Friday Reflection
"Looking back and moving forward" is our theme for this year's Friday Reflection. It calls us to reflect on lessons learned, mistakes made, successes celebrated, and then how that informs the ways in which we move forward as individuals, congregations, and a diocese in this ever changing and diverse landscape.
For me, as I think about the eight (8) years I've served EDSJ and the now seventeen (17) years of ordained ministry, when I look back two things come to mind; the first being the people and places I've served and loved, and the second being the ways in which we find ourselves in the public square. My first call out of seminary was to an extremely affluent congregation that had a robust Episcopal day school attached to it. I had never lived or served in an environment quite like this and often felt like a duck out of water. I was the first female priest they had on a staff of five clergy, and I had a heart and passion for outreach to the community. On more than one occasion the Rector and I were at odds over what outreach meant and was conducted in the name of this congregation. And to be frank, while it is wonderful to have an abundance of financial resources available to work on systemic issues like poverty and homelessness, throwing money at the problem keeps us at a distance from the people we are called to serve. So, I was willing to go toe-to-toe with the Rector. AND...there were people in the congregation and the school who were willing to join me on Saturday mornings as we distributed hygene products, socks and sandwiches. They were hungry for an opportunity to serve beyond the check book.
This calling to serve the community extended into my next parish call, where I found myself as a part of a ministerial group again addressing needs of those in poverty and experiencing homelessness. In my time in Eastern Oregon, we started an overnight warming shelter that grew and became its own non-profit organization. Again, I was not alone in serving the community...parishioners, local business owners, a chef and other community leaders all put their hearts and hands to work in easing the burdens of our unhoused neighbors.
And here in EDSJ, part of what drew me to serve here was the Yellow Bag ministry that Bp. David started and that we will be embracing again this year during our visitations. This desire and call to serve those on the margins, those most often overlooked and invisible, pulls at my deepest longings to be a servant minister.
So looking forward, what does this mean for me as your Canon, a priest of this diocese, and a servant of the church? It means continuing to find ways to respond to the needs of others in our midst. It means finding ways that we can partner with God in lifting up the lowly. It means contributing to the conversation on how we address the systems which oppress others and subject others to injustice and invisibility. I truly believe that not only do we need to feed, shelter and clothe those in our neighborhoods, but we also have to do the extra hard work of addressing systems and policies that created this unholy reality. How can we work for affordable housing, affordable medical care, affordable, sustainable and nutritious food? How can we address the lack of mental health resources and addiction resources in our communities? How can we speak into the "school to prison pipeline" and end this violent and oppressive cycle for so many young men?
There is so much work to do, and I believe this is the work of the Gospel that we are called to, my friends. And I hope you'll join me in this ministry.
Canon Anna Carmichael serves as Canon to the Ordinary for EDSJ.
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