Beloved Friends,
Greetings from Fairhope, Alabama! This is a week where I am exercising my call to the priesthood by serving the wider Episcopal Church. CREDO, is an International Episcopal Clergy Wellness Program offering a week of workshops, consultations and opportunities for clergy in our denomination, and I am honored to serve as a member of one of the faculty teams. Twice a year (Spring and Fall) I travel to an Episcopal Conference somewhere in the United States and spend a week with my faculty team offering classes, workshops and one on one consultations with Episcopal clergy from all over the world.
My particular faculty role is the Vocations aspect of the week, inviting clergy to remember the call that drew them to ordained life, to reflect on what is feeding and challenging them in their current positions and to provide tools and resources supporting them on their journeys. It is an amazing experience for me in so many ways- allowing me to exercise my gifts for teaching and facilitation as well as to continue growing and learning about my own call and understanding of the priesthood.
It also brings me back to reflecting on our life together at Trinity right now. With each lesson, reflection, workshop and plenary session I prepare, I now do so from the context of living out and into my priesthood as your priest. We have started some wonderfully important conversations recently, including how we engage our faith out in the community and what Sunday mornings look like when we gather together. There is so much just waiting for us to discover together and I am filled with hope and expectation about this chapter we are writing together with God’s help. I continue to grow deeper in my understanding of what it means to be a priest in the world today because of our life together in our corner of God’s vineyard in the Glass City; thank you!
I also believe that at our very core each and every one of us is called to a unique expression of identity within the context of belonging to God and that call is the gift of vocation. Listening for that voice or nudge pushing us ever forward in our lives is not something reserved to clergy and is certainly not something exclusive to us as Christians either. And yet, we listen from that place of knowing because we stand in this location and context and hear our sacred texts and tradition calling us to respond. We believe there is a place and a purpose for each of us to live into God’s dream for our lives.
I will be away from you this Sunday (5/6) returning home Monday (5/7). I will miss you, but take great comfort and joy knowing that the Rev. Gene Pearson will be inviting you to God’s Table and reminding you of our belovedness. You will also receive the gift of hearing a sermon from our own Becky Roth. Becky is a faithful and very active member of our community and is currently serving as Junior Warden vestry, among a number of other ministries. (Have you ever wondered how and who changes our “pithy” sayings on the corner of Summit and Adams? Wonder no more!)
May we live each day with hearts overflowing with compassion, words that share our deepest convictions and thoughts that reveal courage and generosity at every turn, so that in words and by example the world may see Christ alive among us.
May you never forget that you are loved.
Namaste,
Lisa
There is only one vocation. Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are or what you are, you are called to the summit of perfection: you are called to a deep interior life perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others. And if you cannot do so by word, then do by example. (Thomas Merton)