Sermon for January 24, 2021 - Rector's Annual Address @ Annual Meeting - The Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello

Good morning, church!  And welcome to the one hundred and seventy-second annual meeting of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brookline, and my 12th Annual Address as your rector.

This past year was a crucible.  It was a refiner’s fire.  It stretched us -- individually, as a community, as a church, and as a nation -- in ways we scarcely could have imagined at last year’s Annual Meeting.

But if you read the Annual Report, and I sincerely ask you to read the entire Report, you will see that, rather than retreating in fear or shrinking before the challenges in front of us, St. Paul’s learned just what “essential” means.  

Last year, in my Annual Address, I reflected on one of my favorite stories in scripture -- that of Esther.  Esther, hesitant to claim her calling, is asked to consider whether she wasn’t being called for exactly “such a time as this.”

That story has served as my compass and my foundation this past year.  I have been awe struck at how you all have taken up the mantle to be the church at a time such as this.

To be the church in the midst of a pandemic.

To be the church at a time of renewed calls for racial justice.

To be the church when the church was unable to look as it usually looks, or to gather as it usually gathered.  

To be the church when what is essential is to step boldly into our calling, when what would have been easier would have been to turn off the lights, close the door, and wait for this tribulation to pass us by.

A year ago, I wondered if we weren’t called for such a time as this, without knowing the time to which we are being called.

Today, I have no doubt that this is exactly such a time to which God has called us.  

You have shown me, over this past year, that this is exactly the time to which God called you.

To thank every individual who played a role in our ability to carry out our ministry this past year would take much longer than any of us want to be on Zoom this morning.  But there are a few groups I’d like to mention in particular.

It was a wild year to be a member of the Vestry.  I thank the Vestry for your collaborative, creative and thoughtful leadership.  Our Wardens, Melissa and Judy, were one month into their roles when the church had to close the buildings.  They have been invaluable partners in ministry to me and I doubt there has been a week in the past year in which they haven’t been present at multiple evening meetings.

They have met with me weekly, offering sage advice and counsel and providing unwavering support.  

I want to thank Jennifer Schamel for stepping in as Clerk and remaining connected and fulfilling her duties with acumen, even as she moved to New Hampshire to be with her family.

And our Treasurer Brett Foster deserves our gratitude for guiding us through an uncertain budget year, with a projected deficit, navigating COVID-19 Relief Loans and Grants, migrating us from a cash-based accounting system to an accrual and crossing the finish line of 2020 with a budget surplus, the first in many years.

I want to thank our continuing Vestry Members, Leahanne Sarlo, Glen Schultzberg, Piper Trelstad, Mary Hundert, Janet Rankin and Linda Williams. Our new Vestry Members, should you elect them, Chloe Abu-Jabar, Stephen Kerr and Jocelyn Collen.  And especially our retiring Vestry Members, Clara Batchelor, Mike Scheffler and Sharlene Wing for their service. 

Every member of our staff was called to pivot and respond to the ever changing regulations and expectations of this past year.  Our finance administrator Christine, our sexton James, and our Parish Administrator Jill each met this moment with grace.

Truly called for a time such as this was our Director of Music and Organist Andy.  When the pandemic changed how we could gather, it all but eliminated the possibility that we could sing together.  But Andy was undeterred.  And, aided by an adventurous choir who love to sing more than anything else, they met the moment with creativity and sacrifice, to our great benefit and delight.  Our section leaders and choir have sung in the cold, in the dark, in the cold and dark, accompanied by birds and construction equipment and whipping wind.  They are troopers.

Thank you to “The Embers” who have provided wonderful music on a regular basis.

And I want to thank Laura Carney for her gifts of leadership this year.  Whether singing as cantor when a cantor was needed or adding such depth of joy and love on Thursday morning-hymn sings, you have blessed us this year.  Thank you, Laura.

Listening to the choir sing, or being able to worship live with readers, preachers and clergy all in different places would have been impossible if it weren’t for two people; Ellie Hinkle and Will Biedron.

Early on in the pandemic, I asked Ellie if she could be our Zoom go-to person and manage our Zoom worship.  It would only be for a few weeks, probably, and not that complicated.  She said yes, and has continued to say yes as the need has continued and grown into an audiovisual production studio operating out of the Lichtenberger Room.  Thank you, Ellie.

And that audiovisual studio exists because of the knowledge, generosity and fierce spirit of Will Biedron.  Will, who has a family and at least one full-time job, has been at St. Paul’s for countless hours this past year, consistently helping us to meet new challenges and offer the most robust worship experience we can.  It is not an exaggeration to say I do not know how this past year would have been possible without Will.  Thank you Will.

I continue to brag to my colleagues in the Diocese that I get to work with the best clergy team a rector could ask for; our Deacon Pat, our Curate Isaac and our Associate Rector Elise.  And a special shout out to Megan Holding, who re-joined us to offer morning reflections. Each one stepped fully into the challenges and opportunities of this past year without hesitation.  

Far from shrinking back in the face of the pandemic, you have all met this time with creativity, passion and a deep desire to see God’s work in and from this place flourish.

Andrea Brue and Arlene Swan-Mahony switched gears when it was clear we could not have our usual spring fundraiser and created “St. Paul’s University” which has not only raised much needed funds for the operating budget, but showcased the talents of our community and created opportunities for fellowship in small groups.

A group of parishioners have led us through a discernment process that culminated in our joining the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, which provides a critical outlet for social justice work alongside those of different faiths.  

We broadened our Anti-Racism work, launching a book group, we dedicated our fall Vestry Retreat to continue the work of making St. Paul’s a church that works toward racial justice and equity at every level.  

And it is my great delight this morning to formally announce the creation of the “Fund for Social Justice Innovation.”  This fund, seeded by a generous gift from the family of Joan and William Batchelor, will be used to fund new initiatives for the work of social justice.  

Our Mission and Outreach continued with our partnerships with the B-SAFE program, and our Be an Angel drive provided $100 gift cards to over fifty families of the Brookline Community Health Center.  Ministry Outside the Parish granted their entire budget, meeting online and getting needed funds to many organizations at a critical time.

A new initiative was launched in this time, under the guidance of Melissa Dulla and Elisabeth Choi.  Once a month, St. Paul’s has been providing lunches to the Common Cathedral community.

Our Children and Youth programs adapted to online Sunday School and produced the very best virtual Christmas Pageant ever.  

Stewardship, too, was forced to adapt as our fall Harvest Banquet was replaced by a virtual concert by two members of St. Paul’s, Hsin-Lin Tsai and Miguel Perez-Espejo.  It was a glorious concert in celebration of our Stewardship season.

Every ministry area actively engaged and reimagined themselves in order to continue to do the work God has given us to do.  For such a time as this, indeed.

Even our building has been reimaged.  In addition to the Lichtenberger Room becoming a television studio, we are also a temporary greenhouse for some 100 houseplants that usually live at the Pierce School under Tim Hintz’s care.  

The Pine Village Preschool was able to re-open following the new guidelines in September and, because of the renovated spaces, was able to meet the new requirements.

The biggest change has been in our Middle Room and Great Hall.  Because we are unable to host any outside groups currently, the Brookline Food Pantry was able to turn our Middle Room and Great Hall into a large staging area where shopping bags are prepared for pick up and delivery.  

Our buildings are continuing to do God’s work every day.

There is a lot to grieve about this past year.  Many have lost loved ones, and we have watched as the virus has claimed an uneven toll on the most vulnerable among us.  

Some in our very community have been ill with COVID, and some continue to live with residual side effects of the Virus.

Some have lost jobs, seen their incomes reduced and all of us have seen our ways of life disrupted.

That is true.  We must grieve for what is lost and lament for what is broken. AND, there is much about this past year for which we can give thanks, and even celebrate.

This morning, we begin to look forward.  I have been dreaming about what 2021 might have in store for us and how we might be able to leverage this time of disruption to come back even more as the church we believe God has called us to be.  I have been wondering what lessons we have learned, what we want to continue when the vaccine makes it possible to move in the world as we once did.  And I wonder what we might like to leave behind in the “pre-COVID” time.

I’m wondering about those questions for myself, and for this community.

How will we take what has been good and right about this time and continue that work in this year and the years to come?

For starters, I pray we will never go back to being a church that is only accessible in person.  To be able to connect with those who were unable to attend in person because of the pandemic, called to mind all those who are unable to attend in person for any number of reasons.  How can we continue to make St. Paul’s open and welcoming to everyone, even those who can’t be with us in person?

How might we build on the Pastoral Care and Support that has been shown in this time?  How might we continue to care for one another in deep and meaningful ways?

In the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing from me about two new Pastoral Care initiatives: Circles of Caring and a Bereavement Group.

Circles of Caring will be a ministry which connects small numbers of parishioners with one member of the Circles of Caring Team whose ministry it is to contact each member in their group and communicate any pastoral needs to the Clergy and Pastoral Care Team.  If you would like to be a member of the team, please be in touch with me.  And if someone calls you from St. Paul’s in the next few months, please let them know how you are doing, and if there is any way the church can be of support.

The other initiative is a Bereavement Group.  This year, many of us, myself included, have lost loved ones.  I have heard from those who have wondered how the church might accompany them in their grief after the initial outpouring of support has ended.  I will be announcing a support group for members of this community who are grieving.  If this sounds like something from which you might benefit, please keep a lookout for a notice, or be in touch with me.

Finally, I pray that the multi-faceted work for racial justice continues and grows.  I will be calling for the creation of an Anti-Racism/Social Justice Working Group.  This group will meet regularly with me to discern how St. Paul’s might continue this work in thought, word and deed.  Anti-Racism cannot be one program we offer.  It must be a lens through which we see all of our shared life in this community. If you are interested in being a part of this group, please be in touch.

In closing, there has been a great deal of good work done in and through St. Paul’s in this most tumultuous of times.  We are in a good place and for that we can God great thanks.

And there is much work to be done.  Good work, hard work, the work that God is calling us to do, and is depending upon us to get done.

Turns out, God did call us for such a time as this.  I pray we live into that calling even more deeply in the year ahead.

I’ll end, as I end my weekday morning reflections, which seems only fitting.

“Please be good to yourself.  Be good to one another.  Remember that God loves you abundantly.  And so do we.”

AMEN.

© 2021  The Rev’d Jeffrey W. Mello