A Retreat? Already? Didn’t the vestry just START WORKING? WHY DO THEY ALREADY NEED A BREAK?

Okay, hopefully you aren’t thinking this, but maybe you are? Why a retreat?

Something that the vestry has noted over the last few years is that, in large part due to COVID, the connectivity between members of the vestry has really gone down. We don’t get as much time together, don’t know each other as well, and don’t work as well together as we used to. You might find this is true in other parts of your life as well. Collective work, whether in the home, church, job or in the community, requires strong relationships, ‘bonds of affection’ as they are referred to in scripture. No matter how much we think we can do things on our own, the reality is, we cannot.

In some ways, communal or collective work is like preparing a meal. Lots of ingredients, different inputs, different methods, different inspirations all coming together to put food on the table. So for the vestry, we need to get ‘back in the kitchen’ as it were and practice cooking. Which is why I am very happy to have Derrick Weston joining us again this weekend both to facilitate our retreat and to preach this Sunday. Derrick and his colleague The Rev. Anna Woofenden have just written a book called “The Just Kitchen” which can help all of us do just that.

The vestry will be reading this this year and I hope you will consider joining us in this practice. A few copies will be available for purchase this Sunday after services and you can also of course find a kindle version on Amazon.

The authors helpfully remind us that every week we gather as a community of faith, set the table, and share a meal together. But we don’t always come as prepared to the meal as we should. This book invites us back into the kitchen to ensure that when we do come to the Eucharistic Feast we do so with Godly intentions of Justice, Peace and Community.

Thank you Derrick for sharing with us and I hope you all can join us on Sunday.