From the Rector
December, 2001/January, 2002
Advent is a time of new beginnings. For our parish,
of course, this is true every year. As in years past, we will begin a
new liturgical year this month where, over the course of four weeks, we
will prepare ourselves spiritually for our joyous celebration of Christ's
birth. As in years past, we will elect new members of the vestry, who,
along with the continuing members, will help chart a course for our congregation
for the coming years. And, as in years past, the vestry will adopt a new
budget to support the ministries of our church in the new year.
Yet if Advent is always a time of new beginnings,
this is especially true for Pohick Church this year. With the lengthy
interim period behind us, we now stand at the threshold of a new frontier.
As Lorton slowly transforms itself from a sleepy country hollow into a
bustling suburb, our bishops have challenged us to explore the changing
needs of our community and how we might best release the potential we
have for blooming where we are planted.
This process has already had a good beginning. In
the aftermath of September 11th, not only have members of our own parish
found solace and strength within the walls of our church, but so have
many others from our surrounding community who have not darkened the doors
of a house of worship in years. In fact, the whole metropolitan area drew
inspiration from our historic parish when Fox Morning News aired a segment
on our church back in October—a segment we will replay at our annual
parish meeting.
The process has also had a good beginning in our
continuation of the Tuesday evening tutoring sessions with students from
Gunston Elementary, the school where two of my children attend. It has
had a good beginning with the recent vestry approval of a weekly playgroup
for parents and toddlers, and with the reinvigoration of the Newcomers
Committee and Lay Pastoral Teams, of which Susan Hazen has written. And
it has had a good beginning with our continuing support of the Lorton
Community Action Center, United Community Ministries, Operation Friends,
and the relief efforts in both Arlington and New York City. This is not
to overlook the numerous other ministries whose activity reports swell
our newsletter each month—they too constitute our service to the church
and the world.
Yet with our numbers growing and our community changing,
we are called to an even bolder vision. We have long since outgrown our
parish house, a limitation that stifles both the quality and quantity
of ministries we can perform. Can we find the wherewithal to enlarge it?
We own nearly forty acres of land—an area larger than the size of Jerusalem
in the time of King David—and much of it is undeveloped. How might we
be good stewards of this land with which God has blessed us?
There are new housing developments springing up all
around Lorton, with new families arriving every week. What can we do to
welcome these new residents to our community, as well as to be good neighbors
to those who have lived here a long time?
We are adjacent to both a large retirement home and
a sprawling military base. We have existing ministries there, but can
we do more?
Finally and most importantly, with all of these challenges
before us, how can we further deepen the spiritual lives of our families
so that all of our activities can find meaning and purpose in the Lord?
We will be addressing these questions to the entire
parish in the next months in two important ways. First, in addition to
the usual reports at our Parish Meeting, I have asked Vern Eppley to present
our recent work on strategic planning that he has been overseeing. This
will include a presentation of the site survey undertaken in preparation
for the widening of US 1, which integrates plans for hooking up with county
sewer and water, as well as for restructuring our road system to accommodate
new traffic patterns.
Secondly and more comprehensively, we have planned
two parish forums, to be held between our later two services on Jan. 6
and 13, where parishioners will be invited to give their input on the
issues raised in the foregoing paragraphs (among others). The following
week, the new vestry will then take this input into their vestry retreat
to begin crafting a strategic plan to be used as a working model for our
congregation over the next decade. As this model is finalized, the vestry
will then report it back to the congregation and begin the implementation
phase, adjusting the plan as situations change and new issues arise.
As we therefore enter Advent, this season of new
challenges, new beginnings, we would do well to reflect upon the words
of Dr. Kryder spoken at my Institution—words that have been reproduced
in this edition of the Pohick Post. They are wise words from someone
who is not only a respected theologian in our Church (and, incidentally,
an architect of our Book of Common Prayer), but someone who has
also actually sat in the Rector's chair.
In that address, Dr. Kryder spoke of the relationship
of the Rector and parish as one where each contributes a color to a new
painting: the Rector contributes the blue and the parish the red. There
are several possibilities for their collaboration, but the one that he
held up as supreme is for them together to create yellow.
How is this possible? Dr. Kryder left this question
unanswered in his sermon. Yet clearly the solution is to be found in the
miracle of Christmastide, the miracle of the Word made flesh, Immanuel.
This Advent, may we bid Immanuel to come among us and create within us something new, something shining like the Son. And may the glow that first graced Bethlehem also grace our church, our families and our communities as Christ is born again in our very midst.
Faithfully,
Donald D. Binder+
