Church Business

Dear Friends in Christ,

I am writing this reflection from St. Dorothy’s Rest, a diocesan camp and conference center in Camp Meeker just outside Occidental in Sonoma County. It is beautiful and peaceful here. Towering redwoods reach into a blue sky. The low winter sun glints through their branches, creating bold patterns of light and shadow. It is quiet, apart from the singing of the birds and an occasional car passing by on the Bohemian Highway. Surrounded as I am by the beauty of God’s creation, where nature works in the perfect harmony God intended, it is easy to feel deeply connected to God and to forget how troubled and divided our world is.

I am here for the Executive Council retreat. Executive Council has authority over fiscal and fiduciary matters of the diocese, and we spent the past two days reflecting on how the Executive Council best fulfills its responsibilities and exercises its authority to strengthen and support the institution of the Episcopal Church in the Bay Area so its people can live out their faith in their communities.

Earlier this week, Bishop Marian Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, preached at the post-inauguration ecumenical prayer service at the National Cathedral (an Episcopal cathedral), in which she made a plea in the name of a living God for the president to show mercy to “the people in our country who are scared now,” especially immigrants and LGBTQI+ people.

This Sunday during our worship we will hold St. Anna’s annual meeting. This is your opportunity to participate in the business of the church that keeps our doors open and allows us to live out our faith in community and for the community.

All these things are related. They are all the business of the church and the responsibility of all of us called to be disciples of Christ.

For the same reason Executive Council gathered for two days to faithfully and diligently consider their responsibility to oversee and direct the affairs of the diocese, and Bishop Budde felt compelled to speak out in the name of a loving God, we are called to attend to the business of St. Anna’s to ensure we are around for many years: to preach the Good News of God in Christ and speak out against injustice and oppression in our fallen and broken world the way Jesus did.

This is not about politics. This is about witnessing to the love and mercy of the God we know through Jesus the Christ. Bishop Budde was not preaching politics, she was preaching the Gospel – the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, who himself said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy,” (Matthew 5:7) and whatever you did for the least of these you did to me (Matthews 25:40); she was being faithful to the baptismal covenant which promises to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

We are called to do the same. It will not be easy, but we do not do this work alone; we do it in community; a community that needs your participation and support. So please plan on attending the annual meeting this Sunday to ensure the community of St. Anna’s remains to do it for many years to come.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane+