Partying like it's 1859 (or 1789) - Rector's Rambling for July 29, 2018

I remember in college hearing the expression “The Past is Prelude”, and it still strikes me as quite profound.  All of our past is the introduction to our current identity, and contributes to the story of our future as well.

We are blessed with a wonderful prelude here at St. John’s, and today we celebrate that by honoring the founders of our parish.  As the Psalmist exclaims, “(we) have a goodly heritage” (16:7).  Henry Porter Baldwin and his neighbors started something wonderful out in the countryside, beyond the then city borders.  That foundation, conceived in hope and faithfulness, is our prelude.

We got off to a good start, growing rapidly as the area became enveloped by the city itself.  But within 50 years the area surrounding this Victorian Gothic structure had completely changed from rural to residential and then to commercial.  With the changes came challenges as well as new opportunities for mission and ministry.  Attendance peaked in the late 1920s (average Sunday attendance of 2500 people, membership of 4000).  But neighborhood decline began during the depression, and accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s.  By the 1950s attendance was down below 1000, and shortly before the year 2000 attendance bottomed out at an average of 37 people per Sunday.

By God’s grace the neighborhood has greatly improved, and membership at St. John’s has increased since 2000.  The opening of the new stadiums (2000, 2003) and the new arena (2017), as well as the overall improvement in housing options and the popularity of downtown office space has helped St. John’s to regain its footing and develop new ministry opportunities.

The heart of that prelude that defines us is none other than the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the expression of the faith expressed in the traditional Episcopal (Anglican) Book of Common Prayer.

As our first Rector wrote, “As Christians and as Churchman, we thank GOD for our strong assurance and conviction, drawn on past history, that the Protestant Episcopal Church, for whose communion this building will be reared, is so grounded on the one foundation, JESUS CHRIST, so true to Him, in the ministry, the doctrine, the Liturgy, the sacred year, the entire system which she has inherited; so careful of His complete Gospel; holding each and every part thereof, in its own due proportion and harmony; that however we and those who shall follow us may prove unworthy of her and of her Lord, among all the changes and chances of this world, she will remain, in all essential things unchanged.”

So important when written in 1860, and as important for us today as well.  Thank God for this goodly heritage.