Rector's Report to the 161st Annual Parish Meeting - January 31, 2021
It is hard to fathom that at the end of next month I will have completed my TWENTIETH year as the Rector of St. John’s Church. In these 20 years we are now on our 4th President of the United States, our 4th Governor of Michigan, 5th Mayor of Detroit, 6th Tigers Manager and 7th Detroit Lions Head Coach. Also in those 20 years we have witnessed together the tragedy of 9/11, military action in Afghanistan and Iraq (as well as military operations/interventions in at least 10 other countries), the opening of Ford Field (2003), the advent of social media (MySpace 2003, YouTube 2005, Facebook & Twitter 2006), the invention of the Smart Phone (2007), a major recession (2007-2010), City of Detroit declaring bankruptcy (2013), the announcement of the District Detroit redevelopment of the neighborhood (2014), and the opening of Little Caesars Arena (2017). In 2018 and 2019 St. John’s underwent a series of major renovations including a new handicapped entrance at the narthex garden door, a new drop off/parking area behind the building leading to a new street and parking garage, a completely rebuilt Ministry Center, and renovated undercroft and kitchen.
Also since 2001 we have had to pray about (and minister to parishioners with) outbreaks of the West Nile Virus (2002), Mumps (2006), E. Coli and Salmonella (2006), H1NI Swine Flu (2009), and Whooping Cough (2012) along with a yearly rotation of colds, flus, and other ‘regular’ health issues that our parishioners have had to deal with in their lives. Thankfully SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, and Ebola never made it here to Michigan.
NOTHING COMPARES WITH 2020. We first got wind of a virus in China appearing in the USA about this time last year, and by the end of February we cancelled Shrove Tuesday dinner just in case, and only got a week’s worth of Lenten Activities underway before people started absenting themselves from attendance out of an “abundance of caution”. By the end of March the Governor of Michigan’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” orders were in effect and the ecclesiastical authorities in the state of Michigan followed suit. For the first time in 161 years no public worship was held on this corner of Woodward Avenue. This prohibition lasted for 4 months, until the end of June. We were allowed to reopen with safety precautions such as Masking, Distancing, and 25% occupancy, which was effective – we had no infections. Despite the successful safe worship the dioceses in Michigan further restricted the parishes to ‘9 plus the priest’ per service on November 21, which means we are now doing 10 Services every weekend. Since the end of November we have had over 100 weekend worship Services.
I have to say that the time from March to June was incredibly frustrating. Daily Mass continued but from my ‘chapel in exile’ in the guest room of my house. Every day I offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for all the intentions of the parish, but no one was allowed to physically participate or receive Communion. It is the greatest privilege as a priest to stand at the altar of God to make Jesus Christ present in the Sacrament. But it was a gut punch every day to know that the faithful were being prohibited from attending and receiving – relegated to watching online. This became even more frustrating as other denominations re-opened, publicly worshipped safely, and offered the Sacrament, months before we were allowed to do so. Even when we were allowed to re-open for public worship St. John’s the only Episcopal Church (of the nine) in the city that did, and only a few others in the entire diocese did so as well.
Because we have had a YouTube Channel since 2006 (now with 2.4 million video views) and have been livestreaming weekday worship since 2017, we were uniquely positioned to broadcast worship at the beginning of the shut-down. The first few weeks, until other parishes got up to speed, we had upwards of 1500 live and replay views of the Sunday Services. Those numbers have settled down to about 400 per week. We soon discovered that parishes around the country were sharing links to their parishioners of our YouTube videos of our choir singing hymns. I regularly get emails and letters from people who have discovered St. John’s through the internet. One fellow called a left a message of encouragement from Liverpool, England! We upgraded our broadcast ability to simultaneously livestream to our website, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter and will be upgrading again with a new camera installed in the church. We have added a broadcast of Evening Prayer 5 days a week and in April I started a video series of “morning meditations” that I thought I would do for a couple of weeks - that was 279 days ago and still going.
As grateful as I am to be able to expand our reach through broadcasting of worship and teaching, it is still not the same as worship in person. Livestream is passive for the viewer unlike the participation of being present. Human interaction plays big part of worship. And more importantly it is only face to face that one can receive Holy Communion – so vital for our growth in Jesus Christ (see John Chapter 6:47-58). I know that there are some of us who are at high risk for infection or have been exposed recently and cannot attend. But otherwise I do hope, especially as the use of the vaccine increases, that more and more parishioners will return to the regular worship of Our Lord in church. If we continue to be limited to 10 people at a time I would be happy to do 15 Services if necessary to accommodate everyone! And when we are restored to 25% occupancy the massive size of our sanctuary, and having multiple Sunday Services, makes for more than enough room for all of us and those guests from other parishes that are worshipping with us because their own parishes haven’t reopened. It is my prayer that those who have gotten out of the habit of attending during these 31 weeks that we have been open for worship, have not gone from being ‘cautious’ to spiritually becoming a lapsed parishioner, or worse yet a lapsed Christian. Schools, jobs, stores and now again tomorrow, restaurants are open – and so is your church. I pray that Church as the outward manifestation of your relationship with Jesus Christ is a priority for you!
As you see in the financial reports, the Vestry spent their time this year being especially careful about budgeting and spending. The budget passed initially for 2020 was revised in June due to the reality of the changes due to the shutdown. Receipt and expense expectations were reduced, and with your generosity we were able to exceed the reduced income amount, which is now the benchmark for this current year. I hope that we can exceed it again and approach pre-pandemic giving. A hearty thank you to Treasurer Dave Schafer and our bookkeeper John Salisbury, to Wardens Peter Grim and Pat Walter, and to all the members of the vestry for their faithfulness and encouragement through these trying times.
One thing that the Vestry did this past year was a study on the book Made for Mission: renewing your parish culture by Tim Glemkowski. In this we were reminded that the Church is not about maintenance but about mission! And our mission is summed up in our mission statement to “Know Christ and to make Him known”. As we are in the pandemic we can start with the first half of this mission by being more involved in knowing Christ in prayer and study. The Alpha Course will be an additional way that we come to know Him more and is also a transition into the second half of our mission statement so that we can make Him known to others. EVERYTHING WE DO at St. John’s (worship, learning, fellowship) is to be focused on the mission of making and equipping disciples to glorify Jesus Christ and share Him with others. And as we move into my 21st year of my being the Rector of St. John’s that is my hope and aspiration for this parish – whether we are gathering at 10 people, 25% of occupancy, or at full strength!
Under His Mercy,
Fr. Steven J. Kelly, SSC, 13th Rector of St. John’s Church, Detroit
posted by StJohnsPriest | 3:01 PM
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