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Message from the Rector
By The Rev. Dr. Vincent Joseph Kopp
Dear Good People of St. Stephen’s,
I came across this quote from Isaiah 37:30 — which is actually Isaiah quoting 2 Kings 19:29 — as I was preparing this week’s Rector’s Message:
“‘And this shall be the sign for you: This year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.’”
It struck me as appropriate for this time in our parish life, as we look for the waning days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officially, according to accepted measures of health and contagion, the pandemic is not over. Functionally, the pandemic ended the day anyone of us got tired of worrying about it.
In this space of uncertainty, then, we did the best we could with what we had. A year ago we sponsored a vaccination bus at the Hot Sauce Festival; this year we are serving up the usual parish fare except for ice cream.
Last year we were still using Zoom for meetings and formation activities mixed with tentative forays into in-person meetings. Our worship was still building to the restoration of what we now have on an average Sunday, especially at 10:30 — the Common Cup option, a crucifer, acolytes, and full choir. Now we meet in person and Zoom is almost a dirty word.
In this interval we harvested what grew of itself out of the past year’s circumstances; and tried to make the best out of what sprang from it: a new Youth Formation curriculum to try, a more regular schedule of in-person Adult Formation offerings, the continuation of Centering Prayer as a core contemplative practice, the promise of regular Bible Study, and the hope of re-opening the Nursery.
These are the “second year” fruits that sprang from what little we had coming out of “pandemic mode” into this next season — our “third year” — when we can live into being “legacy holders,” with intention, organization, and energy in a parish others founded 200 years ago without knowing if it would survive past its first decades.
What we make of the parish’s next season is up to us, but not us alone — we must follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the Church is not ours but God’s creation, and as such, we have an obligation to perpetuate its holiness, beauty, and community.
Let Us Pray:
8. For the Mission of the Church
Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
In Christ,
Vincent+
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