On August 29th, around 50 parishioners and 5 kids met together on campus to take part in our parish retreat, entitled “Looking Forward Together”. The retreat was led by Mike Scrutton our Visioning Team Leader, Rev Lori Walton our rector, and our Children’s Minister, Jan Scrutton.
Mike introduced the rest of our Visioning Team, whose members were nominated by the Vestry and who are Mary Casas, Mary Morkved, Jessica Stair and Ken Trant. This team is tasked with assisting St. James’ in discerning who we are in 2015, and what we’re called by God to become.
Our day warmed up with music led by Jennifer and an ice-breaker
led by Jan when we learned some more unusual facts about each other. Mike spoke about the theme for the day, which was to think about God’s message for St. James’ in 2015, and how our purpose may have changed over the years based on the evolution of our community and change in circumstances.
We then participated in a period of personal reflection around the questions:
- What is most important to me about St. James’?
- What do I worry most about when I think of St. James’?
- If I could change one thing about St. James’ at the drop of a hat, what would it be?
I am sure as you read these certain things come to mind. Our day was not about making these changes but it helped to start by reflecting on our personal opinions before we started to think about God’s vision.
After feed-back, Lori led us in a discussion about God’s desires for His creation, where we looked at passages from the bible, discussing the Song of Mary and the Beatitudes (among others). Lori helped us to see these familiar passages in new ways, and think about what they reveal to us about God’s vision for us.
After lunch facilitated by the Vestry, Meg Amouroux (Jr. Warden) and Dave Nelsen (Sr. Warden), we heard Jan tell the story of Jesus welcoming the children. We broke into groups where we considered a number of different bible stories:
- A story of hospitality & trust – Three visitors to Abraham & Sarah: Genesis 18:1-15
- A story of healing – Jesus Heals a Paralytic: Mark 2:1-12
- A story of abundance – The Wedding at Cana: John 2:1-11
- A story of transformation – Jesus and Zacchaeus: Luke 19:1-10
- A story of awakening – The Road to Emmaus: Luke 24:13-35
In our groups, we discussed how the stories were similar and different to our experience of St. James’, and composed a statement based on our passage and discussion that described an aspect of St. James’. Our thought provoking conversations led us to the following messages:
- We strive to be a joyful and consistently welcoming community in service to God and each other. We look for ways to care these attributes to future generations.
- This community, through thick and thin, through holes and conflicts, heals and grows as an accepting community. We offer an environment for personal healing through brokenness, and we reach out to those in need.
- We proactively step out and unexpectedly exceed our expectations.
- We are a community of open hearts and open minds where we can pursue our relationship with God through prayer and action, leading to continual transformation.
- Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we are all on a journey, and we come to St. James’ to learn from each other, whatever our need, those who need proof and those who don’t – we are “coming come to a place we’ve never been before.”
Can you see how each story may have inspired the statement about St. James?
The children joined us and shared with us an altar frontal 
depicting our hands working to fulfill God’s dream for the world and our final message of the day:
- Children are welcomed and listened to at church, and can join in at events. If you gave our church a chance, we think you’d come back.
We closed our day with Holy Communion, including more singing led by our music director, Jennifer Carini.
This was a stimulating day for all involved, with the kids working just as hard as the adults on the theme of the day. Thanks to everyone who gave up time on their Saturday for making the event such a success.
~ Mike Scrutton, Visioning Team Leader