My mother had many sayings. One was, life is never what we expect. At The Church of St. Michael & St. George, 2020 has reminded me of that saying as it clearly has not been what we expected. We aren’t able to sit in the pews, meet with our priests in person, or have Sunday coffee in the Great Hall with our friends. Yet, despite Covid causing the normal ways in which we, as a congregation, pray and practice our faith to cease, we have found new ways to ensure prayer, outreach ministries, and church services continue to support our faithful practice. As Senior Warden, I am taking this opportunity for myself and the Vestry, to share with you the wonderful and different ways we have evolved to continue to “live Christ’s life into the world.”
Through the leadership and talents of our clergy and lay staff, in addition to the generosity in time, talent, and treasures of you our members, we have accomplished so much and have refused to be stymied by this insidious virus. We, the Vestry and I, hope you will join us thanking God daily for what we have been given. Please let me share the wonderful things that have been happening over the past seven months.
We, the Vestry, rector, clergy, and staff, started the year committed to the new strategic plan. While it remains a focus for our progress, we’ve also added new efforts we hadn’t considered prior to our realization in March that Covid was going to dramatically impact our efforts.
Many of you know that when church services were suspended in March, we went to virtual services. In February, we didn’t even know we had the ability to record and edit quality video services, but by April, we were providing amazing online services for homebound Episcopalians. Notes of appreciation were received from people across the United States. We continue to produce these recordings and have added three outdoor Sunday services for all in the community who are comfortable to join in person.
In addition to the online and outdoor services, we hold Zoom Coffee Hours and online Bible Study sessions. Our Family Ministries provide virtual events for children of all ages, including movie nights, story time, youth group via Instagram Live, and weekly emails featuring Bible stories, and more. Words of Encouragement from clergy, staff, and parishioners are sent daily. As with the virtual services, these daily messages are warmly received and praised.
Early in April it became apparent that many of our members were alone and isolated. In response, the clergy, staff, and a group of members developed a phone tree and coordinated volunteers to check in on those parishioners who were living alone or feeling isolated, offering fellowship and help with meals or errands. Thanks to the dedication of more than 35 volunteers, the phone tree is a success. If you would like to volunteer or be added to the phone tree to receive calls, please contact Laurie Brown.
Volunteers with CSMSG’s Hunger Ministry recognized that the pandemic created an even greater need in our community for donations of food, masks, and other items. They established a Sunday Donation Drive, collecting items at the church and delivering them to the Last Days Apostolic Distribution Center in St. Louis. This effort filled a crucial need for food for our hungry neighbors and we should feel proud of our parishioners for their efforts to help.
Despite enormous unemployment and fear of economic calamity due to Covid shutdowns, we, the members of the parish, have honored our pledges. Thanks to each of you who have held firm and are fulfilling your commitment to stewardship.
Another gift is our pledges for 2020 came in significantly higher than 2019. This allowed the Rector and Vestry to fulfill their commitment to continue to pay the salaries of our clergy, staff, and sextons. The increase in pledges also counterbalanced revenue shortfalls experienced. For example, there was a significant revenue lost when the popular Infant/Toddler Church Nursery Program was closed due to concern for safety from Covid in March.
As many of you are aware, Carol Rosales, our business manager and an employee of our church for 36 years, announced early this year that she is retiring. In the midst of the pandemic, we conducted a search for that rare person who could take over Carol’s responsibilities and in July we found just that person, a wonderful woman named Sonya Woolley. We are blessed to have had Carol and to have found Sonya. They are in the midst of a detailed, comprehensive turnover effort which is going quite well. Andrew, along with a committee of Frankie Eichenberger, Lulu Stribling, and Patience Schock, are aiding Sonya in adapting to her new role.
While much has been accomplished, we know more needs to be completed to address the current and future challenges we face by living our mission of “serving and caring for our community” and each other while continuing to deal with Covid. We are eager to see all of you when conditions allow for larger and safer gatherings. We pray daily for your well-being and for God’s help getting each of us through the challenges we are facing. Please know you are in our prayers and please keep all members of The Church of St. Michael & St. George in your prayers as well.
Thank you and God Bless all of you,
Joe
