Canon Jack Spaeth and Bishop Drew Smith arrived this afternoon to meet with members of our parish. They spoke about "Six Parishes in the Diocese of Connecticut We've Come to Know and Love." And, of course, they spoke with us about the future of Grace Episcopal Church in Norwalk, Connecticut.
I saw people today I have not seen in years, and some people I never saw before in my life. They came because they were asked to come to this important meeting about our future. I have mixed feelings about people who have checked out of the parish having a voice in determining the future of our parish. On the other hand, some of the folks I see every Sunday have pretty much checked out when it comes to dealing with the reality that is Grace Episcopal Church.
We set a deadline of March 31, 2010 to have some sort of plan in place in regards to our future as a community. We can only do this if everyone--or at least a great majority--in the parish participate in the discernment process. Will the folks who have already checked out participate? Will they simply ignore it, as many of them have ignored reality so far? Will they create enough dissent within the community to undo any decision made by the ones who actually take the time and energy to do the discernment work? Frankly, I'm not prepared to be "held hostage" by non-participants.
There are some exciting things on the horizon for Grace Episcopal Church. I look forward to doing the discernment work.
The next nine months should be an interesting roller coaster ride.
Peace,
Jeff
I am trying to face this with a positive attitude. It is hard. When people do not regularly participate it is hard for me to hear their voice.
ReplyDeleteI still hold my final option: Fine, we'll close on X Sunday. After the "last" service, everyone will leave and we'll padlock the doors.
ReplyDeleteAnd two minutes after the naysayers leave, I'll unlock them again and we'll reopen as a new church, having held onto the assets.
The magic word is "remat" - let's see: We shall "remat" Grace as ................!