Since our last Warden Report we’ve had a few important changes: we welcomed Jenni to the Vestry, and Clayton as a Warden, also Amy and Katie temporarily joined the Vestry while Liz was away on sabbatical. We met via Zoom on January 26 and February 28, and our ‘business’ has happily been pretty straightforward. We approved a few changes to our Bylaws to clarify the process for replacing Vestry members between elections, and we approved the Outreach Team’s recommendation of a recipient for our Lenten/Easter offering - read the details from Amy. Our Finance Team finished a Diocese-mandated audit program checklist led by a person external to our church, and will be considering how to implement its (minor) recommendations over the next few months. We encouraged our staff in their efforts to design ways to safely return to in-person worship, now that vaccinations are happening, and warmer weather is coming. And importantly, we extended a big thank you to Amy for the care and skill and energy with which she stepped in to the ‘Acting Rector’ role during Liz’s absence, and also to the rest of the team. Beyond this, prompted by reading Letters to the Church (a book by Francis Chan), we took some time to discuss what we want Incarnation to be as we emerge from the pandemic. We are not finished yet, but some of the key themes that arose are these: · Devoting ourselves to Scripture is foundational and cohesive for us. · We want to focus on the object of our worship, rather than on a flawless or entertaining experience for worshippers. · We are a ‘high-participation’ church- and our culture is one of stepping up to serve, rather than expecting to be served. As we grow, this will take effort to sustain, but we never want to lose it. · We affirm the interdependence of ‘orthodoxy and orthopraxy’- we want to always be growing in both understanding of truth as revealed in Scripture and in taking action. · We want to be a church that relies on prayer, and whose members push each other closer to Jesus. We also discussed the reality that we are in a national season where words matter a lot, and we don’t always agree on their meaning. So it is particularly important to use words carefully, seeking to build up the Body of Christ in love. And when we fail, we want to be quick to ask for forgiveness, and quick to forgive one another:
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal…love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…” (1 Corinthians 13:1, 5)
We welcome your thoughts on what YOU think Incarnation should be as we emerge from the pandemic, and also, on how we can excel at bearing with one another and building one another up in love. Please reach out if you’d like to talk! ~ Nancy and Clayton Incarnation Wardens