committees

I am not a meeting person. My mind runs ahead, I get bored, have a hard time with repetition, get impatient.

My volunteer work at church has been in the choir and in the cloister garden.

But somehow I ended up on the grants committee, our parish's work on funding charities/missions. And it is a very affirming experience. We had a planning meeting today, and I think I understand why I enjoy this committee so much.

We have extended dialogue and debate about our parish, about how we are accountable, how we are faithful to the gospel, how we encourage lay participation.

This committee punctures the culture of unspoken assumptions, that benign characteristic of Episcopalians to think that we all have an understanding about x, y or z. Because the membership on this committee rotates, we have to explain how we got to where we are today. But we also further the discussion of issues that we have yet settled, get new perspectives on subjects. We often do not agree, but that works for us because it is important that we challenge each other as we make decisions. I think we are a stronger committee because of it.