Why I am at This Church - Julia Shaver

Last week, one of our Vestry members caught me at coffee hour and kindly asked me if I would say something this year to the congregation. “Just say a little something about yourself and why you come here” , they told me. “It would be nice for people to have a chance to get to know you”.

This might sound strange as a little speech to the Pastor’s wife. Yet, although I am married to your fine Rector over there, this is not why I come.

So who am I and why am I here? I am Julia — I use she/her pronouns — and I am here at this moment because my vestry friend is pretty good at being persuasive. However, it was just their luck that I happened to be coming from the 9am forum that week that happened to be on Courage. I took something from that forum that changed my actions, and instead of saying no, I bravely said yes. That is one reason I come here — because in being here I find myself doing things I am proud of. Being brave. Acting with integrity. Looking to serve and to have gratitude.

I am a family doctor here in the community, and I also teach newly minted doctors as part of my role. When practicing medicine, it often seems like you bear witness to a lot more misfortune than miracles, and how can you glimpse God’s good plan in this? I come here because I don’t receive easy answers — easy answers do not satisfy. Indeed I receive no answers that I want, but in sacred story and teaching I am given what I need — solace, strength, hope.

I am a mom of two precious girls, who can be seen reading up trees or prancing down the aisle in princess dresses. It is often not the easiest thing to have a steady Sunday commitment when one is raising kids in today’s world. There are birthday parties and soccer games and a really awesome farmer’s market in Windsor that only happens on Sundays. And I bring them here.

Here is where there are role models I am proud for them to learn from. Here is where they learn that God takes infinite forms, and all those forms are Love. Here is where I find a parent community that I laugh with, grumble with, and stumble with as we support each other in one of Gods’ greatest tasks, raising up these little humans.

This is why I come, and this is why I give. This good work is worth investing in.