Autumn's busy-ness - Rector's Rambling for September 18, 2016

The time has come to get everything back up and running for the autumn season.  Much of the northern hemisphere runs on a school type calendar, with summer being “time off”.  Much travel takes place, and people get busy with the many outside activities taking place.

Our calendar has reflected this out of necessity.  People travel, and the stifling heat keeps many away from worship here in the summer months.  I remember with sadness two of our dearest long-time parishioners asking me to be excused from coming for a few weeks because the heat was bad for their heart conditions.  I hope air conditioning will be in our future to cut down those absences.

But now is the time to get involved and get back to work.  Cinema and the Spirit began it’s monthly offering last week.  Sunday School and Adult Education begin today.  We also have our Outreach Ministry Fair with 13 organizations here to give you info about their work and to give you an opportunity to volunteer to enter into their labors.  The Daughters of the King have resumed their monthly meeting routine, the members of the St. Catherine’s Guild chapter of the ECW begin their activities, as do various other groups of parishioners.  We get busy around here for autumn.

But the most important thing for us to get involved in is regular church attendance.  As I have often said – if all those who attended once a month all showed up on the same Sunday, we would have over 200 people in the pews.  Many people in the parish attend nearly every week (for which I thank God).  But many more do not, and for a variety of reasons.  I understand sickness, travel, and an occasional conflict here or there.  But if attending church becomes a “well, we aren’t doing anything else” decision, or worse, an “I have been busy so I need a day off” decision, then I am worried about the spiritual health of the congregation.

“First things first” needs to be a motto concerning our regular attendance at worship.  Coming together to be fed in Word and Sacrament weekly, as our Lord expects of us, is definitely a “first thing”.