Congregational Letter 9 09

ST. FRANCIS CHURCH Biblically Minded::Mission Driven

September 9, 2009 Dear Franciscans, This past Sunday I shared news with many of you that is of great importance to the future of our congregation. I wanted to follow up with this letter detailing the announcement with particular concern for those of you who were unable to be with us last Sunday. Over the past several months I have been working with the Bishop and other members of the Diocesan staff to come to agreement with the owners of our worship space on the terms of our new lease (our previous agreement having terminated at the end of July). It is important to understand a bit of the financial background in order for the following information to make sense. As many of you are aware the Diocese of Tennessee has become more conscious over the past year and a half of the magnitude of debt which we have taken upon ourselves by co-signing on various loans for congregations. While the details are somewhat complicated, suffice it to say that when the loans were taken out to support the mission of these congregations, there was some confusion about which funds the diocese could use as collateral. Since that time, this has been helpfully clarified but has resulted in the realization that the Diocese of Tennessee has more debt than is reasonable. St. Francis Church, as a mission congregation of the Diocese of Tennessee, has been generously supported through both the diocesan budget and the private donations of a non-profit group known as The Volunteers for Mission since our founding in 2003. Like the other mission congregations in the diocese, St. Francis was planted under a “five-year plan” to become self supporting. For a variety of reasons, this has not happened and St. Francis is not at all unique in not meeting this time table. In January, we at St. Francis entered our sixth year as a worshipping community while at the same time we have been experiencing the effects of the recession personally and corporately. Once again, we were not alone in our struggles and just as the Volunteers for Mission & the Diocese were asked to increase our support (now to the tune of nearly $7,000 a month) there were other congregations that needed additional assistance. I share this background with you so that you will understand why, when discussing the terms of our new lease agreement, the Diocese felt it necessary to have some sort of termination clause, so that, should the funding for missions be exhausted, there would be a way out of the lease. During our discussions with our land-lord, a two year lease with a 60-day termination clause was proposed, i.e. if funding was exhausted as was projected, and no further funds could be obtained, notice could be given without penalty. The ancient faith for the modern world . . . PO Box 697 • Goodlettsville, TN 37070 St. Francis Episcopal Church | stfrancis-tn.net | T: (615) 851-0790 | F: (615) 859-6572

You may not be surprised to hear that our land-lord saw this not as a two-year lease, but as a 60 day lease since, as she said, we could sign it one day and give notice the next. In response she suggested a lease agreement with a mutual 90-day termination clause, which would allow her to advertise for a more long-term tenant. With the signing of this agreement, I knew that there were now two sources of uncertainty for our community. On the one had, we’ve known there was a limit to the financial support we would be receiving from the Diocese. At one point, the support was projected to last through 2011, but with the increased needs of all the missions, that number was revised down to sometime in 2010. On the other hand, we now know that we could be given a three-month notice to vacate our facility--not the most conducive situation for growth and health. What this means for us and our future Prompted by this new reality, I met with Bishop Bauerschmidt and Canon Snare on August 17th to share my concern that there be some sort of plan put in place for the future of St. Francis Church. We met for close to two hours and discussed various possibilities. In the end, the most positive possibility seemed to be that of a merger between St. Francis and St. Joseph of Arimathea in Hendersonville. Such an option does several things: •

It honors the reality of St. Francis as a spiritually healthy community of faith. I have often shared my thoughts that during my time at St. Francis I have felt as though I’ve been looking at two conflicting modes of evaluation. On the one hand, I’ve been encouraged by the level of spiritual vitality I see displayed in our community. At the same time, finances have always been a difficult issue for us, and we have not made the strides necessary to ensure that we could be a financially self-sustaining congregation. One of the things the Bishop mentioned more than once during our meeting was the fact that St. Francis’ situation is nothing like that of other congregations which have been closed over the past two years. St. Francis is a community that is healthy and has a longstanding history with one another. This reality means that there needed to be a more robust plan for our future as a community than was the case for the other closed plants. Additionally, Bishop John mentioned his affection for the people of St. Francis and the strong sense of faith and community he has senses during his visits with us.

•

It honors the purpose for which St. Francis was planted. St. Francis was planted as a mission by the Diocese of Tennessee in order to reach those who have not heard the gospel or who are not yet part of a Christian community. St. Francis has been successful in this mission, as any honest look at our community will show. As one member of the Mission Council said when we were discussing this, had this mission not been undertaken, the probability is that this group of people would never have come together--many of us would not be worshipping in the Prayer Book tradition, and some of us might not be part of a Christian community at all.

This purpose is one that can be honored the most through continuing to reach out to those who need to hear the Good News of Christ, and maintaining the relationships that have been formed among us. •

It provides new opportunities for mission & ministry. Many of you have taken part in the Vacation Bible School which we’ve partnered with St. Joseph’s to put on. In addition, we have held combined worship services, such as the Pentecost in the Park service, and we have served to host their vestry retreat. The resources of a combined congregation are an obvious asset, but perhaps not as obvious and even more important would be the healthy demographic sweep of a combined congregation. Something I noticed while helping with the VBS, was the fact that St. Francis and St. Joseph’s complement each other demographically. While St. Francis has a number of younger children, St. Joseph’s has teenagers. Both of us have a healthy mix of ages otherwise, though St. Joseph’s has more people in their 40’s and 50’s. So in addition to having more practical resources, a combined congregation would be better equipped to reach out to the broad sweep of the community.

•

It leaves the door open for future missions in the Goodlettsville area. The experience the Diocese of Tennessee has gained in church planting has demonstrated that a healthier model may be a return to the older practice of planting parochial missions. That is, a congregation grows to the point that it determines it would like to plant a second congregation from within--like cell division. A healthy and thriving combined congregation at St. Joseph’s could, in the long term, serve as a healthy and supportive base for such a future plant.

Bishop Bauerschmidt has proposed this idea to the vestry at St. Joseph’s, and they presented it to their congregation this past Sunday, as I presented it to those of you at the service. We hope to take the next week to discern and discuss the issues around such a merger. The St. Joseph’s vestry will meet on the 16th, and, should all go well, we will call a joint meeting of our Mission Council with their Vestry to discuss the details of this process. Additionally, should they agree to the proposal, there will be a time set aside for a meeting with Canon Snare to discuss my being priest-in-charge of the combined congregation. I know that this is major news and that you may have questions and concerns. Please don’t hesitate to contact me to talk about them. I’m open to having coffee or lunch with anyone to talk about these issues. My number, for those who don’t have it is: 615-440-6492. This is a bittersweet and hopeful time as we reflect upon what God is doing in our community. It puts me in mind of the way theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar’s employs the biblical imagery of the ointment jar to discuss the influence of one of the first great biblical scholars, Origen of

Alexandria, of whom he says “while the jar was breaking into a thousand pieces [...] the fragrance of the ointment was coming forth and ‘filling the whole house.’” My prayer is that, while this transition will mean changes, and the loss of a name that has served not only to identify but to shape us, that it will also mean that those things which truly make us the community we are will fill the whole house, the larger community of which we are a part, and that the spirit that pervades here--born of all of you in your faith--will go with us. In Christ, Jody✙