CELEBRATING 25 YEARS

Anniversaries can be joyous occasions for celebration, especially the big ones: 25, 50, 75, 100 or more. Any anniversary over 100 is probably an occasion for celebrating in grand style every year rather than on the ones we tend to note every quarter of a century. Celebrating the first twenty-five years of ministry for a church should be, at least in these days and maybe forever, a real cause for celebration.

Why? The majority of new congregations don’t make it to twenty-five years. The reasons for that are as numerous as the reasons why each was begun in the first place. Many new parishes were begun, sadly, because of internal disputes among the congregants: since we can’t have it our way, we will start our own church. They did but most did not survive because the conception was begun on a sour note not on a happy and joyous one.

 

That was not the case for us. The truth is that no one, even the powers to be in the Diocese, gave St. Brendan’s much of a chance to succeed. They were so doubtful that they allowed another Episcopal church to be started not three miles away. And what a start it had! It grew to be advertised as “one of the fastest growing Episcopal churches in the country.” Not too long after that, they took their church and went independent. So much for “fastest growing Episcopal church”!

St. Brendan’s, on the other hand, was given little chance to succeed? Why? Because the founders were radicals, radical women! The wise men of the Diocese believed it was politically correct even back then to at least humor these women, allow Christ Church to financially sponsor them (no Diocesan monies need be expended) and let them fail on their own. Guess who is celebrating 25 years of ministry in The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh in spite of all the drama and turmoil in this Diocese?

Guess who is pointed out as an example of a growing church where stagnation and even decline in church membership and attendance is rampant in every denomination in every part of the country? No, we are not where we would like to be as a parish. We have to grow more simply because there is so much more ministry that needs to be done and so many people who need to be ministered to, served by us.

We know that. We know the obstacles that are before us. We know that it will not be easy and will demand sacrifice and commitment. But that is what brought us to today when we celebrate and give thanks to God for twenty-five years of ministry in this part of God’s Kingdom on earth. We know that growth means change and change is always difficult, but grow and change we must and we will.

But for today, for this time in the life of St. Brendan’s, this is now the time to pause and remember, to give thanks and celebrate. As we move into the next twenty-five years, we need to remember the dedication and determination, the sacrifice and the sense of calling that our founders had, some still with us, thank God, that brought us to this reason to pause to give thanks and celebrate the past and to look forward to the days to come. The celebration of fifty years of ministry will be here before we know it!