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Hey folks, well, its that time of year, and I’m looking to book the fall youth retreat at Indian Creek Camp, the venue where we’ve had it the past couple of years.  The dates they have available that are looking good for them are October 10-12, which is about the same weekend as it has been. Let me know if you know of any major conflicts with that weekend, or if you think it will work for your group if you plan on participating… 

Also, I’d like to sort of get a feel for how many of you might like to do a leaders retreat sometime, perhaps towards the end of November.  This would be just one night, a Friday afternoon through Saturday evening.  Just a chance to pause in the middle of our normal lives and get away and focus on the care of our souls for a bit.  Something that will hugely benefit your ministries going into the next year, I believe.  Let me know if this is something you would be interested in, and I’ll see what dates might be available for that. 

We are living and working in an uncertain and trying time for our denomination.  There are fractures and there is distrust even in our own diocese.  It is in times such as these where if all we focus on is the problems and the potential for more problems, that we will find ourselves paralyzed by fear—a fear that would seek to sap all potential for ministry in our context.   

There are questions as to how the groups will reunite, if they will ever reunite, if the Episcopal church will survive, will there be a single expression of Anglicanism in America, or will we have gone the way of so many other denominations that have splintered into various fragments. 

I don’t have the answer to those questions.  None of us do. Only God knows what will be the outcome of this, but I do know two things that keep me focused in the midst of these times.  The first is that the church has always had times like this, issues that come to the fore and make people examine what they believe and what the church teaches or should teach about these issues.  This is as old as the first ecumenical councils.  We got our Nicene Creed from just such a conflict.  These times are not fun to live in, but they are important in the life of the church.    

The second thing I know is that we are called to faithfulness.  We may not know what will happen down the road, but I do think we can say that what happens down the road will be the fruit of what we do today.  Politics and stress never moved the church forward, it is people staying focused on the mission that they had been called to.  Yes, church meetings are important, and yes, we need to talk about these things.  But if we let them become all-consuming, then in a very real sense, it doesn’t matter who is right, we will have all lost because the gospel will no longer be being proclaimed as we allow these things to turn us ever inward, instead of outward. 

Friends, I don’t know why I’m writing this except that I wanted to share my heart with you.  I hope that something in here may speak to your heart as we move forward in this new year of ministry. 

In his service, Anna