A Peek into the March Vestry Retreat

On Saturday, March 16 your vestry gathered for our annual vestry retreat. The focus of the retreat was advancing our Becoming Beloved Community strategic framework through reflection, conversation, clarification, and delegation. By following this link you can view the full notes generated at the retreat in a format that follows the major headings of the Becoming Beloved Community strategic framework:
1. Institution: Leadership and Practice

• Training/orienting parish leaders with lens of racial healing
• Process for recruiting, hiring, and retaining persons of color to senior staff positions

2. Education: Many Points of Entry

• BBC conversation starter
• BBC basic workshop in fall 2019

3. Public Witness: Rapid, appropriate response informed by and in partnership with people of color.

• Community Engagement creates racial justice/witness process
• Add rapid response/witness to ongoing work with POWER

In the morning, we worked with a wonderful consultant named Anthony Moore who helped our leadership reflect on the meaning of diversity of inclusion for St. Martin’s. We emerged from that session with a strong sense that difference enriches our community and requires a commitment to education and growth to allow differences to feel welcomed and to flourish in the church.

A repeated theme was that we need to welcome, respect, and attend to the experience of each person simply because that experience or perspective is their own. We also need to encourage an atmosphere of mutual support and learning so we can try, fail, and succeed together and endure in community through the inevitable mistakes that come with growth. As Barb Ballenger often reminds me, having set off on the path of racial healing we will be all the more accountable and more acutely aware when we fall short. Prayer, mutual support, forgiveness, and endurance will be crucial to the path forward.
In the afternoon, our agenda focused on points 1 and 3 of the strategic framework. First we established clear definitions of racism, bigotry, and implicit bias. Then we created a list of qualities and skills to guide a future training program for parish leaders. We brainstormed factors we should consider in designing a process to recruit, hire, and retain people of color in senior staff positions at the church. We reflected deeply on authority and trust and how racism disrupts and distorts relationships by spreading distrust and diminishing authority. I reflected on how much unearned authority and trust I receive simply because I am white, straight, and male and how different it would be for a person of color in my position.

We finished a very productive day by delegating work on point three, public witness, to the community engagement committee. The vestry laid down broad-brush recommendations and the committee will design a public witness policy and procedure to present to the vestry at a later date. This work will dovetail nicely with the work we did in parish forum last Sunday. We will bring the results of this committee work to the parish for conversation and endorsement, hopefully by annual meeting on Sunday, June 9.

I could not be more proud of our vestry for such sincere, brave, and open engagement with a challenging and promising agenda that will shape the future of this parish. The vestry and all of our members have the power to shape the environment of this place toward the flourishing of each member in his or her blessed uniqueness! St. Martin’s has made an intentional choice to face our legacy of racism and to turn toward God’s path of racial justice, cultural humility, and racial healing. May God bless us on this journey.

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Here's that link again for our retreat full minutes.

Associate Rector’s Note: Where in the world is the Rev. Anne on Second Sundays?

The Rev. Anne Thatcher

Dear St. Martin’s,

You may or may not know that, prior to answering a call to St. Martin’s, I served a Spanish- and English-speaking congregation in Santa Ana, California. The growth of worship services in Spanish in the Episcopal Church continues across the nation and our diocese is no exception. Unfortunately, the number of clergy who are fluent enough to preach and celebrate the Eucharist in Spanish is limited. Due to this clergy shortage, churches with a Eucharist in Spanish within our diocese are often challenged with finding leadership for Sunday worship. 

Free Church of St. John in Kensington is one such congregation. In November of 2018, their vicar, the Rev. David Franceschi-Faccio, returned to Puerto Rico. For the interim, the Diocese of Pennsylvania Office of Transition Ministry has asked me to serve on the second Sunday of each month as the celebrant and preacher for their 11:15 a.m. Sunday Eucharist in Spanish. Free Church is a congregation comprised of both English- and Spanish-speaking members, with deep roots in the local Mexican and Puerto Rican community. This is a service full of joyous music with guitar accompaniment.

I will still be here until mid-morning on second Sundays to connect with you all, and then I will drive down to Free Church. I encourage you to consider visiting and worshipping with us on a second Sunday in the coming months. Their address is 3076 Emerald St., Philadelphia, 19134. Experiencing the Eucharist in another language is a way to begin to understand how worship both transcends and distinctly represents different cultures. You would be welcome to carpool with me to the church and back. I am also available to talk with you in more detail about this church and their engagement in the local community of Kensington.

In the coming months, I will share updates about the Free Church community.


Blessings for 2019,

The Rev. Anne Thatcher
Associate Rector

Space for Conversation

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

"We need less religion, less politics, and more culture," said the Rev. Mitri Raheb when I met with him in Bethlehem this summer. For just this reason, the college he founded is devoted to nurturing art, dance, music, theater, poetry, and the culinary arts. His objective is to develop the bonds of civil society in the West Bank so Palestinians can become a unified people without resorting to religious or political extremism.

I heard this idea expressed by a number of Palestinian leaders including a young man in Hebron who had organized a co-ed 5k run. Predictably, the co-ed run had provoked a clash between more traditional Palestinians and more modernizing Palestinians. The young man took this in stride as the cost of progress. His goal was to carve out a secular space for civic activity that could build the health of his people.

Do we need less religion, less politics, and more culture here in the United States? Would a resurgent or newly conceived common culture mitigate the intensity of our political and religious polarization? I will not pretend to have complete answers to these profound questions but I do have some themes I would like to explore.

Over-confidence in religious beliefs is often named as a major contributing factor to disputes that resist resolution. The corrective is said to be a healthy skepticism and doubt of any value or assertion that comes from a religious worldview. Unlike Palestine, the United States has a long history of a secular civic space and we cast the fantasy that religion has nothing to say in this space. The problem is; how does a religious person leave their religion behind when making moral decisions that shape our common life through politics?

Professor Jeff Stout, recently retired Professor of Religious Studies at Princeton University, puts it this way: "The line between church and state does not run through the heart of a believer." I agree with Jeff - one of my intellectual heroes - and would add, "If I call Jesus Lord, how can he be Lord of only one facet of my life? Mustn't I seek to follow him in every place I make decisions that effect my neighbor?"

My answer to those who counsel doubt and skepticism in religious belief is to wonder why religion should be the thing we doubt most of all. When we are honest, we admit that we do not live each day doubting the values and beliefs that make our day functional. We believe our car will run without knowing the first thing about engineering. Really what we need is to simply be upfront about our commitments, wherever they come from, and contribute them as a way of enriching the moral discussions that form our life together.

Some will object that politics is corrupt and selfish and I want religion to be pure and transcendent. My gentle reminder is that we follow a God who took on incarnate life and battled sin hand to hand to the point of a sordid and disgraceful death. Perhaps we need to follow him into the muck and the squalor for the sake of love of neighbor and God?

If you're interested in further discussion around this topic, I highly recommend that you join us on Sunday morning, October 28, for Parish Forum at 9:15 a.m. Chris Satullo will lead us in the first of a two-part series on Conversations Across Differences. See you in the parish hall!

Blessings,
Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector
Parish Forum - Sundays at 9:15 a.m. in the Parish Hall
Oct. 28: Conversations Across Differences
The common denominator in all of our communities is they are divided by differences of all kinds. How do you get people to discuss their differences and put their solutions into action? Our guest speaker at Parish Forum this week is Chris Satullo and he's an expert on the subject. Chris is the co-founder of the Penn Project of Civic Engagement and is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He will demonstrate how faith plays as important a part of breaking down barriers as anything else does. Join us for the first of this two-part series this Sunday at 9:15 a.m. in the Parish Hall.

Chris Satullo

Nov. 4: Conversations Across Differences, Part II
This week Chris Satullo continues his discussion on how faith can play a role in slicing through differences we face in our communities in part two of this important series. Today he’ll discuss strategies to start conversations, arrive at solutions, and put those solutions into action. We can save the world one small piece at a time. Your first lesson awaits you at Parish Forum.

With You Every Step of the Way

“You are always there when I need you.” That is the highest praise. 

When I was a Youth Minister in Chicago, the young people at our retreats would repeat this phrase over and over when they described people who loved them. When someone is “always there for us” we feel  remembered, valued, assured, and safe in our overwhelming and confusing world. 

One day last week, I sat beside the bedside of a member who was in the hospital. His phone rang and when he answered it was a member of St. Martin's on the phone checking up on him. Recognizing her voice, I smiled and then remembered that the day before two Eucharistic Visitors had come from St. Martin's to bring Holy Communion to this same man. He was literally surrounded by caregivers from our church. 

I could say to him, “The church will be with you every step of the way,” and I would be telling truth.

Our second Core Value as a church community is: “In giving and receiving care we encounter Christ.” One reason we know this is an authentic value of the church is illustrated by my bedside pastoral visit described above. At St. Martin's we have a deep and virtuous habit of caregiving. Because of this strength in our ministry it makes me so happy to say that our pastoral care commitment at St. Martin's is to be with our members every step of the way.

We are here to be a resource to you from birth to death and everything in between. We will celebrate the birth of your children, baptize, teach them in church school, confirm, and then marry them. We will be with you when you are sick, troubled, guilty, depressed, angry, struggling financially, or going through a divorce. We will be with you by your bedside for surgeries and medical appointments – celebrating your healing and recovery and mourning the losses and struggles. Finally, we will be with you in your final hours with the soothing comfort of prayer and anointing to see you through that last transition into our ultimate healing. 

My first Rector taught me never to leave the graveside until the casket was safely lowered and everyone else had left. This simple action symbolizes our commitment to be a faithful pastor every step of the way whether people are there to notice or not. 

Every step of the way includes – indeed is mostly practiced by – our amazing lay ministers at St. Martin's. Stephen Ministers, Lay Eucharistic Visitors, the women of Women Connecting, the leaders of Wellspring, the tables of learners at Biblical Studies, the Parenting in Faith circle, and just from friend to friend and neighbor to neighbor throughout the church community. 

I am so proud of our community and our caregiving. We will be looking for ways to advance this work in the parish in the next years. 

- Jarrett Kerbel

Driving Miss Dot

When I was in elementary school in Eastern PA, my parents found an Episcopal Church they loved and we started attending regularly and becoming more involved. It wasn't long before I joined the children’s choir, my step-dad Dave was serving on vestry, and my mom was hired as parish coordinator. After a few Sundays of talking with an elderly member at coffee hour, Dave asked if she needed rides between her nursing home and church. 

That’s when Dot entered our lives. 

In her mid-90s, Dot still played the piano, loved her scotch, and introduced herself as “Dot P., O.B.” When people would engage her about being a doctor, she would correct them and tell them that O.B. stood for Old Bag. She was self-assured and had a great sense of humor, and my family had a great time getting to know her over the next couple of years that we gave her rides. Sometimes, when we took Dot back to her nursing home, we would stay and join her for lunch or see her to her room.

Even though she didn't have children of her own, Dot took a liking to me as I did her. For her birthday, I brought her a stuffed animal, which didn't fit with her décor or demeanor, but which she ended up cherishing and putting on her bed each day. One day, when we dropped her off, she gave me a little cushioned box that was hers. A couple of years later, after we had moved to Illinois, she died; I found that little blue box and held onto it as I cried.

Though it was only a small portion of my week, rides with Dot formed a lasting memory for me. It’s amazing to think that this relationship started with a simple, “Hey, do you need a ride?” When I asked Dave why he reached out to Dot, he said that in a church community, we’re all there to help one another worship God more fully. Giving Dot rides was a wonderful and rewarding opportunity for him to connect with another member of the church and get to know someone better, while helping a fellow parishioner. Dave had so much fun doing it that – once we moved to a new community – he found another spunky parishioner in her 90s to drive to church. 

He says it’s a simple plan: Be alert to the needs of the people in your church, and when you see them, respond. I am grateful for his ministry because it was a great example for me as a child and allowed me to form a bond with someone I may have never met otherwise.

At St. Martin’s, we have opportunities for you to connect with others. One of these ways is through signing up on our Transportation Ministry page as someone who would be willing to provide rides to church to someone in your geographical area. Needs vary and commitments are flexible; if you are willing to open your car and your heart to a neighbor, take the first step of signing up. Like my family, you may get to know someone whom you remember for many years after the rides have ended.

- The Rev. Callie Swanlund

Values: Roots and Branches

Our 125^th Anniversary Questions have been these:

1.     What did our founders set in place 125 years ago that we still value today?

2.     What will we establish that will cause gratitude 125 years from now?

During Lent, we offered a Parish Values Clarification process to explore these questions. The staff and the Vestry also set aside time to reflect on the values of the parish using the same model that examines accidental values, aspirational values, and core values. The work was previously recorded on this blog. An ad hoc committee worked during May and June to analyze the data and prepare our findings. 

The results of this exercise will guide the Vestry, lay-leadership, and staff as we seek to build on the strengths of our church community and grow into the community we aspire to be.

The Core Values of the parish are those values that set St. Martin's apart from other worshipping communities. They are long-standing attributes and ones that we are willing to pay a price to preserve and perpetuate. Without these values, St. Martin's would not be recognizable as the church we know and love.

The core values we identified are below. They form a Trinitarian pattern thanks to an insight by Pam Prell during the vestry discussion that produced the final result:

1.     Learning leads to God.

2.     We encounter Christ in caring for others and in receiving care.

3.     We strive for beauty in worship, physical spaces, and life together. Creativity is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

St. Martin's is a community of life-long learners who find education enhances our insights about God and does not detract from faith, as is commonly believed. Our parish avidly cares for each other, lending the support of listening ears through Stephen Ministry, hand-holding, warm embraces, meals during crisis, Wednesday SUPPER, and so much more. Finally, St. Martin's is deeply grounded in the Episcopal belief that life in God’s presence is beautiful. Whether God’s presence is celebrated in liturgy, music, nature, architecture, food, art, or community engagement – the result is inspired, transcendent beauty restored to God’s creation. Contrary to common belief, the Anglo-Catholic or the “high church” movement celebrated beauty in music and liturgy as part and parcel of a belief in the goodness of God’s creation and the potential goodness of a just social order. Oxford Movement clergy were as adamant about social justice as they were about liturgy. Both equally reflect the glory of God.

The aspirational values we identified were extremely clear across the groups that participated in the process. The Vestry will take up these aspirational values and surround them with goals and objectives so that we can track our progress toward their realization. The aspirational values:

1.     Community Engagement and Social Justice

2.     Unconditional Welcome and Inclusion

3.     A community that calls forth the gifts of all its people

4.     Becoming a Racism-Free and Diverse Community that reflects the City where we worship

During Annual Meeting (Sunday, June 15 after 10:00 a.m. service), we will have table discussions that invite the parish community to discuss our Core Values and our Aspirational Values by asking the questions: Where will these values lead us? Who will we become as we grow into these values? As a community we will use our imagination and grow our vision of our future together in Christ.

- The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Naming our Values: Discussion Part 3

For the next few weeks, we will use this blog as an extension of our Values Clarification work being done in Parish Forum at 10 a.m. and over lunch after our 11:15 a.m. service. You are welcome to come to the blog and see where the work is taking us each week. This will also serve as a way for people who were unable to attend one session to "catch up" and feel welcome at subsequent sessions. This week was our final session on Core Values, having already gone through Aspirational Values and Accidental Values.

CORE VALUES

From the Two Sunday Forum Sessions on March 23

Below you will find summaries of the “Accidental Values” discussion from the weekend of March 23.  

Below is a condensation of the responses from the general gatherings of members based on vote totals.  This is followed by the Pastor's Observations and then raw results from the Forum gatherings arranged according to the tables where people sat.  We are posting these results to stimulate discussion and reflection between our gatherings so we enter each forum prepared for a deep and enriching discussion.

Core Values Summary

Spiritual Formation in everything we do                                  31

                  Equipping the Saints for life in Christ

                  Spiritual growth and development

                  Spiritual nurture

                  Calling the best from each of us

Stewardship                                                                               18

Worship through Music                                                             13

The Baptismal Covenant                                                           11

Core Values Full List from Tables

·       An appreciation of who people are and what they offer

·       Spirit-filled worship and gathering/ spiritual formation imbues everything [8]

o   Spirituality as food in worship and offered in program

§  Spiritual growth and development

·       We take care of each other. [2]

·       Respect of tradition with innovation. [5]

·      

Deferred Maintenance [4]

	1.     Stewardship  [10] – inreach outreach 2.     “3 Legged Stool” [9] a.     Tradition b.     Reason c.     Scripture 3.     Baptismal Covenant [11] a.     By action b.     Proactive

(10% of Budged)

(Education) from cradle to grave.

o   Christian formation as path to God.

·       Outreach [2] – genuine interest in community and wellbeing.

o   Building relationship [1] – “Partnering and developing – tenacious partnership

Dirty Outreach


***

·       Safety (emotional, spiritual) and acceptance (with a place) on all levels

o   Questionable backgrounds?

o   Undocumented aliens

o   “Sanctuary”

·       Rigor and worship

o   Prayer Book (BCP), Hymnal, Bible (examples)

·       Episcopal based on Scripture? (justified war)

o   Baptism covenant

o   3 Legged Stool

§  Scripture [1]

§  Tradition [1]

§  Reason

o   Outreach

§  Social teachings

o   Commitment to stewardship  and a ministry intentionally individual

***

·       WORSHIP THROUGH MUSIC [6]

·       Being open to growth and change [1]

·       Honor diverse forms of worship (within Episcopal tradition) [2]

·       Inreach [9]

o   Spiritual Formation

o   Value Reflection

o   Seeking

o   Engagement

·       Outreach [3]

o   Hospitality

§  Newcomers

§  Community

o    Volunteer Opportunities

§  Variety

·       Parishioners supporting each other [1]

·       Stewardship of our facilities [2]

***

Place of Christian Episcopal worship [2]

·       Welcoming

o   All are welcome at the table [8]

·       Outstanding Music Program [6]

·       Christian Formation for all ages [5]

·       Church Family as Community/Community as Family/Church as Extended Family

o   Active Pastoral Care [2]

·       Outreach

·       Stewardship and Assets—Building and Grounds [1]

·       EVANGELISM [7]

***

·       DEVOTION (Christian Belief) [1]

·       EQUIPPING THE SAINTS FOR LIFE IN CHRIST [3]

·       WELCOMING [5]

·       FULL INCLUSION FOR CHILDREN [6]

·       ACCEPTANCE OF DIVERSE MEMBERS OF BODY OF CHRIST [4]

·       GEROSITY [1]

·       ENGAGEMENT WITH THE WORLD [2]

·       WORSHIP IS CENTRAL TO LIFE OF THE CHURCH [5]

***

·       Focus on the Trinity [4]

·       Focus on Spirituality [6]

·       Committed to social justice [4]

·       Community outreach [3]

·       Welcoming [2]

·       Embrace Diversity [1]

·       Music –the whole program [1]

·       Focus on children [2]

·       Generosity of time, talent, and treasure

·       Civility

·       Focus on spiritual grown [4]

o   Calling the best from each of us

·       Proactive

·       Willingness to be vulnerable [6]

o   More willing to be increasingly transparent

·       Providing a place of trust

·       Open

·       Stewardship [2] –how to do the most good for the most people

·       Compassion and support of each other as well as the greater community

·       HUMOR! [3]

***

1.    Community Inclusivity/Welcoming [4]

2.    Worship Connects Us on our Aspirational Journey [6]

3.    Outreach [2]

4.    Support of the Diocese [2]