From the Rector’s Study ~ (from the Rector’s Annual Report for 2008)
In our community, the year 2008 saw the wedding of Diane and Duke Dutiel and their departure for his job at the cathedral in Washington D.C. Werner and Dorothy Pankratz were wed in May. I had the privilege of blessing the marriage of Paul and Bailey Johnson, formerly Bailey Neville, who grew up here at ECR. I was further blessed to join in matrimony Amanda and Doyle Motes here in August. I was blessed also to do the same for Ricky and Zanterria Carpenter, our sexton’s son and new daughter-in-law. And ECR held our first Quinceañera last year in October, for Marissa Galvez. I had a lot of fun, and I hope we’ll have occasion for more such celebrations in the near future.
We saw our seminarian John Fritts ordained in the Diocese of West Texas to the diaconate in March and then to the priesthood in September. Some of us attended also the ordination of our seminarian Sue Wilmot in June in the diocese of Arizona. You will have noticed that one-time seminarian Sam Giancarlo has returned to ECR as enthusiastic parishioner, having completed his studies at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. And we are all now experiencing the blessings of the ministry of Marie Butterbaugh who joined us as our seminarian this fall, and comes to us accompanied by her husband Tim. Each of these folks will gladly tell you how his or her time with the community of ECR continues a lasting gift. We may be rightly proud.
We said goodbye to Eve Lepore at her memorial service one year ago. We bid farewell also to Ken Williams, to Ian DeSilva, and to Patti Crain, all of whom were well honored by our community with beautiful services of remembrance and thanksgiving to God for the sharing of their lives with our own.
I want to thank ECR’s Leaders of Ministry who bless all of us, often in ways that we don’t even know. Thank you. Thanks are due also to our Vestry, especially to those whose term of service ends today. Thanks to you all, and especially to Carolyn Ellis Mary Jo Hernandez, Ken DeSilva, and Mike Paulsen. Mike was our Junior Warden through this last year, and was able not only to accomplish an astonishing number of important repairs and improvements, but also greatly added to the spirit of the Vestry in its work and ministry. Mike will continue to serve in great ways, I know. Paddy Langford, though he continues to serve with the Vestry, now retires from his ministry as my Senior Warden. It has been a distinct pleasure to witness Paddy’s growth into this ministry. I know Paddy was nervous and unsure at the beginning when I first asked him. It is wonderfully satisfying to have Paddy demonstrate either the wisdom of the good fortune of my choice. Paddy has served with extraordinary dedication to me and to this community. Thank you, Paddy. Thank you, Mike. Thank you Carolyn, Mary Jo, and Ken. And thanks to all you on the Vestry. You’re a great community in your own right.
Thanks go to our nominees for election to service with the Vestry: Lana Beyer, Larry Clifton, Andy Lyon, Brian McElligott, Clarence Starkie, Betty Stinson, and Roger Wines. Congratulations go to Larry, Andy, Brian, and Betty, newly elected. I look forward to working and praying with them and all our Vestry this year.
With the dawning of this new year, Mike Stout has completed his 30th year with ECR, and so we want to end 2008 as we began it, with a celebration of this milestone of ministry. As Music Director, Mike pulls beautiful sounds from an organ that is quirky and contentious, and simultaneously inspires the beautiful voices of our choir to lift their hearts and ours in glorious praise to God. Mike and I do butt heads sometimes, as people deeply committed to their ministry will do. But we know well of one another’s commitment to God and this community. We share one another’s deep love for ECR and for God who’s Love inspires us. In the end, Mike cannot possibly appreciate me as much as I appreciate him. Thank you, Mike for your first thirty years of ministry and leadership with ECR.
Many thanks go also our Treasurer Linda Bryant. She has completed her first year in soaring fashion. I know this will be only the first of many years of service to come. Thank you, Linda.
Mary Morrison, with my thanks and admiration, continues in her role as our Children’s Christian Education Ministry Leader. Susan Ledenham and Mary Jo Hernandez do likewise as our Adult Education Ministry Leaders. The ministries that you provide and serve are the foundation of the future of ECR’s community and witness. Thank you.
Perpetual thanks go to our Parish Administrator Evelyn Griffin. Her responsibilities are so broad that I’m always happy to correct a visitor to the Church Office when he or she refers to Evelyn as a secretary. Thank you, Evelyn.
Thanks are especially due to Rick Carpenter our Sexton who begins his 20th year with ECR. I corresponded with the Rev. Bill Wright recently, and he tells me that he hired Rick originally to help keep the place secure from the vandalism and other crime that was taking place here, as well as to keep up the grounds. Rick didn’t know until the day he was hired that he was also to reside here on campus. Rick’s abilities enabled him quickly to take on more responsibilities, and he continues to work amazingly well with me as rector, and in cooperation with a constantly changing variety Junior Wardens throughout the years. He continues to deal gently as possible with folks who mistakenly assume that he is on duty 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, to chase away shady characters from around the campus and inside the buildings at all hours, and to over-extend himself in trying to respond to the requests that come at him from every direction. Thank you, Rick, for your service to our community.
Thanks go also to Laura Celius our nursery care giver. As good a service as Laura may provide, though, I need to observe here that it is a requirement of the Church that we have two people on duty in the nursery. So, we will soon be posting a sign-up list for folks who wish to be considered for volunteer ministry in the Nursery. So important is this ministry that ECR will need to close its nursery on any Sunday that we are not able to staff it with Laura and at least one volunteer. That said, I’m also aware that this community rises to the need whatever that need may be. So I am confident that we will do so here, again. I will announce soon a date for the training of all persons who wish to volunteer in this ministry.
The previous year had blessed this community profoundly, and maybe because of this, our community is also being profoundly challenged. The challenges facing ECR now are rooted in the progress and spiritual health of our community. These are challenges that ECR has not had to address for some time, and perhaps never before. This makes them challenges that are good for us. They tell us good things about ourselves.
Our community is facing the challenges of growing. These are not so obvious or generic as it might first seem. You and I know that economic times are hard right now. And both the timing and the means of resolving these hard times remain uncertain. For many church congregations, this means that the challenge is simply to survive. Can we make it through the year, the season, the month? These are real concerns for the congregations because these are the same real concerns that afflict the private lives of many of the people who comprise them. And sadly enough, the same is true for our folks, here at ECR. You know it, you feel it.
But you also know, you also feel, that peace and confidence within us, especially amongst us when we are gathered; that peace and confidence that pass all understanding. They arise from God, within us and among us, and always watching over us. ECR has rarely if ever had the luxury of being able to splurge as part of our stewardship. Our community has always understood the value of the fruits of our labors, in terms of time and talent, and in terms of money entrusted to ECR’s ministry and mission. ECR has always understood the virtue of using carefully and prayerfully the gifts of our time, talent, and treasure. Though the current times emphasize them, ECR’s community is particularly blessed in that we are not being forced by circumstances to learn these values and virtues as though they are new.
We are thus able to continue giving our attention and prayer to growing. We have heard and read over the past few years about plans for correcting some things about ECR’s campus that have hindered the ability of ECR’s community to reach out and to welcome in. It’s important to remember that while our church building has a seating capacity that will accommodate a regular Sunday attendance of 152 people, our parking capacity can accommodate a regular attendance of only 90 people. That ECR maintains an average Sunday attendance that is actually higher than this number is testimony to ECR’s positive witness to every visitor, guest, friend, and member to God’s Love for all.
You will recall that in the Spring of 2005, ECR’s Vestry and Ministry Leadership determined a need to modify our campus, and so a task force began work on initial steps. Following an excellent program from the Episcopal Church Headquarters and the Episcopal Building Fund, the task force, composed primarily of Jon Ellis, Bill Jameson, Ken DeSilva, and Mike Paulsen, along with valuable input of several others in the parish, turned over its work to the Congregational Planning Process Committee, consisting of these four good folks along with Bob and Mary Edgecomb, Helen Paulsen, Paddy Langford, Sue Wilmot, and myself.
Using an interview process, this Committee and some further recruits to the cause spent the latter half of 2006 and into January of 2007 creating and using an interview process to hear from our Ministry Leaders their needs and goals for ECR’s ministry and mission. Jon Ellis and Sue Wilmot presented this information to ECR’s leadership and then to the parish in September of 2007. The information confirmed statistically what many of us sensed intuitively about our community, namely: that ECR values highly our hospitality, worship, and outreach, that education for all ages is increasingly important to us, and that we would like to be more effective in reaching out and inviting in people from the wider communities around us.
Last February the Vestry adopted a plan for ECR’s campus, working with Mr. George Ensle of Envision Architects. An important step in the makeover of the campus is to create a drive and walkway that connects the east end with the rest of the campus. The sexton was relocated to a remodeled garage that had once served as ECR’s Thrift Shop. The former Sexton’s residence is decrepit, and will soon be removed.
In the meantime, the Congregational Planning Process Committee convened three sub-committees to provide recommendations for ECR’s mission statement and vision statement, to investigate prospects for funding of the building project, and for what might be the interior design of a new building ECR’s programs and ministries. The Vestry received these recommendations late last year. The new Vestry will use them in three ways: 1) to prepare proposals for funding from the Diocese of Texas, since this is all diocesan property, and for funding from other agencies for grants and loans; 2) to determine an attractive and functional look for the new building; and 3) to finalize a new a statement of ECR’s mission and vision for the future of our expression of the gospel both now and in the decades to come. The mission and vision statements were to be presented by the Vestry at the Annual Meeting this year, but the work is too important not to do it well. So we will finish it at the Retreat for the Vestry and Leadership this year and present it to the congregation thereafter.
In the meantime, I want us all to know that the Vestry and Ministry Leaders of ECR continue with great dedication to what matters most here at ECR. Not the building, not the parking lots, not the windows, but the things that are served by all of these material effects, namely: the Love of God for all matters to this community. This has always been our focus, and this may well be why we have always found that God does in fact provide. It is this Love of God, given expression in the warmth of welcome that everybody receives who comes in here, without exception, that enable to face the challenges of growth. While our church building is beautiful, no doubt, and more so now, it remains that what makes ECR memorable in people’s hearts is this community. Who we are always outshines where we worship. Where we worship is truly the special place that it is because, like windows into heaven, when we community worship and gather together as this community, God shines through.
God’s Peace.
Jim+
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