Our meeting began with Taize chants.  Esteban, our sexton had set our tables with flowers and special candy.  St. Thomas' youngest member, Jillian Marlene, the daughter of Kristen and Matthew Queen-Shaffer, attended her first vestry meeting ... and embodied for us the future we found ourselves called to address.

After opening with the Litany of Thanksgiving, your Senior Warden, John Carter, provided a reflection on his own spiritual journey to readiness to vote "Yes" to this venture of faith together.  He helped us face realistically the sacrifices involved in building a new sanctuary; and he spoke honestly of the challenges and fears we all face that come with venturing into a future we cannot predict or control.

Matt Cloninger, our Junior Warden, made a compelling PowerPoint presentation reviewing for us the parish's past 4 ½ years of conversation about spiritual and numerical growth.  We were challenged, again, to celebrate God's Spirit at work in our midst.  And a newly formed external funding committee challenged us to underwrite our vision with financial gifts not just from within our parish family, but from supporters of St. Thomas' Parish beyond our membership.

Motions were offered and the discussions began.  Each voice at the table, every person and their insight was essential.  Everyone spoke the language of his or her experience and spiritual identity. At one point, a member of the vestry asked for a time for prayer, and we took a five-minute long deep breath of the Holy Spirit. 

Following our break another Vestry member focused our attention for a moment on the new daughter of Kristin and Matthew.  "When I left to go and pray," this vestry member said, I had my first opportunity to gaze at Jillian Marlene up close.  And at that moment I knew how much I wanted to build a new church for her and for all the children of St. Thomas' now and all the children to come, and their children."

 When we finally took a vote, I sensed a deep and abiding sense of serenity in our gathering.  Each of us were a part of a larger tapestry, our individual lives and desires, dreams and fears, had been woven into a whole that was greater than the sum of our parts.  We were awed, I believe, with the work we had chosen to move forward to do.  There was a hush, breathlessness and quiet.  No one clapped or popped the proverbial celebratory cork; we seemed to know that we had only begun an adventure together that would demand the best we each have to give.  We simply closed with Compline.

Where the Holy Spirit is, there is the Church.  It's the calling of the Church to be the place where all of those who are separated from one another in the eyes of the world are brought together in the equality of the Holy Spirit.  Thus we call on the Holy Spirit to seal us in Baptism - that is, to mark us as Christ's own, forever. To be a Vestry member this past Wednesday night was to be called into the service of the Spirit for the sake of the church, now and in future generations.

Baptism, whether our own or that of another person, should be one of those moments in our Christian journey when things slide into place and suddenly we say, "I get it."  This is who I am.  This is what I'm here for.  I'm called to be part of Christ's Body, the church.

Any church congregation that is filled with this Holy Spirit becomes a dangerous place that dreams and sees visions, that's willing to die in order to live, that has a place for old and young, women and men, straight and gay.  This was the Spirit of vocation that came upon Jesus at his baptism, and which makes us all through out own baptism into living members of the Body of Christ in the world.