I am having trouble completing my parish survey. There is a section where I am asked for an opinion on the dollar amount of this fundraising campaign. I hesitate because none of the choices sound realistic. $500,000 is still needed to retire the debt on the leaky parish hall. Until we can retire the debt, I am not optimistic about new projects. I am glad there are people pushing us along. Dreamers have a role to play in the Church, but true visionaries are the ones capable of propelling schemes such as ours along by sheer power of will. The true visionary has the conviction of the Spirit as his/her strength. If the Holy Spirit leads us in this direction, so be it. Until then, I think I will do the typical Episcopal
shrug and go on living with our peeling paneling, our moldy
sanctuary, silent bell tower, and exposed
portico. There are worse things to live with. We could live in New Hampshire.
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Given the court ruling that the properties of a parish really belong to the larger Church, will that change people's minds about leaving TEC. The economist in me says that my principles can be bought. There is a monetary price to pay for leaving, and I for one don't want to pay the bill. Most people love their church buildings and grounds more than they love their bishop. I went through this little argument in my head that since our parish can barely maintain our old building, maybe we should leave TEC and saddle the ECUSA with the debt. But if we did so we would probably not be able to come up with enough money to build a new structure. Since it would be wrong to place my debt onto someone else, I guess the morally right thing to do is to stay with the church and humbly endure the national foolishness, but the right economic choice would be to leave and join the wealthy church down the street.
ReplyDeleteWhich wealthy church down the street? Freedom Center?
ReplyDeleteRight on! Not only would I enjoy the "freedom," but I would also lose weight and stay in shape with all the rocking and bopping. In my quest for balance of mind, body, and soul that might be the ticket. Actually, I was thinking about about the "frozen chosen" of the Presbyterian Church. I might not get enough exercise there, but my mind would be comforted by knowing that someone else was paying the electric bill.
ReplyDelete