Chronicles of Canterbury
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Chronicles of Canterbury february 2018
From the Rector
Trust God, Praise God, Be Like Jesus
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lot of years have passed since Jesus’ time. More than 2,000. But for we who are part of the Body of Christ, who share in the apostolic ministry of those Jesus called to go out into the world, I am not sure the times are so different than ever. What this means is that we Christians today, even here at St. Michael’s, are called to the same life in Christ as his first disciples were. We have the same vocation as Paul did. God’s call to us is the same as ever. According to the apostles’ lead, we too are expected to follow Jesus, in thought, word and deed. And we are expected to live Christian lives. As I said in a sermon a few weeks ago, the apostolic ministry was created and appointed and anointed by God in Jesus. When we were baptized into Christ, we were given a piece of the apostolic ministry. And in a nutshell that ministry says this: “Get up and go
where God calls you – to spread his message – to heal sickness in the world around you – and to cast out sin and evil.” In order to be able to do apostolic ministry, there are some things we already do and need to keep doing. Above all, we need to trust God with all we have, surrendering our lives to God’s power. This means showing up for Christ, in the form of worship, work, prayer and leading humble lives. Accordingly, we need to worship the Lord in the power of holiness, by singing, praying and communing together with real commitment and energy. In these ways we will continue to form ourselves into the likeness of Jesus. In forming ourselves into Jesus’ likeness, we will be prepared to get up and go out to proclaim, heal and reconcile the world, and that is where we need to keep aiming. This parish is not here for itself. We See RECTOR on page 3
From the New Senior Warden
Servant Leadership Continues with New Vestry what’s inside 2 Lent at St. Michael’s 4 Gifts of Grace 5 Missional Communties 6 Annual Fund 7 Mountaintop Moment 8 For all the Saints 9 OWLS 9 ECW 10 Briefly 11 Lifelong Disciple
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ERVICE. Service is one of the things that defines us as Christians.
Two Bible verses make this fact very clear. In Mark 10:45, we read, “For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”. In 1Peter 4:10, we are instructed, “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” A discussion of service is a very logical starting point for a St. Michael’s Vestry Retreat. Other vestries do not typically unlock doors, turn on lights, make coffee, light candles, usher at two services per Sunday, and clean the kitchen of the Church. The Vestry of St. Michael’s performs all these services and more. The currently accepted manual of Vestry service in the Episcopal Church is entitled “The Vestry Handbook” by Christopher Webber. It was written in 1988 and is
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in its third edition and eighth printing. It covers the financial, spiritual, planning and governance functions common to all vestries, but “service” does not appear in the Table of Contents or in the Index. There is nothing about alarms, locks, candles, coffee or ushering in its 125 pages. This is not a criticism of the author, or by extension other Episcopal vestries. But it is an interesting difference in the culture of Vestry service at St. Michael’s. Greg Jones reminds us that the “Founder’s Ethos” of St. Michael’s still influences much of what we do today. The “roll up your sleeves and get the job done” approach of the families who established the “Little Red Church” in 1950, is why we are a service Vestry. We serve one another with the gifts that we have received.
See WARDEN. on page 3