Seeking Authentic Voice

I began planning for this weekend a year ago. I do that sometimes, begin planning for the next event just as the current one is ending. I think about what I want to say in a sermon the next week, having just finished preaching in another. Of course it doesn't always work out the way I plan. I might find five other things that need to be said. I might forget what I thought about. Or the entire situation might change, requiring a new perspective. Often, as is the case this weekend, I have to blend the plan from a year ago with new information. Weaving and blending is a big part of my job. The annual Vestry Retreat begins tonight, the end result of a year of work mixing it up with some new stuff - like adding time in tonight's agenda for the delegation's report on their trip to Liberia. The work we began last year is the process of creating Mutual Ministry. The work we need to continue into this year includes creating a Mutual Ministry Review. Last year we embraced th...

A number of people in the congregation wonder why we are considering an outreach project in Liberia instead of doing something in the Detroit area. Another good question! No doubt there is plenty of work that could be done in the metro Detroit area. The answer is simple – no one has proposed an idea to the Undesignated Gifts Fund for a project in Detroit or this area. The Undesignated Gifts Fund is governed by a Vestry constructed policy put in place in 2008. This policy states that monies received from a parishioners estate and allocated to the Undesignated Gifts Fund can only be accessed through a proposal for the use of funds. The proposal can be submitted by any parishioner using the proposal form and guidelines. Proposal forms are in your bulletin this morning and in the parish office. The guidelines state that project needs to help us live into our Mission and fit two criteria – the proposal needs to be an outreach project or a new project never considered by the parish. The...

 A reflection on the Gospel for Epiphany 2C: John 2:1-11 The other day someone asked me why the Vestry decided to spend the money to send the delegation to Liberia instead of just giving that money to the church in Liberia for the school. I thought it was an excellent question. The Vestry struggled through long discussions for many months regarding how to develop this project. It came to the Vestry from the Undesignated Gifts Fund Committee. For more on the Undesignated Gifts Fund and process see the insert in your bulletin. The information was also emailed to those on our email list and will be included in the annual Parish Report for 2012.   In the end the answer was simple; the Vestry wanted this project to be about more than just money, they wanted it to be about building a relationship between that community and us. We just didn’t know how to do this. The Vestry was uncertain how to manage the money aspect because it can be complicated to send money into Afri...

  A reflection on the Gospel of Matthew (2:1-12) for the Feast of Epiphany... A friend of a friend had a groupon for a party bus that expired the end of last year. She decided to use it for field trip for her school kids.   So she loaded the bus up with 1st and 2nd graders and took off around the city to do random acts of kindness. The kids sang Christmas carols at the nursing home. They took cookies to firefighters at the local firehouse. They passed out quarters at the laundromat and left more quarters on top of the bubble gum machines at the grocery store. They bought someone's food at McDonald's.   The bus driver refused a tip at the end of the afternoon, saying "you've reminded me that there's kindness in the world. This is the best drive I've ever done." No doubt this was a transformational experience for everyone involved, most of all the children. Three wise ones called the Magi took off one night to follow a star. They believed th...