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The Rector's Charge: Annual Parish Meeting 2004 by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy The Church Fathers taught that ingratitude is the source of all sin. If we understand sin, not as the violation of rules and laws but as a condition of impaired or broken relationship -- between ourselves and God and between each other as members of the human community -- then a part of the remedy for this impairment is to recover gratitude. All that is a long about way of saying what mother's wit taught us long ago: to count our blessings. We have significant blessings to be grateful to God for at St. A's. Location. In the early part of this century, it was a church development strategy to build churches in quiet neighborhoods, off the beaten track. Church buildings were seen as establishing a home for a formed community of worshippers. People would say what a quiet and peaceful church it was but frustrated visitors would say: "You gotta get lost to find that place!" Being on 4th Street ñ the major exit for downtown Santa Monica ñ means that hundreds of people pass our building each day. As a result, we receive a significant number of visitors each Sunday ñ even at 7:30 a.m. ñ while churches with a less visible presence often receive few visitors at all. This is both blessing and opportunity. Buildings. Our buildings are paid for. Even though the original sanctuary was destroyed by fire in 1966, the generation that preceded us gave generously and sacrificially to build this church home and to pay it off. If we were not already here, we could not afford to come. Most municipalities today require churches to have a minimum of 5 acres of land and adequate parking for their available seating capacity. Recent new church builds in the diocese ñ much more modest than this facility ñ have cost 2 million dollars or more for the sanctuary alone, not to mention development fees, land acquisition and parking. Our buildings ñ yes, aging and in need of care ñ are yet an unimaginable blessing and resource we could not afford today. Money. We have sufficient income to engage the work entrusted to us. We are blessed with a modest endowment that returns to us about $115,000 a year and rental income from the school property which contributes an additional $175,000. This bounty is in addition to the generosity and responsible stewardship of you, our members ñ the largest source of our income by an average of $250,000 a year. Beyond this however: our church has never engaged a project we were unable to successfully complete, whether it was a second mile campaign last Spring to meet the schools' challenge to us to match a $30,000 grant from them ñ of which we raised $51,333 toward that $30,000 goal - or $100,000 to rebuild the organ or smaller projects like outreach for Corazon of some $4,000 annually, $15,000 for a kids cabin at the Episcopal Camp at Wrightwood and a proposed $25,000 over the next three years to Camp Stevens ñ we are a generous people. Remember, the overwhelming number of typical mainline churches has a congregation of less than 100 people and an annual income of under $125,000 a year. We are blessed with abundance. Music. What a rich blessing. From Paul Baker's inspirational harp playing at 7:30 ñ which has turned a "simple said service" into a rich and tasty gem of a Sunday morning moment ñ to Adrian's passionate singing at 9:00 filtered through his gentle and glowing presence so wonderfully facilitated by Greg's creativity on the piano ñ to the muscular and confident choir and organ at 11:00 ñ I simply can not imagine how we could not, each time we enter those red doors upstairs, pinch ourselves for how lucky we are to be enabled, musically, to praise God by such rich talent. These men and women are a blessing in our lives. Staff. I am daily aware of how deeply God has blessed us here with a wonderfully competent, caring and committed group of co-workers for Christ in Carrie, Joyce and Pat. I happened to call a church office about a week ago and the person ñ and I use that term lightly! ñ said: "yeah?" Can you imagine? People always ask me, as I travel about: "who is that wonderful woman who answers your phones?" Some of you have asked: "Is she really that pleasant all the time?" The answer is: "yeah!" Carrie is our heart and our spirit. Joyce brings a calm and caring presence to us who balances my anxiety and intensity. She has a true pastor's heart and is a true joy ñ consistent with her naming ñ among us. Pat brings us a strength and a passion for ministry and outreach we sorely need. She wears the deacon's mantle easily and fittingly. This team is a blessing to us all. Finally, the bedrock is you, the congregation. I know that many of you are burdened with many things ñ stressful jobs, and not a few of you, no job; challenging or changing relationships, financial burdens, unpredictable health and not a few of you with emotional distress of one kind or another. But each of you carry the mark of Christ received in Baptism and are filled with the Holy Spirit's power to make an impact in the world for God and for God's Kingdom and for St Augustine's. This you know. Empowered by the gifts of the Spirit each of you are borne and upheld and sustained by these rich resources, these tools, of a fortuitous location, debt free buildings, adequate finances, music to brag about and a clergy and lay staff I believe you should boast of ñ and the greatest blessing, the blessing of one another. We are the richest blessing when we come together as the Body of Christ in all our comprehensive diversity and variety. St. Paul said it this way: "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body ñ Jews or Greeks, slaves or free ñ and we were all made to drink of one SpiritÖNow you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (I Corinthians 12:12-13, 27.) The coming together of these blessings with your participation and then invitation to others to "come and see," will make this a year of growth for St. A's, if we are willing and open to the Spirit's work in us and through us. We have all the blessings we need to be about our baptismal ministries of hospitality and community building in this place as we as a community seek to enter more deeply into the presence of God and to be transformed by the power of that same Spirit into the new creatures God yearns for us to become. There is a black gospel song that goes:
And may faith ñ trusting and being open to God ñ lead us all in this unfolding year of 2004, to be light and life in this our generation.
Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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