Search Committee Report – 2022

Your Search Committee was commissioned on January 10, 2021, and met with Canon Scott Holcombe on January 11 for orientation.

We met 38 times as a committee from Feb 22nd to Nov 15th, with numerous subcommittee meetings and many, many hours of additional individual and small group project work.

The most important thing about our work at every point was keeping God in view through thanksgiving and prayer. We spent quite a few months feeling perplexed and sometimes frustrated, but we continued to trust and remind one another that God was leading us to just the right Rector.

We were reminded frequently of the prayers of the congregation for us, and for the new, as yet unknown Rector. Because of your prayers, God closed doors until the right one was ready to be opened. When we got to know Fr. Rob, we knew God had answered your prayers and ours.

But it was only later that, as I reviewed documents to archive them for the future, I looked again at our survey results for what is most important to us in a rector. I realized then what a perfect match Fr. Rob is. Next I thought back on many private conversations where members of the congregation shared their thoughts on what our new Rector needed to be, and I realized, there is not a single one of those things that we are not getting with Fr. Rob. I confess, this I did not think was possible. God proved me wrong, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

Please keep praying for Fr. Rob, Christi, and their boys. Our amazement at God sending them to us is a reminder that God isn’t finished with St. Gabriel’s. Let’s not waste this opportunity. Pray for them, pray for St. Gabriel’s, pray for God’s guidance for how you yourself can support the things Fr. Rob leads us to do to reach new generations with the good news of the gospel.

God is good, and this process gave us a front row seat to see Him in action. We are all grateful for the opportunity to serve. Thank the vestry, thank the committee, but give God the glory, this is His work.

Prayer initiatives supporting St. Gabriel’s 2021 Rector Search

Congregation

• Prayer at the committee commissioning service
• Weekly prayer during corporate worship
• Daughters of the King daily prayers
• Private prayers of many parishioners as communicated over the course of the search in our parish survey comments, and to individual committee members orally.
• Dedicated evening prayer service after the sudden loss of our interim rector ten months into our search.

Search Committee

• In SC meetings
  • Opening prayers of self dedication, for guidance and for our as yet unknown next rector; usually followed with Eucharist served by our LEV. (These varied from week to week, subject to the guidance of our chaplain, and our LEV.)
  • Prayers for our candidates when names were received.
  • Sharing concerns and especially occasions for thanksgiving and instances of noticing God’s work and blessings.
  • Closing prayers, and prayers for any special personal concerns of members.
  • Usually followed immediately by compline in the church for any who wished to participate.
• Phone calls with candidates were closed with prayer.
• Every interview opened and closed with prayer.
• Personal committee member prayer:
  • Members regularly prayed for one another as well our unknown future rector and then our candidates in personal prayers during the week.
  • Between meetings we shared particular prayer requests via text threads for members and candidates as needs arose.

Listening to God

Our most fundamental challenge: recognizing God’s guidance.

• Assembling - as the Body of Christ, open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, often effected by receiving Eucharist.
  • Trust (confidentiality for personal sharing, as well as sensitive candidate information, and a no judgement of one another understanding. This began with borrowing the practice from discernment committees of devoting our first meeting primarily to sharing our spiritual autobiographies.)
  • Consensus (whenever possible, which was nearly always, but not without cost. Individuals had to be willing to give up their own way for the sense of the group. Calling a vote was necessary less than a handful of times, and never close.)
  • Teachability (We were all learning how to do this together. Mistakes were inevitable, and we regrouped and learned, critiqued ourselves and made adjustments without rancor.)

• Believing - That God could and would work in and through us to His ends.
• Asking - Prayer, extemporaneous or BCP, regularly and at every opportunity and new challenge.
• Noticing - nurturing the recognition of God’s work through the regular exercise of praise and thanksgiving. This practice became a regular part of the opening of our meetings, enabling us to each grow in our own recognition of how God was already at work in our lives, our mission, and the life of St. Gabriel’s.
• Accepting - God’s guidance, whether it came in an expected way, a wonderful surprise, or through a disappointing setback. (This was a messy, emotionally fraught process sometimes.)
• Acting - In accordance with the guidance we received, and
• Faith - Leaving the results in God’s hands, even when we couldn’t yet see how it would work out.