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
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
No comments:
Post a Comment