Pastor Mary's
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 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.  (Mark 1:16-17)

I give thanks to God for the grace I have been given to live out the call of Jesus Christ among a people who stand ready to hear and respond to the Good News: Welcoming others in Jesus’ name, making St. Michael’s Parish a place where the Gospel is proclaimed in word and action, and working with the Holy Spirit to help people grow and deepen their relationship with God.    

Our January 22^nd Annual Meeting marked the beginning of my last year as your Rector, but also the beginning of God’s activity in preparing us for a New Day.  It will be a year of ministry, a year of gratitude, a year of reflection, growth, and transition for all of us.  We will do it in faith and confidence, knowing that God is always calling his people into their future, and will give us everything we need for the successful accomplishment of that journey. 

The many reports filed by individuals and groups testified to the active and spirit-led ministry that has taken place over the past year in the areas of leadership, oversight, communication, worship, music, pastoral care of souls, mission outreach, Christian education and formation, community life, and hospitality to all.   

I would like to offer my perspective on significant areas of growth in both our common life together, and more importantly, in our presence and impact on the neighborhood and community where God has so pointedly placed us… “Mission Avenue”…. Thank you, Lord!  In each of these areas I want to focus on the present and the future. 

Building on our Strengths:  St. Michael’s Parish and St. Michael’s Day School share a history, but more importantly, they share a future.  Each is a successful vehicle through which God is making a difference in the lives of individuals in our community.  The health of each institution is not so much dependent, as intertwined with the other.  As we have grown in acknowledging the blessing of each other over the past seven and a half years, it has yielded the physical evidence of a renewed and integrated campus.  The cooperation that has gone into the building design of our entrances, the renewal of our courtyard, and our shared parking lot speaks volumes about the health of our relationship.

Widening our Vision:  When I became Rector in 2004, the campus, while enjoying a vital and close-knit internal community life, was restricted in its vision in terms of the neighborhood.  This was necessarily so, because over the years, as we grew and added buildings, we created almost a walled city.  Our Church building, with its back to Mission Avenue, had doors that faced away from the street.  Private homes with large backyards and tall trees surrounded us on three sides.  We constructed a wall that shielded our parking lot from public view.  When visitors managed to enter our small parking lot with limited handicapped spaces, and useless tandem parking spaces, they had to locate through trial and error the front doors of the church vs. the parish hall.  What a transformation we have undergone!  The bulldozing of the rental house, expansion of the parking lot, construction of the entrance overhead, and the opening onto Cottage Way has changed our view completely.  We can see our neighbors and they can see us.  Not only has this led to welcoming newcomers almost weekly in significantly higher numbers, but both the Church and the School have engaged in more social contact with our neighborhood.  The School has hosted art shows and extensive use of its fine gymnasium for community basketball leagues.  The Church has developed outreach programs to both Starr King School and to children from six different schools through our new Children’s Community Chorus – now up to twenty children in grades 3 through 8.  Our flyer advertising this program states our purpose, “St. Michael’s Church, supporting the Arts in our Community.”

Making Disciples for Jesus Christ:  The mission statement we developed almost five years ago says that we welcome all people that God sends our way, that helping people grow in their relationship with God is our goal, and that we do this in the Name of Jesus and for His sake.  When I came here, we were unable to live into this mission statement because we had not made the necessary budget and financial decisions to allow us to focus on ministry and mission.  When I reviewed issues of our monthly newsletter or minutes from our vestry meetings over the first half of this decade, St. Michael’s spent an inordinate amount of effort and energy fundraising for its own operating budget.  In essence, we had to raise an additional $40,000 a year, beyond our pledge income, to cover the costs of operations and staffing.  This meant two things in my view, and for my ministry as Rector (I’m speaking for myself here).  First, I had little time for parish community activities that related to discipleship, mission and outreach, and membership development because I was always promoting the next fundraiser.  Secondly, Vestry meetings were mostly about finance, and maintenance, and concern about growth that somehow translated into more donations to operating budget.   

Once we made three critical decisions, we have been better able to live into our new mission statement.  The first, and most difficult for me and for many others, was to release our retreat property in Cazadero, saying goodbye to an era by selling the property back to the descendants of the original giver.  This gave us the security of the first significant financial cushion St. Michael’s has ever had in the form of the Wagon Tree Ranch Endowment Fund. 

The second was to “right-size” our budget and staffing for ministry at St. Michael’s.  We had been living beyond our means for a long, long time.  While this has been challenging, because we have several part-time positions, it has also been inspiring for me to see how people have stepped up and taken ownership of our communal life together in ministry. 

And the third was to reorient our vision – to stop bemoaning the fact that we have a facility that is expensive to operate and to maintain, and instead rejoice that we have one of the most useful, beautiful, and functional campuses in the region.  When we made this shift, we began to identify our buildings as a key part of our mission.  Making them available to community and diocesan groups for meetings, theater, conferences, sports, spiritual development, and education is a blessing to us and to a very wide community.

The Call of Andrew to Follow Jesus:  The reading for the Sunday of our Annual Meeting was the call of the Andrew to discipleship.  Matthew’s version of that same story was read when I was ordained to be a priest in the Episcopal Church on November 30, 1995.  It is the story of what we are all called to do by virtue of the first and primary ordination we each received at Baptism:

“Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”  (Mark 1:14-20). 

This is what I pray for your future and mine.  That we continue, each in our own place and way, to serve the Lord, to minister to those who are attracted to Jesus – always being ready to follow him and share in his mission of peace and reconciliation – wherever that takes us and in whatever form God provides.

Love and Blessings,
Mary+