Timing by Sandra Lee Schubert

Time flies doesn’t it? You hear that all the time. Even as a child my summers went by too quickly. I hated August most of all. It meant September was not far behind and school would begin again. It was also the hottest month, the time when mosquitoes would bite my sunburned flesh and my allergies would have me hating mornings. There are times I wish I could push the pause button on life. Just so I can think a little bit. I could rewind some parts and review, see where I made mistakes. Maybe I could see where I also did some good.

Time flies. It rushes past me, faster and faster, making my head spin. It was more then 30 years ago when I first walked into the Cathedral. I remembered it being dark, and a bit cold. At that time it was not for a church service but for a talk by a woman named Hilda. As I remember she was a medium of some sort. Back then I was a spiritual dabbler, rebelling against my Catholic upbringing. I think it would have been better if I could have built upon my religious foundation. But occasionally you need to wander off into the wilderness and see what there is to discover. I would come back to the Cathedral for an occasional event. But finally after years of exploring I settled down here ready to root someplace and hopefully grow. The trouble for me in this spiritual exploration was that it had left me un-tethered and aimless. I was a spiritual airhead of sorts, my head always in the clouds. Settling here was the only thing I could do. Its roots were built of living stone forged deep into the ground. Here I could begin to find my bearings.

People have talked of going home for the holidays. As you may remember my childhood home is now just rubble, and my parents gone many years. Home is where the heart is. At the cathedral I have found a new kind of home. And even if I were to leave, I would no longer be un-tethered in the same way as when I arrived. I have become bound to something powerful. The stone goes deep.

Time does fly. But there are those things that remain eternal. Even as we speed through this life we are not alone. I can say I am still growing and exploring, following some old paths and forging new ones.

This is the last of my Warden’s letters to appear in Crossings. Come February I will step down and a new warden will write in this space. The two year’s have gone quickly. They have been filled with all sorts of interesting things. I can only hope I have done some good for the congregation. In the meantime, I thank all of you who have supported me, and those people who continue to support the work of the congregation and the cathedral. I know how hard we all work. But we have this lovely stone to support us and the spirit of God who sustains us through all we do.

Happy Holidays to all and the may the very best of things come to you in 2007.

Email: wardens@saintsaviour.org

Budget Time by Bob Carey

Budget time. Always an interesting moment. There is a deep narrative in all budgets. They offer in their dry, columnar way a perspective on what we are about, on what we are doing. The issue of doing is central to seeing what a congregation is, because the budget details the activities that are valued, that a community wants to support and nurture.

It is possible, after all, to think of a congregation in rather static terms. It is a gathered group of people, people who show up regularly for worship and then go home. But that is only the beginning of an interesting discussion. They don't gather just for the sake of gathering; they gather to do a variety of things, to meet and then to be about some work, the work of education, of advocacy, of welcoming, of standing with those who have been forgotten or overlooked.

There is a great term from Anglican use, "surveyor of the fabric" that is useful in this context. I become familiar with the term one summer when I was at Canterbury Cathedral for a three week course on Anglican History and Theology, attended by people from all over the Anglican world--Japan, Africa, America, Central America. We were a very diverse group, but all under the Anglican canopy. In the course of the program, we got to know members of the chapter and the staff that deals with the day in and day out requirements of managing a very old Cathedral, the grounds, shops, offices and buildings that make up the Canterbury "fabric." Overseeing that day to day work is the "surveyor of the fabric." He is a general manager who keeps things ticking along.

I love the term because it captures both the prosaic realities of a place--things do need minding, programs do need tending, budgets and ideas need thought and attention--and the inclusive reality of a place. We are in our own ways surveyors of the fabric, active in the weave of the thing, in adding color and strength to it in the shared work we do, in the new initiatives that we seek to add , the spaces at the table we want to make for others to join us. All this in a budget review. Look closely; it is there.
Email the wardens: wardens@saintsaviour.org