July 12, 2016

I’ve been dragging my feet on writing about the St. Gregory’s staff meeting because, honestly, it was as eventful as any staff meeting, which is to say that it was not very eventful, yet I am chastising myself for not expounding on this event because I’m trying to convince myself that it should be noteworthy. (I’m not sure what that is about; I’ll discuss it with my Spiritual Director and hire a therapist is necessary—I say this in jest in case you can’t hear the humor in my voice as I type away.) Anyhow…here goes my exciting description of the first staff meeting I attended at St. Gregory’s.

Paul, the Rector, started the meeting with Bible study, which wasn’t really study because he handed out the readings for the next Sunday and everyone glanced at them and started making comments and giving their insight, which led me to believe that everyone except me was prepared for this because they all knew what to do and I was clueless. It was too quick for me, I’m not good at thinking on my feet—I need time to read and absorb before I can make any thoughtful observations. I’ll try to read them ahead of time before the next staff meeting, which will not be this week because everyone except Paul was not able to attend.

Sherri, in addition to being the most important person on staff as the Office Administrator, is a fellow fiber artist that is currently artist in residence at the San Francisco dump. She explained that it is not really called the dump, it has a fancy name, The San Francisco Recology Center, but Sherri said she prefers to call it the dump, where she gathers materials for her art projects that need to be made with 90% of the materials gathered in the dump. I love it! Sherri also writes the newsletter and spent time at the meeting asking for all the news items for the upcoming newsletter.

Sara, the Director of Ministry, was called away from the meeting by a person wanting to know if St. Gregory’s had surveillance cameras on the corner because a Google bus had run over her foot and she wanted documentation. While gone, Paul and Sanford, the Director of Music, had a lively conversation about another woman that was supposedly hit by a car in the neighborhood and continues to show up at the Food Pantry looking for the person that hit her even though the accident took place five or six blocks away. It was clear that she is suffering from some mental health issues and the staff tried to help her as best they could. Sara returned to the meeting and reported that Paul and Sanford were confused about which woman was at the door, and that she took care of the matter, which involved a Google bus running over the foot of a Google employee and that no, St. Gregory’s did not have cameras. She also returned with a pair of sunglasses found on the cactus in front of the church that had two decorated Christmas trees with holes for one’s eyes—very glamorous. After the camera and sunglass drama, Sara gave a report on the supper service that happened the previous Sunday, which included her wanting the youth to run the debrief meeting instead of the adults and she didn’t like the part where participants were asked to bow during the prayers. Her feeling is that at St. Gregory’s all are welcome to worship in ways that make sense to them and if they are asked to perform a particular act such as bowing it goes against the philosophy of wanting people to determine their own acts of worship.

Sanford expressed concern that the cantor was off key and needed to have someone cue him. I confessed that I am not musical and I didn’t notice and wondered if others had not noticed also. This is where I feel incredibly deficient being at St. Gregory’s—I am self-consciously NOT musical and really, really wish I was, but I didn’t grow up with a youth choir like my children and I just didn’t learn to sing. One of the first things I was asked when I got to St. Gregory’s is if I wanted to sing with the choir because it is a really important part of worship because the liturgy is sung. I want to think that I could take some singing lessons and be able to fully participate but I have a small (OK, she is really big) inner critic that says I could never do it. I’m trying to hold onto that little part of me that sings the mantra from the little engine that could…I think I can, I think I can.

Music is so important that there is a Ph.D. musicology student from Yale, Marissa, who is doing her research on St. Gregory’s for her dissertation. She was at the staff meeting, too, but honestly she spoke music, a language that I don’t understand, so I’m not really sure what she said or what her concerns were. Mental note—take a class on liturgical music.

I brought up the issue of the stewardship campaign and how the bible study group that met on Sunday was concerned about the member survey that went out asking about pledge commitments. Paul and Sara were unaware that anyone was disgruntled so were appreciative that I brought it up. Next, the staff went over schedules and who was doing what and when and who was going to be on vacation and where and when.

So…there you have it, all the staff meeting discussion topics—liturgy, neighbors, music, money, youth involvement, scripture, schedules, and a little bit of fun and laughter to round out the morning gathering.