“When you get your “Who am I?” question right,
all of your “What should I do?” questions
tend to take care of themselves.”
Richard Rohr

It is spring, season of new beginnings. As a Parish we are moving to a place where we can figure out our next steps.

We are not who we were even a year ago; we will not be who we are now in a year. This is both exciting and frightening. Change is difficult. Letting go is hard. We need to honour our past without letting it hold us back. We know this in our head, but often the heart gets in the way.

It is often easier to be reactive than proactive. As we move forward, I hope we can look at the challenges proactively with thought and planning. This will involve taking a realistic look at what resources we have and how we use them. Everything is on the table. The core of this needs to be the question:

Who are we and what are we called to?

As we move forward, we know there are a multitude of decisions that need to be made based on who we are and what we are called to do.. We are (as described by others) a vibrant and strong community with incredible potential to move forward in proactive and positive ways

We need to move into these discussions with openness, kindness and gratitude for who we are and what we have.

Moving Forward this Month

Our current task as requested by Bishop Anna is to rewrite our Parish Profile. A small group of parishioners has been tasked to lead this process. This document will be used in our search for an incumbent, letting potential applicants know who we are. The committee members will be announced soon, pending approval by Parish Council.

Our starting points will be the last Parish Profile (click here) and the recommendations of the Parish Renewal Task Force (click here) understanding that we have changed and our profile today needs to reflect that. We will use the diocese’s guidelines for creating a Parish Profile (click here). Once the draft profile is created it will be circulated to the congregation for discussion at the meeting on June 2nd.  After approval by the Parish Council the profile will be sent to the Bishop for approval. 

Please feel free to speak to any member of Parish Council with questions. All decisions are discussed and approved by Parish Council with the support and authority of the Diocese. 

In addition to creation of the Parish Profile, the following are ongoing: 

• A comprehensive look at our facilities, including St Mark’s, St Mary’s, All Saints and the Rectory.
• A look at our finances including trusts held by the diocese.
• Development of a process for discernment which will guide us towards our “big picture plan”

Updates and additions will be included in the next newsletter.

Our Governance Structure 

Understanding our governance structure is important as we move forward with our decision-making. 

Paul has been with us now for 6 months. His job as interim leader is to lead worship and make liturgical decisions, to help us to straighten out anything that needs it, to guide us through discernment and to communicate messages from the Diocese, particularly the Bishop. Paul (as do we all) answers to the Bishop and is governed by the Canons (laws) of the Diocese. 

We have a team of Churchwardens, including a Bishop’s Warden (Ruth), an Associate Bishop’s Warden (Simon) and 2 People’s Wardens (Sally and Gloria). This group along with Paul form the “executive” of the Parish.  We meet regularly to discuss challenges and create the agenda for Parish Council.

The members of Parish Council which include our Churchwardens (click here) were elected and endorsed at the most recent Annual Vestry Meeting of February 18th.  Administration of the Parish is governed by canon law and overseen by the Bishop. Decisions on worship and liturgy are the responsibility of the Priest in Charge, or in our case the interim priest. Parish Council supports the Incumbent and the Churchwardens in the general business and programs of the parish. Parish Council has a consensus-based approach to decision making which allows expression of many points of view.   

Speaking to any member of Parish Council means that your thoughts will be heard, and acknowledged. 

Ruth

Over the past several weeks in my homolytic musings, I have been talking about our relationship with the Creator and how God has chosen us to be God’s own people and not that we have chosen God as our Creator. I have mentioned in my sermons that we live in community and not in isolation from each other. In this edition of our parish newsletter, our newsletter editor, John Metzger, has incorporated a recent article from the “Driftwood” paper. Gabriel’s Kitchen is featured in this article. The ministry of caring for the physical needs of the community members who find themselves to be unhoused, lacking in food security, having difficulty making ends meet, and in some cases providing for the needs of partners, elders, and children dependent on others for their care and well-being, is part of what Gabriel’s Kitchen is all about. Every Thursday for the past several months, our upper parish hall kitchen has been the preparation centre for the Thursday evening community dinner offered by the Chuan Society. 

Our relationship with Gabriel’s kitchen is being refined as the weeks go by. Through the most recent months, we have discovered that our kitchen lacked some of the required permits for its continued use as a prep kitchen. During the summer months of 2024, Gabriel’s kitchen plans to move outdoors and provide a weekly barbeque lunch at another location. This change in location will give our parish and the Chuan Society time to further finetune our relationship and to set proper guidelines for the continued use of our facility come Fall 2024 for this important ministry of caring and sharing God’s bounty, in our community and on Salt Spring Island.

The wardens and members of parish council will continue to work with Gabriel’s kitchen so the needs of both our parish and the wider community can best be accommodated.

Thank you for your understanding and assistance in making the Thursday dinners fulfilling for both the community and those who have had occasion to be part of these gatherings. 

You may be wondering where we are in our journey of discernment toward the calling of our next settled incumbent here at the Anglican Parish of Salt Spring Island. A group of parishioners representing a cross-section of the parish community is reviewing and updating the “Parish Profile” at this time. The resulting draft ‘profile” will be presented to parish council and then forwarded to the office of Bishop Anna for further review. Once the draft profile has received Synod approval, a job posting for a new incumbent will be prepared and may be posted on our diocesan web site when appropriate to do so. In due course, a separate search team from our parish family will be charged with interviewing candidates for the position of incumbent here at the Anglican Parish of Salt Spring Island.

We ask you to continue to hold our parish, our wardens, our parish council, our “profile development team", the search team charged with completing the interviews of qualified candidates, and our Bishop who will need to approve of the choice(s) we will make in discerning for our next incumbent, in your thoughts and prayers.

Paul+ Schumacher
Interim priest-in-charge

A growing mix of Salt Springers, including several members of our parish, gets together every Thursday to cook and share dinner in the All Saints kitchen and hall.

The Ven Dennis Hayden presides at a weekly Thursday early evening Eucharist Service.

All are welcome.