Tabernacling Years (2012-2018)
”Our church has embarked on a great new adventure. In the past two weeks, we have worshipped in a middle school auditorium where we cannot kneel, where our priests have not been vested, where there are no Bibles, prayer books or hymnals in the pews, because there are no pews. We are not sitting in the same rows we used to sit in, or even worshipping at the same times we used to. But in spite of these losses, I am acquiring new tastes: seeing not the losses but the joy and adventure of our situation; practicing gratitude for all the help we are receiving from the schools and churches who will house us; and for all those who have loaded up U-Hauls and set up and cleaned up our temporary spaces; and putting my hands on the auditorium seats around me and praying for the Holy Spirit to touch the students who will occupy them when school is in session. Have I acquired these new tastes on my own? No, for on my own, I would tend to still be grieving the losses. Our clergy have modeled for us how to laugh at inconvenience and cast off bitterness and backward glances. Our staff and vestry have persevered with purpose during upheaval and complex planning and many hours of meetings devoted to leading this transition well. And many in our congregation have shown me to see how God is at work and what we are called to. I am grateful.”
—Susan Ward