This past year is one filled with many new experiences that will mark it as one of the most memorable years both for me personally, but for St. Catherine’s as well.

The year was dominated by the clergy renewal sabbatical. The early part of the year seemed to disappear all to quickly into the planning for my sabbatical and the months after my return have sped by as we celebrated this time and began to look to the future. Because of all of this – this annual report may be a bit shorter than the past.

The clergy renewal time from April through July was a gift of grace. It provided the time for new learning, for personal growth, for time spent with family, and for memories that will accompany me through the remainder of my life. In many ways, words cannot capture the profound nature of this time. I have spoken and presented so much about this time that it feels redundant to express these things again in this report. Yet, I feel it important to introduce these observations into the public record so to speak.

Early in January I developed a list of things to do before the beginning of my time away. Included on the list were a number of activities that eventually became key to our ongoing life together. Among the to do list were

* Hiring a supply priest. I’ll say some more about George Alexander later.

* Establishing and meeting with a Capital Gifts Planning Team. This campaign will be important to our life together for years to come. Reducing our debt and therefore the burden of it on our operating budget will deliver many benefits to the mission and ministry of this congregation. Under the leadership of Liz Rea, David Craig, and Diane Sanders the early work of this team has identified the goal and timing for this important effort.

I was delighted to return in August and to find this campaign exactly where I felt it needed to be and the completion of a feasibility study that clearly identified the goals of the congregation and the timing needed to make this effort successful. Jennifer Massey and Nelson Gale have come on board to chair this campaign and John Barrington has continued to bring his talents and time to this planning effort.

* Establishing and meeting with a Stewardship Committee. When tom Hunter and Joyce Hendricks agreed to chair the stewardship effort for 2005 and after we had met before sabbatical there was no question in my mind that we would have a stewardship plan in place when I returned. I was right. They have, with their team of Nadine Pope, Chris Williams, and Al Jones led us through a tremendously successful stewardship program. To increase pledge income 26+% in year is no small feat.

We all knew that we needed to talk about money in 2006 and to clearly communicate the congregation’s needs. Yet we all agreed that at St. Catherine’s we don’t give to a budget. In other words, we don’t make a budget and then set a goal for stewardship. We encourage our members to give out of thanksgiving to God for the gifts they have and for the place this congregation finds in their hearts. This committee, I believe, navigated these waters with creativity and clarity. The work they have done and the results accomplished have led to a 2006 budget that moves us clearly into a new time and era at St. Catherine’s.

* Establish an Assimilation Team. Bettye Harris, Tom Snead, and John Rea agreed to meet with me and to develop an assimilation plan that would greet newcomers, inform them about St. Catherine’s, invite them to participate, identify their needs, and to celebrate their presence among us. We can never do too much when it comes to our new members nor can we ever be satisfied that we have the perfect program in place. These three people, however, are well on their way to building a solid program for welcoming, accepting, nurturing and serving all people who find their way through the doors of this building. Whether greeting on Sunday mornings, or visiting newcomers in their homes, or organizing and offering newcomer’s coffee hours, we have put some new things in place this past year and will continue to build on our successes. During our most recent newcomer’s coffee we had 8 new households none of which had been at St. Catherine’s more than three months.

March was a long and difficult month what with Holy Week, Easter and trying to accomplish all these items before leaving on sabbatical. But they were accomplished and I believe we can look to the quality of the leadership in each of these major initiatives and give thanks the quality of lay leadership we have here at St. Catherine’s. There is significant promise for this congregation in the work that was accomplished while I was away.

Now, concerning the clergy renewal time, let me turn to the words of the Lilly Grant proposal

Changing attitudes about and expanding ministries to diverse people are the focus of the renewal program for our rector, The Rev. Jim Nixon. (By diverse we mean people who are different from the majority of our congregation in terms of race, origin, sexual orientation, theology, economic status, politics, etc.) The opportunities outlined for intentional exploration and reflection give Fr. Jim the additional experience and insight—and new ideas—he needs to effectively lead us as we seek to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ to love one another as we love ourselves.

The renewal program has five components. The first three relate to diversity; the fourth gives him the refreshment and reconnection with his family that he needs and deserves; the fifth will renew him for a long-term commitment to our congregation. The components are (1) interaction with an Episcopal school that is purposely pursuing diversity; (2) immersion into the Spanish language and the Hispanic culture; (3) experiencing the Taizé community in France and interacting with youth from various parts of the world; (4) travel with family; (5) time at a retreat center for reading, study, reflection, and writing.

Before I go any further I want to recognize the efforts of my clergy renewal team. My deepest gratitude goes to John Brooks, Barbara Perry, Liz Rea, Emily Gale, and Natalie Whitlow. Even while I was away they worked untiringly to be sure that every component of the renewal time was fulfilled to it fullest potential. They are still working as we bring to an end this time.

There are many things I can say about sabbatical. Most of them can be summed up in the following observation. I left this congregation for sabbatical with a commitment to learn about expanding our ministries to diverse people and I returned with a passion for justice. I discovered during my reading, my interaction with others, in my prayer, and in my time with my family that at the very root of loving our neighbor as ourselves and inviting that neighbor no matter who he or she may be into this community is a passion to do justice. Therefore as you have throughout the fall, you will continue to hear in my preaching, in my teaching, and generally in my writing this cry for justice. It will delight some, it will anger others, it will fall on deaf ears, and it will fall on hearts willing and ready to hear. My challenge to you and to others who come to this place will be the same challenge I heard from a student in chapel at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.

I challenge this community to “move past [our] sweeping generalizations, and ignorant stereotypes, and actually get to know all those other small, yet tremendously important parts of [the other’s] character” in order to “fully appreciate [people] for who they are.”

During October I did a four week series on Clergy Renewal time and some of that material bears repeating in this forum.

The following key observations and learning summarize for me the heart of the sabbatical

* All of us are in need of transformation and God does so by bringing the “other” into our lives.

* Diversity as an end unto itself makes objects out of people.

* Diversity Weekend at St. Catherine’s is too narrow a focus and risks marginalizing our commitment to “welcome, accept, nurture, and serve all people.”

* Leadership must set the tone and act consistently with the vision.

* Respectful dialogue engages differing ideas in healthy and constructive ways.

* The community embraces the vision by incorporating into norms and expectations of one another and newcomers.

* Adversity is the gift of God. It represents God’s desire to help us grow emotionally and spiritually.

* Learning Spanish is a lot like God talks to us. Lots of hand motions, catching a word or two, a little bit of understanding here and there, some comfort, and a lot of hope as a mother comforts her children.

* God does not provide an easy answer to pain and suffering. It frees us of the passivity of accepting everything as God’s will. To remember clearly that God does not want violence, death, hatred, or exclusion, frees us to be close to the one suffering and not run away.

* If you place any truth or aim in our life above the command to love your neighbor then you may be led to achieve that aim by any means including violence. You may destroy other people’s lives, but surely you will destroy your own life. Hatred or spirit of competition will make of your neighbor the cause of all your problems and you will effectively close the door to the promise of the good news.

* Jesus refuses the logic of violence. He refuses to make himself the enemy of those who reject him.

* God finds his way through the noise of anger, failure, bitterness, etc. to give us his word. And there is a trust that once the word is given there will be a reaction.

In and through all of this time I was led finally to write a definition of what it means to embrace diversity, I offer it to this community for our own dialogue and conversation over the coming months. I wrote

Embracing diversity is to gather into one’s arms the “other” and to allow ourselves to be transfigured by their experience. It is to “welcome” into our lives the very contradiction of our own experience.

The questions I suggest we focus our conversation on are as follows:

* What does it mean to become a congregation who. . .

is open “to the presence, gifts, voices, and power of people on the margins of the church and society.”

receives “the other as freely and fully as God does, even when our tradition, our culture, and our hearts may cry, ‘No!’”

becomes “the image of God’s grace-filled embrace of all creation,” and surrenders “to the transforming love and revolutionary will of this same God of welcome. Whatever our race, class, gender, sexuality or age, Jesus has invited us, as his disciples, to love as he loves and welcome as he welcomes.”

The other components of this time helped me learn personally and theologically about embracing the other in my life. But, Costa Rica helped me learn about myself. And key in that experience was learning how it feels to be the other. It was the most difficult time in the entire sabbatical. At the end of the first week in Santa Anna, I wrote

During the first day of school I must have looked a little like a deer caught in the headlights. The trip to the Conversa campus from downtown is through narrow streets and then straight up the side of a mountain – the bus shifts down to first gear for the climb which is taken on a road where radios assure that no one is coming down. We were greeted and the first thing we did was take a 100 question multiple choice Spanish test. The answers were “a,” “b,” “c,” or “d.” You were to choose “d” only in the event of “I do not know.” The questions were mostly about verb conjugations and context of both verbs and nouns. All were fill in the blank for which we were given three possible choices and a fourth, my favorite, “I don’t know.” Well friends I am simply to proud (yes, I know, a sin) to have put 100 “d’s” but believe me it would have been a more accurate reflection of my knowledge. I didn’t put too many other letters since even a blind dog finds a bone once in a while – if you know what I mean. We then got our orientation. Don’t come home drunk (I can’t say Bombay Sapphire Martini in Espanola so there’s little chance of that), don’t have a member of the opposite sex behind closed doors at your host family’s home (are you kidding, Joan would spend my money to fly here First Class [walk-up fare] to personally kill me – in the bedroom of my host family home), etc.

Later in the same update. I continued

I’ve been reminded about two things again in my life. The first is not news to these updates. I’m not a good solo traveler. I enjoy being with someone and it gives me greater sense of adventure than when I’m alone. The second is that I don’t like being wrong and rather than be wrong I keep quiet. And I’m not going to learn any Espanola unless I open my mouth and every time I open my mouth I can’t have worked for an hour on construction of what I’m about to say so ---- guess what – I’m going to be wrong a lot over these coming weeks. And I suspect that is the learning God wants me to encounter as well as learning to do things a bit more on my own and not depend on others so much.

The weeks ahead will bring challenges and I will be changed. I am proud of myself for doing this and thankful (at least at this very minute) for my sabbatical team who has and continues to support me and pray for me. Thank you! I can’t imagine the Cingular bill but it has been my lifeline to Joan and she’s been patient and willing to listen. She then hangs up and makes panic phone calls to Kate and Matt (call your father with any upbeat news) and then our friends and family for prayers. Thank you. I realize it is a brave thing in and of itself to take these four weeks on. And I proudly claim that knowledge. The number of older adults in the class confirms this observation. And, I am the only adult staying in town with a host family. All the rest are living on campus. I realize I am smart enough and resolved enough to make something out of this time. For these and so many other gifts I am grateful to God.

The time proved to faithful to what I had written in the grant proposal many months before

The congregational committee asked where might I be pushed? Where might I become uncomfortable in exploring diversity? This is what the language immersion portion of the program does for me. Being in Costa Rica will throw every piece of who I am off balance—being away from my family, away from the known, in a culture where I won’t understand the language, and, on top of that, having to learn something in the midst of this experience. What will be important is not just what I’m doing but how I’m feeling as I’m doing it, which I suspect will include feelings of being set apart and being different.

Overall, this time of renewal was just that – renewal. It was a time of great joy and anxiety at times. It was the genesis of some wonderful stories that will be told within our family for years to come. I cannot express the depth of my gratitude to my family, to Sherry and George, to Barbara and Liz, to each of you and to the Lilly Endowment for the gift of this time. It was a time to look at my ministry and to determine where I am and what lies ahead. I returned refreshed. I returned with a new passion for the life of the church and the proclamation of the Gospel. I returned with a profound sense and deep gratitude for the gifts my Lord has given me. I returned with a joy and hope for the next years of exciting ministry in the Episcopal Church.

What about the coming year. I believe there are some significant challenges that lie ahead of us. This is not a comprehensive list, but will be the focus of my leadership in the coming years.

I want to convene a group to explore further the possibility of Hispanic ministry at St. Catherine’s. I do not know what this means. There has been much speculation about what I am trying to do by introducing Spanish in our service. Mostly it has been about what I am NOT trying to do. I am trying to say by introducing the Spanish is that we are, indeed, a congregation that “welcomes, accepts, nurtures and serves all people” – which you may recognize as our mission statement. What Hispanic ministry means to St. Catherine’s – I do not know. I do know that our Lord is forcing this question in my life and to be faithful I will follow his command. Together, we will explore it and we will tell you what we discover. It is about what I said to Sharon Parisi at the time of the Emmaus Project – I do not know where we are going; I do not know how we will get there, but to be faithful we must obey our Lord’s invitation.

We have spoken about our capital campaign. This is an imperative to our life together. In order to position this congregation for the future we who are here now must do our part. We have been responsible about our financial planning and we know what story must be told. And that story is that we have the opportunity to reduce our debt so that it is manageable within the capacity of our operating budget. The derivative benefit of this campaign is continued growth in our programs and mission. The campaign will not be supported to the degree Faith Builds! was supported. No matter how will we communicate, there will be some who cannot understand why we are raising money again. And the truth is the degree to which we support this campaign will determine whether we must once again have a capital campaign in 2009. Our financial plan is clear! If we raise $750,000 now we will avoid the need for a third campaign in 2009. Please support this effort when you are invited to do so.

I want to see us continue to work on our Ministry Teams. They have made significant progress this year. Yet there are teams that are still not functioning. The teams that are functioning, however, are beginning to get a clearer picture of the power of this structure. The Vestry will be working on this structure during our retreat.

Our search for new Youth Director gives us the opportunity to make changes in our staffing that may result in having this key leadership for a longer period of time. I do not know what this means, yet. But I have some ideas and others to which I have spoken have offered their’s as well. It might mean having to change our perception of this position and how we staff it. What I am clear about is the support your Vestry has for this important area of ministry. There was no question in their mind of either funding this position or doing so for a full 12 months even though they might well have saved some money or balanced the budget with this position.

These are a few of the opportunities that face us this year. I hope you will involve yourself at any level.

As always, I want to offer some thank you’s. To Sherry and to George, words will never express the deep thanks I have for your ministry this past year. Both of you clearly grew to care for one another and to share this opportunity. Sherry, I see in you the marks of George’s care and affection for ministry. George, you will forever be part of this congregation at so many levels, but clearly in the Alleluias that are proclaimed Sunday after Sunday – as a clear protestation of my not proclaiming them. They are the most affectionate Alleluias I hear.

To the rest of my staff, I want to say how much I appreciate your presence in my life and the life of this congregation. I heard someone speculate the other day that maybe since returning from sabbatical I felt not needed at St. Catherine’s because the staff had done so well during my time away. I find that a bit of an odd way to think, but be that as it may, I do believe it was a testimony to their ability to keep the day to day ministry alive and well without my micro-managing them. And it is exactly what we award leadership to do – to lead and not get in the way. To Rose, Ginney, Karen, Karolyn, Jana and Brian – I give you my thanks and tell you how much I value your presence at St. Catherine’s. And while I’m at it, let me say how grateful I am for the vision of Brian and Jana as they exploit the wonderfully rich acoustics of our new space. I hope we will continue to see and hear new and exciting opportunities to experience music in new ways at St. Catherine’s.

Which brings me to the most important person in my life – my wife. This year we celebrate 35 years of marriage. This past year we were apart a great deal of time. I didn’t like it – but had the added bonus of world travel. Joan didn’t like IT and – well – she had work to go to each day. Not exactly a fair trade. But she never complained about it. She never said a bad thing about all the great things I was seeing and doing. And, of course, as I’ve already said she listened when I was desperate and missing her so badly she was a comfort. I am so grateful to her and for the love she has shown me. She is, in the fullest sense of the work, my helpmate and companion in my ministry. I could not do it without her.

I want to thank each of you about your continued confidence in my leadership. I am aware of the trust you put in me. I am aware of your prayers and support in the good times and the bad. I am aware that you continue to trust me to lead this congregation. I trust that God will be with us as we faithfully follow his command to love him with our entire being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. May we have the will to do what he has commanded.

Oh well, so much for “shorter.”