January 2011 – Rector’s Ruminations
Epiphany, which we celebrate this month on the sixth of January and which continues as a season through March eighth and the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, translates from the Greek as “manifestation.” Those things that are made manifest during this season are the Nativity, Our Lord’s Baptism and the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. This major feast day, Epiphany, originated in the Eastern Church and was introduced into the Western Church in the 4th Century.
As a season it serves as a completion of the anticipated coming of Christ in Advent, and his incarnation as celebrated during Christmastide. Furthermore, it marks the Baptism of our Lord and the beginning of his ministry. It is a season in which Jesus announces the Kingdom of God through his teaching, prophecy and healing. In both word and action, Jesus, the manifest Son of God and man, becomes the embodied Epiphany of God’s love — Emmanuel, with us (is) God, our namesake as a parish family.
Likewise, our baptism and adoption as sons and daughters of God calls us to be epiphanies of God’s love and to make such love manifest in the ministry we share. Such ministry requires discernment – what is God calling us to be and do? What spiritual gifts have been given to us to make manifest God’s love in a broken and sinful world?
As we begin this season, I am asking for your thoughts in discerning what God is calling us to make manifest in 2011. Such discernment invites us to consider and evaluate our ministry in light of our mission to “love the Lord our God and God’s creation with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.”
We might begin such discernment with straightforward questions: how are we doing, what are we doing, what should we be doing to make such love manifest here on Orcas Island? Cheryl Danskin has developed a chart and grid to aid in the Discernment Process, entitled, “Church Life Contexts” and “Where is Emmanuel Headed?: Questions for Discernment.” (See following page) The Staff and the Vestry will be using these two documents to evaluate our current ministries and plans for the upcoming year. But we also need your help in discerning what you think and feel we and you might do to be epiphanies of God’s love. To that end, I am asking each of us to consider the 5 questions Cheryl has put forth in “Where is Emmanuel Headed?” and the specifics that she has identified under:
- Worship/Liturgy
- Faith in Action inside and out
- Spiritual Formation and Education
- Emmanuel Community and sense of belonging
- Others to consider
In short, what do we want to affirm, continue and strengthen? What do we want to improve, alter or possibly discard?
Another document that should be of help in our discernment and evaluation is the Annual Report that will be posted online and distributed on Sunday, January 16th following the 8 and 10 a.m. services as background information for the Annual Meeting on January 23rd. The various reports, financial data and other statistics should serve as valuable measurements in terms of how and what we are doing.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I ask for your prayerful personal reflection in asking God what you as an individual and we as God’s family are being called to manifest as we begin our ministry together in 2011.
As we anticipate Epiphany, my prayer for us is:
In your wisdom, O Lord our God, you have made all things and have allotted to each of us the days of our lives: grant that we may live in your presence, be guided by your Holy Spirit and offer all our works to your honor and glory as epiphanies of your love for us and all creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Christ,
+Craig
By Bishop Craig B. Anderson