The job description and compensation of course will be dependent on our 2018 budget and stewardship pledges. (If you've not yet made a pledge for 2018, I would ask that you please let the Sr. Warden or Office Manager know of your intention and help us with our work of planning.)   Once the budget is finalized and presented at Annual Meeting (January 28, 2018), then we'll be able to advertise the position.  Robert has kindly agreed to advise the task force on position responsibilities and compensation (using the American Guild of Organists' guidelines), and to help us advertise and spread the word through formal and informal networks of musicians.  Then the task force will work with me to begin a search and hiring process that hopefully will bring many names to us in Lent, a short-list of candidates in Eastertide, and a new choirmaster hired by June and ready to join us by September 2018.  In this of course we entrust ourselves to God and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Please keep St. John's and our Vestry in your prayers as we enter into a time of transition and change.

 

A season of change is announced and reflected for us in our physical life as well.  This past Sunday you may also have noted the boards and tape upon our tower to hold any loose stones through the winter and to prevent them from falling and injuring anyone.  Our tower now reveals vulnerability that has been hidden from neighbors and from ourselves.  To address our issues we will need partners from within and beyond our community.  I am so grateful to the parishioners who have made generous offerings to begin addressing our tower's needs, and to the Maine Preservation society that has just recommended us to the Maine Steeple Fund for an initial grant to make a thorough assessment of our needs (please see our Junior Warden's letter in this newsletter).  You may also have noted that change is all around us as the street has been torn up to lay new water pipes all along French Street.  We know that our ministry context is changing, that society around us is changing - and the street is just a friendly sign or symbol, and one that we need to keep in mind.  This was highlighted again by the announcement last week that our neighbor and tenant, John Bapst High School, will be building a new gym on French Street, hoping to bring further vitality to the School, to the neighborhood, and to Bangor.  Clearly change is upon us and we know nothing stays the same, except God's eternal and unchanging love.  Our time seems to demand that we pay careful attention and listen for the changes that God seeks to make in us, his Body, so that we can faithfully respond to the world around us and make his love known anew.

 

The Vestry heard through our cottage meetings the desire within our community to reach out more to the community around us, to become more connected and involved with our neighborhood and our city.  This desire seems resonant with God's desire for us in this time of change.  Meaningful change will be the work of our whole community.  The Vestry however voted at its meeting last week to initiate two changes in how we see ourselves and communicate ourselves to the world around us.  The first initiative was to change how we refer to our Parish House (and its eventual signage).  We want to think of it as, and call it, "St. John's Community Center and Parish House."  This reflects what is already true - groups from around the community meet daily during the week - and underscores the direction in which we wish to grow.  The second initiative was a decision to emphasize a different section of our mission statement in all our communication.  Instead of using the excerpt "To the Glory of God and for the Common Good" on our letterhead and bulletins, we will begin using the excerpt, "Make God's Love Known".  Hopefully this will be a clearer imperative to our community for our times, and also a clearer description of our community to those who encounter us.  It is also a phrase that connects directly to the incarnational theology of Anglicanism, and to the theological emphasis of the fourth Gospel, St. John's Gospel, attributed to our patron saint.  Again, it describes the truth of who we already are, and also of whom we aspire to become.

 

In the immediate days ahead we will have many opportunities to make God's love known, especially in our worship and fellowship.  Thanksgiving is a major feast in our church and we'll have an evening service of song and giving thanks on Wednesday, November 22, at 7:00 pm, with full choir and reflections offered by parishioners, Scott Burgess and Susan Johnson.  There will also be a Eucharist on Thanksgiving morning at 9:00 am in our chapel.  And the Advent season ahead abounds with these opportunities (from the Home for the Holidays House Tour and Advent Lessons and Carols followed by the Advent Tea to Grinch Night and the Advent Quiet Evening).  I hope to see you in the season ahead (both the season of Advent and the season of change) and I count on your prayers.

 

Yours faithfully and with gratitude,

Mo. Rita+

 

The Rev. Marguerite A.H. Steadman

Rector 

Our next Ingathering will be on Christ the King, Sunday, 26 November.

 

The United THANK offering of the Episcopal Church is a personal spiritual discipline of thanksgiving that supports God's mission throughout the world.

 

The Blue Box was created as a receptacle for coins to remind the user to give thanks daily and for all things. The box is designed for use in the home or anywhere it can serve as a visual reminder to offer blessings large and small. It represents the heart of the United Thank Offering ministry and is a pathway between our prayers and the mission of The Episcopal Church. It is a symbol that allows us, during the week, to be linked to our Christian tradition of praying, recognizing that blessings come from God (and in this case making a thank offering when we encounter those blessings) and being present to Christ in the world by helping others in need.

 

Our Blue Boxes will again be collected and blessed at an Ingathering on Sunday, 26 November. The size of the box is a reminder that all blessings, big or small, are gifts from God and that all offerings, big or small, are used for the glory of God and the building of God's Kingdom. When everyone participates, many coins make great sums when joined together. This is the "United" in the Thank Offering. It is a ministry that expands the community of The Episcopal Church, as the collected sums then are given as grants for mission throughout the Anglican Communion.