This week, I’m sending along my part for the annual report – please take a minute to read the whole document. Our annual meeting is after church this Sunday. We’ll elect new vestry members, welcoming Michael Mailman and Pam Hopkins for three-year terms and Sarah Staley on as clerk. Jonathan leaves as senior warden and Victoria steps up; Sasha Killewald will take the junior warden while Chris continues as treasurer, and Christine Dutt stays on vestry to finish out Sasha’s initial term. Andrea Shirley will join our deanery representation contingent and also stand as convention alternate, along with Chris Jensen. Thanks to all of them! The other part of our meeting will be to have some conversation about our vision for our parish. Parishioners will be invited to talk in groups about what they hope to see for the future and how we’re doing right now. Finally, new members will be invited to sign our membership book, with some signatures stretching back to the 1890’s! Child care will be provided–please come! Chloe Jensen will be leading a rainbow loom activity and other adult supervision will be in our Godly Play room.

Here’s my report:
Each year when I sit down to write this report-now my ninth-I am continually grateful for all the things that God is doing in our midst here at Christ Church. I’m always also struck by how these reports can be at once arbitrary (why remember x? What if y were more important?) and deeply meaningful, in that the change of the year is a time to pause and pay attention. And anybody reading this probably knows that I never pass up an opportunity to remind myself to pay attention.

Even as this year has seemed to be an ordinary one, with no new huge undertakings (just the ongoing huge projects!), in terms of my leadership here, it’s been an important time. When I came back from sabbatical in late 2012, I endeavored to meet one on one with everyone in the parish (also, of course, my door is always open). Those meetings made space to share joy as well as grief, with a good dose of surprise and wonder thrown in. It felt important to begin the post-sabbatical chapter of our work together anew, and I came out of those meetings feeling more invigorated and more inspired by what God is doing in all of our lives. I also begin 2014 profoundly grateful for the leadership and support over the years of Jonathan Duce. Jonathan has been a warden for more than half of my time at Christ Church. He lead us through the articulation of mission and vision, through my transition from priest in charge to rector, has overseen our building work from the historic preservation of our tower to the use of capital campaign funds to investigate the tower in the first place and to make our first floor restroom handicap accessible. With a deep longing for God and love for God’s people and God’s church, his faithfulness and trust have been an anchor and inspiration.

As I was thinking about all the things we did this year, I continue also to be thankful for the newness that our community seeks to be open to. This past year we added an additional Stations of the Cross service for children on Good Friday with our friends at First Lutheran. Leading into Lent, we braved snow and our shyness with bringing Ash Wednesday prayers to the Commuter Rail station. We blessed backpacks in September, we heard different languages spoken in Church on Pentecost, tackled hard questions about death and dying at our conversation about end of life decisions in June. We were blessed to welcome the Rev. Elise Feyerherm as non-stipendiary priest associate (and choir member). This spirit of adventure and experimentation is so important to our sense of vibrancy as well as centeredness. Our safety and security does not lie in having everything stay the same, but in God’s neverending love for us. We are always growing. The next thing we try might succeed or fail, but we experiment with a sense of openness to where the Spirit can take us. This is God’s church, not ours, and that gives us a freedom to try and fail, fall and get up, to pray and wait for answers.

For 2014, my hope is that we build even more on these strengths. How can each parishioner be lead more deeply into their vocation in the service of God in this community? How can we strengthen the bonds between us? How can we foster excellence in the way we lead worship, reach out to our city, nurture our children? Asking these and so many questions, I’m grateful for our journey together.