Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Yesterday, on a day off, I felt caught in a strange place between endings and beginnings. I had my usual list of personal tasks to accomplish in limited hours. Yet it had the strange aura that only comes at this particular time of year. Encroaching on the immediate activities (e.g. replying to emails from family) was a growing list of future objectives (e.g. how much should I be saving in 2011?).

It’s the beginning of the Church year, but the ending of the calendar year. Things feel new and old at the same time. There’s an urge to complete things before year end, yet expectation of what may be possible next year. After all these years living into the Christian liturgical year, Advent really does feel like the beginning, much more so than January 1st’s claim to the New Year.

It helps that Advent isn’t an abrupt beginning. I love the reassurance of four weeks to slow down and wait for what will come. But there’s also planning and acting. Wrapping things up. Taking stock of what happened: things done and left undone. And, with these reflections in mind, planning for the coming year. By the time the secular calendar announces New Year with great fanfare, I’m ready to emerge from the darkness and seek the light of Epiphany.

In this spirit of simultaneous endings and beginnings, I was glad to read the Advent Parish Checklist that my colleague Cathy Carpenter, a long time vestry member, Senior Warden, church employee, and now seminarian, posted in the Your Turn section of this website. In this easy two-page checklist, she’s distilled lessons learned and offers them to other vestry leaders. From welcoming newcomers who show up at Christmas Mass, to checking the math in the parish registry, Cathy balances the sense of endings and beginnings that happen in church this time of year. Check it out here.