CLARITY, TRANSPARENCY, EMPOWERMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY

Annual Report Sermon 2015

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Thomas D. Wintle, Senior Minister of the First Parish Church in Weston, Massachusetts, on the day of the Annual Congregational Meeting, February 1, 2015. The scripture readings were Colossians 3:12-17 and Matthew 18:15-20.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God” (Col. 3.16)

I

So it seems that Adam was reported to have said to Eve, on their way out of the Garden of Eden, “My dear, we live in an age of transition.” Which means, of course, that all times are ages of transition and we are living in one now. This became so clear to me, just last month, on the evening of January 7th. It was the evening before the inauguration of Governor Charlie Baker and I was attending an interfaith prayer service for him at the Congregation Lion of Judah on Northampton Street, Boston. Somehow I had finagled an invitation to the VIP reception before hand. I looked around the room and there was hardly anyone I recognized. Now I’ve been going to such interfaith and ecumenical events for nearly 40 years. There was no one there from the First Church in Boston, no one from King’s Chapel, no one from Old South Church or Trinity Copley Square, none of the faculty of Harvard Divinity School. But there were a lot of Hispanic and black pastors and bishops. That’s when it hit me: the face of Boston religion has changed, dramatically. And drama is the correct word: black evangelical preaching and music is lively, singing and swaying and clapping, speakers EMPHASIZE their words, pull you into the discussion, even ask you to turn to your neighbor and tell them“something wonderful is going to happen to you this year.” (Try it: turn to your neighbor and say “something wonderful is going to happen to you this year”. Didn’t that feel good?)

Here’s another change. First Parish has been a teaching parish for Harvard Divinity School students for decades. Harvard Divinity School has been the primary training ground for Unitarian ministers for generations; most of our student interns have been HDS students. But notice this: there are today 18 Unitarian students at HDS; there are THIRTY Roman Catholic students in the Div School. If the Puritan founders were alive today, they would be turning over in their graves! The face of Boston religion has changed. Here in the suburbs we have not changed quite so dramatically but still have had our own transitions. Sunday morning sports and other conflicts have decimated Sunday Schools: play rehearsals, road races, medical appointments. And it’s not just the kids: adults have soccer games, not to mention skiing and other competitions. The Sunday world has changed.

When I came to Weston in 1995 we had a Sunday School of 200 students. Today we have a hundred enrolled. But here’s the real change: we have fewer consistent attendees. Our Sunday attendance fluctuates from a high of 62 to a low of 15. This has meant a change in staffing. We have a wonderful crew of 23 volunteer high school aides, but it is difficult to justify having two professional staff serving these diminished numbers. When budgets were being planned for next year, Bristol was asked to cut the church school expenses. She recommended a reduction in staff, with the elimination of the Director of Religious Education position, and the Standing Committee approved. We will have an opportunity to thank Beverly Dillaway for her service this June on church school Sunday.

We should note that not only will our Director of Family Ministries, Bristol, be operating our church school and youth programing without a DRE, but Parish Administrator Betsy Gibson is running the office without administrative assistant Millie Gastan, But we do have Bristol, and Bristol is wonderful. Can I have an "amen"? Big changes.

II

So what does all this mean? I’ve said before that it is futile to resist an incoming tide; instead we need to float with the tide. We need to try new ways of doing church. This winter we have instituted something new: what I’ve been calling “skiers’ mass,” a Sunday evening service for families who have other commitments in the mornings. We tried our first last month: 5:30 sermon and communion, a learning time for families together with iPads, a simple meal. We started “Tom and Bristol at Bruegger’s” on Monday afternoons. You would be amazed at how many people have stopped by to visit, sometimes people who would never make an appointment to come to the church office. We have this wonderful relationship with Rabbi Melvyn May: a Passover seder with some 60 participants, a moving Kristalnacht commemoration of the Holocaust. What a remarkable statement it is that a Christian congregation has our own “rabbi-inresidence”! While we will not have a Muslim imam-in-residence, my Muslim friend Habib Rahman has accepted my invitation to preach here on March 8th. In a world where there is so much religious tension, it is so important to testify to a better way.

There is another change that should be noted. We used to have new member classes, several Sundays where newcomers would be introduced to the ways of First Parish. But with those Sunday competitions, gathering folks for classes or dinners proved impossible. So what do we do? Your Membership Committee provides a greeter in the breezeway every Sunday, and they deliver a homemade loaf of bread to newcomers – a no-pressure way of saying “we’re glad you’re here.” And I have prepared this awesome PowerPoint presentation on “the meaning of membership” – which can be shared with small groups or even one-on-one. It works. We have 15 new members this past year.

And we have our new membership photo directory!

It’s good to try new things. We are creative. We are responsive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. There’s one more change I want to mention, a change few of you would notice. It has to do with how we govern this church. We have been clarifying how we do things, adding transparency, even empowerment. We adopted a reserve fund policy – what this million dollar group of funds are for, how spending is authorized. We have a personnel policy – fully implemented just this year– that spells out how job reviews are conducted, how compensation
is decided. Our committees have adopted one-sentence mission statements: clarifying what they do, and by implication, what they don’t need to do. And I have just started badgering the Standing Committee to create job descriptions for the lay officers of the church. Clarity, transparency, empowerment . . . and accountability.

III

I mentioned that we have 15 new members. Two of them were Jim and Miriam Stoddard, who started here just last fall. Miriam joined the senior choir right away. When I met with Jim he told me two things. One was they looked forward to attending some church social events that they didn’t have to organize (after organizing them in their previous church for 53 years)! The other was that he wanted a church where he could have his funeral. Sadly, Jim died unexpectedly on January 4th. The memorial service was here on January 11th. Miriam: it was a grand service. One nice part was that the choir attended and sang two anthems from the Faure Requiem. [to choir:] You are classy guys! Thank you.

I also want to thank someone, on behalf of the whole congregation, for their service to our church. You see her work every single Sunday. On the high holy days of Thanksgiving with her cornucopia, And Advent wreaths and Christmastide and Easter, this place is transformed. Residents in local nursing homes and shut-ins receive her blessings when altar flowers are broken-down into manageable bouquets. Flower Committee chair LYNN TAFF, your church thanks you!

My friends, we live in an age of transition, and we are transitioning well. But sometimes, as in the decoration of the church and altar, it is the continuities that give us comfort.