Annual
Report of the Rector
Monday, 1 January 2018 marked
the first day of my eighth year as the Rector of The Church of the Holy Cross. By the end of July, I will be into the sixteenth
year of my priesthood. I am in awe of
the fact that what this now means is that half of my ministry has been right
here in this place. I am deeply thankful
for what we have shared over the first seven years of our shared ministry, and
I am very hopeful for the future of our parish and the mission we have received
to be the presence of the Episcopal Church in the North End of Wilkes-Barre. In my report for this year’s Annual Meeting,
I want to look back at some things and look forward to other matters that will
shape us and our presence and ministry.
Presence and Participation in the Diocese
This year will be a significant
year in the life of our Diocese of Bethlehem.
As a Diocese, we will gather in Convention twice. There shall be a Special Convention on
Saturday, 28 April 2018, at our Diocesan Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem. The purpose of
that Special Election shall be the Election of the next Bishop of
Bethlehem. The annual Diocesan
Convention will also be held in Bethlehem on Friday, 12 October 2018 and
Saturday, 13 October 2018. The next
Bishop of Bethlehem, who shall be ordained a Bishop of the Church on Saturday,
15 September 2018, at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, shall be seated
on the Cathedra, the Chair of the Bishop, found within the Sanctuary in the
Nave of our Cathedral, at the Friday Convention Mass. At some point next month, the Standing
Committee of the Diocese shall announce a field of three to five nominees for
election as Bishop of Bethlehem.
Bishop Sean will continue his
ministry as our Provisional Bishop until the day of the Ordination of our next
Bishop. A Celebration of his ministry is
set for Saturday, 12 May at St. Stephen’s Pro-Cathedral here in
Wilkes-Barre. At this point, Bishop Sean
and I are planning for one more Episcopal Visit that he shall make with
us. There are tentative plans in place presently
for this visit to occur on the day after the diocesan celebration, Sunday, 13
May, the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Unlike
the first visit that he made with us early in his ministry among us, Bishop
Sean has shared that his wife, Carly, will be present. Bishop Sean wants very much for his wife, a
charming lady of Italian ancestry, to meet this Italian Anglican parish. I have assured him that we will provide an
Italian feast for the day that will delight his wonderful Italian wife. What I have not shared, until now, is that my
wife and I have decided that we shall cover the cost of the meal that is fit
for the Italian wife of our good Bishop, whom along with the Bishop, I am
delighted and honored to call a very dear friend. The Bishop has also agreed to confer the
Sacrament of Confirmation on that day. I
shall bring that up again later in the report.
Participation within the life
of the diocese is of vital importance. I
am very proud of the fact that in the years I have been among you, there has
been a profound change in the relationship between the diocese and this
parish. Bishop Sean is committed to
visiting us one more time not only to give his wife the experience of meeting
this parish but more importantly because he has come to love this parish. He is not alone in this. When I arrived here at Holy Cross, there was
a perception of this parish that somewhat matched the words of Nathanael’s
response in last week’s Gospel concerning Nazareth. I can tell you beyond any shadow of doubt
that this perception has changed drastically, and that this parish is now viewed
as a jewel of great value among the parishes of the diocese. I want to be perfectly clear in saying that it
is my desire that this perception will continue and grow in the next chapter of
our diocesan life as we prepare to greet and welcome a new Bishop. Remember that the presence of a bishop has a
profound impact in not only the diocese but on the parish. There is a reason why I sit where I do at
Mass. There are two different
perspectives on where the Rector sits during the liturgy. Some hold to sitting somewhere else than the
seat which contains the symbols of the Bishop of the Diocese to which the parish
belongs. I choose to sit in that seat
when celebrating the liturgy when it would otherwise be empty as the Bishop is
not physically present among us. I do so
because as your Rector, I am mindful that my presence as your Rector points to
the fact that the chief pastor of the parish is not the Rector but rather the Bishop,
who shares his or her ministry with the priest called by the Vestry and
attested by the Bishop to be the Rector.
We are connected to the Bishop and to the Diocese. We are in communion. The Diocese and the Parish are not “Them and
Us.” We are the Diocese in this place.
The Parish Vestry
I am deeply grateful for our
Vestry and the commitment of those who have served on the Vestry in my time as
Rector. I wish to express my thanks to
Bill Falzone, who has served as the Rector’s Warden, the Senior Warden, and
continues to serve in that capacity. I
also wish to express my Deborah Hocko, who has served as Clerk of Vestry for some
time now, and for a period once was both Junior Warden, the Vestry’s Warden, as
well as the Clerk of Vestry. After of
today’s Annual Meeting, she is no longer the Clerk of Vestry or a member of the
Vestry, as she has served two consecutive three-year terms on the Vestry, and
thus must be off the Vestry for at least one year. I also wish to express my thanks to Linda
Abner, who has taken on the role of Treasurer and Financial Secretary, and who
has assisted greatly in the task of making our finances more transparent. There are two other persons who are
completing first terms on Vestry who are eligible for re-election to
Vestry. I am deeply thankful for their
presence on Vestry.
Changes within the Parish Family
The last year, and the latter
half of the previous year, have been times of change within our
membership. We have experienced the
deaths of significant members of our parish family, most notably Tom and June
Falzone, Sal Falzone and John Falzone, just to name a few. Their presence is still large among us, and rightly
so. We know that in life, they held us
very much in their hearts and in prayer.
Mindful of the fact that as is said at every Requiem Mass, “for us, life is changed, not ended…,” we
know that we and this parish are still very much in their hearts and in their
prayers. I, for one, find great comfort
in this truth.
We have also experienced growth
in our family as new members have come to us from elsewhere. On these occasions when we have welcomed new
brothers and sisters into our parish family, I have been extremely proud of the
fact that these new persons have found among us a gracious welcome that
confirms that this is indeed a loving family who delights in all who have been
drawn to confess the catholic faith in this place. This is a very special parish, and I remain
convinced that we have the ability and the desire to show the love of Christ to
all persons, and that this desire will continue to bear fruits in our parish
ministry.
Our Common Life as a Parish Family
There are a few matters that I
feel compelled as your Rector to address.
The first is that we all need to be mindful that we need to be committed
to being regularly present and involved in the life of the parish. The great challenge for the Church and for
many other “social institutions” in the world in which we live is the “80-20
Rule.” You may be familiar with this: “80%
of the work is done by 20% of the membership.”
Among the other 80% of the membership, there is often the sense that the
status quo will continue with the work of the 20%, and that their involvement
is not needed. I cannot stress enough
that this is a fallacy in thought and reality.
This is specifically relevant to us as the 20% is comprised of those who
are at a point in life where it is time to pass on a legacy of active faith to
the next generation. If we do not have
persons willing to step up and receive this passing on of participation, we may
all find that at some point down the road the status quo will not remain. At present, there are three Episcopalian
parishes within the City of Wilkes-Barre and two others just outside the city (Alden
Station and Kingston). Unless status quo
gives way to a greater participation here and elsewhere, we need to be aware that
this presence will almost certainly change in a way that mirrors the painful
changes we have witnessed among our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in the
Greater Wilkes-Barre area. I say this
not to be a voice of “gloom and doom” but rather in the hopes that, working
with our sister parishes, we can change our fortunes into something beautiful
and life-giving that brings growth and renewed hope.
I also want to address the
matter of attentiveness to the time of Mass.
We often joke about what our attendance numbers would look like if we
counted attendance at Mass by counting heads of those who are present within
the Nave when the liturgy begins.
Remember that joking often serves to dismiss discomfort. I can tell you that there have been occasions
when I am troubled when I walk out of the Sacristy to go to the back of the
Nave for the opening procession and discover that there are less than ten
persons in the pews. During the
readings, I can sit and watch the numbers increase as the liturgy unfolds. There is a certain level of comfort in knowing
that others will show up. But I am also
troubled by this when I think of times when there are new persons who come to
liturgy among us. I wonder at what they
think when they walk into our midst for the first time and discover only a few
persons present when the liturgy begins.
Remember that it has been said that typically persons new to a Church
community decide within minutes, if not even seconds, whether they will return
in the future. If new persons walk into a
Church that is largely empty, what incentive are we giving for them to commit
to return in the future? Yes, there is a
chance that at the conclusion of the liturgical experience that we can amaze
them with a welcome that will change their minds. It should not be assumed, however, that this
will be the case. We need to make a good
first impression, and confirm it at the end of the experience.
Some Long-Term Goals
I have touched upon this to
some degree at times previous, but I feel it is once more time to set a vision
in which, as your priest, I share that it is my opinion that the rightful place
of our children and youth during the Mass is in the Mass. One of the shortcomings of many parishes of
various communions of the Church is that we have relegated the experience of
Church for our children and youth to be outside the liturgy. Our children and youth are not regularly
being taught how to worship. The chief
way we teach this is by having them among us.
It troubles me greatly that among us our youngest generation tends to
experience the liturgy only when serving at the Altar. I am deeply grateful for their presence as
servers at the Altar. But I also long to
seem them and the adults who teach them the faith side by side in the pews
regularly at Mass. And what troubles me
also is that a number of our youngest generation are present in the building
itself, in the Nave for liturgy or the undercroft for Sunday School, only when
they are present at the Altar as servers for the liturgy. I wonder what the chances are that these ones
will in years to come become faithful and regular adult worshipers here or
anywhere else when they have such a limited experience of the Church gathered
in Worship around the Word and Sacraments.
Yes, I know, there are times
when kids make some noise. I have shared
especially with our Saturday crowd as in recent months we have had a regular
presence of young children, that I delight in the sounds of infants and
children during the liturgy. It has been
said by others that a Church in which there are no sounds of infants, children
and youth, that what is found is a “dying Church.” I am inclined to agree. The only matter up for debate is the speed at
which this death is occurring. But if all
the generations are present, there is hope, but more importantly, there is
life!
On a closely related matter, I
am troubled by the fact that as adults, our experience of Church tends to be
worship alone. I would love to see more
opportunities for us as adults to come together for the learning of the
faith. It is not just our children who
need to learn. We as adults need to
continually be learning and growing in the faith. My greatest challenge in this, I must admit,
is the fact that I am a bi-vocational priest.
I would love to devote more time, and I long for the need to embrace
this challenge and seek that time to spend in this task of teaching and
learning the faith among our parish family for my own growth as well as the
growth of us all.
Financial Challenge
You may recall that in December
I presented you with a “Rector’s Challenge.”
This came out of the preparation of the 2018 Parish Budget that contains
a budget deficit of roughly $11K. Today
I want to repeat that challenge and recap my thoughts.
·
This
deficit is roughly $212 dollars weekly…
·
Based
on estimate of 45 giving units, this deficit would be eliminated with an
increase of giving weekly of $4.70 per giving unit.
·
My
commitment to you all, rooted in my love of you all and of this parish, is that
I will match commitments to increased giving “2 to 1” up to $6 in my own annual
giving to the parish.
·
What
this means … at $6 weekly increase by:
o
10
giving units Rector gives additional $120
for year (Additional $2.31 weekly)
o
20
giving units Rector gives additional $240
for year (Additional $4.62 weekly)
o
30
giving units Rector gives additional $360
for year (Additional $6.92 weekly)
o
40
giving units Rector gives additional $480
for year (Additional $9.23 weekly)
o
50
giving units Rector gives additional $600
for year (Additional $11.54 weekly)
I know that some have stepped
up to this challenge. If you have
already, I thank you! If not, please
prayerfully consider this, and if so moved, share this intent with Linda
Abner. I will be reporting to Vestry on
this regularly in order that there will be record of the fact that I am
stepping up and keeping my promise. For
the record, here is a breakdown on my current level of giving just to be
transparent:
·
Monthly
Gifts to the Parish: $215.50 $2,586.00
annually
·
Monthly
Gifts to the Diocese: $204.05 $2,448.60
annually
·
TOTALS: $419.55 $5,034.60
annually
I am not sharing this with you
or making this challenge among you in the hopes of gaining some praise or
recognition for these choices. I give
because I feel I am compelled to do so.
I give to both the parish and the diocese because I want to support the
parish while at the same time keeping myself mindful of the fact that my
affiliation/membership is not with a parish but with the diocese. It should also be noted that what I give to
the diocese I give in the name of the parish.
My giving to the diocese is earmarked as Acceptance for Holy Cross. This arrangement works wonderfully then as it
is a reminder for me and for the diocese of our shared ministry as Rector and
Parish who together give to build up the Church beyond the walls of this parish.
Financial Challenge
In the weeks to come, during
the time before Lent, I will be announcing the formation of a Confirmation Class
for those who have not been confirmed but who wish to be confirmed by Bishop
Sean when he is present among us later in the year. Please let me know if you are wishing to
receive this Sacrament of the Church.
Concluding Thoughts…
I cannot say enough how honored
I am to serve among you and to be your servant.
In the years we have shared, I have fallen in love with you all. My deepest hope is that you all are always
aware of the emotions of my heart towards all of you. I hold you all in my thoughts and prayers
daily. And I give thanks daily for the
love that I feel from you and the care that you all go out of your way to show
at every opportunity. I am truly blessed
by being in your midst!
Yours in the Love of Christ Jesus,
Father Tim+
The Rev’d Father Timothy Alleman
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