Culmination Service

On Sunday, November 14th , we marked the culmination of the parish’s bicentennial celebrations with a festal Eucharist celebrated by the Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori. The full parish choirs, two dozen acolytes, and twenty clergy associated with St. James’ processed through an overflowing church to celebrate not only the achievements of the last 200 years, but also the promise of the years to come. In her sermon, Bishop Jefferts Schori dwelled on the continuity and change that such an anniversary captures: the parish has been one “body” of the faithful for 200 years without a break, but at the same time has always been growing and renewing itself, never exactly the same from one Sunday to the next. She challenged the parish to draw on both qualities, building on a history of witness and leadership to respond to the world’s challenges in new ways and continue the “holy recycling” that defines the Church. In a way, this message summed up the entire bicentennial year, in which so many people have both given thanks for the parish’s many gifts in worship, mission, education, and fellowship, and have applied those gifts with so much faith to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Sunday’s service was a joyful celebration of the parish’s past and a powerful reason to look ahead to its third century with excitement.
Jonathan Bays