Dear People of St. James’,
Last January at the Annual Parish Meeting, the people of St. James’ dedicated the Founders Plaque now hanging in the narthex to remind us of who we are: a people committed to setting tables of welcome for those who have not found welcome so that they might know their own belovedness in God’s eyes. This was modeled for us by the founders of St. James’, and we carry this demanding vocation together.
A balanced budget was presented at that 2019 meeting, which expanded staffing by including a rector’s salary and benefits, funds for a sound technician starting in the fourth quarter, and funds for a 10 hr/wk Director of Family Ministries starting in the third quarter. The Vestry imagined that we would be setting forth into a season of growth, and they especially wanted to provide for those struggling to hear in the liturgies and for families with children and youth.
I vividly remember hitting the ground running on February 18, right before Lent, and meeting you on Sunday, February 24.
2019 was filled with transcendent moments for St. James’: the interfaith vigil for the victims of the New Zealand mosque shootings, Holy Week, the Presiding Bishop’s visit, memorial services for Betty Jane Pulkingham, Bill Bradshaw, Bob Alexius, and Dixie Lou Neely, a tremendous summer St. James’ Day with our Freedom Schools families, hymn sings, the Pauli Murray Scholarship Gala, the 25th Annual Jazz at St. James’, the memorial dinner for Sandy Battise, the Legacy Luncheon with long-time members of St. James’, One Human Race at St. James’, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. In these spaces, we did what Christian communities of faith do. We held grief and hope together. The liturgy of sitting around the table together sent us out into the liturgy of life, changed and empowered for bold action in the world.
Quiet diligent work was also happening underneath all of this, and today, we are seeing some of the tangible results of that labor in the area of staffing. SPOILER ALERT: On Sunday, we will present a balanced budget that will bring our Director of Family Ministries, Simone Barnes, and our Parish Administrator, Aimee Estep, to full-time! I do not think that anyone imagined that we could do this a year ago, but we hoped together, focused on our priorities, and got creative. And you, people of St. James’, were responsive to this hope through your generosity with your time, your leadership, and your resources! By staffing up, we increase our capacity to support good works already begun.
In 2020, expect to see growth and new vibrancy in our work in the community at the intersection of education and justice through Freedom Schools and with the vulnerable elderly of east Austin as we find build new connection at Heritage Pointe across the street. Expect to see new relationships built with Latino communities through advocacy and community-building. Expect to see the first stages of a growing and diverse Episcopal youth community at St. James’. Expect to see the development of ministries to families with children.
Expect also to be challenged. We will be learning about how to invite and help newcomers settle into our community and engage their own baptismal call to ministry. We will be learning about how to grow when our physical campus has some significant space limitations. We will have to continue to learn how to do the work of stewarding our time, talent, and treasure to invest in the future of St. James’.
Above all, we will be learning about how to grow in our multicultural and multiracial identity and makeup even as the immediate community surrounding us changes. How we address this, our particular and existential challenge, will determine the course of our life together as a community. This is the adventure I signed up for when I accepted the call to be your Rector. Each of you has something to contribute to this journey. How good is it that God has empowered us with a vision of the kingdom and the boldness and creativity of the Spirit to walk this road together!
Rev. Eileen
