Grace Episcopal Church
Annual Meeting
January 24, 2021
The Rector's Report, delivered as the Sermon on January 24, 2021
January 24, 2021
My Friends –
It has now been two years and almost three months since I became your priest and joined you at Grace Church. At the time I said that it felt as though you were waiting for me and that I was waiting for you. And that finally we could begin working together to create something wonderful.
I still have that feeling.
And if what we’re creating now is different from what we originally set out to build, it’s because we have adapted to covid-19, conditions imposed by the Commonwealth, the Diocese, and local circumstance to keep each other and our community safe.
You can read about the state of the Parish in the reports that were sent to you and that are on our website; you will hear shortly about the state of our finances and the three-year plan. Given everything that’s happened, we are doing well.
I want to talk a little about where we’ve been, where we are, and what’s ahead.
When we read about 2020 in a history book, it will make our heads spin. The last three weeks alone would do that. What a toxic, tragic, and dangerous year – one that exposed the rifts, cracks, and threats in our country’s democracy, but one that ultimately ended in hope and a renewal of purpose.
I want you to know this: we have come through all these things. We have adapted to change: we moved our worship and our meetings online; we were able to continue our Community Suppers; to have a successful Lobster Roll season; we learned how to be church in a new way; we developed a relationship with the Cathedral Congregation of St. Paul; we developed an app, and we have continued to serve our community on the Vineyard all year long.
That we have been able to adapt and survive; to not only survive but grow is a tribute to you, the people of Grace Church. Your strength, your resilience, your faith, your support, your flexibility, your generosity, and your involvement have made it possible for us to emerge stronger and better at the end of this chaotic and traumatic year. Thank you for being willing to change. Thank you for your perseverance and your faithfulness. Thank you for facing new challenges. Thank you for helping build something new.
If this were the movies or a tv show with a Hollywood ending, we would congratulate ourselves on a job well done, put our feet up, enjoy our favorite beverage, and watch the sunset from the porch.
But we are called to live in the reality of our time, to confront the fierce urgency of now, as Dr. King wrote, and we are called to keep going - to keep building something new together.
Looking ahead, this coming year may be more dangerous in terms of covid-19 than last year because of the unequal distribution of vaccine, because of complacency once vaccinated; because Martha’s Vineyard is a destination site; and perhaps because of the variants of the virus as they emerge.
I believe that mid-September may be next milestone date before things change fundamentally for us on the Vineyard – after the summer visitors come and gone. It may be sooner and it may be later, but the Vestry and I are working with the assumption that our circumstances will not change fundamentally until then.
With this assumption in mind, the plan is for our Community Suppers to continue through the end of March and for our Lobster Roll fundraising operation to take place on a curbside pickup basis this summer.
In terms of in-person worship, for safety reasons, I don’t see that happening for a while. I know that some of you would like to gather in person for worship. I would like to do this too. But to keep everyone safe, Sunday worship is likely to remain online through Easter and beyond.
That said, the Vestry and I are working on ways to gather safely for outdoor in-person worship on Ash Wednesday, Easter, and this summer, subject to and in compliance with health directives from the Commonwealth, the Diocese, and the Tisbury Board of Health.
This brings me to my next point, which may be hard to hear: We are not going back to “how things used to be”. Neither in nostalgic memory or pre-covid. We are not going back to how things used to be.
What that means for the next nine months is that online worship will continue until we can gather safely in our church for worship, and once we can, our services will be streamed online as they are now so that everyone can be there to worship together.
It means that our focus will move from within our building to outside it and that through Community Suppers, Lobster Rolls, YouTube, Zoom, our website, and our App, we will extend our outreach to a wider community on the Vineyard, nationally, and globally.
Let me be clear: we are not going to leave anyone behind and we are still going to care for each other. When we can, Sunday School, Choir, Coffee Hour, and more meetings will re-convene in person. But we are going to have a wider perspective of who and what Grace Church is and who and what we can be. Everyone who visits our website, joins us for worship, supports us by buying a lobster roll, downloads our app, or comes for a meal on Friday nights is part of Grace Church: part of who we are as Church and part of our selves as members of Christ’s Body.
All this is the logical extension of what we have created together this past year. We created it together, as an Easter people who have been called to live into our shared articulation of how God is calling us to be disciples of Jesus in the in our time and place.
In this, we share in each of today’s readings: All of today’s readings: the Collect, Jonah, Psalm 62, 1 Corinthians, Mark are about a call to a new way of being. Of hearing God, leaving one’s way of life, and entering a new way of being. All of them.
In the church calendar, Peter’s Conversion was observed last Monday and the scales fall from Paul’s eyes tomorrow. Jesus calls Andrew, Peter, James, and John to leave their nets, and they go. Jonah, kicking and screaming, goes into the Assyrian Capital of Ninevah to call for repentance to avert God’s wrath. Amazingly, they listen, and God does not destroy their city.
We are called in 2021 build on what we have already accomplished in this past year. To continue moving forward, even when the future is not familiar and unknown. We are called to build bridges and relationships with people we don’t know yet; deepen relationships with those we love; stay in relationship with those who disagree with us.
Because of your work last year we are well-launched and well-prepared to keep living into the future. To continue being Church in a new way. To dream big and to embrace brave change, as the Diocese puts it.
The urgency of our time and the needs of our community require us to reach out, to connect with each other and to strengthen our community of Martha’s Vineyard and beyond. To have the courage and the generosity of spirit to reach out to those we do not know and in them find God.
We live in a world of infinite wonder and infinite possibility. With confidence in God, therefore, and good will to all, let us keep building together. Let us listen for God’s calling us to a new way of being Grace Church in our time and place; have the courage to work to become that way; to reach out to those we do not yet know. To be vehicles of Grace.
Thank you. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey. Thank you for being part of Grace Church. Thank you for being willing to live as Church in our time, to grow, to create something new and to be the Church in a new way. Thank you for your generosity and good will. And for the goodness of your hearts.
I close with this prayer for the Church: O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
God bless you and God bless our Parish in this year to come.
Thank You for being part of Grace Church.
Amen.
The Reverend Stephen Harding, Rector
My Friends –
It has now been two years and almost three months since I became your priest and joined you at Grace Church. At the time I said that it felt as though you were waiting for me and that I was waiting for you. And that finally we could begin working together to create something wonderful.
I still have that feeling.
And if what we’re creating now is different from what we originally set out to build, it’s because we have adapted to covid-19, conditions imposed by the Commonwealth, the Diocese, and local circumstance to keep each other and our community safe.
You can read about the state of the Parish in the reports that were sent to you and that are on our website; you will hear shortly about the state of our finances and the three-year plan. Given everything that’s happened, we are doing well.
I want to talk a little about where we’ve been, where we are, and what’s ahead.
When we read about 2020 in a history book, it will make our heads spin. The last three weeks alone would do that. What a toxic, tragic, and dangerous year – one that exposed the rifts, cracks, and threats in our country’s democracy, but one that ultimately ended in hope and a renewal of purpose.
I want you to know this: we have come through all these things. We have adapted to change: we moved our worship and our meetings online; we were able to continue our Community Suppers; to have a successful Lobster Roll season; we learned how to be church in a new way; we developed a relationship with the Cathedral Congregation of St. Paul; we developed an app, and we have continued to serve our community on the Vineyard all year long.
That we have been able to adapt and survive; to not only survive but grow is a tribute to you, the people of Grace Church. Your strength, your resilience, your faith, your support, your flexibility, your generosity, and your involvement have made it possible for us to emerge stronger and better at the end of this chaotic and traumatic year. Thank you for being willing to change. Thank you for your perseverance and your faithfulness. Thank you for facing new challenges. Thank you for helping build something new.
If this were the movies or a tv show with a Hollywood ending, we would congratulate ourselves on a job well done, put our feet up, enjoy our favorite beverage, and watch the sunset from the porch.
But we are called to live in the reality of our time, to confront the fierce urgency of now, as Dr. King wrote, and we are called to keep going - to keep building something new together.
Looking ahead, this coming year may be more dangerous in terms of covid-19 than last year because of the unequal distribution of vaccine, because of complacency once vaccinated; because Martha’s Vineyard is a destination site; and perhaps because of the variants of the virus as they emerge.
I believe that mid-September may be next milestone date before things change fundamentally for us on the Vineyard – after the summer visitors come and gone. It may be sooner and it may be later, but the Vestry and I are working with the assumption that our circumstances will not change fundamentally until then.
With this assumption in mind, the plan is for our Community Suppers to continue through the end of March and for our Lobster Roll fundraising operation to take place on a curbside pickup basis this summer.
In terms of in-person worship, for safety reasons, I don’t see that happening for a while. I know that some of you would like to gather in person for worship. I would like to do this too. But to keep everyone safe, Sunday worship is likely to remain online through Easter and beyond.
That said, the Vestry and I are working on ways to gather safely for outdoor in-person worship on Ash Wednesday, Easter, and this summer, subject to and in compliance with health directives from the Commonwealth, the Diocese, and the Tisbury Board of Health.
This brings me to my next point, which may be hard to hear: We are not going back to “how things used to be”. Neither in nostalgic memory or pre-covid. We are not going back to how things used to be.
What that means for the next nine months is that online worship will continue until we can gather safely in our church for worship, and once we can, our services will be streamed online as they are now so that everyone can be there to worship together.
It means that our focus will move from within our building to outside it and that through Community Suppers, Lobster Rolls, YouTube, Zoom, our website, and our App, we will extend our outreach to a wider community on the Vineyard, nationally, and globally.
Let me be clear: we are not going to leave anyone behind and we are still going to care for each other. When we can, Sunday School, Choir, Coffee Hour, and more meetings will re-convene in person. But we are going to have a wider perspective of who and what Grace Church is and who and what we can be. Everyone who visits our website, joins us for worship, supports us by buying a lobster roll, downloads our app, or comes for a meal on Friday nights is part of Grace Church: part of who we are as Church and part of our selves as members of Christ’s Body.
All this is the logical extension of what we have created together this past year. We created it together, as an Easter people who have been called to live into our shared articulation of how God is calling us to be disciples of Jesus in the in our time and place.
In this, we share in each of today’s readings: All of today’s readings: the Collect, Jonah, Psalm 62, 1 Corinthians, Mark are about a call to a new way of being. Of hearing God, leaving one’s way of life, and entering a new way of being. All of them.
In the church calendar, Peter’s Conversion was observed last Monday and the scales fall from Paul’s eyes tomorrow. Jesus calls Andrew, Peter, James, and John to leave their nets, and they go. Jonah, kicking and screaming, goes into the Assyrian Capital of Ninevah to call for repentance to avert God’s wrath. Amazingly, they listen, and God does not destroy their city.
We are called in 2021 build on what we have already accomplished in this past year. To continue moving forward, even when the future is not familiar and unknown. We are called to build bridges and relationships with people we don’t know yet; deepen relationships with those we love; stay in relationship with those who disagree with us.
Because of your work last year we are well-launched and well-prepared to keep living into the future. To continue being Church in a new way. To dream big and to embrace brave change, as the Diocese puts it.
The urgency of our time and the needs of our community require us to reach out, to connect with each other and to strengthen our community of Martha’s Vineyard and beyond. To have the courage and the generosity of spirit to reach out to those we do not know and in them find God.
We live in a world of infinite wonder and infinite possibility. With confidence in God, therefore, and good will to all, let us keep building together. Let us listen for God’s calling us to a new way of being Grace Church in our time and place; have the courage to work to become that way; to reach out to those we do not yet know. To be vehicles of Grace.
Thank you. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey. Thank you for being part of Grace Church. Thank you for being willing to live as Church in our time, to grow, to create something new and to be the Church in a new way. Thank you for your generosity and good will. And for the goodness of your hearts.
I close with this prayer for the Church: O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
God bless you and God bless our Parish in this year to come.
Thank You for being part of Grace Church.
Amen.
The Reverend Stephen Harding, Rector
