Hello, Everyone! I am sitting in my office now, with the kind of July day outside that makes one think, “Where’s my parka?” It’s nap-weather, though that’s not in the cards. I had a sudden realization this morning that my Chalice column was due to our Fearless Chalice Editor Georgia Gruver yesterday. Now I know what it really feels like to be the Board of Trustees President. It makes me wistful, having heard from her own lips that Georgia had entertained high hopes about my punctuality. Ah, well.
This week (as I write) is a busy one! Our Religious Exploration Hiring Committee (Georgia Gruver, Doug Sprague and me) and Reverend Katie will be interviewing two promising candidates to fill the vacancy left by Lane Campbell’s departure, and have been contemplating how best to describe Starr King and the onward-and-upward direction of our RE program goals.
Also this week, the Sabbatical Committee (Keith Lewis, Colleen Dino, Reverend Katie and me) meets for the first time. I am so looking forward to planning with them how to have the very best Sabbatical experience Starr King’s congregants can have, while Reverend Katie will be, we hope, having her own rejuvenating Sabbatical program. We will plot the Sabbatical timeline, brainstorm about the particulars and identify where we need to focus special energy, thinking and expense. I am reminded by the task of filling our pulpit and programming diromg Reverend Katie’s absence (as many things at Starr King remind me, especially on Sunday mornings) of how lucky we are to have a dedicated and resourceful Worship Committee! They and our Sound Associates are such a reliable and talented group that they sometimes seem to operate “unseen.” This is a measure of their competence but we don’t want to take their contributions for granted! When you see them and appreciate their commitment and professionalism, do remember to tell them so.
This is pretty good advice generally. When I’m enjoying myself at an event, or reading the Chalice, or sitting in church knowing our kids have an appealing Religious Exploration Funshop that day, or when the Starr King grounds please my eye and give me a restful feeling, I try to think, “Who made this possible for me? Have I told them (or told them again) that they’re giving me something great?” People are so glad to be appreciated, and usually so deserving, and it feels wonderful to express simple gratitude to someone for their work. Win-Win!
Best wishes for your month, with hopes that you will avoid chilblains this High Summer in the Bay Area.
Thank you again for your support of our Board of Trustees, Committee on Ministry, Clergy, Religious Exploration, one another, and our common search for meaning. May we thrive!
Andy