Never pray in a room without windows -- The Talmud

I am not preaching today.  I want to share with you that our Vestry this Lent  has undertaken a daily practice of prayer, led by our Vestry co-chaplains Janice Dean and Gwynn Crichton.

To make this simple, they are sending us a daily meditation from The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer, a book by Joan Chittister (and we have permission to do this). Each morning comes a wonderful reflection along with a few prayers.

This reflection came the other day, and it struck many chords with me, beginning with the mention of windows. I begin my mornings in quiet prayer and reflection in a corner of our house with a big window. I like to begin my prayers by looking out the window as the sun dances on the tree tops.

I leave this with you today from Joan Chittister...

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Responsibility

Never pray in a room without windows.

— The Talmud

The rabbis are clear: Prayer is not meant to make us into a world unto ourselves. We do not pray in order to escape the world around us. We pray with one eye on the world so that we can come to understand what is really being asked of us here and now, at times like this, as co-creators of the universe.

When God put humankind into a garden called earth, it was, Scripture is clear, to steward it to fullness of life. We were intended to keep the earth in good condition, to use it and develop it, to do our part in bringing every aspect of creation to fulfillment.

What God did not complete, we are meant to finish. God gave us the plants and intends us to garden and harvest them for the good of the entire world. God gave us the sun and intends us to use its energies in ways that maintain not destroy life. God gave us all the raw materials of life—physical, psychological and mental—and expects us to bring to full growth what was created in embryo.

We must learn to pray with more than ourselves in mind.

We do not pray for our own needs alone. We pray to become holy agents of the God who made us to care for the earth and all its peoples.

We are each workers in the garden of life.

Our most contemplative people — Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day — are those who most actively sought the coming of the reign of God on earth. We pray to become like them.

To be assured that we are living an authentic prayer life we must forever and always examine its fruits in us. Are we really more concerned about others because we have come closer to God who loves them? Or have we turned prayer into a refuge from what being fully human demands of us?

Prayer is meant to bring us to see the world as God sees the world. It is meant to expand our vision, not trap us in the world that is only ourselves.

Commitment to the needs of the world is a sign of the presence of God in us.

Our new Vestry at St. Paul's Memorial Church

Here is a photo of our 2012 Vestry in front of the chapel at the Roslyn retreat center on Sunday at the conclusion of our three-day retreat.  From left to right, Gwynn Crichton (co-chaplain), Christie Thomas (senior warden), Susan Cluett, E.D. Rambo and Josephine; Lloyd Snook (junior warden), Tara Little, Robert Viccellio, Jay Bourgeois, Wayne Nolen, Janice Dean (co-chaplain), Peggy Galloway, Sandy Gilliam, Jane Butler, Joel Hoppe, Bruce Carveth, Chris Lee, and yours truly, Jim Richardson.

Vestry election: Christie Thomas elected senior warden; Lloyd Snook junior warden

From left to right:
Janice Dean, co-chaplain
Christie Thomas, senior warden
Lloyd Snook, co-chaplain
Gwynn Crichton, co-chaplain

ROSLYN -- This morning we held Vestry elections for our officers, and we used a method of discernment whereby each member of the Vestry is able to say who he or she believes is called. It takes time and the willingness to be vulnerable to each other, and to hear the Holy Spirit calling to us through each other.

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that we have unanimously elected Christie Thomas as senior warden; Lloyd Snook as junior warden; Jack Bocock as treasurer; and John Reid as register. We agreed that the Vestry project for the year is a continuation of the long range planning project begun last year. Lloyd agreed to continue leading that project as junior warden. We also discussed at the length role and position of a Vestry chaplain, and agreed to elect two co-chaplains to share that ministry. Elected Vestry co-chaplains were Janice Dean and Gwynn Crichton.

I am very thankful to everyone who participated in the retreat, and for the prayerful, thoughtful rich conversation -- and for the laughs. We were ably led by Canon Susan Goff, for whom all of us are deeply grateful.

This morning we celebrated the Holy Eucharist, and used Prayer C, dedicating it to the Glory of God in memory of Paul Brockman who died last year before completing his term on the Vestry. Paul's career had been working for NASA, hence the prayer with its celebration of space seemed appropriate to us all.

Please keep all of these wonderful leaders in your prayers, and please support your 2012 Vestry as they go about their work among us.

On Vestry retreat

Walker Hall where we are meeting

ROSLYN -- I am at our retreat center near Richmond with the St. Paul's Vestry. We will be here until Sunday, forming ourselves as a community, praying, brainstorming, and laughing. Candidly, some of us stayed up too late last night doing the latter. On Sunday we will elect wardens and officers for the year.

We are blessed to be led on our retreat by the Rev. Canon Susan Goff, the Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of Virginia. As it turned out, quite coincidentally, she joined us on the day it was announced that she is among the candidates for Bishop Suffragan (see below).

I will keep you posted on our retreat, and please keep our Vestry and Canon Goff in your prayers.

Being bold: Anglican Journal poses seven questions every church should ask

We will soon embark upon a season of intentional listening to what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do at St. Paul's.

The Vestry spent much of 2011 laying the ground work for this process, and you will hear more about it today from Lloyd Snook, our junior warden.

In the weeks ahead, there will be many opportunities for people in our parish to get together to talk, listen and pray together, and to dream about what we strengthen and renew in our ministry. Two years ago, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori came to St. Paul's to help us celebrate our centennial, and she challenged us to "be bold." Her words resonated with our Vestry and parish leaders and laid the groundwork for what we hope to do now in this listening process. I will have much more to say about this process in this space and in the pulpit.

We are not alone in this discernment process -- other churches are engaged in very similar listening projects. I came across this item the Saturday in the Anglican Journal: an article by the Rev. Dr. Gary Nicolosi entitled "Seven questions every church should ask." These are great questions, and to read the full article, click HERE. The seven questions are:

1: What would be lost, and how would the world be worse off, if our church ceased to exist? 

2: How does our church add value to people’s lives that they cannot live without–whether they know it or not? 

3: What challenges in the fulfillment of mission does our church face and what can we do to bring about that new thing God wants our church to be? 

4: What are the barriers to seeing reality that our church needs to move beyond? 

5: What issues does our church need to face within the next year so that five years from now, we won’t have to say, “We wish we had…” 

6: If money were not an issue, where would you like your church to be five years from now? 

7: In what ways can we affirm “Jesus is Lord” without appearing to be bigots?