Ministry in the Church is a bit like growing a garden: loose soil is ripe for planting, hardened and dry soil is tilled, watered, fed. Plants grow, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Often plants sprout, unplanned, in unexpected places. Every plant is dormant for a season, drawing resources deep from the earth and getting ready for spring growth. And every plant is fed by what grew before it, plants that die become compost that is essential for new growth.
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This has been, for me, a rather astonishing and tumultuous year at Christ Church, which is hardly a surprise given that last year I began my Rector’s report observing that I came to “a parish in deep crisis.” We, you and I, saw clearly the financial crisis that had been brewing for years, the lingering anxiety and impact of Covid, the effects of difficult leadership transitions.
The tumult of this year has been an emotional, logistical, and even sometimes spiritual challenge for me, and I suspect, for many of us. I have gone to bed, and perhaps laid awake too many times, wondering, what is the next step? Who is equipped to help discern and do the work? What even IS the work?
And yet, every time I look at our vibrant community, I see deep soil, fed by deep faith, and plants that just keep springing up.
I have opened my email so often to discover that someone has had a creative thought about an old problem, someone has felt called to fill a gap, or someone has recognized that it is time to put a ministry to rest, to allow it to become the compost that feeds our life together. When I asked for a clerk for the Vestry, I got two volunteers. After thoughtful conversation, the Liturgical Arts committee decided it was no longer able to sustain its ministry, but the art they created over the years is still put up by the Altar Guild and friends, allowing the Sacred Beauty of our space to continue to blossom. We built a prayground, and it has had children in it almost every a single Sunday (who ever thought that would happen?). One visiting parent said she was coming back because she, and her child, felt so welcomed by it. The Choir has grown this year, and we are blessed to be led in our prayers by the voices of our sisters and brothers in Christ. The Daily Office team has faithfully prayed online four times a week, and led us in a growing (and tasty!) Evening Prayer at Table. We started a monthly Eucharist at Franke Tobey Jones, ensuring our less mobile siblings a seat at our abundant table. Even as a number of our wise older members are reducing their Sunday morning presence and taking advantage of our online accessibility, we are seeing increased participation in Sunday Liturgy by folks under fifty.
The Authentic Kindness that grounds Christ Church is evident in the seasonal weekly dinners where the 20s/30s get to know one another, and their quarterly gatherings at my and Elizabeth’s home. Our pastoral care continues in the form of team visits, card-writers, and clergy visits, and the care shown towards our members is encouraging more folks to step forward to share the Eucharist, drop off a meal, or offer a ride. We hope to initiate a periodic gathering of the 40s/50s age bracket (tentative group name: the MillenXrs), another growing population in our parish. And we FEAST, joyfully gathering around the great festal days of our liturgical seasons to ensure that joy and celebration over food remains a central part of our lives together.
Our commitment to Thoughtful Curiosity continues in our Adult Formation at 9am on Sunday. We welcomed four new members through baptism and confirmation, and their journey included “Episcopal 101” type classes through Lent and Eastertide. We explored the lives of saints, what it means to worship with the church of the poor, seasonal hymns and their background, and have begun a series on the history of White Christian Nationalism. A discernment group gathers monthly, exploring what it means to deepen their discipleship together. I am looking forward to seeing the development of Lenten Small groups, initiated by one of our new young adults.
We continue to explore practices of Compassionate Justice, stocking our Little Pantry regularly, learning how to negotiate the tension between safety and compassion, and walking even more miles for hunger. Our garden (the literal one) fed food-insecure neighbors through our partnership with Food is Free Tacoma, and are folks exploring options for engaging in Mutual Aid with our vulnerable neighbors and local faith communities. As our Faith Land Discernment Cohort helps us discern faithful stewardship of our land and facilities, we were blessed by an early opportunity to partner with Power of Two, offering them use of our facilities.
We are not only living within our financial means, ending the year with a cushion that helps provide stability, but we are recognizing what we can and cannot do, and making wise and discerning choices about our time, focus, and gifts. This means that some have chosen to step down from positions recognizing that their gifts are best used elsewhere; some ministries have reached a natural conclusion; other ministries are being faithfully maintained; new efforts are being explored.
I am delighted to work with you in tilling our garden, and watching it grow. We still need to live within our means. We still need to decide how to steward our land and buildings. But we also get to watch as new people and ministries grow and flourish in the soil planted by you, and the generations that went before us.
May we do our work together with love, kindness, and joy.
— Mother Maria McDowell
