​From the Rector: Diving into Fall

Dear friends,

We have some very special events coming up in these next few weeks. This Sunday, September 10, is Kickoff Sunday, when our Sunday School classes for adults, youth, and children start back up at 9:00, and when our Parish Choir will once again start leading us in song at 10:15. For adults, you’re invited to join me at 9:00 for Sunday Forum in Short Hall. If you’re able, find a copy of our book for this year, Walk in Love by Scott Gunn and Melody Wilson Shobe—we also have copies in the parish gift shop—and read the Introduction and Chapter 1. If you’re not, just come! Our planned Sunday Forum schedule for the year is available here.

For middle and high school youth, you’re invited to join Daphne Vernon in the Library in Farlander Hall for our youth group kickoff. Elementary- and preschool-age kids are invited to Godly Play in the Godly Play room off the central quadrangle.

Two weeks later, on Sunday, September 24, our Invite-Welcome-Connect team is organizing a Ministry Fair after the 10:15 service. This will be a chance to celebrate all the groups, teams, and classes that help make our congregation’s life vibrant and give us opportunities to grow and serve together. See below for details.

The following week, Sunday, October 1, is a very important day: the first congregational workshop in our Phase 2 of our Imagine Incarnation process. Many of you were part of our Phase 1 last fall, when we began to envision possibilities for the future of our buildings and grounds over the next several decades. You can read the results of that Phase here. Now it’s time to carry the conversation forward, building on the good work we did a year ago. Our planning firm, Siegel and Strain Architects, will help us clarify our hopes for our campus and work toward developing a generational plan that our vestry can endorse as a roadmap for the years ahead. Our Generational Planning Task Force is hoping that as many members of Incarnation as possible will participate in this first Phase 2 workshop on October 1 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. At that workshop, we’ll develop a set of criteria to help us evaluate any specific options for our campus.

The second workshop of Phase 2 will be on Saturday, November 18, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Yes, we are hoping as many members of our congregation as possible will come out on a Saturday morning! This workshop is where the biggest part of our shared work will be done together, as Siegel and Strain support us in a charrette-style process of imagining various possibilities for our campus. Please plan to be part of these two exciting and important sessions. We need as much of our congregation’s collective wisdom as possible to be at the tables as we seek to listen collectively to the Holy Spirit’s guidance for the future of these precious two acres that have been entrusted to us as stewards.

Finally, one more date to mark your calendars for this fall is Thursday, November 30. On that evening, Bishop Megan will be with us for a very special service celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the founding of our parish. A festive reception will follow. Plans for this celebration are in the works; if you’d like to be part of the planning, please let me or one of our vestry members know.

We have so much to give thanks for as a parish community, and so much to look forward to this fall. I’m grateful to be back from sabbatical, (mostly) recovered from a bout with COVID, and ready to dive in together.

In Christ’s love,

Stephen