02.05.24

Happy New Year from your Vestry!  After several years of not being able to gather in-person for our annual leadership retreat, the Memorial Vestry and Grey escaped the City to Marriottsville where we were surrounded by nature and began our work. We welcomed Dave Toia, David Dimmock, and Scott Purnell-Saunders. I am very excited to have their energy, experiences, and perspectives joining us.

We used "The Just Kitchen" by Derrick Weston & Anna Woofenden for inspiration and as a guide. We were lucky to have Derrick with us to challenge us and dive deep into his work and how it relates to the concept of a just Church. If you were with us on Sunday, then you had an opportunity to hear Derrick for yourself. If you missed it, you can watch the recording by clicking the button below. We explored hope & joy, letting go, and transforming from scarcity to enough. And there were conversations we wanted to have and didn't have time.

The Vestry will be using "The Just Kitchen" throughout Lent (spoiler: Ash Wednesday is next Wednesday) and we invite you to join us. We will be hosting meals and conversations each week. No requirement to read the book, but if you want a copy the Church has copies for $20. Stay tuned for a schedule. Come, eat, chat, and make a new friend.

A common theme from our time is a recognition that it is a privilege and honor to serve our Memorial family. Thank you for your confidence in us.

Warm Regards,

Stacy Wells

Senior Warden

02/05/24

srwarden@memorialepiscopal.org

The Sabbatical Comes to a Close

Fourteen weeks ago, we said goodbye, for a spell, to our hard-working rector and his family, as they took some time to fulfill some of their dreams, to travel and explore, and to be together in ways that haven’t been possible in a long time. 

At the same time, the parish laity took on full responsibility for running our parish church, to experience what is required to do that in 2022, to try some new things, and maybe gain some insights into what kind of parish we want to be as we move – please, God – into a post-pandemic future.

It will be exciting and revealing, in the next few months, to compare notes with Fr. Grey.  What did he think about while he was gone?  What new experiences widened his vision?  What things did he miss, and look forward to having/doing again when he returns? What things was he hoping he would not find the same as when he left? And we will share with him our wins and our challenges: What things did we discover are sustaining, and what things have we thought better of, on reflection?  The vestry and congregation will find ways to have conversations about these things.  

As your senior warden, it has been my canonical duty to lead in managing the church’s property, affairs, and common life with integrity, and to see to it that we continue to care for one another, continue as witnesses of our Lord, and continue the patterns of worship that strengthen our faith and make it accessible to others.

I can tell you that my eyes have been opened to some realities these last weeks.  One is that an awful lot of great stuff happens here.  Our 10:30 Sunday worship soars with the talents of amazing vocal and instrumental musicians. Our children delight us as they respond to a revived Sunday School program.  We have been inspired by eloquent preaching of diverse clergy from across the diocese.  Every week, our newsletter has had a prayerful reflection written by a member of our laity.  We have folks with the technical know-how who are tackling our most stubborn Zoom/wi-fi issues, resulting in systems with increasing functionality and reliability.  Our Faith @ 8 Sunday service is growing, and its members find spiritual sustenance in its nontraditional pattern of worship.  On December 3, an incredibly fun (I promise!) party is planned, to welcome Grey and family back, and this party will double as a fundraiser for the church.

Here's another observation: Even though our church is not a large one, its ambitions are large, and it contains enough people and initiatives so that something is always happening!  There are work flows and projects that must be managed, pastoral needs to attend to, unexpected events in our aging buildings, unexpected events in our aging selves (!), unexpected outcomes that arise from the execution of our ministries, normal but vexing conflicts that arise because we’re all human and fallible, and unexpected developments of many kinds that are utterly beyond our control.  

Running Memorial Episcopal Church is a job too big for one person. But, during the pandemic, we fell into a pattern of relying on Grey way too much.  We didn’t do it out of meanness, or out of not caring about our church.  We did it out of the same pandemic exhaustion that gripped nearly everyone.  For most of us, getting through these nearly three years has required all of our energy just to keep ourselves, and children, and our vulnerable adults, alive and healthy.  Our energies for the church have been diminished, and we fell into a pattern of letting Grey take up the slack.  Dutiful servant that he is, he took on the enormous challenge, but it was not sustainable.  

Along came the sabbatical, which Grey had the good sense to take in order to preserve himself, and us, for the long haul.  Quite a few in our congregation stepped up to do the work that needed to be done, with joy and determination to renew our commitment to making Memorial a beacon of the justice that Christ came to earth to make manifest.  By grace, the “wins” that I noted above resulted.  The Holy Spirit, always waiting patiently for us to hear her call, is stirring in our hearts again.  

Our task now is to renew and sustain our attention to the Spirit’s call, and not to revert to relying on our rector to do it for us. Together, with us doing our part in God’s work, we can do so much more than Grey can do on his own, amazing though he is.  

I hope that we will each prayerfully consider what part we will play as we move forward, and respond with a resounding “Yes!” when Grey or a fellow parishioner come asking for the gift of our time and talent.  Let us go forth, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.  Alleluia!

Bill Roberts.

11/09/22

A Note About Pastoral Care During Grey’s Sabbatical

If you have a pastoral need, please reach out to me at srwarden@memorialepiscopal.org Lois Eldred and I will address general pastoral concerns. For pastoral emergencies, such as a death or serious illness, I will reach out to Deacon Natalie.

Bill Roberts,

Senior Warden

Leadership During the Sabbatical

A Message from the Senior Warden

For the 6 years that Grey Maggiano has been our rector, we’ve been engaged in a process of learning about our past as we have charted a new future. We began by examining the racist and exploitative first century of Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore; learned how Memorial rectors and vestries actively promoted racist policies; discovered that designs of streets and public structures in Bolton Hill, and even some of the iconography in our own sanctuary, reflect segregationist intentions; had our eyes opened to the impact of chattel slavery on living members of our congregation today; gained a new understanding of the role we can play in healing the damage that lingers from a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow white supremacy, and began to devote large amounts of our time and treasure to the task of repairing the breach through reparations within our ZIP code.

For his leadership, including his research to uncovering long-buried truths about our past, his capacity for building relationships with often-neglected parts of our community, his inspiring and prophetic preaching and teaching, his pastoral care for us through countless personal and corporate challenges, and the fact that an awful lot of it occurred against the backdrop of a major sanctuary renovation during pandemic-related disruptions, he has earned a sabbatical. A time of rest, learning new skills, recharging his inner reserves.

As your senior warden, it is my responsibility to guide the continuity of leadership, stewardship, worship, pastoral care, and all the other things that make us Memorial Church, during Fr. Grey’s absence.  Yikes!  Grey does so much!  How will I ever get a handle on it all?  To paraphrase Dr. Leonard McCoy, of the Starship Enterprise, “I’m just a country nurse!”

To my relief, it has become clear this isn’t my responsibility alone.  Our vestry embodies wisdom borne of decades and decades of collective service at Memorial.  As I write this, they are working on a gala fundraiser on October 22 (save the date!), to assure our fiscal stability.  I am chairing a sabbatical planning committee composed of current and past parish leaders that have been meeting since early May to think through and plan for our programs and operations, including weekly worship, youth formation, communications, our building renovations and maintenance, and the uninterrupted continuance of our many ministries.  I’ve also been attending staff meetings, learning some of their patterns and systems, and looking at how we can support them while gaining a new perspective of what a wonderful resource they are.  I have been humbly grateful for all those who have said yes to my requests to get involved and help me think through the tasks and responsibilities ahead.

Serving on the sabbatical committee with me are Kathleen Capcara, Beth Casey, Deacon Natalie Conway, Daviedra Sauldsberry, and Stacy Wells.  In addition to the continuity planning that I’ve mentioned above, the committee is also looking at how we make this time our own sabbatical, parallel to Grey’s – how we will rest, yet also try new things, reflect on where we’ve been, and where we’re going.  In future communications, we’ll make sure you know who is filling what specific roles, and how you can reach out if you need us, or if you want to offer to help.

Of this I am certain:

We’ve got this.  I mean all of us – the whole congregation.  There have been and will be challenges, but this is a community bound together by God’s love.  It operates out of deep mutual regard, and it listens for God’s call.  I am looking forward to this segment of our journey, and especially to welcoming Grey back on November 13 (another date to save!), when we can begin to joyfully share, he with us and we with him, our insights from this unique experience.  

Come, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit awaits us!

Bill Roberts

07/12/22

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