A Letter from the Interim Pastor

Last week while on holidays with family, I had a chance to do something entirely new, taking my nieces and nephew swimming with dolphins. Wearing sturdy life vests, we sat on the edge of a large enclosure, watching the dolphins swimming, shooting past amazingly fast, diving far beneath the surface. Then the trainer asked us to get in the water with them. There was a long moment of hesitation, seeing how truly large they looked, before we pushed past our fears and plunged in. My niece, who is only six, looked back over her shoulder to her parents, who smiled and waved. Without another thought, she jumped in, and when it came her turn to pet the dolphin (which at 500 pounds was more than ten times her size) she was entirely fearless, reveling in the chance to encounter this sea creature close up. Expecting it to feel a bit slimy, she said instead it felt to her like velvet.

We took some pictures of the children swimming with the dolphins, and someone commented on seeing the pictures that they looked like a dictionary entry for “joy.”

Dolphins have long been associated with Christianity in myth and symbol. Often depicted with a boat, they are an emblem of the soul or the church as Christ leads them to salvation. With their speed and sleekness, they are also seen as an emblem of the soul moving quickly and exuberantly to know and love Christ.

Swimming with the dolphins, there was a sense for me that this is the sort of thing our church will be doing in the days ahead, encountering new things, some that will be a departure from the old certainties. As we continue in a time of visioning as a church, there will be some hesitancy as we encounter new ideas and initiatives, as we look out on things that are as yet unknown. Yet there is the promise of exhilaration as we put out into the deep waters where God’s Spirit will lead.

In conversation with each other, we will begin to get a sense not just of the church we want, the church we envision, but also the church God envisions, the church God calls us to be. As we look to plunge in, we can be confident that with God’s Spirit, the future will yet hold surprising joy.

Yours in faith,

Audrey Schindler