Dear Saints of Trinity,
Each Sunday now, until you call your next Rector, you will hear the people pray the following prayer at each Sunday Eucharist: Loving God, you know the needs of your Church in every place: grant us the guidance of your Holy Spirit as we seek a new Rector for this parish. Give us discernment, wisdom, and confidence in your timing. Guide the members of our Search Committee and Vestry as they labor to be faithful in seeking your will, and bless our parish life with mutual trust, respect, and courage as we walk in your ways, to the glory of your name.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we would be exploring three words shared in this potent prayer: “discernment,” “wisdom,” and “confidence in your timing.” Through the lens of Anglican Spirituality and Episcopal polity, I hope to break open what we might mean when we use these words, especially as we move through these next weeks and months of saying goodbye, searching, and saying hello to new members of the staff. If you missed last week’s announcement, you can read that note from Fr. CJ here.
The first word, “discernment” is one that has been important to me for nearly 20 years. It was when I finally had language for this dynamic between me, the community of God’s beloved in my midst, and the triune God. In my local parish was where my faith was nurtured, my hope restored, and calling heard.
Over the centuries of Christianity, different spiritual leaders from Benedict to Ignatius have framed this notion of faithful decision-making that knits together the longing of our collective hearts and God’s audacious dreams for us. Because, as authors Michelle Heyne & Robert Gallagher write, “Parishes are a means of grace. All parishes. The sacraments are administered, and the Word read and preached. People share in the Divine Life.”
And as means of grace, that means you are a gift: to each other, the world around you, and to whomever is discerning with you to be your next clergy leader.
This is a thin space, holy, and filled with opportunities to grow and reflect and listen, both with the ears of our individual hearts and to one another. This prayer is meant to shape what we believe about this process, this time, and those elected and appointed for leading us through this work.
I invite you to write this prayer out and post it whereever you will see it regularly. And as you pass it by, whisper it, or simply touch it to affirm your prayer for this parish, her leaders, and your next ordained leader. How you pray shapes what you believe about yourself, the world around us, and this parish you call home.
I am away until the 14th now, this time for happy things: graduating my youngest from high school, moving my oldest back into her home away from home, and visiting family back in Michigan. I will think of you all often and hold you in my prayers until we are back together.
In peace,
Jodi+