Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I am currently planning my wedding with my fiancée, Denise. As most people know, there’s a lot of work that goes into that single day. There are dress fittings and cake tastings. We have to decide how to feed our guests and find a venue and send out invites. I’m looking forward to the day. 

At the same time, we’re working on the relationship that already exists and getting to know each other better. We’re thinking about what comes later, about family and career and what we want our lives to look out. 

I guess in this way it’s a kind of Advent time, as we await and prepare, we live in existing relationship, and we look toward a particular day and beyond it.

In another sense, Denise and I are a very small community learning to work together. Denise has taken the lead planning the details because she enjoys it and currently has the time and energy. This happened after some very clear communication and, of course, has not been without an occasional minor misunderstanding. 

Preparation, whether for a wedding or in Advent or for some next stage in the life of our community, involves looking at the long and short term, knowing ourselves, what we are good at and getting a little help in the areas where we are weak, and, of course, communication (because everything that human beings do together involves communication). Advent, like any period of preparation, asks us to pay attention to the particular, to the work we need to do today, without losing sight of the big picture, as we work and love and grow.