Message from Fr. Peter Andronache

As I was thinking about this newsletter, I asked the kids: what should I write about. Margaret chirped in, “What about a letter, “Dear Church”? So...

Dear Church,

As I come near to a dozen years at St. John, I realized a couple of things. First, that I have lived in Cedar Rapids longer than in any other place. Second, that some things have changed a lot in twelve years. The latter was driven home for me on Holy Friday evening, when I looked around and realized most of the people there had joined St. John less than five years ago. But we’ll return to this in a bit.

For now, dear church, I would like to say that I am thankful for some of the things that have not changed. I am thankful that anyone entering our building would be made welcome. I am thankful for the love and care the community has for our parish, both as a spiritual family and for the building and grounds. And I am thankful for the continued dedication to our youth in church and Sunday school.

Which brings me, dear church, to the challenges of change. I think our Sunday school is an obvious example of change, as most of our teachers have joined or become active in our community in the last three years or so. Another example is the clean-up or the building. Several people have helped through the years, but there is currently no “clean-up crew.” So, as things change, there is a need for reassessment, for figuring out where we stand, what we need, whom we can ask to accomplish which task, where we are going. I came to think that we are at a point where such an evaluation is needed during the Holy Friday evening service. As we started the lamentations, it sounded like many people joined in the singing. It was so much bigger a sound than I had expected that I had to look around. As I did so, I realized that a large majority of the congregation had not been at St. John when I arrived in Cedar Rapids.

That is something that had been lurking in the back of my mind as I would occasionally turn around during the Liturgy and be struck by how many relatively new faces are around. It wasn’t till Holy Friday that the thought fully formed in my mind: we are a much different community than we were even five years ago. So, dear church, I would like to find out what our current strengths are, as well as our weaknesses. What are our current limitations in what we can do in terms of ministries and service to the community?

I believe these are important questions because our little parish is the talent we have been entrusted by God. That is definitely true in my case, by virtue of my assignment to serve the parish. But, as I have often said, in Orthodoxy, the responsibility for the church (with both lower case and capital Cs) lies with everyone.

So, dear church, what can we do to increase what has been entrusted to us by God? We can consider existing ministries and needs – Sunday school, Philoptochos, altar servers, music, cleaning, landscaping – but also things that we have a talent for that the community is not currently doing. I hope and pray that we take the time to consider what we can offer – individually, but also in groups.

With love in Christ
+Fr. Peter