We’re Back!

After a long break, the reflections section of the St. A’s website is back. It will continue to be a mix of me, Rob Coulston, the St. A’s Campus Minister, and the students of St. A’s. We may add a few new voices too! I hope you will come along and take some time for reflection each week.

There is a coffee shop I love here in Lexington called A Cup of Common Wealth. I love them for many reasons: the friendly and kind baristas, the loyal customers, the amazing coffee, and … well, you get it.

I also love Cup of Common Wealth because of the clarity of their mission.
*Embrace community.
*Serve others.
*Create culture.
They know what they are about and, perhaps more importantly, what they are not about. When they make decisions about new programs or ideas, they have a measuring stick against which to measure that new idea. They can tell if they are on track or off track. It is immediately obvious to everyone if they are meeting their mission or not.

We, as Christians in general and St. A’s in particular, have a mission. The Catechism, or teaching, of The Episcopal Church is very clear, “The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (BCP 855) This is very concise. One might then ask, “Well, how should we do that!?” Fortunately there’s an answer in the Catechism: “The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.” This is clear and I am grateful that it is! I makes it easy to take this headline mission and distill it out to a form I can use in my personal and communal life, even if I miss the mark.

At St. A’s we have distilled this headline mission into one for our own community:
*Create an inclusive community.
*Learn together in love.
*Follow Jesus on the Way.
*Ask big questions.
*Find big answers.
Through these five statements, we find ways to pray and worship, proclaim the Gospel, and promote justice, peace, and love in the ways the St. A’s can. Our mission doesn’t have to have all the answers, it just has to be there to measure our programs and common life against. so we can continue to reach beyond ourselves to the World.