Dear Friends,
Hear the Spirit. See God’s beauty. Act in love.
Those words may be new to you. I hope they will become familiar in the next few months, and that you will be able to share them joyfully with others.
Over the last few months, we have been taking time as a parish to assess where we are in our life together, discerning how it is that God is calling us to be the Body of Christ in this time and place. Many of you filled out a parish survey this summer. The questions and answers were meant to help us collectively draw a portrait of what we value at St. John’s, as well as identify our hopes and dreams for what God is doing in our midst.
In September, your vestry took the results of those surveys, along with other comments and insights gathered over the last few years, and met on retreat. Our hope was to create a Mission Statement, as well as an accompanying vision for our parish in the years to come. As we prepare to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the consecration of our church, I am delighted to share with you the Mission Statement that the vestry has just adopted. Read these words again:
Hear the Spirit. See God’s beauty. Act in love.
The Mission Statement is meant to express what we believe God is calling us to be in the world: a community that is always listening for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that continually sees and celebrates the beauty that God has created, and joyfully responds to what we have seen and heard by acting in Christ’s love.
You will be hearing much more from me and your leaders about the meaning of these words in the months to come. And in the weeks to come, we will be sharing with you the accompanying vision of what our parish and its ministries will look like as we embrace and embody this mission.
For today, I simply invite you to read and reflect on these words in your own heart and mind. What will it mean for you, and us, to hear the Spirit, see God’s beauty, and act in love? I can only begin to imagine how we will answer those questions together in the days to come.
Faithfully,
Tom