March 2022
St. Patrick’s Church Synodal Process
What has been life giving and/or how have you experienced the Holy Spirit in St. Patrick Church?
I have felt and continue to feel the Spirit at St Pat’s in the amazing gifts that I have learned to see, more-and-more, in everyone in the parish. I won’t name individuals (because the list would be indefinitely long), but I think we all recognize how blessed we are to have passionate and compassionate members of our community who are exceptionally gifted in the arts, in preaching, in care for our physical home at St Pat’s, care for creation, and care for the marginalized, just to name a few. And I worry what would happen to our community if we were to lose “so-and-so” who is so important to us. But we have lost valuable members of our community over recent years, and we continue to thrive and grow (with some bumps in the road), perhaps with their spiritual guidance. I’m sorry to say, that it has only been during the pandemic that I have begun to know and appreciate even more (often in zoom gatherings) the unique gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to every individual in our community, and how everyone is committed to bringing their gifts, their talents to benefit the care of St Pats and its ministries.
Is St Pat’s unique in the nature of its welcoming community of spiritually gifted and giving people? I hope, for the sake of our larger church, that it is not. I’ve learned in our Canon Law workgroup reading that a parish is considered as a juridic person with rights to be protected according to canon law. It has characteristics, defined by its members, that comprise a community charism, which I believe to be to the reason that parishioners come from 52 different zip codes in western Washington to participate in the life of St Patrick Church. What is a charism? I love a definition I found from a Sr. Annie Kapheke, SC, that helps me understand what the spirit at St Pat’s represents. She states that “charism is a gift from God for the church and the world, given as different ways of living out the Gospel.” And, in addition, “a Charism may also be described as the spirit of the community. Like the strong, driving wind in the Pentecost story, it is a powerful energy that permeates through the community members and the way in which they do their ministries. It does not define what they do, rather it defines why and how they do it. So, how does a community name or articulate its charism? Charisms are partially defined by the founding of the community, but also the on-going deep story of community – how the charism plays out through time, in particular places and circumstances, is also an important part of defining the charism. The charism helps guide how the community responds to the ‘signs of the times’. I feel the spirit of the community, like the strong, driving wind in the Pentecost story, in our liturgies and many other parish activities.
Finally, I will draw attention to just one of many lifegiving experiences at St Patrick Church, and that is the time that one of our parishioners contacted me (Sandy was away) about a group of Russian orphans visiting the Seattle area. She knew that one in particular would become our son. Sandy welcomed Sasha into our home (while I was on a delegation to El Salvador) and we proceeded with adoption. It was the most lifegiving experience we could imagine, and Sasha’s involvement with the youth at St Pat’s filled our hearts with joy, as it did with our earlier exchange students from Ukraine and Russia.