Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,
As we continue to emerge from the pandemic I've made two observations about Christ Church. First, we've come through Covid-19 in remarkably good shape. We've added ministries for the homeless, expanded pastoral care, learned how to use new technology, kept a huge number of people connected, and kept our finances stable. Christ Church is a resilient community with committed members. Throughout the pandemic we've worked hard at loving our neighbors, as Jesus challenges us to do.
Second, everybody is tired! The pandemic clearly took a toll on all of us. We spent so much energy staying safe, taking care of each other, schooling our children, and managing bottomless anxiety, that our fuel tanks are pretty low. This means that many of the volunteer activities we took for granted before the pandemic aren't bouncing back on their own. When I talk with priest colleagues they tell me that they're having a harder time than they expected restarting things like coffee hour, Sunday school, greeters and that sort of thing. Christ Church is not immune to this dynamic. We'll need to rethink and rebuild some of our shared activities, and we'll need to let some go.
This is an opportunity for discernment, to ask ourselves how we should best spend our limited volunteer energy to support our values and goals, and to drop some things that may no longer make sense. As we head towards summer things will naturally slow down for our church, giving us an opportunity to discern how we want to restart things in the autumn. So, over the next few months I charge you to think about what activities give you joy at church, and which feel like burdens. Together, we should plan to increase things that give us joy and put down some of the burdens. I'd love to hear your ideas about all of this, to hear what brings you joy at church.
Hang in there and God bless you.