The Sabbatical Planning Team met each Wednesday from April 9 until May 7.  What started with Sue LeSueur, Connie Morton-Ewbank, Thelma Hutton, Angie Robidoux, Beth Bell Lavoie, and Heather Deranian, grew to include Nancy Gallant and Miriam Smith.   We met weekly over dinner, and with wonderful fellowship, to brainstorm ideas for the congregation’s renewal while Sue is on sabbatical the summer of 2009.  With a May 14 deadline for submitting a grant proposal to the Lilly Endowment Inc., we knew we had a lot of work to accomplish in a very short time.

Sue’s sabbatical is a “Sacred Quest:  Tracing the Path of Celtic Liturgy” and affords her an opportunity to explore a subject and geography dear to her heart.   The plans we have developed for our congregational renewal provide a chance of us to explore something very dear to our hearts; worship and liturgy as expressed by Episcopalians and practiced by the members of the Church of the Transfiguration. We have planned for fellowship opportunities to share experiences and ideas with one another, speakers to help inform us, recommended readings, a study program to expand our knowledge, field trips to experience new spaces and liturgy, retreats for rest, hymn sings to uplift, and clergy coverage to support our work.  We hope we have found a way for each person in the congregation to participate, by choosing one, many, or all of the opportunities we have planned.

The outcome of our study will allow us to increase our understanding of the personal relationship we have with our Creator through liturgy, to spiritually refresh our worship and to physically refresh our worship space.  Upon Sue’s return, we will be able to share what we have learned from our time apart and separate quests to enhance our corporate worship.

We hope to answer the questions; “What does refreshing our worship look like?” and “What does refreshing our worship space mean?”  We will explore components of worship such as music, symbolism, engaging the senses, intentional incorporation of children, alternative services, and inspiring the imagination.  We will look at ways to reconfigure the worship space, paying particular attention to making it more child and handicap friendly, using media such as projectors for the liturgy, extending our reach to people that cannot physically be in our church – virtual worship space, and making paint, lighting, flooring and seating improvements.

We are planning to call a part time minister who can facilitate our congregational renewal plans, as well as preside at three worship services per week and offer pastoral support.  Area clergy have agreed to provide for pastoral emergencies such as funerals. 

We plan a celebration dinner to launch Sue’s quest and our congregational renewal program.  Because Sue’s quest is focused on Celtic traditions and ours incorporates fellowship over meals, we will be sharing a traditional Irish dinner with music provided by a local Irish fiddle group.  During the sabbatical period the congregation will spend time at renewal, spiritual growth, study, rest and refreshment.  In our Book of Common Prayer, Eucharistic Prayer C, we are reminded “Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength, for pardon only and not for renewal.”  We will reexamine, renew and revitalize our worship liturgy and ritual.  This will be accomplished as we share our worship experience with each other during services, small study groups and fellowship events. 

When Sue returns, we will spend time in a parish retreat integrating what we have learned and sharing our renewal journeys.  We will explore when does worship begin, what does it involve, why do we do it and where do we hope it leads. We will conclude by renewing our worship, mission and Mission Statement

Due to the grant proposal requirements, we focused our plans on the timeframe of Sue’s sabbatical.  However, we want to take advantage of the work we have done on the grant to develop plans for congregational renewal even if we aren’t awarded a Lilly Grant, as well as to plan events leading up to Sue’s sabbatical.

We posted our notes from our meetings on the church portal forum.  Please add your thoughts and comments.  We welcome and need your feedback.

The next meeting of the Planning Team is on June 7 at 6:30.  We welcome additional members of the congregation to join us.  Please contact Beth Bell Lavoie so we can plan the meal!