Advent is a season of waiting. It comes at a particularly good time for me this year as we wait to see what the conference is planning for us in the coming year. Our original grant for SFC was a 4 year plan that was contingent upon me being appointed half time to another, traditional church. I have been fortunate to serve with the lovely people of Capitol Hill United Methodist church for the past two and a half years as we planted the Sellwood Faith Community.
Capitol Hill has an active congregation of about 15 people. The average attendance hovers closer to 10. There is about $100,00 worth of deferred maintenance on the building. Over the past 18 months the congregation has been exploring the possibilities of what could be next for them. This summer it became clear that unless money was poured in to the building nothing else could move forward. The incredibly faithful people of this church decided that was not a good use of their resources, to put money in a building that would probably be torn down in a few years anyway. As a result of this wisdom Capitol Hill voted to close this past November. The last Sunday will be at the end of June. This was a difficult decision, one made out of deep faith and an understanding that God is not finished with them.
The closing of Capitol Hill means that I will need a change in appointment, not only so I can retain full time status, but also so that the financials for SFC continue to work. Capitol Hill has been paying SFC a little bit of money every month as their portion of the parsonage. This money helps pay the property tax and some of the maintenance on the house. This fall the SFC community dreamed and brainstormed and came up with 4 different plans to keep our community going. I presented these to our conference funding source in October and we are now waiting to hear what has been decided.
It’s hard to wait. Our community is excited about what comes next and is raring to go. One of the possibilities of course is always that the conference could decide to cease all funding. It’s hard to step into the next phase whole heartedly when we know that it could all finish at the end of the appointment year. I doubt that will happen, but as a good United Methodist clergy person I know that there are no guarantees (other than an appointment of some kind, that is).
In this season of expectancy and waiting we wait. We pray and we hope that whatever our leaders see as the best way forward it allows us to continue being new life in an old place.
Blessings,
Eilidh
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