Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent
This past Sunday evening, I was checking my usual sources of Episcopal Church related news, when one link led to another and I found myself reading the blog written from the perspective of a "person in the pew". I couldn't figure out all of the issues at work in that person's congregation, but I had no difficulty deducing that the blogger had a fair amount of energy around several of them -- a deficit budget and a growth curve (in terms of Sunday attendance/new members) that seemed flat -- were two of the hottest topics on the site.
I wish I could say that I had some insight or holy wisdom or a practical program full of "how-to's" that could address those two issues...because they seem to attract lots of opinions and occupy our anxieties as Episcopalians these days.
When I was a parish administrator, from time to time I'd cull through the vestry minutes of St. Peter's Church in Fernandina Beach, Florida ( http://www.stpetersparish.org/ ). I'd look back to the early 20th century. My favorite years were between 1900 - 1920. This turn of the last century perspective was helpful in a number of ways. First of all, I was always fascinated by the penmanship..all of the minutes were handwritten in a disciplined, precise and neatly legible cursive -- at a precise and consistent angle. The various clerks of the several vestries were masters of brevity and yet the gist of each meeting was wonderfully captured for posterity.
These minutes were all "hardbound" in ledger-type books...and provided a sense of the issues that were in front of a parish that was around age 50 at the time. During its first fifty years, the parish had been "enlisted" as a Union hospital during the Civil War, had ministered to the population of the city during the Yellow Fever epidemic, had built a new church building, had seen that building nearly destroyed by fire and had rebuilt it successfully. Many of the people who had served on the vestry had been leading citizens of the town as it became a tourist mecca in the late 19th century only to see its fortunes turn when the Florida East Coast Railroad bypassed Fernandina for St. Augustine, some 70 miles or so further south.
What I remember from those minutes is that the congregation struggled to pay the rector's salary, contended with leaky roofs and recalcitrant heating systems -- yes, it got chilly enough in northeast Florida for worshippers to demand some climate control in church! Attendance figures were rarely reported, but given the size of the monthly offerings (even for the times), this was a small parish in a small town with all of the challenges that came along with that situation. The vestry minutes don't reveal conflicts per se...the style of writing is too business-like...but it's clear to the reader that things weren't always smooth and that the persons who served on the vestry were committed to working through their difficulties in a firm but fair fashion.
I'm guessing those folks who worked so diligently for their Lord at St. Peter's Episcopal Church 100 years ago, couldn't have imagined what it would become over the years. There have been ebbs and flows. There have been ups and downs. There have been times of joy and times of pain. And yet, that congregation continues and flourishes...due in no small part, I think, to the sacrifices, dedication and good, old Episcopal staunchiness of the people who wrote those vestry minutes in those dusty volumes stowed in the fireproof safe.
As I have perused the vestry minutes of Trinity Episcopal Church, Wauwatosa, from the early part of the 20th century, I read the same sort of reports. I see evidence of the same sort of sacrifice and dedication. I am reminded that we are all indebted to those who came before us in a parish community and that we ourselves are simply passing through. We are stewards of a legacy that one day will pass to another generation of Christians who will gather on Sundays to sing and pray and listen to the Word of God.
Someone once said that "the Church is always only one generation away from extinction." I think that saying is true. Life is lived one day at a time. We can't know the future, but we can learn from the past and we can be attentive to our circumstances in the present moment. I pray that as parishes everywhere struggle with the issues before them -- the issues that seem "new" and the issues that are always with us (like leaky roofs and stubborn furnaces) -- we will all remember that we are writing our own history one day at a time.
This past Sunday evening, I was checking my usual sources of Episcopal Church related news, when one link led to another and I found myself reading the blog written from the perspective of a "person in the pew". I couldn't figure out all of the issues at work in that person's congregation, but I had no difficulty deducing that the blogger had a fair amount of energy around several of them -- a deficit budget and a growth curve (in terms of Sunday attendance/new members) that seemed flat -- were two of the hottest topics on the site.
I wish I could say that I had some insight or holy wisdom or a practical program full of "how-to's" that could address those two issues...because they seem to attract lots of opinions and occupy our anxieties as Episcopalians these days.
When I was a parish administrator, from time to time I'd cull through the vestry minutes of St. Peter's Church in Fernandina Beach, Florida ( http://www.stpetersparish.org/ ). I'd look back to the early 20th century. My favorite years were between 1900 - 1920. This turn of the last century perspective was helpful in a number of ways. First of all, I was always fascinated by the penmanship..all of the minutes were handwritten in a disciplined, precise and neatly legible cursive -- at a precise and consistent angle. The various clerks of the several vestries were masters of brevity and yet the gist of each meeting was wonderfully captured for posterity.
These minutes were all "hardbound" in ledger-type books...and provided a sense of the issues that were in front of a parish that was around age 50 at the time. During its first fifty years, the parish had been "enlisted" as a Union hospital during the Civil War, had ministered to the population of the city during the Yellow Fever epidemic, had built a new church building, had seen that building nearly destroyed by fire and had rebuilt it successfully. Many of the people who had served on the vestry had been leading citizens of the town as it became a tourist mecca in the late 19th century only to see its fortunes turn when the Florida East Coast Railroad bypassed Fernandina for St. Augustine, some 70 miles or so further south.
What I remember from those minutes is that the congregation struggled to pay the rector's salary, contended with leaky roofs and recalcitrant heating systems -- yes, it got chilly enough in northeast Florida for worshippers to demand some climate control in church! Attendance figures were rarely reported, but given the size of the monthly offerings (even for the times), this was a small parish in a small town with all of the challenges that came along with that situation. The vestry minutes don't reveal conflicts per se...the style of writing is too business-like...but it's clear to the reader that things weren't always smooth and that the persons who served on the vestry were committed to working through their difficulties in a firm but fair fashion.
I'm guessing those folks who worked so diligently for their Lord at St. Peter's Episcopal Church 100 years ago, couldn't have imagined what it would become over the years. There have been ebbs and flows. There have been ups and downs. There have been times of joy and times of pain. And yet, that congregation continues and flourishes...due in no small part, I think, to the sacrifices, dedication and good, old Episcopal staunchiness of the people who wrote those vestry minutes in those dusty volumes stowed in the fireproof safe.
As I have perused the vestry minutes of Trinity Episcopal Church, Wauwatosa, from the early part of the 20th century, I read the same sort of reports. I see evidence of the same sort of sacrifice and dedication. I am reminded that we are all indebted to those who came before us in a parish community and that we ourselves are simply passing through. We are stewards of a legacy that one day will pass to another generation of Christians who will gather on Sundays to sing and pray and listen to the Word of God.
Someone once said that "the Church is always only one generation away from extinction." I think that saying is true. Life is lived one day at a time. We can't know the future, but we can learn from the past and we can be attentive to our circumstances in the present moment. I pray that as parishes everywhere struggle with the issues before them -- the issues that seem "new" and the issues that are always with us (like leaky roofs and stubborn furnaces) -- we will all remember that we are writing our own history one day at a time.
posted by FrGaryB | 6:42 AM
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