August 10, 2022
August is upon us. It used to be the last month of summer, back when school began after Labor Day. But students are already heading off to college and K-12 faculty and staff will soon be heading back to their offices and classrooms. August is a transitional month. The weather outside tells you its summer, while your calendar and its “to do lists” tells you otherwise. August is a month to look back, look forward, and take inventory. And so, I will.
In our June Semi-Annual Meeting we approved a position entitled “Congregational Care Coordinator.” It is an ad hoc position established by the Council. This person reports to the Council, but this is not a Council position. And this role is now filled by Ann Knutsen, for which we are most thankful.
The impetus for this new role came from our Staff-Council retreat last Fall, where we realized that we have no formal congregational care roles on Council. In a Board model of church governance, this would fall under the Deacon Board; but we currently have nothing like this. Ann is in the process of exploring various ways of organizing the church into groups with an “under shepherd” to stay in touch with them. Cinda Madonna and Pastor Steve will have their job descriptions adjusted to offer staff support to this task. In particular, Pastor Steve will move into a role of primarily congregational care and visitation. We look forward to this and other changes in the coming months as we seek to enrich and fortify our church family, as well as support those new people who are finding their way into our congregation and enfold them into our community. Please keep our church and its efforts to execute its ministries more efficiently and effectively in your prayers.
For many years August was the middle of my “summer.” Teaching on the quarter system for over 15 years, it gives you a very different rhythm. School would begin the last week in September, of course the school year would end in late-June, so you seemed a bit out of synch with the rest of the world. I feel that way now, when I reflect on it, but for different reasons. After being at First Covenant Church as your pastor for over a year and half now, I still have one foot—albeit lightly—in another canoe, that being the world of academics. I still have doctoral students I continue to mentor through their PhD programs, I still have some contracts with publishers for writings I owe them, and I am an officer in my academic guild. This last role is very much on my mind right now, as I am currently serving as the President of the North American Academy of Liturgy. I was elected before I began my conversations about being your pastor, but the academy was put on pause in the first year of the pandemic. This role will take me to Toronto this coming weekend to plan our Annual meeting, which will take place in Toronto in January of 2023. In 2024 it our meeting will be here in Seattle, and I will then be the Past-President.
I reflect on these things in these August days, as a way of reminding us how sometimes life does not fit neatly into categories, and transitions often have overlap and take time. As we were reminded this past Sunday, our task is never to fully compete God’s work in this world, but to steward that work though our lifetime and then pass it on to the next generation. As we look forward and back in this season, thinking of our own lives, let us also consider the life of God’s people through time, and how we are a part of God’s ongoing story of redemption and salvation. Might that give us both grace and hope as we consider our efforts to forward God’s reign on earth.
Pastor Todd
P.S. Some of you have inquired about the litany that was used in Sunday’s service. It is called the “Romero Prayer.” It was not written by Oscar Romero but was written in his memory. It can be found here.