From the Rector
Dear Friends,

In the November 2002 issue, the vestry and I announced to you a long-range planning process for the Chapel of the Cross. At our overnight retreat in May of last year, we had wrestled with the question, “What is God calling the Chapel of the Cross to be and to do?” The very asking of that question acknowledged not only that our parish's identity and mission stem from God but that the context and circumstances of that divine calling continue to change. We are not the same parish in the same community in the same diocese as we were 160 years ago or 60 years ago or even 6 years ago. And we will certainly not be 16 years from now. While there remains and will continue a certain continuity, the Spirit, we trust, will continue to “renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104). We are to be alert and to respond to the work of the Spirit as it is manifested within and around us and to follow that divine guidance in the shape and in the particulars of our parish ministry.

Since November, a representative Long-Range Planning Committee has been operating, with Bill Daniell as chair and the Rev. Dr. Bill Morley as consultant. You will be reading more of its creative and insightful work in this issue. At this year's annual vestry retreat in May, the group reported on some preliminary areas for consideration in thinking about the next 5, 10, 20 years. The two groups also spent considerable time discussing how best to involve the whole parish in this conversation.

A series of opportunities will be offered in the fall, including neighborhood meetings, Sunday morning discussions, and conversations with existing parish groups. A high parish priority will be to help us thoughtfully and prayerfully to respond communally to the question of what God is calling us to be and to do.

In the meantime, articles in this and ensuing Cross Roads issues will offer you grist for the mill, articulating the discernment and reflection thus far of the vestry and of the Long-Range Planning Committee. I hope that you will read with interest the questions they have raised and the areas they have explored. Their thoughts should not be read as final conclusions, but as stimulants for prayer and discussion.