The topic for my November newsletter article is almost a “no-brainer”. It is after all the month of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, if you don’t know it, is my favorite family holiday. And this year we will be at my parent’s for the holiday. Joe and I were engaged the last time we were in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, so it’s been six years and I can’t wait. And as much as I want to tell you it’s more about the people around the table than the food, I can already taste my Daddy’s cornbread dressing, my Mother’s cranberry salad and my sister’s pecan pie (which is our grandfather’s recipe). As with most of us it will be a feast! But before we feast we will stand around my mother’s beautifully decorated table, hold hands, and each one of us will say something for which we are thankful. This is our family’s sacred time. Since we’re not a particularly demonstrative family or one known to emote about our feelings this is our special time of saying thank you to one another and expressing our love. So in anticipation of what I will say to my family, I’ve been thinking about what I want to say to you in thanksgiving for the gift of being your parish priest.
Something I am keenly aware of right now is not only the joy I have as serving as your priest but the gift you give to me in allowing me to grow as a priest, as a rector, as a person. I find I am continually reshaping my thinking about church as we journey together and am discovering things about myself that I didn’t know until becoming the rector of St. James Church.
One place of learning at the moment is at the Altar Table. Presiding at Eucharist is one of my greatest delights as a priest. But recently I’ve been rethinking my role at the Table. The canons of the church place the liturgical life of a congregation in the hands of the priest in charge. But I have always understood my responsibility as one shared with others and while I may lead us in these prayers, we are all celebrants of the Eucharist. As host I believe it is my job to make sure all feel welcome, the table is properly set and there is sufficient bread and wine, just like any host would do when serving a meal. So then, I ponder this question, “In what other social setting would the host eat first?” Now I know what the rubrics say and I know that traditionally the priest has always consumed the bread and wine first, but why? I can’t really come up with a good reason so as you might have observed for the past several weeks I’ve been waiting to eat last. It just seems right to serve others first, as any host would do. And you won’t see me consume all the leftovers while at the Altar either. To me that’s just not good Table manners. That’s not to say we don’t reverently clean up later because we do. And at least on this point the rubrics clearly permit the consumption of whatever remains of the consecrated elements after worship has ended.
So I guess what I want to say is “be patient with me as I continue to grow as a priest and ask questions of myself in my role as your rector.” After all, we are all in this together. And God is not finished with any of us just yet. I trust that just because we’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean there isn’t room for rethinking it, studying it in a new light, praying about it, and changing it as we seek to be more fully formed in Christ.