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The Annual Parish Pow Wow by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
The Canons of the Church provide that each parish in the Episcopal Church have an annual meeting each year for the purpose of conducting the work of the church and electing of leaders. How this work is to be accomplished is not (thankfully) specified.
Calling all the Tribes ...
Because of its comprehensive and inclusive nature, the Episcopal Church is a very diverse community. In most churches, you will find persons of a great variety of spiritualities. Anglican leaders once defined Anglican tradition as: "a pastoral and liturgical oriented dialogue between four equal partners: Catholics, Evangelicals, Charismatics and Rationalists." (Jim Fenhagen, John Westerhoff) In very truth, the number of tribes is much larger than four. In this place we could add: mystics, traditionalists, social activists, skeptics and synergists. For this reason, when we gather across worship boundaries of 7:30, 9:00 and 11:00 a.m., it is an occasion for great joy and obviously, an opportunity for celebration.
Each year, in addition to electing Vestry leaders and reviewing financial reports, we share the fellowship of a simple meal, lift our voices in song and recognize and acknowledge the individual gifts of leadership we have, as a community, benefited from the year of 2002; some serious, some not so. Most importantly, we have fun together and find this to be a time of renewal as we move forward into this new year.
For Native Americans, the Pow Wow was never just a tribal gathering. It served as a time of reconnection and the renewing of an identity. It also was a time to acknowledge the presence of the Great Spirit in their lives as children of that same Spirit. Our Annual Parish Meeting serves the same purpose; to know profoundly ourselves to be persons who are children of God in this place and to be sustained in this our wilderness journey by the Spirit of Love.
The Annual Parish Meeting will be held Sunday, January 26, 2003 from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. (Lunch will be provided. Childcare will be available for children 12 years and under.)
Copyright © 2003 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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