Dear Ones of St. Columba’s,

In the beginning of 2021 I spent several hours combing through all the video footage from 2020, interviewing our staff and leadership on camera, and making a video documenting the first year of the pandemic and how we went through it all together. The vaccines were just starting roll out about then, and I remember thinking that we were almost over this whole pandemic thing. Turns out, we weren’t. And in many ways this second year of the pandemic has been harder on folks than the first, I think. As a congregation, we know how to cope now – we are good at livesteaming worship and logging in to zoom. We wear masks without complaining (too much, out loud), about it and go forward best we can. But the novelty is long gone. And this is hard. I want to start my annual report to you by acknowledging that we are tired and this whole thing has gotten really old.  I will often tell people who are new to the Episcopal church and excited about our liturgy that one day they might come to church and discover they are bored. Bored with the prayers and the creeds and the ritual of Eucharist. But then, if they stick with it, there is something to be discovered past that boredom, a different level of spiritual attachment and discipline, a different connection to God in worship than can be had before the “boredom phase” hits. I offer to you that it is normal to feel fatigued, resigned, tired, bored, and hopeless with where we are in this work of loving each other and staying community in pandemic. But I believe there is something different, something deeper, ahead. I am glad we are here, sticking with church and with each other, so we can see what deeper and more beautiful thing waits for us on the other side. So once again I want to revisit the goals we set for ourselves as a community when the pandemic first began, and to remind you that we are still doing them – sometimes with energy and other times simply because this is the work we have in front of us. We are still staying connected, staying church, and taking care of each other. 

We Stay Connected

In 2021 we stayed connected in many ways, both formal and informal. We started flamingo-ing each other in the first quarter of 2021, as a way to be playful and connected that didn’t require a screen or in person contact. It was so fun that we did it again in the summer, and many of us now feel that flamingoes are a permanent part of the culture of how we see, celebrate, connect and have fun with each other. Some of our buddy groups from 2020 continued to connect and meet with each other while others stopped, and we continue to seek new ways to connect and to make sure everyone in our community feels seen, known, and loved by their church. We continued to livestream our worship, even as we welcomed people back into the building, so that those among us who weren’t yet ready to return could continue to worship. 

We Stay Church

2021 was the year we began the work of figuring out what church will look like after a total shutdown of in person contact and worship. I think we are still doing this work, and we do not have all the answers yet. We have work to do to rebuild our youth group as the kids who once populated the massive kids’ carpet in the “before” times are headed into their pre-teen years, and we have welcomed a new generation of little ones into our midst, some of whom have lived their whole life so far under pandemic restrictions and regulations. And yet – we have welcomed several new families and individuals into our worshipping community, orienting them to the Episcopal Church. We confirmed and received and baptized people into the faith in 2021, and renewed our relationships with our Sudanese siblings and the families who garden in our community garden. I have to recognize the amazing gifts that The Rev. Meghan Mullarkey brings to our community in the area of community building, the careful and dedicated work Elaine Ogden does to make sure we have safe ways for our children to learn about God and connect to each other, and the dedication of Martin Pommerenke to our music programs even as choir has been stopped due to pandemic. And these people, each of whom pastors and leads us in vital ways, are only a little bit of how we stay church. We have continued to nurture our amazing lay preachers, and finally in 2021 were able to return to our weds night healing service once per month, while keeping the zoom Evening Prayer in place the other Wednesday nights. And I have taken such pride and comfort each weekday morning in seeing our facebook page go live, and knowing that James Wyatt is leading us in the Daily Office – a prayer offering that is joined live by a few, watched daily by even more of us, and offered on behalf of us all. We stay church. 

We Take Care of Each Other

This year you took care of me, and my family, by supporting us in a sabbatical time of rest, renewal, and revitalization. I cannot tell you what that time meant to me, and to all four of us. And not only that, but you continue to take care of each other, and of our more vulnerable neighbors. Meal trains for new parents, food bank carrying on with donations and volunteers, Nate Chapman’s careful work this past summer to get to know our community gardeners and develop that relationship and ministry, Carmen and Stephen Olfert’s organizing of work parties complete with sandwich trucks, and so much more, so many more of you who show up for each other and for St. Columba’s when it matters. It took me a few weeks of sabbatical to start resting, to stop feeling anxious on Sunday mornings when part of my heart felt I should be with you, but I was able to do it because I knew that at the end of the day this community cares. And can do that just fine without me. In fact this is a thing I learn about from you, church. 

Dear ones, we have a lot of positive energy as we head into 2022. New members to welcome, relationships with community to build, and the continued hope that there will be a day when all of us feel (and are!) safe to return to church and worship together. I don’t know if that day will happen in 2022 or beyond. If there is a thing I have learned as a leader these past two years it is that the future is hard to perceive, and I cannot know ahead of time what will happen. But here is what I do know – God has called us to be church in this time and place. We have what we need to answer that call, and to come together in this community to learn, play, garden, grow, care for each other, worship the One who made us, and be transformed for the sake of the Gospel, and the world. 

Thank you for answering this call.

With care and gratitude,

Alissa+