Welcome to the New Year. The Whidbey Wagners hope you have a good one! Today is the Feast of Epiphany, so I think I'll fill you in on the situation at our church. I read lots of blogs about the goings on in the world of Anglicanism, but today I read a prayer for bloggers! It says it is from the Prayer Book; it is probably for all writers, but it fits, so here goes:"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."
Two years ago, 2007, we started the year off at St Stephen Episcopal with our new priest, Rachel Taber-Hamilton. As we walked through the last two years, we grew in number and in faith. We started out feeling sorry for ourselves, meeting in the chapel next door to the "biggggg" church, and angry at our Bishop for abandoning us, and so happy to have a building of any size because we had outgrown all our homes. We also were very happy to have Rachel who had taken on our problems with great energy and honesty. As the months went on she provided guidance and pastoral care for us, finally bringing us to see the PALS, as she taught us to call them, as the "People Across the Lot" rather than other ugly names. We let go of our fury at being shuffled aside and started talking about what we want to be. I'm not sure we have any better direction for that, but some things have changed to make us shift our vision of ourselves.
We are limited in space by a room that is 19x19. No lying, it is the size of a two car garage, and we have made it our own sanctuary. The whole building was consecrated in the middle 50's and then later All Saint's Chapel was made into a Columbarium some time after the main congregation moved across the way. It was dusty, dirty, and uncared for when we moved in two years ago. Now it is decorated, loved, rearranged and our own special place. We have all the acoutrements of a full sized church. Vestments, altar hangings, banners, prayerbooks, hymnals, chalices, and Sunday School supplies. However, now we don't have a priest. We were saddened when Rachel told us in October that she was moving away to Maine to become a Hospital Chaplain. We accepted it and pulled up our socks and continued to be church. It hasn't been easy. We have had several different priests to supply on Sundays. We are far away from the center of Seattle, so we don't get the vibrant new guys; we get the older, wonderful priests, but it does seem like they are making a huge effort to get here. Some times I worry that one of them will have a heart attack on the way home!
Sometimes I worry no one will want us as a permanent position! After all we are a special problem church. We have grown -almost 4 times in less than two years. That is amazing! We have a great pledge base. Everyone gives to our budget, but we don't have enough to pay a full time priest yet. We think if we can grow a little more, we can manage that. Our problem is space. We are cramped and even going to two services, we can't fit everyone in. You see, we like each other and we want to go to church together. We are accustomed to being physically close because we were in homes for a year and a half. We squeezed into lots of living rooms that could barely hold us. And, still people kept coming. If people would truly spread out and go to both services, we could hold on a little longer, but most everyone wants to go to the 11AM service. Jim and I hold down the 9AM service and we average 8 or so there. The rest of the group, anywhere from 25-35 squish into the space that really only holds 28 comfortably. What to do? A member of our Vestry is a Realtor and he has approached the PALS to ask if they will move their Pastor's Office, their Pastor's library and their Parish Office out of the Chapel and let us have the whole thing. We also want the portable building out back of us, which has two rooms for our office and Sunday School Room. We could really double in size if we had that arrangement.
Everything happens so slowly. I lose patience, and I get depressed about it. We have struggled for so long, and when we confront those in the diocese who seem surprised at our situation, they are astonished that we even exist. No one expected us to be here. No one thought we would stick it out. No one thought they would have to deal with us. So, here we are, beginning a new year and praying and hoping for something to happen that will free us to be what we have been called to be for Oak Harbor. I am challenged every day about what I can do for myself and the church. I am on the Altar Guild, the WebMaster, and I develop special liturgy activities for the church. I am also on the Diocesan Standing Committee. I am getting burn out, I think. A vacation looks better and better all the time. Our core group works hard, but we have been holding on for a long time.
Hitting that brick wall gets down right funny now and then. Last Sunday we had a new visitng priest. We have vestments and stoles for all the seasons, but the last priest always brought his own. So, we go to the early service and the guy shows up without a stole. I am frantically dragging out all the banker boxesin the library under the table to see if one of them was hidden away somewhere. I called the Altar Guild Prez and she has a bad cold and doesn't really care if I find a stole or not and she and her husband overslept! We have things in a garage storage place, but I don't have the keys and in reality, we know the woman who does all the sewing for the Altar Guild has all that stuff at her house and she lives 40 minutes away. So, he did the early service without a stole, and he promised he'd bring his own next time. I was embarassed and horrifed because we really do have beautiful things we have gathered the last two years. But, and it is a big but, we have NO WHERE to store anything where we can get to it. Pray for us as we go through the next year of finding a priest and hopefully finding more room. We need a blessing to happen for us.
Pray for Peace in Israel. Virginia W.
