Community Ministry Portfolio Describe a moment in your worshipping community s ministry which you recognize as one of success and fulfillment. Every spring and fall, the ECW of Christ Church organizes a rummage sale which involves more than 60 people over one week. Volunteers work long days to set up, take down, stock and sell items, and provide sustenance for the workers. All sale items are donated and offered at greatly reduced prices relative to their original value. What remains when the doors finally close is donated to the St. Michaels Community Center, Goodwill, the local veteran s facility, and local churches whose ministry responds directly to the needs of the minority community. Furniture and appliances are welcomed at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. Proceeds from these sales are in the $12,000 range, all of which are dedicated to community organizations supporting families and children. The sale itself meets the needs of the many people in our community on limited budgets who find essential clothing and household items in good condition. There is also value that is beyond measure. Working together for this worthy cause brings not only exhaustion and sore muscles, but also much joy and laughter. From that sense of camaraderie grows lasting friendships. Describe your liturgical style and practice. If your community provides more than one type of worship service, please describe all. Christ Church is liturgically a broad church, with the Eucharist at the center of our weekly services. Many members have a preference for either Rite I or Rite II, both of which are offered each Sunday, but an even larger number of us find meaning in both Rites as well as in the occasional use of other liturgies. Our most recent observance of Holy Week demonstrated how we strive to use liturgy to engage parishioners through both personal reflection and active participation, and how we join with the wider community in moments of celebration. The Palm Sunday service began with a procession of Hosannas, followed by a dramatic reading of the Passion in which parishioners assumed the roles. Later in the week we offered a Tenebrae service, a Maundy Thursday service with foot washing and stripping of the altar, the Good Friday liturgy, and Stations of the Cross. For the Great Vigil of Easter, Christ Church hosted the Talbot County cluster of Episcopal churches in a service led by the Bishop. Easter Sunday was celebrated with extended families and many guests at four services, including a waterfront sunrise service at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. How do you practice incorporating others in ministry? Recognizing how important it is to meet people where they are, we work hard to make it easy to incorporate folks into the ministries that speak to them. As a small program church, Christ Church offers a wide variety of opportunities for parishioners and visitors to become more involved. We traditionally kick off the program year in September with a
Ministry Fair which showcases our many programs and activities. People can sign up to host Lemonade on the Lawn offered in the warmer weather after Sunday services, or to provide dinner for guests at the Talbot Interfaith Shelter. Others might choose to serve as church school teacher or join the Hand Bell Choir. Some prefer to quietly ease into the process by joining our Wednesday Book Group, while others jump right in to work with the Food, Fun, and Fellowship Committee or assist with one of our famous Christ Church Rummage Sales organized by the ECW. Active parishioners speak of developing meaningful friendships and experiencing a real sense of belonging after joining one of our ministries. As a worshipping community, how do you care for your spiritual, emotional and physical well-being? We are a strong Christian community. We take seriously the promise made in our baptismal covenant to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves. Approximately 75% of the respondents in our parish survey believe that we excel in helping each other in times of trouble. Help comes in many forms, including specific pastoral care ministries such as Lay Eucharistic Visitors, the Sunday Healing Altar, the monthly Healing Service, and the Caregivers Support Group (our Stephen Ministry group is currently inactive and under review). Our popular Adult Forums frequently invite experts to talk on health and welfare-related subjects. Not to be overlooked is the fellowship that occurs during purely social activities, as well as our ministries that have community and congregational focus. The engagement and solidarity that develop as we work, play, and eat together, keep us in touch with each other and bind us together. We notice when our friends are well and happy and present, and we notice when they are not. Describe your worshipping community s involvement in either the wider Church or geographical region. Christ Church interacts with the wider Bay Hundred region in a myriad of ways, a good example being the simple Lenten suppers followed by discussion that rotate weekly among the Covenant churches. Shared Table, a program initiated by Christ Church in 2015 as a partnership between area churches, farmers, and local businesses, also fosters fellowship and a sense of community among neighbors through the act of sharing a communal meal. But the diverse segments of our community don t come together just to eat. We worship together at the sunrise service on Easter morning, and every spring the Bay Hundred Covenant churches come together at a well-attended tent service on the grounds of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Volunteers from the Docent Guild open the doors of our beautiful historic church to visitors every afternoon from May through October. Each year they host over 1600 visitors hailing from the local area, most states, and a number of foreign countries.
How do you engage in pastoral care for those beyond your worshipping community? Of our nearly 50 different programs organized into 7 ministry areas, about one-fourth fall under Outreach and Wider Mission and engage us in reaching out to our neighbors and beyond. We partner with well-known national organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, but also target needs closer to home. In our beautiful waterfront community that attracts tourists by the thousands, approximately 46% of children live below the poverty level. Our Back to School Project provides all school supplies and fees for every needy student at St. Michaels Elementary, Middle and High School, and nearby Tilghman Elementary. This project, initiated by a Christ Church parishioner in 2000, has grown into one of our most successful and consequential efforts. Other programs, such as the Angel Tree Project which provides a Christmas celebration for children at the local Housing Authority, the St. Michaels Community Food Pantry which is housed in our parish house and staffed by many parish volunteers, and the Talbot Interfaith Shelter which we have supported and helped to staff since its inception, are among the many layled outreach programs to which our parishioners are committed. Tell about a ministry that your worshipping community has initiated in the past five years. Who can be contacted about this? We recognize that new programs are vital to the health of a parish, particularly one looking to the future and seeking new directions. We have initiated several programs in recent years. The Gospel Choir began under the leadership of a former Associate Rector, and offers an opportunity for members of Covenant Churches to build friendships through songs of praise (contact Linda Norris). The Caregivers is a pastoral care program providing support and understanding through members shared experiences caring for a loved one (contact Mary Jane Wyant). In Popcorn Theology, a Parish and Community Life program, we gather weekly to watch movies that center on common themes, such as forgiveness, struggle, or renewal. This has become a popular Lenten program as many appreciate the opportunity for evening fellowship during the colder months (contact Bev Kegan). Finally, several programs have been developed by our Associate for Community and Family Ministries. The ONES, Movement, Music & Me, Shared Table, and First Tuesday Lunches offer fun and fellowship for singles, parents and their young children, or those who just wish to share a meal together (contact Lori Ramsey). How are you preparing yourselves for the Church of the future? Recognizing that we are in a period of transition, inevitably a time of uncertainty, we remain committed to the mission of the church even as we are open to exploring new ideas. In 2014, we completed the Renewal Works survey and looked to build on that model with several new programs. Our recent Self Study was strongly supported by parishioners and yielded much useful information. We have been able to identify many of
our strengths and weaknesses and find that the former outweigh the latter. In fact, our weaknesses match those of many other churches today. Even in the face of declining attendance and revenues, one of our greatest strengths is our responsible stewardship of our financial and property resources. Many of us have come to Christ Church from other areas and other denominations, with varied experiences and perspectives that enrich us all. We have strong lay leadership and the support of a dynamic new Bishop who is dedicated to growing the church on the Eastern Shore. Results of our survey offer us a clear idea of who we are as a parish, enable us to highlight those areas that work well, and identify areas of improvement as we look to the future. What is your practice of stewardship and how does it shape the life of your worshipping community? While our popular Harvest Dinner in early October is the traditional kickoff event for the annual stewardship campaign, we are ever mindful that stewardship is about more than a pledge campaign to reach an annual financial goal. Rather, it is our ongoing commitment to be faithful stewards of God s bounty, and to follow Christ s commandments. We are called to give generously of ourselves in every way. However, as we face the current financial realities associated with declining membership and revenues, we must depend on a strong annual pledge campaign. Our efforts, led by a small committee in collaboration with the Rector and the Vestry, aim at reinforcing the idea that to make a pledge, no matter the amount, is to make an investment in one s own spiritual journey. Always very meaningful are the testimonials from the pulpit from parishioners who share some of their personal Christ Church experience. We are blessed with the generosity of our parishioners but we fully recognize, looking to the future, the need to expand the number of pledging units and not rely on larger pledges from fewer people. What is your worshipping community s experience of conflict? And how have you addressed it? Is there a parish family that has never experienced conflict? We are not such a parish, nor do we feel unique in this regard. We have seen that differences of opinion not addressed openly and in a timely manner, may quickly become serious conflict. Our parishioners, by and large, embrace music as an important element of our corporate worship. In recent years, growing discontent over the style and form of that music, with some seeking change and others preferring to hold on to the status quo, was allowed to fester from much personal grumbling into genuine conflict. Into that messy situation came a personality clash that resulted in the departure of the Director of Music. We as a parish have learned that failure to address conflict early and prayerfully in open discussion is more than just destructive. It is a missed opportunity to build community and mutual understanding. This was a key finding in our recent parish survey. In response to this clear message, we look for a 35 th Rector with the strength and skills to help us be more
attentive to our differences, listen to each other with respect, and seek resolution before these differences are allowed to escalate. What is your experience leading/addressing change in the church? When has it gone well? When has it gone poorly? And what did you learn? For many years, Christ Church was a two-priest parish with a full-time Rector and Associate. This was considered to be the most suitable model. In 2013, in the face of an aging population and downward trends in pledging and attendance, along with a desire for more programs focused on prayer and scripture, it was clear that our Rector-Associate model was no longer the right fit. Over the course of 18 months, the Associate was called to be a Rector and there was an opportunity to hire a part-time vocational Deacon. Shortly thereafter a part-time lay Associate for Community & Family Ministries was also hired. The adjusted staffing pattern was better suited to the needs of the parish and was financially sustainable. Under this new model, outreach to the community has expanded and, following the departure of our Deacon, lay-leaders have picked up many of her pastoral care initiatives. Change can be disruptive if it is implemented without careful planning, but there need not be a downside if its implementation is thoughtful and inclusive. Please provide words describing the gifts and skills essential to the future leaders of your worshipping community. - Inspiring preacher - Compassionate listener - Sincere and accessible pastor - Passionate about faith formation In closing, we offer this prayer, written by the Search Committee: Almighty and ever living God, we pray for a Rector with experience as a Pastor and Priest who will lead us on our continuing mission to be God s presence in the world, and who is passionate and imaginative about faith formation. We seek someone who is spiritually grounded in their communication with us both as an inspiring preacher and compassionate listener. We look for a Pastor who is sincere and accessible who possesses warmth and a sense of humor. We pray for someone to join us on our spiritual journey, recognizing that we are comfortable being at disparate places along that path. We seek a
Rector who lives in the present, but is always open to the future and is sensitive to the needs of our community. May our next Rector make our parishioners and our visitors feel that they are remembered, that they matter, and that they are loved. As we acknowledge this mutual effort and commit to being active partners, we offer our prayers, encouragement, support and love for our new Rector. Amen Worshiping community s website: www.christstmichaels.org