02/07/2024 0 Comments
From The Vicar: Mutual Ministry
From The Vicar: Mutual Ministry
# From The... - Letters to the Congregation
From The Vicar: Mutual Ministry
Dear Ones of St. Columba's,
Did you know that you and I are engaged in something called Mutual Ministry? This is one of my favorite ways to describe the relationship between priest and congregation - we are called together by God to be in Mutual Ministry. This is another word that is fairly specific to the land of church and Christian-ese. You may be familiar with the word "minister" and associate it with people like me, and Meghan. But actually you are also a "minister." When you were baptized, you were ordained to be a Christian and you were called by God to show up in the world differently because of your faith, and because you are part of God's household.
My personal belief is that every human is being called by God. Some of of these calls are for our whole lifetime - the call to Christian faith, for example. Or a call to parenthood or a lifelong partnership like marriage. The call to priesthood is a call that lasts a lifetime. But other times God calls us for shorter term stuff. For example, clergy rarely serve one congregation their entire life. At some point God calls every priest to go somewhere new, and then calls a new person to serve the place where they left. My favorite example of a very short term call is the call to elected leadership at church. I believe the folks on our Bishop's Committee are called to that work - serving our community of St. Columba's in this way is part of their call to be Christian, a temporary vocation within a vocation. It lasts 3 or 4 years, usually. Sometimes folks finish their term, do other things, and are called back again. You might be called to this work someday. Or, your call within our community might be to something else - Food Bank, acolyte or greeter, regular worship attendee.
The biggest purpose we have together as St. Columba's is to equip people for the biggest call God puts on our lives - the call to Christian faith through baptism. And within that biggest purpose, we find smaller ones, little sources of transformation and relationship that do, indeed, empower us to be more like Jesus in how we live when we are not at church.
So back to Mutual Ministry and our relationship. I'm talking about call - another word might be vocation - because I believe I'm called, alongside Meghan, to be your Vicar and that each one of you is also called to be here. I also believe that this is a very unique relationship. Priests are not employed by the congregation - that is, our relationship is not one of employer and employee, even though paychecks are involved. Conversely, you also don't work for me! I will never claim to be your boss - that's not what a priest is.
Instead, we are called to be in ministry together. We get to do the work of a congregation - equipping people to be Christian in the world - together. Your clergy can't do it all. We need you. And, you need us too. We are in it together. (Nothing made this more clear to me than the past two pandemic years.)
This Saturday your Bishop's Committee is going on retreat for a day to look at the year ahead and to evaluate how the mutual ministry relationship is going between your vicars and you. We will talk about our expectations for each other, the challenges and opportunities we see in the year ahead, and how we can keep on growing in a relationship that enables St. C's to become ever more faithful, healthy, and effective as a local expression of the Body of Christ.
Friends, I covet your prayers as we do this work. Please know that we also pray for you, and that there is no greater gift in my call to priesthood than you.
with care and gratitude,
Alissa
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