My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,
Last weekend our newly constituted vestry gathered for an abbreviated retreat. Due to Covid concerns we stayed in Alameda with our facilitator. On Saturday we explored how we can live further into our vision statement to gather, transform and engage people in our community. We talked about the way a church exists to serve people who don't yet go there. We ended the day by articulating three goals which the vestry will work in 2022:
Develop and implement a process to better welcome newcomers during coffee hour.
Create a process to help incorporate newcomers into small groups within Christ Church.
Restructure how we gather volunteers and food for coffee hour.
The vestry will work on the nuts and bolts of these goals. But because they're about opening up our community to newcomers, we'll need help from all of you to make a cultural change at Christ Church. That's no small thing. We say "All are welcome," but we could do more to meet people where they are. This is the case for the entire Episcopal Church.
Please pray for our vestry as we continue our work together. Please pray for our church as we strive to live into Jesus' example. And please pray for our wider community.
Peace,
Stephen