This week, our Vestry started the work of looking at who we have been as a church, who we really are now, and who God wants us to become. We began by having each of us remember what was going on in our own lives, in the world and at St. Luke’s when we started attending, and compared that to today.
We all show up at St. Luke’s on different dates, with different things going on in our lives, aware of different things going on in the world. I encourage you to spend some time thinking about your own answers to the questions:
| Arriving at St. Lukes | Now | |
| World Events | ||
| My Life | ||
| St. Luke’s |
Seven years ago today was my final interview with the St. Luke’s Search Committee. So for our vestry reflection, I considered what life was like for my family, in the world, and at St. Luke’s in 2014.
In 2014, our family was still settling into what it’s like to be a family of four. My mother moved in with us in 2005 and was a major part of our lives until she died in 2013. Google helped me remember what was going on in the world and North Carolina in 2014. The event that caught my attention in the world was the Ebola outbreak in Africa. In the US, we were in the midst of reacting to the police shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO. Here in North Carolina, Amendment 1 was deemed unconstitutional and it became legal for same-sex couples to marry. And St. Luke’s energy was focused on the rector search. Who would St. Luke’s be without the steady hand of Bob Johnson or Anne Hodges-Copple at the helm? Would this new rector be with St. Luke’s a long time, or be like the two shorter-term rectors between Bob and Anne? It was a time of anxiety and questions.
I look at today’s world in light of my memories of 2014, and I notice many similarities. Today, our family is preparing for another change in household as we’re in the midst of college recruiting and preparing to launch Amelia next year. In the world, we’re dealing with COVID, an outbreak so much broader than Ebola. Here in the US things have not improved about gun violence or police killings–this last month has been particularly rough on both counts. And at St. Luke’s, it feels to me like we’re in a very different place. In 2014, so much of St. Luke’s energy was focused around the rector search and who the rector would be and how the rector would lead. During this pandemic, St. Luke’s has done an amazing job of pastoring one another, of sharing the work of being The Church. We have become less rector-centric. And becoming less rector-centric is vital to growing a church. This change puts us in a good position to continue to care for one another, have shared leadership, and be a place ready to welcome many others into the mission and ministry here at St. Luke’s.
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