Senior Warden’s Report

Greetings from your Senior Warden, Callie Dewberry. One of my many duties is to address the congregation at our annual meeting, both in person and through this letter, with a look back at what our last year together has been like.

This was my first year serving as your Senior Warden, and I am deeply grateful to serve in this capacity. I look forward to continuing this work on the Bishop’s Committee over the next two years.

My favorite part about this community is that it is all about ING! Serving, growing, learning, worshiping, playing, changing, harvesting, beautifying, and loving. I can think of countless examples of how our community lives out all this ING, but here are a few that stand out to me:

Serving: We have so many dedicated volunteers and staff at St. C’s. Volunteers clean, cook, organize, gather, plan, and so much more. Thank you for your service to our community and to one another.

Growing: Whether it’s food or flowers, or growth within ourselves and together as a community — we’re always growing. This year our community grew with the addition of the Congolese Church sharing space with us.

Learning: Whether it’s our children through the new Science Sundays, or our adults through the many adult formation classes, our congregation gets smarter every year!

Worshiping: We have the privilege of worshiping together often and regularly. I’m grateful for the quiet services, the loud services, and everything in between.

Playing: Whether it’s a talent show fundraiser, our annual picnic, or adult gatherings over mocktails and cocktails — our community knows how to play and have fun together.

Changing: Nothing in a community stays the same. We experience losses — through death, through staff and parishioners moving away — and we experience gains through new parishioners, new staff, and births. We mourn and celebrate together, sometimes simultaneously. Community is complicated and messy, but also wonderful and deeply lovely.

Harvesting: From flowers pollinated by our bees to vegetables that feed our neighbors — we harvest from the earth. And we also harvest from one another. Each of us brings something into community — time, money, effort, ideas, energy — and I love how St. Columba’s makes space for everyone to contribute and for everyone to receive.

Beautifying: I love that our community values beauty. We plant gorgeous flowers that are arranged for worship. We fill our space with art and use our building to support artists in our midst. The world can be ugly at times, but I am grateful that this community insists on beauty.

Loving: Whether it’s gathering in the Men’s Group, walking together, meeting one-on-one, receiving the sacraments, praying side-by-side, or feeding our neighbors at the food bank — our community is connected by love. The love we receive from God, the love we give and receive from one another, and our love for our neighbors. I’m grateful to belong to a community bound by love and inclusion — not dogma and uniformity. A love that makes room for differences, quirks, doubts, and questions.

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Senior Warden. I am grateful for each of you, and for the gift of being in community together.

With love and gratitude, Callie Dewberry