Bravo!

Bravo! Sunday’s Open House was a great milestone in the life of St. Paul’s. In a calm, joyful and open-hearted way, filled with relaxed hospitality, we hosted an event of great grace and beauty. There are dozens of people to thank and I’d like to highlight just three. Thank you to Katie who was the master mind behind it all and the playful spirit of it too. Thank you to Jay, who gave three full tours to big groups of people. People left those tours wide-eyed and curious. And thanks to Mike, who led us all in an Evensong that was holy, beautiful and more full than a Sunday morning service. God is good!

The Open House is the closing event of an extraordinary year in the life of St. Paul’s. About a year ago, we were worshipping at Nativity as the Hardin Courtyard was being installed. Then, through the rest of the year, the garden was planted, the bathrooms transformed, the parking lot resurfaced and so on. In the new year, in quick succession, we had our 150th celebration with the Bishop in January, the PrayWorshipServe Retreat in February, Holy Week and, finally, this great Open House last Sunday. Whew!

What I observe is that successfully meeting each of these challenges has brought us to life and opened our hearts. There was a quiet and joyful confidence to our hospitality on Sunday that bodes well for our future together.

Very often, after big projects and years, churches and other communities grow slack and start to lose their way. At the other extreme, some communities feel like they need to keep stretching, becoming almost hooked on the excitement.

I hope we can now enter into a middle way of calm and steady progress and growth. There are beautiful projects before us. These include our growing connections with our sister churches, the pursuit of St. Monnica’s Mutual Housing Community and the next PrayWorshipServe Retreat, which is scheduled for March of 2020. But the pace will be different, more ordinary and gently nourishing. For example, we are headed toward a soft launch of New College of Christian Practice this fall, with classes happening just once a month.

I hope for a restful summer for all of us. It has been a wonderfully productive season at St. Paul’s. We are as healthy as we’ve ever been in the 14 years I have served here. Let us take a season of rest and give thanks for what has been and draw strength for what is to come.