Dear Church Family – 
 
Christ’s peace and blessing to you in the turn of a new year. This season is a natural place for us to spiritually pause, take stock, and envision the road ahead. 
 
In March we will be completing one year of interim ministry and partnership together. Let’s take a moment to think about everything I have observed you accomplish during this time as a church: 
 
-       During a global pandemic you continued to worship, pray, care, and feed your members and community in the ways that mattered the most. 
-       You’ve developed new technology and the skills to use it so everyone can stay connected to the church. 
-       You’ve continued to mark the important moments of our lives as a community of faith in Baptisms, Confirmation, Memorials, and more. 
-       You’ve adapted to meet short term needs and ideas to carry out justice and mission. 
-       You formed a Transition Team, and completed intentional fourth Sunday services where there was an opportunity to reflect, share, and listen to what you want in your next chapter of ministry and a settled pastor. 
-       The church reflected that the congregation and the wider landscape has greatly shifted in the past ten to twenty years. The participants in the fourth Sunday services communicated a desire for a minister that will be part-time and work with the strengths of lay leaders you’ve developed, embrace the inclusive values of this congregation, and strengthen the attention and care to current parishioners, especially members that are aging and unable to physically attend church. 
-       You formed a Search Committee to continue that good work and embark on the journey of creating a church profile, and discerning who will join you next in ministry. 
-       You’ve worked within a church Council to adapt to a quickly shifting world and worship life as well as continue to maintain your building and grounds, the sanctuary, and different needs structural and spiritual. 
 
There’s much more to this of course, but let’s marvel for a moment at the depths and reach of God’s love among you all – and everything you have accomplished together. 
 
Interim ministry is an intentional time to work on what will best prepare you for your next minister. It is traditionally a one-to-two-year term with a church. Anticipating search and call for the next Pastor may take longer than that, I am encouraging our Council and our whole congregation to spend some time thinking about and sharing what you want to work on or need next in our remaining time and plan ahead for when that completion point will be. 
 
What will sustain you through search and call? What resources will best support you in welcoming a new Pastor or whatever path might unfold as the next best step? How can we strengthen the areas and skills where there’s energy and delight in being a church together? 
 
I want you to bring your answers to our Annual Meeting in January so we can create together a vision for our remaining work. Please join us to hear updates on all aspects of the church and its ministry in the world. Come to ask questions of the search committee and offer feedback for the search and call process. Share in the gratitude of everything that has been accomplished and done together in this Body of Christ. 
 
Well done faithful servants of God! And a joyful new year to all. Let us pray with the words of a blessing: 


THE YEAR AS A HOUSE
A Blessing
Think of the year
as a house:
door flung wide
in welcome,
threshold swept
and waiting,
a graced spaciousness
opening and offering itself
to you.
Let it be blessed
in every room.
Let it be hallowed
in every corner.
Let every nook
be a refuge
and every object
set to holy use.
Let it be here
that safety will rest.
Let it be here
that health will make its home.
Let it be here
that peace will show its face.
Let it be here
that love will find its way.
Here
let the weary come
let the aching come
let the lost come
let the sorrowing come.
Here
let them find their rest
and let them find their soothing
and let them find their place
and let them find their delight.
And may it be
in this house of a year
that the seasons will spin in beauty,
and may it be
in these turning days
that time will spiral with joy.
And may it be
that its rooms will fill
with ordinary grace
and light spill from every window
to welcome the stranger home.
—  Jan Richardson  ©