Off to vestry tonight where we will contemplate a large deficit budget.
We are in the same boat as countless other entities — churches, businesses, non-profits. We are all caught up in this mess.
Call me naïve but we will figure out a way. We will not raid the endowment. Those glory days are over.
We need to rethink stewardship.
I will tell the vestry this story:
I wear a cross tonight that is the emblem of common cathedral, ecclesia ministries in Boston. My friend, the Rev'd Dr Deborah Little Wyman, started this amazing outreach to the homeless of Boston in 1996 and within a year or so, the Rev’d Liz Hall (now in Vermont), designed this cross. When someone new comes to common cathedral, they are given this cross. Members of the congregation recognise one another in the streets, t stations and down and out places of Boston and realise they belong. After some time, the community, which gathers rain or shine at Boston Commons by the Tremont Station and the fountain, decided that they had been given so much in this community, that they should give to others. So they took up a collection that yielded several hundred of dollars and gave it to the women’s shelter. If they can do it, so can we.
2 comments:
That is a remarkable story. Know that you and your church are in my prayers.
Peace and Blessings,
Peter Carey+
http://santospopsicles.blogspot.com
I've been aware of Deborah Little's work on Boston Common and subsequent developments but had either forgotten or not known about the little crosses. How wonderful.
Good luck with the vestry and budget. Sign of the times... Prayer accompany you from me and the feline bishop.
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