Celebrating Our Tenants!

You are invited

to an OPEN HOUSE

Celebrating all the groups

who populate Grace Church

during the week:

The Haitian Baptist Church

The Temple of Deliverance

A.A.

Literacy Volunteers

Family and Children's Agency

Senior Umbrella Group

Manic/Depressive Support Group

Saturday, November 8

2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

at

Grace Episcopal Church

1 Union Park, Norwalk, CT

203-866-5454

Please reply

The Blessing of the Bikes

It was a beautiful day for the blessing of the bikes. Being the primary organizer (it was my idea, after all), I dutifully put on my helmet and rode my bicycle to church, arriving at about 9:05. While riding on the municipal bike path I thought of all the things that didn't get done. The sign for the front of the church that I'd thought of last weekend but didn't have time to make. The idea I had last night coming home on the train that we should have made signs to put up along the bike path a week ago. The people who told me that they would help but never called or even showed up for the event. The newspaper article that never appeared in the local paper. The lack of response from the local bicycling club and a local organization that collects used bikes to refurbish and distribute to kids who need them. Fortunately, it was too nice of a day to dwell on all of that, and I'd already decided that no matter what happened, it was a first time event, and it didn't have to be large or perfect to be successful.

I turned off the bike path just before it goes into the park across the street from our parish, and this is what I saw!



Someone made a sign! Lois painted it and put it up on Tuesday.

Not too long after I got to the church, Lois and Newlin arrived, followed shortly by Barbara with Gabriel her teacup Shih Tzu in tow. We did the last little bits of prep work, and we greeted the photographer from the Hour who showed up a few minutes before the scheduled start of the service.

10:00 a.m., scheduled time, and this is how many bikes were there:


That would be my bike.

We waited until a few minutes after 10, and then we blessed my bike. Lois decided to bless any vehicle that drove by the church. About 10:20 someone attending another meeting at the parish rode up on his bike. He'd ridden it today because he'd seen the sign. So we blessed his bike.

Lois continued to bless passing vehicles while Newlin and I took down the sign. Just as we'd folded it up, Louis and Andrew rode up. Here we are blessing the last two bikes of the day.


Was it a success? For the eight of us who participated, definitely. Are we going to do it again? Yes. In April.

I have a list, and this time when people say they're interested, I'll hand them an assignment!

Peace,
Jeffri

Mission Congregation September 13 Meeting

I'm a boomer, just (I have more in common with Gen X), so the previous post was interesting to me. Our last Mission Congregation meeting was right in keeping with the article by Dr. Kathleen Henderson Staudt linked in that last post. Do we focus on "saving" Grace Church for the sake of saving it, or will we have a purpose driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ?

We are on Chapter 2 of Listening Hearts by Farnham, Gill, McLean and Ward. The chapter is "Call to Ministry". Our discussion begins with those things that stood out for us in the chapter, which we may or may not have underlined. We don't record this part of the discussion. It leads us to deeper understandings of ourselves and of one another.

Some things in the chapter, however, which sparked comment were "Ministry comes from the same root as minus, which means 'less'. "
"You did not choose me, but I chose you." (John 15:16)
"Doing good things - volunteer work, for instance - may not be ministry if God is not the motivating force - even if the person doing them is a Christian."
"One task of the Christian, then, is to recognize, affirm, and celebrate Christ's reconciling action in others..."

The concensus of those present is this time of sharing ourselves in the context of discussing ministry and discernment and call is very satisfying.

We then were brought up to date on upcoming opportunities to minister with the community of Norwalk. The Blessing of the Bikes is on for Saturday September 20th. Publicity is in the works. A couple of groups will have tables for distributing information. Jeffri has not heard back from some of the groups he contacted but the point is to hold the blessing as the first Grace Church Blessing of the Bikes. For those who wonder why bikes, Grace Episcopal is located directly across the street from the terminus of the Norwalk bike trail at Union Park.

Next report was on the Thanksgiving Dinner at East Norwalk UMC, to which we are lending our hands and hearts. Their contact person will come to talk with people at Grace after church on September 28 or October 5. Before that, we will have at least a partial list of things from which we can choose as a congregation as our work. The dinner is held on the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day.

I, your writer, then shared some of what I'm doing this year to work toward building up the people of Grace Church through spirit formation, education and worship, and to offer to the public those disciplines that help us live into the questions posed by following Jesus.

In discussing one of those offerings, the monthly Public Service of Healing, I shared with the group that I was thinking that Eucharist will not be included in this service: it will make the service accessible to more of the community, including non-churched persons, and it will not be mistaken for a service alternative to Sunday worship. The group agreed, and so there will be no Eucharist at that service. The order of worship will come from The Book of Occasional Services of the Episcopal Church, which includes the opportunity for laying on of hands and anointing for healing.

Other offerings are available at the "Worship and Events" and "Learning Opportunities" links on this website's home page (click "Return to the Home Page" at the upper left of this page and follow the link).

We are also committed to taking out the front pew on either side of the pews that face each other, and bringing the altar table down from the platform to the floor. This will make the altar more accessible to everyone who wants to serve around it, and to children. It will also give us a stagefor use by the community, and a place to array the trand new, up and coming bell choir of Grace Church. This will happen sooner rather than later.

Finally, we discussed one additional offering, which will be only for members of the parish, three "cottage meetings" in October to share with the congregation the status of Grace Church, put forward several options for the future of Grace Church, relevant to the article linked above, and offer possibilities for the membership to build and grow a future for Grace Church.

With regard to that article by Dr. Kathleen Henderson Staudt, the "radical community life" of which she writes is exactly what the Mission Congregation of Grace Episcopal Church is about, a community life that forms us for Christian discipleship. We pray, we study, we dig into our beliefs and thoughts, we laugh, we share concerns, we seek God's will in opportunities to serve while believing that anything we choose to do for the sake of the Gospel will bear good fruit, and next time we meet, there will be bread and wine to share informally.

The Mission Congregation meets the second Saturday of each month. Next gathering of the Mission Congregation is Saturday, October 11 at 1:00 p.m. All are welcome.

Boomers and the Future [of] Our Churches

In the Daily Episcopalian section of The Episcopal Cafe, Dr. Kathleen Henderson Staudt writes:

This radical community life is not what most of us expect or are called to commit to in our churches. We have many demands on our resources, depending on our callings in life, and including the needs of family and often other worthy service to the poor and dispossessed in the world. But the monastic model helps me to understand what I rely on my local church for. Church is where I go to worship weekly, and where the preaching, singing, Eucharist, and worship refocus and reorient my commitment to Christian discipleship. I do sometimes encounter contention and controversy there – often over issues related to our common life. It is hard work, dealing with conflict, like the work of a family or, I am told, a monastic community. But it is also part of how church life forms me for Christian discipleship. This church building has been “my Place” for prayer and growth over the years, the place where I have both found and offered support in times of crisis, where I have prayed over and buried good friends, where we have been reminded of the persistent presence of God among us at all turning points in life.

Take a minute or two to read the entire reflection. You might also want to check out her blog poetproph.

Mission Congregation Saturday May 31 2008

Dear friends,

For those who have not yet experienced a gathering of the Mission Congregation of Grace Church, here's what we did this past Saturday.

Our published start was 9:00 a.m. but we have plenty of "on board" conversation for everyone to get there when they are able and still be part of the opening.

This month, after we shared what our lives have been like in the past few weeks, an activity that was as much prayer as sharing, we began to think on the things about which we are passionate. For instance, I your writer, am passionate about art, music, worship and teaching, as well as a few other things. Since I was the person posing the question, "What are you passionate about? To what would you give your heart?", I have to admit I expect that question to percolate around in people's minds and hearts until our next gathering.

We then gave our time to updates on the exploration of the possibility of having a program which feeds children in need in the neighborhood in which the church is located. To that end, we had three reports.

Carol reported in absentia that Grace Baptist Church, which used to have a program for children, no longer has that program, so could not speak to it.

Gay explored St. James/St. Paul's New Haven's children's programs. Here is her report:

Saturday Morning Drop-in - Loaves and Fishes: During the Saturday morning food pantry, caregivers of children have to stand in line a long time for their groceries. They bring their children and the church provides some education and activities while the children's parents are in line, as well as sending the children off with a free book of their choice.

Mustard Seed Club - an after school program. We believe the church has at least one van to help with transportation, which answers one of our challenges: how to get children here and then to their next destination.

Light and Peace - worship on Tuesday evenings (except during the summer). The service is similar to Compline (Night Prayers), provided on two age tracks. The 3-8 year olds are in the Chapel and their presentation uses the Beulah Land felt board stories.
The 9-10 year olds meet in the Parish Hall, hear Bible stories, and during worship the children and adults sign one another's foreheads with the cross.
Both programs are for children with their adults.
After the two tracks are finished, all gather for an art project, their free-form response to what they have experienced in worship. Then before dinner, the children wash one another's hands - in memory of Jesus washing the disciples' feet before the last supper. Grace is sung and all eat together.
Dinner is provided by the youth group, or one or another service group from another parish.

In the summer Light and Peace becomes a three-week program.

Jeffri reported on his conversation with a parishioner who is in social services:
The question was who would we serve - who is already receiving food from the school program. The answer is every child of school age is covered, IF they meet the financial qualifications.

Those in the shortfall:
pre-schoolers who are not in Head Start
and those children whose families are just above the cut-off. A lot of these are single-parent families.

Our source can advise us on how to find out who the pre-schoolers are.

Or, alternatively, we might do something supporting single parents - work with the children while the parents meet in a way that gives those single parents some attention and some personal time. We could feed everyone, then the parents could meet socially or recreationally, or in whatever way they might decide they want the evenings to go (Saturday night at the movies?). The children's program could be structured similarly to St. James/St. Paul's Saturday food pantry program.

We had a great deal of discussion around these possibilities. In the end, the fact that there are so few of us leaves us reluctant to commit to anything until we explore other avenues of support. To that end, Gay will converse with the parishioner who led Grace Episcopal's former food pantry, and find out for us what similar programs are already being held in other congregations, to which we might give our helping hands and hearts. She already has invited us, many times, to consider, for instance, helping East Avenue United Methodist Church with their annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the poor. They always need help for that.

We recognize that cooperating with other Episcopal parishes as well as with other denominations in Norwalk with the ministries they are doing may be a stretch for Grace. However, as an editorial comment here, I suggest that this is what the Gospel asks Christians to do. Service to the poor and those in need is the expectation. Giving ourselves away to that service is the invitation Jesus extends. Having the program take place at Grace, or be Grace's idea, or Grace's possession is not necessary in order for us to serve the Christ.

Do we have the will to do this? Probably not yet. Can we grow the will to do this? Yes. With God's help.
Faithfully submitted,
Lois Keen, Priest

Mission Congregation of Grace Church

April 5, 2008

Change in emphasis for Grace Church’s Mission Congregation

Dear friends,

Stilson’s computer crashed soon after our last Saturday visioning meeting March 29th, but when it is up and running he will be providing his notes on the entire meeting, including the reports from those who had taken on exploring various areas of service to the community.

My part is to fill you in on the shift in emphasis that took place at the end of that meeting.

The agenda we were sent for the last meeting included on the last page a “problem statement”: why, when we have good worship, our finances are not yet in crisis, we are not going out of business, is our congregational participation static and our attendance declining? The background of the problem statement was that in the planning for that meeting I stated that while we were trying to find a vision outside of ourselves, a mission from God, it was clear to me that we already had a vision under which we were unconsciously working: To save Grace Church.

And in that way lay disappointment, for the paradox is that a church that has as its primary goal saving itself, is doomed to fail. “Those who would save their life will lose it…” said our Lord. And those churches that thrive are those that are seen to give themselves away. But our giving away of ourselves must be in response to the imperative of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not as a means to saving ourselves, our church.

This became more clear when, at our last meeting, we heard reports from those who had agreed to do some exploration into areas of need in the community. One of those explorations, to talk with current older members of Grace, revealed that the majority of the congregation are content with things as they are, that we are free to make any changes we want to, but that the congregation themselves are already happy with the things they are doing in their lives and to please not ask them to take part in our decisions.

We realized two implications of this:

Contentment with things as they are include the family atmosphere of Grace Church. This is a repeated theme here. Family thinking results in family size congregations, maximum Sunday attendance of 70, which, unless a congregation has massive endowments, results in churches that are not financially viable in today’s world. We have no money problem now, but soon we will if we keep thinking “family”. Sooner rather than later Grace will not be able to support a full time priest.
If Grace is to become a congregation that relates to and is essentially involved in the greater community of Norwalk, it will only be the 10-15 people who have been meeting every month for about a year doing everything. And quite frankly that was and is overwhelming.
While it is true that in most non-profits, including churches, most of the work is done by 10% of the organization, the work of revitalizing a non-profit such as a church is way beyond doing most of the regular work of keeping an organization alive.

I personally, also, am not sure keeping alive a church that is not engaged heart and soul in the community by all its members is a worthy endeavor.

At this point, Jeffri Harre realized we were in the very situation the people at 815 (international headquarters in New York City for The Episcopal Church) have learned about churches such as ours: When you have a small group of members that are hungering and thirsting for something more than contentment with the status quo, it is recommended they become a congregation within the greater congregation. (Hence the working name of Mission Congregation for our Saturday meetings until something better comes along.)

The purpose of the Mission Congregation is to live the life of the Grace Church we would want Grace to be, while honoring the wish of the majority of the congregation to be Grace Church as they currently experience and love it.

This will change how and why we gather. We have a vision, which is to be all that Grace can be. In getting to this point we shared some deep things about ourselves. Of the things we shared, from Alan Singewald’s report, we found a desire to return to an identity of Grace Church as a place that feeds others, but this time, not indirectly but directly, here at Grace. Some of us are already looking into how we might feed school children breakfast and send them off with a bag lunch in the mornings.

Gay King volunteered to work with me to design our next meeting. It will include the kind of exploration of scripture we are becoming accustomed to, sharing our own work, thoughts and feelings, and prayer together, as well as work. Focusing on being a place of feeding does not preclude other forms of “feeding” – education, worship, joining other Episcopal churches in southern Fairfield County in a Habitat for Humanity project, or, one-time services like a blessing of the bicycles, to tie in with our being one of the termini for the bike path.

In our last few meetings, beginning with the Vestry retreat, our gatherings around the future of Grace Church have felt more like real worship than business meetings. If you have not already experienced that sense, think about it now. This is not worship in the ordinary sense. It is truly the “work of the people”, which is what “liturgy” means. And as such, since all “worship” in the Episcopal Church is public, our Saturdays are open to any all who desire to come once or more frequently.

This does not in any way preclude Sunday worship for any of us. Part of the point is to continue within the structure of the existing Grace Church. We will work out what that means together.

If you have any questions, because you were not there at the last meeting, or if you were there and you still have questions, please do contact me so we can talk. This is a work in progress, and we are all part of that work together.

Peace to you all,
Lois Keen
Priest in Charge
Grace Church, Norwalk

Assets of Grace Church

“God has given us everything we need to do what God wants us to do in this place and in this time.”

The world operates on an assumption of lack: “You don’t have enough to do that!”
The reign of God assumes abundance: “Look at all you have.”

We have discovered we have all these assets; now, the question is, what does God want us to do with them?

Adequate bathrooms and changing tables
Rest rooms nearby
Adjacent to Union Park and Bike Path
Proximity to library
Downtown location – close to the action
Lawn – for picnics, weddings
Certified kitchen
Telephones
Children’s Spirituality Center
Memorial Room – for 75 people – has own kitchen
Undercroft – occupancy for how many? At least 100
Fun space
Room for a sawdust dance floor 1 time per month
Intimate chapel for 40
Main worship space for 300
Front pews facing each other
Possibilities endless, especially if all the furniture is moveable
Stained glass windows – winsome
Choir loft behind altar, for 20
Sanctuary – altar table moveable
Room for a stage
Hosting recitals – with new grand piano, increase use for recitals
Needs access ramp
Stations of the cross – cool
Tells a story
Made by “women of Grace”, including women from other churches
Healing prayer every Sunday
Priest – good sermons
Creative thinking
Large corps of liturgical ministers
Congregation takes active role in worship
No class distinctions, no social hierarchy (= “our diversity”)
Relationships
2 AA groups
Families and Childrens Agency
Girls Scouts
Manic/Depressive group
Literacy Volunteers
Temple of Deliverance
Haitian Baptists
Close to funeral home
Beach service (new)
Nursery on ground level, close to worship space
Sophisticated, state of the art organ
New furnace
Lots of rooms – at least eight downstairs, in addition to undercroft & choir room, plus three more upstairs, in addition to two offices.
We own two houses on the grounds
Big choir room – room for 100, with decent piano, and much music
Off street parking for 54 cars
Lawn close to parking – picnics
Single access/egress – can control
Can be secured
Well marked
Ploughed in snow
“Block party” lot
Handicap parking
History/longevity – 118 years
Possibilities for:
Picnic tables and water cooler outside
Bicycle racks
Adopt-a-park
Art show
Business sponsor a fountain
Jessie Ball DuPont Fund
$900,000 in the bank
Ourselves – sixty of us for sure

Dreams And Visions From The Vestry Retreat

When the Vestry met in retreat on February 9, 2008, to envision the future of Grace Church five years from now, here, in narrative form, are the things we dreamed.

Grace Church will be a center within Norwalk and the surrounding locale for spiritual exploration, spiritual growth, spiritual transformation and spiritual redemption. We will be continually seeking ways to have the Gospel refine our worship and ministries to be of service to all regardless of where they may find themselves in their spiritual journeys with Christ. We will be reaching out beyond the confines of our sameness, our pains, our wants and needs to join in communion with those not like us who seek the kingdom of heaven.

We will use our building and grounds to host services that are relevant and beneficial to the community at large.

We will partner with the diocese to make our building totally self-sustaining, no longer funded from the operating budget. We will find ways to use the church building to realize revenue to offset the building operating and maintenance costs, without jeopardizing our not for profit status. We will have a staff person who recruits rentals, manages the traffic of rentals and other building uses in accord with our Gospel objectives, who is here for all major events and who knows the ins and outs of the heating, the crazy alarm boxes, the leaking downstairs and all our other building quirks, and who works in conjunction with a vibrant, energetic property committee committed to the Gospel imperatives in our vision.

We will continually search ourselves for assets we have that are not being put to use – Grace Church’s assets, and our own personal skills and talents. We will be realistic about what is not there and pray for those things to be supplied by a God who gives us everything we need right now to do what God wants us to be doing now, in this time and this place.

Our nave will be transformed to be able to be used for a multiplicity of purposes – from meals to blood drives to music schools’ recital hall. That means movable furniture.

In five years there will be three services on Sundays, one of them at 7:00 p.m. in the evangelical style of worship. They will serve more than 300 persons among them. We will have an active Sunday School of 50 or more children, with 25 teachers serving on rotation, engaging in stimulating, creative education under the direction of a full time Coordinator of Christian Education. There will be a strong component of stewardship in the children’s formation, year round, focusing on time and talent as well as treasure, exploring outreach and the community.

We will house a separate organization, which we found, a Center for Religious Inquiry, or a Center for Spiritual Inquiry, as an entry point for those who do not want a church but who do want to engage the deep spiritual and doctrinal questions of their lives. There will be late evening programs, beginning at 7:30 p.m. for young, single, working people who want a place to explore their deep questions about life and to encounter the Almighty.

We will also become a cultural center, housing an art gallery, hosting concerts, maybe even housing a small museum. We will host a flower show every year.

We will become a place for story hour every week, in the late afternoon, partnering with the library to make it known. It could be for children but doesn’t have to be exclusively for children. Storytellers tell stories to adults as well, and we would like to have plays read in this place. Puppet shows, and magic shows where the children become the magicians are part of this dream.

We would like to become the Welcome Wagon center of Norwalk.

We have the ability to house a home for gay youth who are homeless, with a housemother to look after them.

We envision all of you taking turns in rotation to be volunteer hosts and hostesses, day and night, so the building can be open and unlocked round the clock to those who need a place to pray, or just a place to rest. We envision people coming here into this room to eat their lunch while the organ is being played, or others in the congregation or the community give free noontime concerts. We intend that we should strengthen our partnerships with Families and Children’s Agency, and Covenant to Care for Children to spend time getting to know the hurts and hopes of their clients and structuring safe ways in which we and they can get to know one another face to face.

We know we have all we need to meet their needs, but we will not forget that the Jessie Ball DuPont fund, while it is not intended to do all our work for us, is there as well to supplement what we are able to do with community based initiatives that allow people to have fun as well as feel useful.

We envision the area in front of the front doors and the tower doors becoming a plaza with picnic tables and benches, and bicycle racks and potted plants that soften the fortress like appearance and don’t just make us look inviting but are inviting.

We envision strengthening and enhancing our relationship with the Haitian Baptist and Temple of Deliverance congregations, in conjunction with Families and Children’s and Covenant to Care for Children to provide a coming of age program and annual ceremony for youth in this community, especially boys, but some girls as well, who tend to look to gangs to fill this gap in our society.

Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day are “must-attend” services, even for non-churched people. We envision having up to seven more of these kind of community services.

We host one of the Haitian Baptist churches of Norwalk here. But did you know there are Haitian Anglicans here who need connections with Episcopal Churches? Right now, Elena, the deacon at St. Paul’s on the Green is the liaison for their needs. And there is a huge Latino population that falls between the desire for a Roman Catholic expression and a Pentecostal one. Right now there is only one Episcopalian option for them, Iglesia Bettania, housed at Christ Church. We desire to partner with St. Paul’s and Christ Church to embody the best of the founding of Grace and Christ churches as offspring, in one way or another, of St. Paul’s, uniting us while retaining our individual expressions.

We want children on these grounds all the time. We envision year-round short Bible schools, in the park across the street, or in the church in cold or inclement weather, a Good Friday camp for children as a three hour event, the realization of one person’s dream in the near future for short term music camps for young children.

We are committed to pouring our life and our resources into this community for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In five years we will be a congregation energized and motivated because we find that we are truly needed and useful at whatever age. And in five years, everyone in Norwalk will know that there is one Grace Episcopal Church in Norwalk, and to what denomination we belong.

God has given us all we need to do what God wants us to do in this place and time. Our building, our grounds, our off street parking, a strong, committed vestry, vibrant worship, location, dreams, and a people who make no hierarchical distinction between class or socioeconomic condition.

This is a huge vision. And it can come true. None of it is outside our grasp even in a shorter time than five years. Some of these things are in the works right now. Now, more welcoming and inviting parking lot signs, and a ramp for handicap access to the altar and choir area are being looked into and seriously planned. And today, to help us come closer together, we have retired from service the back three pews on both sides, until the day when we need them again.

Meeting With Bishop Curry

Meeting with Bp. Curry and Canon Marge Roccoberton
And Executive Committee John Sutton, Senior Warden, Stilson Daniel, Treasurer, Barbara Bancroft, Clerk and Lois Keen, Priest in Charge

Demographics of Norwalk are changing
Norwalk becoming a place for single people
On the rail line
Less expensive than some places in Fairfield County
Strategy:
Be in conversation with the developers of West Norwalk
Be in conversation with residents
Be in conversation with businesses – primarily legal offices nearby

Our use of our buildings
$8,000 to $9,000 per month
underutilized
make our buildings pay for themselves
Strategies:
How can the diocese help?
Be aware of those uses that do not accord with our non profit status
Avoid paid activities that result in taxation
Make sure our uses are in alignment with diocesan goals
Align revenue use of space with the goals of our mission,
but primarily align revenue use of space with the values of the Gospel
Talk with agencies in West Norwalk about primary needs for use of our buildings
May be desirable to run suggested uses past the diocese

Past use that came from talking with community about need
Mustard Seed, which became Artworks – need for after school programming
Put together by rector and a small group of committed parishioners
Very few parishioners had involvement day to day
Transportation is a major problem for school age children in Norwalk
Program eventually moved to a school, which made sense.
Parish no longer identified with the program – no longer seen as “a Grace Church project
Parishioners stopped being involved – the program died
Strategy – increase congregation awareness that Grace ministry does not happen only on Grace property.
All activities of Grace parishioners are Grace activities/ministries

Stilson: Vision and goals to be Big Daring Risky Must be known Must succeed

Music program described – community wide use of building for music related uses
Recitals, concerts, lessons, chorus(es)
Strategy: Connect with the Cathedral in Hartford – ie their concert series
Test community need for same
Be aware of competition? Competition is good – keeps us sharp
There are financial implications in the development of mission
We will need to use savings
Jessie Ball DuPont Fund grants for targeted, sustainable uses

Diocesan assistance:
Networking resources
Others in the diocese may have a track record of success in areas we desire
Strong recommendation: Knock on the doors of the offices in the church’s neighborhood
Ask, “How can we be of service?”
Ask, “How might you want to make use of our building?”

Regarding the parking lot signs, which we are in the process of changing:
How about “This is a good place for turning around!” on one side,
And/or “Jesus thanks you for turning around!”
Theologically sound signage!

Regarding goals to be met before calling Lois Keen as Rector
Financial sustainability
Active in mission
Yes, if July 19, 2009 comes, the end of Lois’s contract, Grace can renew
provided there is financial support for same

First Sunday in Lent, Year A

First Sunday in Lent, Year A

The Reverend Lois Keen

Key scripture Matthew 4:1-11

On the day after the Vestry Retreat, in which we cast a vision for Grace Church five years from now, this is what I preached, distilling down some of the high points of that vision:


G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Fairy tales don’t tell children dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children dragons can be killed.”

Satan, that great serpent, the dragon, tempted Jesus in the desert. It was a mighty temptation, hitting on all Jesus’s desires for the world – an end to poverty, the people following God with all their heart, someone to save them, a messiah. Was it him? To it all, Jesus said “no”. He killed the dragon of temptation, for that day. Even though it came back, being a reptile, having grown a new body part for the temptation in the garden of Gethsemane, the dragon was dead, for now.

We have a dragon to face. Over the past few weeks, since the annual meeting on January 13th, I have shared with you the challenges Grace church faces in becoming a viable congregation once again. On Ash Wednesday I told you that this is not a financial crisis but a spiritual one and that only a spiritual response will answer it.

I also told you that we put ashes on our foreheads to recall our mortality but also to recall the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus, who after his temptation, trials and crucifixion, was raised from the dead to give us a sure and certain hope for the future.

Yesterday your Vestry met in retreat with me. We have imagined our future. We have cast a vision for Grace Church five years from now. We would not do that if we did not think that we would be here in five years to see that vision come to life. Synthesizing all our separate visions, here is part of the vision we cast for Grace Church.

In five years Grace Church will be a center within Norwalk and the surrounding locale for spiritual exploration, spiritual growth, spiritual transformation and spiritual redemption. We will be continually seeking ways to have the Gospel refine our worship and ministries to be of service to all regardless of where they may find themselves in their spiritual journeys with Christ.

We will be reaching out beyond the confines of our sameness, our pains, our wants and needs to join in communion with those not like us who seek the kingdom of heaven.
To that end, we envision a separate entity, a Center for Religious Inquiry, for those not interested in church but desiring to explore their deep yearnings for and spiritual questions about God and the Absolute.

We will partner with the diocese to find ways to use the church building to realize revenue to offset the building operating and maintenance costs, without jeopardizing our not for profit status. We will have a staff person who recruits rentals, manages the traffic of rentals and other building uses in accord with our Gospel objectives, who is here for all major events and who knows the ins and outs of the heating, the crazy alarm boxes, the leaking downstairs and all our other building quirks, and who works in conjunction with a vibrant, energetic property committee committed to the Gospel imperatives in our vision.

We want our buildings and grounds to be in used every day. We dream of being a cultural center for the arts, a place where children are present all the time, and where storytellers, puppeteers, mimes, actors in search for a place to read plays in front of an audience, music students in search for a recital hall, short time music camps, Good Friday camps for children, and people looking just for a place to rest or pray for a few moments will find a home.

Our nave will be transformed to be able to be used for a multiplicity of purposes – from meals to blood drives. That means movable furniture.

We envision partnering with St. Paul’s on the Green for ministry with the Haitian Anglican/Episcopalian community, and with Iglesia Betania housed at Christ Church for ministry with the Latinos of Norwalk.

In five years there will be three services on Sundays, one of them at 7:00 p.m. in the evangelical style of worship. They will serve more than 300 persons among them.

Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day are “must-attend” services, even for non-churched people in our culture. We envision having up to seven more of these kinds of community services, including a coming of age program and annual ceremony for youth in this community, especially boys, but some girls as well, who tend to look to gangs to fill this gap in our society. We envision strengthening and enhancing our relationship with the Haitian Baptist and Temple of Deliverance congregations, in conjunction with Families and Children’s Agency and Covenant to Care for Children to provide this service.

We will have an active Sunday School of 50 or more children, with 25 teachers serving on rotation, engaging in stimulating, creative education under the direction of a full time Coordinator of Christian Education. There will be a strong component of stewardship in the children’s formation, year round, focusing on time and talent as well as treasure, exploring outreach and the community.

We have lots more specific details to this vision, and that is a work in progress. Meanwhile, three things are going to happen now, or soon. When we leased parking spaces to Virgin Airlines, we felt we had to put up Grace Church Only signs to protect those parking spaces. Now that Virgin Airlines is gone, we will begin work this week to design and erect more welcoming signs for our parking lot. We are also working on plans to add a ramp into the altar area so that people who are differently abled can have access to altar ministries and the choir.

A third action began today. To help us come closer together, so that we might better know our need of one another and be encouraged in worship by one another, we have retired the last three pews on either side of the central aisle, until the day when we need them again.

Your vestry is committed to pouring our life and our resources into this community for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In five years we will be a congregation energized and motivated because we find that we are truly needed and useful at whatever age. And in five years, everyone in Norwalk will know that there is only one Grace Episcopal Church in Norwalk, and where it is, and to what denomination we belong.

God has given us all we need to do what God wants us to do in this place and time. Our building, our grounds, our off street parking, a strong, committed vestry, vibrant worship, location, dreams, and a congregation of people who make no hierarchical class or economic distinction between one another – these are some of our strengths.

Although we operate a deficit budget, we have substantial financial resources for the mission of the church in this community. We also have strong community ties through those who use our buildings already – two A.A. groups, a support group for manic depressive persons, Literacy Volunteers, Families and Children’s Agency, a Girl Scout troop, and two additional churches who are very different from us and from one another – and through our relationship with Covenant to Care for Children.

We are not starting out with nothing. We are starting with much. But that dragon, Satan, is ever crouching at the door to tempt us into anxiety, fear of change, fear of people not like us, fear of want and deprivation, fear of failure, and my all time favorite, our favorite pew being already occupied on Sunday morning.

We must become more prayerful, then, to stand up to him. Lent is the perfect time to develop habits of a spiritual rule of life, of prayer, study, healthy habits and an attention to the hurts and hopes of the world, especially of the people around us as well as one another.

Take this time to fast at least once a day, eating less at two meals a day, and not making up for it with the third, in order to leave a little space for God to make a home in you. Take on a discipline of study. Saul Haffner will join us a week from this Wednesday, at 6:00 in the evening, for studies in the Old Testament. You know Saul; you don’t want to miss him, and people you know may want to experience him. Light supper – soup and bread – at 6:00. Education for children in the Joseph and Exodus stories will also be provided.

And, even though it has been pointed out to me that the cartoons in the Lenten booklets we gave you before Ash Wednesday include some unfortunate stereotypes, I commend them to your use to help develop the habit of keeping the rest of the world before your eyes.

A strong spiritual life of prayer, fasting, and study will go a long way to see us through the times of temptation to give up. But the best years of Grace Church’s life are not behind you – they are yet to come.

And we all learned a valuable lesson from fairy tales when we were children: dragons can be killed, even that great snake, Satan.

Epiphany 3, Year A

Epiphany 3, Year A

The Rev. Lois Keen

Key Scriptures: Isaiah 9:1-4, Matthew 4:12-23

This is the sermon I preached after returning from a week of intensive continuing education at my seminary, Seabury-Western in Evanston, Illinois. Before the sermon, I had the congregation complete a brief survey which would reveal what they believe are our greatest strengths. I also had them write down the answer to this question: What are the things you do in your every day life that make you feel good about yourself.

The result of the survey, which I shared the following week, revealed that those in attendance on this Sunday find our building, our parking lot, and our leadership are our greatest strengths.

The Sermon:

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can’t tell where to find them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home wagging their tails behind them.

Two weeks ago I spent a week at my old seminary in the Chicago area, taking two intensive classes. Last week someone asked, “When are we going to hear what you learned?”

So today I tell you some of what I learned.

Evangelism is people telling their stories, to people who sit long enough to listen to them, and who see God’s holy hand in people’s lives. That evangelism is as much about listening as it is about preaching, and that the Word became flesh for relationships, not for creeds!

I learned that congregational development is the means by which we create spaces and places to hear another person’s story, and that the more stories we hear, the more opportunities we have to see God.

I learned that stewardship is the joyful reaction to having our stories hears. The outpouring of money and gifts is a direct response to having our stories heard as holy, our reaction to God’s action in our lives.

I learned that if you’ve died, you can be resurrected, but the problem comes when you’re dead and think you’re still alive. That churches must learn to embrace death as the most essential ingredient to resurrection, letting go of things that people no longer want to do, or for which the church has no one willing to do it. The alternative is to pay someone to do it.

I learned that churches pour most of their energy and resources into trying to fix the things at which they stink, the things they don’t do well. I learned that we must stop that! That we must focus our energy instead on the things that we do well, and for which there are passionate people to do them.

Relational things are more valuable than the functional. People things attract people. Functional things – buildings, grounds, finances, programs do not. People are attracted to churches that give themselves away. Get out of this building. Walk around the neighborhood – you the parishioners, walk around the neighborhood, get to know the people, find out their hopes and their hurts. That’s where your strengths are to be directed.
And have fun! Find the playful side of the congregation. Capitalize on it. Use it to address the hopes and dreams and hurts of the neighborhood.

I learned this: Little Bo Peep is NOT the Good Shepherd.

Most churches are Bo Peep churches, waiting for the sheep to come home wagging their tails behind them. That is not what the church is for. The church is meant to be the Good Shepherd.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus goes out walking and calls people to follow him. He does not found a church. He does not have any programs, except the example of his own life. He knows the hopes and hurts of the people intimately. He listens to them and he teaches and preaches and heals. This is what churches are for.

That’s what I learned while I was away.

I learned that God gives us everything we need, to do what God wants us to do in a particular place and time. And if we think something we lack is something we need, something that is important to us, but there is no one who is passionate about it, pray that God will send you someone who IS passionate about it.

The church we studied, All Saints Chicago, was dead fifteen years ago. The bishop sent the Rev. Bonnie Perry as priest in charge to close them. He met with the twenty remaining people and told them that they would be closing. Someone stood up and said, “I guess it’s true, then. We’re dead.”

That was the salvation of All Saints. Because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, but it’s darn hard to raise a dead church that thinks it’s alive.

The one thing All Saints had was a food pantry. Once a week they would hand out bags of food on the front steps of the church. Even if they were going to die, they would keep doing that as long as they could. Bonnie Perry helped them build on that food pantry. She connected it to a Eucharist for anyone who wanted to stay after the food was handed out. It made sense – the church feeding the poor, Jesus feeding the church and the poor.

One night it was bitter cold, and the people were lined up down the sidewalk. Someone said, “Can’t we at least offer them some coffee?” So they handed out cups of coffee. That grew into a soup kitchen. Now All Saints feeds 150 people and hands out 1,000 pounds of food every week.

All Saints made alliances with the neighborhood, with the alderman and other politicians and with a medical facility nearby. They formed a 501.c.3 charity and held a 5k run. The proceeds were split half and half, between their food program and the medical facility. In the beginning they raised like $500. I forget how many thousands of dollars they now raise because they made an alliance with the neighborhood and addressed its hopes and hurts.

The church is the one organization that does not exist for the benefit of its members, but for the next stranger or guest who walks through their doors. But it is not enough to sit and wait for that guest, like Bo Peep. We are to be as the Good shepherd, going out of our doors and walking among our neighbors, knocking on doors and listening to and addressing the hopes and hurts of our neighbors.

Last week I had a dream:

I dreamed I was at a new job. It was in a plant nursery. The nursery was owned by an old man. It was located in the middle of a huge estate, with gardens and woodlands and lawns for acres and acres. The building in which I worked was like huge greenhouse. A walkway led up to it, with small shrubs all along it on either side. Inside the entrance, the walkway continued, and so did the plantings. I had a desk job. I think I was supposed to be the receptionist. I had hardly begun to work there when it was time for lunch. A party broke out. Everyone was milling around. I didn't know what to do. I realized I’d better find my own lunch before lunchtime was over. I found a cafeteria line, which was supposed to be closed, but I went in anyway and there was food and no one minded that I helped myself.

I took my lunch back to my desk, to work while I ate. But there was a young man at my desk. He looked a little bored. I was scared. I thought I had already lost my job because I had stayed too long away from my desk.

But the party was still going on. I didn’t understand. I asked someone why this was. And he said, ”We have a benevolent boss. He loves us very much. He doesn’t care when we get our work done, just so long as we are having fun.”

I woke up.

I realized this was no ordinary dream. This was a vision of the kingdom of God. It was a vision of The Church. It was a vision FOR this church, for Grace Church Norwalk.

It said, Focus on strengths. Go with your passions. Have fun. And trust that God has already given us everything we need to begin to address the hopes and hurts of our part of Norwalk.

The exercise I had you do at the beginning of this sermon is the first step to becoming a church that is the Good Shepherd. We are going to focus only on those things we do well. God has given us everything we need to become what he most needs us to be to address the hopes and hurts of Norwalk, Connecticut. We will find those things in our strengths, and in the things we enjoy doing. So we are going to spend ourselves claiming and expanding and offering our strengths. And we’re only going to do those things about which we are passionate.

People are attracted to churches that give themselves away. In losing our life, in giving ourselves and Grace Church away, we and Grace will find ourselves. Even now, the Good Shepherd goes before us, both as individuals and as a congregation, and invites us into a future for which God has already prepared us. We still do not know what that future is. We are asked to say “Yes” to the invitation without knowing where we are going. The question is, do you truly believe that God loves you totally, loves your neighbor, provides all you need, desires you to use your passions to answer the hopes and hurts of others, and wants you to have fun doing it? That is the question.