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Rector's Blog
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Over the past week in our class "Connecting with Our Children" (using Roberta Gilbert's book of the same name) we've talked some about thinking of our society as an organism: how it's less an abstraction and more of an aggregate of the smaller family emotional processes going on in the families of which "society" is made up. This has gotten me thinking of an analogous connection with these ideas and our demonstration on Sunday of the parish time line that featured "Our Story of St. Tim's" and the individual stories that we contributed.
At the annual meeting on Sunday, around 100 folks shared in the beginnings of a powerful conversation that will continue during Lent when we embark together on a ministry re visioning called "Going from Strength to Strength: A Time for Action." As we shared lunch, reviewed 2006, and where we're headed in 2007, there was some time to share with one another how to think about "our story" that emerges from the time line that we've put up in our parish hall/Edwards Hall. (FYI: Sara, our communications director, created a really large time line stretching from the 1920's to the present, with local/global, personal, and St. Tim's categories; and people were asked over the past few weeks to put up some milestones in the categories. The effect was fantastic: lots of stories and milestones.) Some of the insights were around the interdependence of those who have come at different times and generations; how we are built in layers, with the work of one generation supporting the next and so on; and how around these milestones were blank spaces that were hardly blank, but feature supporting structures that we often don't think about or see that make our story and life together possible. I enjoyed the insights that people shared and gained some for myself.
As a side note, recently someone shared with me that men of the parish each contributed 100 hours to build St. Timothy's--so this strength we have of community that I talked about last week is one that goes back to the beginning.
Over the next few months, we'll follow a dialogical path to discerning what God is calling us to do and be in the next few years. I have my dreams to be sure: people still growing into being Christians (who ever arrives?) wherever they are already with Christ--through bible study, covenant groups and other spiritual disciplines; strong kids whose spiritual life is growing; college students who can look back on mentors and people at St. Timothy's who helped them along the way to connect their life, with its highs and lows, with God the source of life. These are among my hopes and dreams, but others have dreams, too. Together, we'll enjoy discerning together: creating the church that God wants us to be and we want to have over the next few years. It was a great way to begin the conversation Sunday; I look forward to resuming it in Lent.
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