Looking Forward

Yes, I'm still here, and I hope to see you all on Sunday! I'm especially looking forward to planting the tree we bought as part of the gift giving at the installation. We have a cherry tree for the kids and me to plant together, in thanksgiving for love of God "planted" in us. We'll go outside for it right after the service.

In the midst of trying to tie up all the loose ends before going on maternity leave, I find myself ready to go, but also really wanting to stay to work with you on some things that are coming up. The ministry fair is on October 4 (you might remember the one we had in the spring, when we had tables and displays on all the different ministries at Christ Church), and I am excited to see how stewardship season kicks off, also on that day. This year Cindy Hutchison is our intrepid stewardship committee leader, and we'll hear from different parishioners each Sunday in October speak about giving to Christ Church.

Also starting in October, we're doing some stewardship of our own in the use of our building. As you know, we already have a number of congregations that regularly use our space for worship--one Spanish speaking Pentecostal Church (the Missionary Church of Christ), one French speaking Pentecostal Church (Mission Maranatha), and St Peter's Ugandan Anglican Church. We also rent our the halls from time to time, regularly to a labor union and also an anger management seminar. WATCH, the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing, also uses our space quite frequenty.

Of course, the rental income helps us to be more financially sustainable, but it's also a question of stewardship. Put simply, we aren't being good stewards of our building if it sits empty all the time! By partnering with other groups and organizations whose missions we support, we are partnering with them in their work. One new such program is with Breaking Barriers, a group which recently merged with WATCH.

Starting the first week of October, Breaking Barriers is restarting a chapter of their "Path to Success" leadership development program. Entitled "The Power of a Mother," the classes are focused on helping immigrant moms with young children, who often find themselves quite isolated. Along with English instruction, the classes will focus on leadership development and life skills training. The classes will be held at Christ Church for about 15 women, with care provided for their children as well. They will be held on from 10 to 12, 2 days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays, I believe). Christ Churchers have been invited to collaborate with Power of a Mother in a number of ways:

• Joining thementoring and tutoring program for local immigrants, including Path to Success mothers,
• Presenting during Path to Success life skills classes,
• Interactive literacy activities with young children in the childcare

Liz Straghalis, their program coordinator, will be speaking at next Tuesday's Outreach Committee meeting (6 pm) to talk more about it--please let committee chair Shawn Russell know if you're interested but can't make the meeting (smr8b@yahoo.com).

Those are just a few things that are coming up--in the October Fieldstone Crier you'll hear more about Allison Berry, who will come to speak about REACH, our local anti-domestic violence organization, and you'll also have an introduction from Rev. Cathy, who will be stepping in for me. After this Sunday, I'll be on leave until Christmas Eve. Our wardens, Jonathan and Marcia, are on for parish-related matters; for pastoral questions, ask Rev. Cathy.

Kristina will be emailing out an announcements-only edition of this newsletter every other week.

Blessings,
Sara+

Vocation

Thanks to everyone who came out to my installation as rector on Tuesday; it was a great service. I was a little worried that it would feel like “liturgy by the yard”—there are a lot of parts to the service!—but I think it came together well. Special thanks to the altar guild who made the church look so beautiful, and Cathy Hughes’ team of helpers (Sally, Jeanne, Paula, Janet, Marjorie, Warren, and George) who put together a delicious reception. Our organist, Stephen, wrote a wonderful anthem for the day, and St Peter’s choir offered some great pieces, too. We were joined by some of my Waltham clergy colleagues, too, with Rob Mark from the First Presbyterian and Tom Maehl from First Lutheran in Waltham. Mayor McCarthy came, too, and we saw some friends who aren’t always able to come on Sunday mornings.

In his sermon, Bishop Shaw talked about what the role of the clergy is. A rector does a lot of things, like pastoral care and education, and preaching and teaching, but the main thing, the most important thing, is that they are there to help the congregation hear where the Holy Spirit is leading. To hear how each individual’s gift can go toward the wider whole. My job as your priest is to help you (and help you help each other) discern how God is calling you to use your gifts in the service of God in this community. I think I quote this every time stewardship season comes around, but here it is again: Frederick Buechner says that real vocation is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. God’s desire for us to be who God created us each to be. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t be anybody else. This reminds me of something I saw in writing my sermon for last Sunday, when Jesus talks about “taking up your cross”—(retold in Benedicta Ward’s The Desert Fathers, via Jan Richardson’s blog, “The Painted Prayerbook)

Abba Macarius tells a story of meeting two monks, quite naked, who have spent forty years on a tiny island in a sheet of water where the animals of the desert come to drink. At first Macarius thinks the men are spirits, so strange is their presence there. Learning that they are monks of flesh and blood, he asks them, “When the winter comes are you not frozen? And when the heat comes do not your bodies burn?” They tell him, “It is God who has made this way of life for us. We do not freeze in winter, and the summer does us no harm.”

God made this way of life for us—God has given us this thing to do. God has not given your ministry to anyone else to complete but you.

Let us all pray for the grace to find, and fulfill, those deep desires of God for us.

Coming soon—October 4, Christ Church Ministry Fair—see all the different ways there are to serve at Christ Church.

From 9/10: Installation preparation

In addition to getting ready for the appearance of my new baby, I've also been busily planning the installation on Tuesday. I am pretty sure there won't be a baby before then, but you never know--I guess he or she will come to the service if born in time. At the service, we'll offer prayers for the church and our work, and the bishop will lead us in a covenant of mutual ministry--promises we make to join together in mission. Part of the service involves a symbolic giving and receiving of gifts, which has been one of the more fun parts to plan. I'm going to get to give a small tree to the children that we can plant together. Paula, director of our altar guild and Eucharistic visitor, will give me a bottle of oil to symbolize our work of healing, and one of my ecumenical colleagues, Rob Mark from First Presbyterian, will give me a book of songs from the Taizé community, and I'll give Sally, Cathy, and Shawn signs of our outreach to the community, diapers and food.

It's exciting to think about what to include, but also what not to do--there are suggestions for other gifts to give from the prayer book, like keys to the church and more traditional symbols of ministry like a stole. We can't include everything, so I'm having to think about what's really, really important--bread and wine, water, light. Food for us for the sacraments, food for others for giving to Grandma's Pantry. In the one case, God gives to us as we give ourselves to God at the altar--in the other, we give to others as we receive the grace of giving. Keys to the church? Considering the fact that I'd planned to give Marcia my own keys, for her to give back to me, I think we might be able to skip that one.

I am so grateful to everyone who is organizing the reception and participating in the service--close to 30, at last count--and look forward to celebrating our ministry with you on Tuesday!

Blessings,
Sara+