Rector's Report to the 165th Annual Parish Meeting - January 26, 2025

 Rector’s Report to the Annual Parish Meeting

January 26, 2025

 

                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.

 – Fr. William Armitage, St. John’s Cornerstone Dedication 1860

 

2024 has been for me a year of recollection.  In May I celebrated the 30^th Anniversary of having Holy Orders bestowed upon me, and with the retirement of one of my classmates in June I became the last member of my seminary class still in active ministry in the Episcopal Church.  In June I attended my 40^th high school reunion, seeing many men I haven’t seen since we were students in Orchard Lake.  In November Jennifer and I celebrated our 30^th wedding anniversary.  How have the years gone by so quickly?

By God’s grace I am completing my 24^th year as the Rector of St. John’s and continue as the longest serving priest in this diocese in the same position.  It seems like just yesterday that I mounted the pulpit here for the first time, Quinquagesima Sunday, and prayed that God would bless our time together.  He certainly has.  And who would have imagined all the remarkable things that have happened in our parish, neighborhood, and country since February 2001.           

We see from the reports in this booklet the many active things that the ministries in this parish has accomplished.  Outreach, Social Events, and Educational Opportunities are natural appendages to what is our primary purpose – to glorify God by worshipping Him, to come to know Him better, and to share the good news with others. 

The worship at St. John’s is sublime with our choir supporting the timeless Anglican cadence of prayer and praise of the Book of Common Prayer.  The social time after worship, as well as special events uplifts and encourages us.  Sunday School, the Alpha Course, Adult Education (Dante’s Inferno), and the Daily Morning Mediations are wonderful opportunities to learn the faith.  Our outreach work through things like the Baby Shower for Pregnancy Aid, Support of the Church in Malawi, support for local ministries through the Outreach Committee, the School Supplies gathering and October Food and Coat Drive, the Giving Tree and Warm Fuzzy Tree in support of Georgia Street Community Collective are all remarkable ways that we look outside ourselves to aid others in gratitude for all the blessings God has bestowed upon us.  2024 was a remarkable year for all of the above. 

Also this past year I have been involved in the community development planning for projects that could make a major impact on the neighborhood around St. John’s.  Plans are moving forward to place a cap over I-75 next to the church and other parts of the freeway nearby, making green space and walking space over the concrete chasm.  Planning is also underway for a complete rebuild of I-75 involving the removal of I-375 and reconfiguring the Vernor/Gratiot/I-75 turn and exit to our east.  If both these projects achieve their funding goal it will make for remarkable changes for pedestrian and bicycle traffic coming to St. John’s. 

When Fr. Armitage, the Vestry, and parishioners of St. John’s placed in the cornerstone the words quoted above, they could not have imagined what Detroit and The Episcopal Church would be like 165 years later.  I can hardly believe the changes I have seen in just 24 years.  But we continue to be convinced of another phrase quoted in that dedication document. 

We are conscious and confident that we are building that which will outlast ourselves; and we rejoice in the hope that, within the walls we are permitted to raise, thousands, in successive generations, will worship GOD, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and confess our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, in the Sacraments and ordinances of His Gospel; and partake of all the blessings of membership in His Church, which are precious to our souls to-day.