 Follow-up to our Family Meeting
In both our Annual Parish meeting last January and our more recent Family Meeting on the 17th of this month, we gathered together as a community and shared some wonderful food and fellowship. We also first began, and then continued, the process and looking closely and honestly at what’s working in our parish … and at some of the things that aren’t. We’ve named and appreciated the abundance of resources, gifts, and blessings that we enjoy as a worshipping community. We’ve also begun some important conversations about the significant challenges we yet face as we move forward into 2024 and beyond. And we’ve started to name out loud and share with each other the things we love, the things that frustrate us, the possibilities that excite us, and the treasured aspects of our church community that we fear to lose. The meeting itself felt a bit uneven, at times; that’s to be expected when there are different perspectives to be shared and discussed, all the more so when we’re talking about something ~ our very parish family! ~ that we all love so deeply and want so passionately to see grow and thrive. A little tension, in that light, is a wonderful indicator of the fact that we all care so intensely about this parish, this precious thing that we all get to be part of and which has been entrusted into our faithful care. Three huge takeaways from these meetings for me have been 1) the fact of deferred maintenance, 2) the need for deep healing, and 3) the energy and enthusiasm that spontaneously welled up at the March meeting during the small-group breakout conversations. I’ll have more to say about deferred maintenance and deep healing elsewhere. For now, I want to emphasize that, overall, there was a clear, vocal mandate from the assembly that we need to take action. In response to that mandate, I made a promise that, coming out of this latest meeting, I would, in consultation with the parish leadership, come back to y’all with a short-term action item, a middle-term action item, and a longer-term goal for the parish. The Vestry indeed has taken up that work as of our March meeting. In the short-term especially, however, we need to capitalize on the incredible energy that came up in the small-group discussions on the 17th. I am therefore going ahead and sharing my proposals for two areas of action and a goal for the parish … Short-term action: In the immediate short term, it’s clear that we need to create many more face-to-face opportunities for folks to engage in focused conversation together in small, informal groups. Obviously, the major challenge is finding times when people can actually get together. To that end, I propose that we use the two midweek time slots already on our calendar ~ Tuesday mornings at 9:30 and Wednesday evenings at 6:30 ~ for a variety of offerings, including but not limited to Holy Eucharist. While we need to make sure that we continue to offer midweek Eucharists at least one Tuesday and one Wednesday in each month, on the other days we could host in-person Bible studies, Christian formation sessions, Anglicanism 101 classes (both for newcomers and for folks who want a refresher or just to know more about our particular flavor of Christianity), discernment workshops (not just for discerning calls to holy orders, but for discerning any aspect of God’s will for your life). For folks who are not free on Wednesday evenings, I propose to offer Monday evenings, as well, for any or all of the above. But we don’t even have to limit these small gatherings to the things I just named. Circle Songs, for example, will be moving from Sunday afternoons to a weeknight. We could other evening gatherings for shared artistic expression, acoustic instrument improv sessions, and/or respectful conversations about the things going on in our world that … challenge our faith. We could have small group prayer gatherings, meditation workshops, lectio divina, etc. One thing I really want us to get going is a support group for folks who are struggling with having faith at all, especially in these challenging times. Something like “Agnostics Anonymous,” a place where it would be utterly safe to talk out loud about what you believe … or don’t believe. It would have to be a covenanted, confidential group, and I as priest would not be allowed to visit, except by express invitation of the group in advance, so folks would be completely safe to be honest and open. Middle-term action: In the slightly-longer short-term ~ i.e., the middle-term ~ we’ve got several plans already underway: to have a presence at the Farmer’s Market this season; to participate in Appleton’s PRIDE event again with our own booth/table/tent, as we did last year; to host musical concerts to which we can invite the larger Appleton community; and, on a somewhat related note, to host the first of what will hopefully become a series of coffee house style “open-mic nights” wherein our folks can showcase their many and varied artistic talents and original creations ~ the hope is that such a thing might grow into a real community event beyond just our own parish. Please stay tuned for more information as these ideas come closer to fruition. And please let the office, the Vestry, and/or me know of what other ideas you have for community engagement! Goal: “All Hallways Bright and Beautiful” For a concrete, tangible goal, we should commit to brightening and beautifying our hallways and corridors by Advent 1, 2024. Our sanctuary and chapel worship spaces are already gorgeous; our hallways, especially the long corridor leading from the Washington St. entrance, not so much. Between the bare cinder block walls, the dark green tiled floors, and the dim fluorescent lighting overhead, these hallway spaces, while comfortable to folks who are long familiar with them, are not as inviting and welcoming to new folks visiting our spaces for the first time. I’m currently working with our sexton, Andrew, to see how we can make the overhead light fixtures brighter. But given the artistic abilities and talents for craftwork of the people of this parish, I am convinced that it we put our heads together, roll up our sleeves, get creative, and get to work, we can transform our hallways into warm and welcoming spaces that make people want to come inside and stay with us. Artwork, quilts or tapestries, murals, designs ~ we could do all sorts of things with the cinder block walls. Donations of rugs and carpets could give the hallways a much more welcoming feel, though of course we would have to be careful to make sure such things don’t become obstacles or safety hazards. Lamps and table displays here and there, in addition to brighter lights overhead, could transform how our spaces feel dramatically. But that’s just off the top of my own limited head, so to speak. I’m excited to hear the creative solutions that you all come up with! And as always, I encourage ~ no, I implore ~ you to reply with your own thoughts, ideas, concerns, and solutions! Whenever you have something to share, a question to ask, or an idea for the parish, please say something to me; to Pete Gilbert and/or Stephanie Gadzik, our Junior and Senior Wardens, respectively; Emily Gilbert, our parish secretary; and/or any member of our Vestry. We all not only want but also need to hear from you! After all, we’re all in this together. Peace & blessings to you all! Christopher+ 920.266.9262 [email protected] Comments are closed.
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