Beloved in Thomas the Apostle Parish Church:
At the start of every year the nine members of the vestry whom you elected to serve and lead you, along with the chancellor, the clerk, the two treasurers and yours truly get together with a facilitator to form ourselves into a working group of people. If you have ever served on a committee you will know that once and a while a person on the committee adopts the role of Pope. They can be clergy and/or they can be lay...sometimes there are several such souls serving on the committee. One of the things our workshop/retreat strives to help us do is to nip those potential Popes in the bud. The vestry is a group of your Christian sisters and brothers. It is that group of your Christian sisters and brothers who must figure out how to work together to address any and all situations which the Holy Spirit may send our way during the year. Popes are not much help in groups. They may look good when they dress up and they may think their ideas “the” correct ones, but when it comes to working with groups (where the Holy Spirit actually does do her best work) they can be vexing in the extreme. Playing together is the project, not playing one person’s way or having that person take their marbles and go home.I have been amazed over the years at how well the vestries of late have worked together, with everyone having the chance to express his or her own opinions, yet working still to come to a common mind about what it is we are dealing with at the time. It does seem that we have known that the way forward through any issue meant that we need to work together until we can all concur on the direction needed to resolve, solve, and deal with the matter at hand. Do we have differences of opinion? There are nine vestry members. Certainly we do have differences and express them. We work hard to invite members to “out” their thoughts rather than swallow them and stew silently. Some members speak up easily. Others need to be encouraged to speak up.
This method of working on issues takes time. If a person is impatient that person will experience some stress if the vestry really does its work with care and deliberation. Some of us, and I count myself among them, have had to learn that patience and deliberation really are better paths than quick decisions made by either a few or only one person. Working together to bring along the entire vestry means that we require more time to come to a common mind about matters than we would require if only one person made all the decisions. When I was a curate, I remember vestry meetings in which bright people sat silently around the table while that rector simply dictated everything that was to be done. No one questioned him. No one suggested that there might be other ways to serve God’s people. All seemed satisfied but, in reality, hardly anyone wanted to return to serve again on that vestry under that rector.
The members you have elected to serve on your vestry are caring and bright members of this parish who bring a variety of gifts and passions to our common work. Our time at the workshop will give all of us a chance to “get to know one another” better, especially those three newly elected members. With any group of people, new blood changes the chemistry. That is true of vestries as well as families and parishes. It is vital that we pause at the start of the year’s work and do that “getting to know the new folk” as well as sharing with new people who the other members of the vestry are. With that under our belts at the start of the year, we can confidently move into the year’s work, whatever it may bring.
I ask you to remember your vestry in your prayers, not just while we are at the workshop/retreat but, more especially, throughout the year ahead. You elected them to serve you. In order to do that well, it helps them to know that they have your prayerful support. All of them serve all of you. No one serves only a “part” of the parish. Our meetings are open for you to audit any time. Please voice your thoughts and ideas to members of the vestry and me. We seek your input about our work and welcome thoughtful suggestions about our common life here on the corner of Inwood Road and Mockingbird Lane.
Our workshop this year will be in Milford, Texas at a place called Our House in Milford. Stepping outside the routine of the ordinary lives we live at church and at home and at work gives us the chance to focus better. Everyone needs to “retreat” from the routine of life from time to time to look back at what they are doing in and with their lives and to think about how it might be done differently, perhaps. Once the retreat/workshop is concluded, we will convene briefly to “organize” ourselves…meaning the vestry will elect the clerk, the chancellor, the treasurers and the junior warden for the year 2012. We will set our regular meeting night and come home ready to roll.
Your trust in us is the means by which we can be sure that all of us who are St. Thomas the Apostle are committed to working together for the common good. Rowing this ship together, everyone doing their part and pulling together in the same direction allows us to let the Light of Christ shine forth from this corner in Dallas, Texas.
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