Formation for all ages
10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist
11:00 a.m. Fellowship and post-service opportunity for meetings
Currently, we average two hundred persons who participate across three services in a building designed to hold six to eight hundred. Our current pattern of worship recalls days when our congregation was large. In current circumstances, it has led to us having groups of people who have had little opportunity to come to know and care about each other.
In addition, given the nature of these the liturgies, we are not always able to invite more people to participate in leadership. A simple example would be that our children at the 9:00 a.m. have fewer opportunities to lead in worship than those at the 11:15 a.m. unless parents are willing to have them attend both.
Planning and development of this service will take time and consultation as we move forward together.
It is also the case that, in this time of transition and re-focus, we have many colliding interests competing for the time between services and after the 11:15 a.m., which is also not helping us in our efforts to nurture faith and attend to those things needed as we move forward, leading to further fracturing of common time. In addition, we are approaching a time of further instability and challenges because of the scheduled reconstruction project ahead of us, which will require us to worship in Scott Hall.
We realize that this news will affect individuals within the congregation differently. For those of you for whom this represents sacrifice, we hope for your support, given the needs of our transition. For those of you who welcome this change, we hope you will remember to care for those who may feel differently than yourself. We believe it is critically important for us to be together and reach out to each other, especially those we have not come to know, and invite you all into an opportunity for communal renewal.
Respectfully,
The Rev. Susan N. Eaves, Interim Rector
Joyce Smith, Senior Warden
Jane Nelson, Junior Warden
