Good News from Good Shepherd
The
Rector’s Comments from the Annual Parish Meeting 2012
To begin, I wish to thank the retiring Vestry members: Steve Grindon, Senior
Warden, David Antypas, Clerk, Patty Britt and Kim Terry. They deserve your
appreciation and applause. Their commitment to Good Shepherd and our life
together is to be commended. They are examples of the people whom we have
come to know make up Good Shepherd.
I want to thank all the Vestry members who are not retiring from their term
office: Vance Shaffer; Morry Ellis, Brian Wilcox; Karen Marinov, Rich Van
Etten, Robbie Burns, Mark Baron and Robert Moseley. All of these folks
worked hard at preparing our dinner this evening!
I
also wish to thank those who make up our paid and volunteer staff group.
These folks are creative, committed and work very hard to provide program
for Good Shepherd. They are Judy Hollandsworth, Lannette Dunnavant, David
Crosby, George Knieriem, Patty Britt, Cathy Kennedy and Cynthia Seifert.
Thank you for being on this journey with us.
2011
marked the sixteenth year that Lannette and I have been leaders in ministry
here. In March we will have been here 17 years. We have seen this place of
worship and community and caring blossom and flourish in that time.
The year 2011 was a good year for Good Shepherd. It has been a good year
because we have worshipped, gone to Sunday School, sang in choirs, played
music and met in Bible Studies together. We have assisted at St. Luke’s
Community House, Graceworks, Bridges, Room in the Inn, the West Nashville
Partnership, Thistle Farms and Magdalene House and such as these together.
We have supported or traveled to San Jose Obrero together.
It has been a good year because we have carried off another Spring Fling, a
Fall Weiner Roast, our Stewardship Dinner and instituted a quarterly potluck
for the 10:30 am service together. We have enjoyed visits to the Sounds game
and Predator Games together. We have eaten some great Italian food in
support of our youth and bought
auction items and cosmetics and artwork and
items from the Holy Land and on and on together.
We
have called a new Youth Minister to replace our last one who answered a
different call in life.
It has been a good year because we have prayed, studied, feasted, fasted,
worked, cleaned, taught Sunday School, served in the nursery, lay-read the
scriptures, served the chalice, acolyte, arranged flowers, washed linens for
the altar, cleaned up after Sunday’s services, made coffee, brought goodies
to share, folded bulletins and sent welcome letters together. We have served
as a Daughter of the King, a Ram, or a youth member, together. We have
helped one another and fed each other and prayed for each other and served
one another.
It has been a good year because we have grown our numbers (even though we
marked some of our members as inactive – that makes everything else we have
done even that more impressive!).
But more than that, it has been a good year because we have followed our
mission to serve Christ as Episcopal Christians and have shared Christ with
others on the way and honored Christ in others – after all, that is why we
are here. And the thing that brings all this to happen is that we did it
together!
It
was for just such as this that Good Shepherd came into being in 1995. It was
for just this that the Diocese of TN started us on the way nearly 17 years
ago.
And I am convinced that if we just keep on doing what we have done living
into our mission we will continue to grow and draw other people into a
relationship with God and to know Jesus the Christ – and it was for this
that we became a congregation nearly 17 years ago.
Your ministry and participation in our life at CoGS is more important than
ever to make this happen. Your commitment to the life of this parish is what
makes it a special and great place. Do you realize that people come here
from other churches and then don’t go back – they choose to stay here
because they find God’s Spirit in us – do you know how special a place this
is here? Well, they certainly do!
Thank you for all that you do here; for your
ministry; for you sharing your lives with me; for your financial gifts that
make all this happen in CoGS making it not just a growing church but a great
community of faith, full of hope and full of joy and full of God's presence.
See you in Church!
Randy |
