As our attendance and membership climbs, the most pressing demands are on not just our physical plant, but our support staff, as well. Cindy Pettigrew, our parish secretary is an Episcopalian who came to us from serving in a similar capacity at All Saints in Ft. Lauderdale.  She works closely with Esteban Mares, our sexton, whose dedication to his work as his Christian vocation can be seen in the absence of the layers of grime he has helped remove, the grass he cuts, the fencing he puts up repeatedly when it is cut down by people ignoring our request that they keep their pets off so the lawn in our park can regenerate. Evelyn McMillan, our coffee steward, cares for us on Sunday mornings, with refreshments and hospitality in the Guild Room and kitchen.  And there are Nicole, our bookkeeper, and Emily, our nursery care provider. 

Tim Hagy provides us with musical and choral leadership that is deepening our prayer life and spiritual experience of worship. And John Dwyer is our first Assistant Rector in several decades.  Sharing the day-to-day demands of pastor, teacher and councilor with John has enriched my own ministry, providing endless opportunities to engage parish challenges and questions, arrive at responses together, and then share in the sacramental life of our community. Our days are full and long. Since his arrival, the pastoral-care demands on us have more than doubled.  So one of my goals as Rector is to learn better how to facilitate clergy wellness, starting with reducing the length of an average day from 12 hours to 9 or 10, and an average work-week from more than 6 days to 5.

The quality of life for staff, not just the quantity of hours we work, has been a growing concern for us all during 2007.  So each first Wednesday of the month, we close the parish office from noon to 2:00.  The staff attends the 12:15 Eucharist together, and then we take turns preparing lunch and sharing a simple meal and conversation together. Our staff meetings on Tuesday mornings at 10:00 always begin with prayer, devotions and/or bible study.  And during the last several months we have begun a process called Appreciative Inquiry to provide the frame for our Mutual Ministry Review process together.

During 2007 the culture of our parish has begun shifting from being satisfied with being simply "Welcoming and Inclusive," to seeking a deeper sense of "Radical Hospitality" that itself is beginning to emerge with a mission I think of as "Prophetic Hospitality." St. Thomas' continues to pride itself in being "Welcoming and Inclusive" not just on Sunday mornings, but each time the staff labors over the wording and appearance of a worship bulletin, each time we answer the phone or receive guests.  To be a "progressive parish" for us has meant being responsive to all whom we encounter as a community of faith. To be welcoming and inclusive means opening the doors and inviting in precisely those who have felt left out.

"Radical Hospitality" then is what happens when it is not just we who are doing the welcoming, but when we ourselves are being changed by the very people we invite in our doors.  Radical Hospitality takes place in the exemplary work of our greeters and ushers, in our new bread-baking team, and in parish life events, pastoral care team development, the committee chairs meeting, and our John Johnson Godly Play room. 

To speak in addition of a Prophetic Hospitality this year at St. Thomas' is to recall those times we're called out of our own comfort zones and find the courage to engage and challenge the community we live in to deeper levels of justice.  For the Gay Pride Parade we invited our bishop and 5 other parishes to join us, and then spread our arms even wider to welcome the Dupont Circle community to an outdoor service recognizing committed relationships - straight and gay -- and asking God's blessing on them. The marks of Prophetic Hospitality are also reflected in our willingness to be interviewed by the BBC, by the Art in the Park events, Sacred Grounds, and the Sunday 5:00 p.m. Taize Eucharist, and by the fact that both Davis Mac-Iyalla, the African gay rights activist and Bishop Gene Robinson consider St. Thomas' Parish their DC spiritual home!