A Letter from Andrew

​​To the Beloved of God in Valhalla Parish, 

I am returning to work today after several renewing weeks of vacation with my family. We travelled to Ontario to see my parents and my brother, and we spent time camping in the East Kootenays. The time together was rich, and I am deeply grateful for this time of renewal. 

I am returning to the parish today, but as you must know by now, it won't be for a very long time. On Sunday August 20th, the wardens read a letter from our Archbishop indicating that at the end of September—the end of my three-year contract with this parish—I will be stepping into a new role in the diocese. I will remain in the West Kootenays, but my relationship to this parish community will change. 

With all that in mind, I am writing in gratitude for three years of ministry alongside you.

I am writing in gratitude for your witness to the person and love of Jesus Christ in your daily life, in your relationships with one another, and the ways in which you show up to share the love of Christ in the world. I am writing in gratitude for the ways in which you seek to embody the love of God for one another, and the ways in which you seek to be the hands and feet of Christ in the wider community.

I am writing in gratitude for your willingness to enter times of unknowing, leaning not on your own understanding, but the wisdom of Holy Spirit revealed in community as we seek to respond faithfully to Jesus' loving invitation.

It is in community with one another—in our daily work, word, and witness—that we embody and point towards Christ’s self-giving love and the salvation we find in him. Indeed, this is the ministry to which each of us were called when we were baptized into Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. 

My friends: what I have come to know over the last years serving in your midst, is how we and our surrounding communities yearn to experience of God’s grace. The people in our communities—our friends, neighbours, acquaintances, and those we have not yet come to know—yearn to know and experience that they are loved unconditionally, especially in the midst of this world and all of its uncertainties.

Perhaps we can’t always name that yearning as a yearning for divine love. And yet, I believe that this is one of the reasons that God has placed us here in Castlegar and New Denver—to live godbearing lives that point towards God’s ongoing, active, creating, sustaining, redeeming work in the world.

What a gift it has been to travel this road together. 

I arrived in October 2020, six months into a global pandemic, and only a few months after the retirement of your previous rector. Over this short time, we have shared joys and sorrows and life in between. We have had much to figure out. We have repeatedly had to discern the shape of ministry all the while getting to know one another, building trust, and developing a shared sense of how we might participate in God’s mission of love and grace for the world. Because of the complex health environment, it was not as easy as I had hoped to get to know each of you.

And yet, this particular season did provide us with a unique opportunity to explore ministry in ways we weren’t used to. 

A few months ago, at Archbishop Lynne’s prompting, I began to discern the next step in my vocational journey. I was invited to interview for a job supporting the Bishop and our Diocese in the transitional work outlined earlier this year in the “Path Forward” document, work that was brought to Synod this summer.

While on vacation in Ontario, the Archbishop called to offer me the position of Director of Missional Renewal for our diocese. After a time of prayer and discernment, I accepted. I will begin this role part-time in September, and move to full-time on October 1, 2023 when my three-year term with this parish comes to an end.

My new role will support congregational vitality, systems change, and new ministry development throughout the diocese. This work is meant to extend the ability of our Diocesan community of communities to live into our newly adopted values, vision, and mission. It will include ongoing (though different) work supporting this parish as well as others throughout the diocese. 

I don’t know how it is for you, but discerning God’s call in my life has not always been easy. Three years ago it took a global crisis to get my attention, moving me and my family to the Kootenays. This was not a move I had ever expected, and yet I look at it now as a grace. Here in Valhalla Parish, we took a chance on each other in a strange time. As a layperson who has served the church in a variety of ways, it was still a leap to take on the ministry you, the Bishop, and God were inviting me into.

I was nervous, tentative, uncertain. Surely this was someone else’s work! And yet, when I said yes, I learned so much about you, about myself, about our communities, and about the God we proclaim. In this role, I found a way to honour and deepen my baptismal call to ministry in this parish. I want to thank you for that opportunity. 

And, because my time here is not yet done, I want to invite you to listen deeply for God's call in your own life—however old or young you might be. I wonder even now, how each of you is being called to step more deeply into the ministries God has given you—ministries of prayer, of encouragement, of hospitality, of leadership, of proclamation, of pastoral care, and so on? What gifts has God given you that you are feeling called to share? Who will you tell about that calling? Who can you ask to pray with you? 

It took awhile for me to acclimatize to my role in this community. Perhaps it took you a while to get used to me and my way of inhabiting the role too! I hope that this results (at very least) in a few good stories to tell in the days to come.

Together, we have done our best (what more can we do?) to remain faithful to God and one another. Because the way forwarad isn’t always clear, there were times that we had to have difficult conversations. But difficult conversations, ones in which we can be honest about who we are, what we value, and where we believe God is calling us, are vital. These conversations show that we care about each other, the world, and Christ’s church. Without summoning up the bravery required to have difficult conversations, our church will neither adapt nor grow.

The world needs the gifts of Christ's church more than ever. 

And so, my prayer going forward is that you will continue to be brave in your discernment and fierce in your love for God and for one another. As you discern working with Kootenay Summits parish. As you discern ways of funding the ministry of this church now and into the future. As you contemplate partnerships that might bring housing to the underhoused, all the while continuing to worship and serve God through serving our neighbours in New Denver and Castlegar. 

This is all a way of saying that I’m so glad we could walk with one another for this time, and that I look forward to the new ways we will walk together in the future. 

I look at my time serving alongside you at St. David’s and St. Stephen’s as a grace. You have welcomed me to add my particular gifts to the mix of gifts already present here. I have had an opportunity to walk with you, to hold space as we open ourselves to God’s love, to proclaim the gospel, and also to offer my voice, on your behalf, to a wider public seeking assurance that they are beloved, they are enough in God's eyes. 

Just after Rev. Neil Elliot’s retirement in May, I noticed a subtle shift in our parish and that of Kootenay Summits—a growing openness to exploring partnership. While our exploration of partnership started much earlier, it ramped up in June and continues to bear fruit. By working together, I believe that you have the possibility to strengthen ministry both here and in the parish next door. This process will require brave conversations, deep honesty, and a willingness to take risks. I’ve seen you do all three in these last few years, and know that this is something you will take to this process too. 

I am both excited about this next chapter, and also feel the loss that comes with a changing relationship to this parish community. In this, too, I firmly believe that God remains faithful. I am grateful for your prayers during this time of transition. As you continue discerning your next steps as a congregation, I will keep you in mine. Know this, too: God has given you every gift needed for this moment. As I was writing this letter, these lines from Wendell Berry’s poem Wild Geese came to mind: 

And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

As you move forward in the coming days, I pray that you rest in the blessed assurance that what you need is here. That God will provide daily bread alongside faith and strength for the journey. May you continue to faithfully listen for and respond to God’s call. God’s call is rarely comfortable, and yet it is a call that leads towards healing and wholeness for one and for all. For you. For me. For our neighbours. Listen deeply for the God who still speaks, and keep watch for the God who is leading us on the way (even if we, like the disciples on the way to Emmaus don’t recognize it at first). 

Above all, my friends, continue to tell the stories of God’s work in your lives and in the life of the world. Proclaim what Christ has done, and what he is doing in your life, so that all may come to know and experience what God is like. 

Every Blessing, 

Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Valhalla Parish Missioner