The prophet Jeremiah said "Without a vision the people perish." It's a simple observation of a profound truth. People strive and yearn to join in God's creative energy. It must be a way of connecting with God. We see a field; we want to make a garden. We see a mess; we want to clean it up. We see an opportunity; we want to take it.

People want to be on the move and go places in our physical world, emotional world, and spiritual world. The baptismal service has a prayer that the person baptized be given an "inquiring and discerning heart" and we are always in pursuit of... something.

Throughout our history at St. George's, the congregation has met together occasionally for the purpose of dreaming a little and creating visions of what our church and our community might shape into. Our legacy is a strong commitment to lay leadership, progressive social action, both creative and traditional worship, and deep fellowship. Different times have different challenges and the vision that the community creates helps to meet those challenges, transcend them with God's help and move more confidently and effectively into a future that has meaning and purpose.

About seven years ago, the community of St. George's got together again and dreamed. We created a vision of an improved building that would be a resource to the community and open our doors to agencies and activities that reflected our values and spiritual hopes. Our main focus was on issues related to children, mental health and healing, cultural activities and social justice. These four core values have guided us through the years and shaped our ministry and response to God's call.

That process led us to a Capital Campaign and a refurbished building. We house many community groups, projects and agencies dedicated to the areas we also value. (The list is included below.) We even renamed our adjacent building The Resource Center to highlight our commitment. It's been exciting and fulfilling to watch this development in our church and to see our place in the overall Maplewood community.

It's time for us to dream again and create a new vision for our future.  

There has been a lot of transition in our congregation and new members infuse a lot of new energy and creative ideas as well as hope and desires for their spiritual life and that of their families. It's our hope to gather this energy and commitment and give it a shape that we can work together to build.

St. Paul often referred to our spiritual lives as running "the race that is set before us". But unlike the races that only have one winner, all who enter this race win, as we are called forward and move into the future to the best of our ability.

The life and ministry of St. George's have always thrived on the mission and vision that emerges from the body of the faithful. In this coming year, be a part of the Visioning Process. Everyone has a voice to share and a dream to dream. Whether you've been here sixty years or just walked in the door, your voice and vision matter!

St. George's is home to:

• The worshiping community of St. George's
• Juvenile Bi-polar Research Foundation (raising funds for research)
• Kinderenrichment (community pre-school)
• Performance Theater Workshop (classes for youth in the arts)
• 12 Step- Programs (5 separate meetings addressing issues of addiction)
• The Writer's Circle (support group for writers)
• Yoga for Seniors
• Piano lessons
• Society of Musical Arts (a local symphony)
• Dignity (worship for gay Roman Catholics)
• We also offer space for individual parties and receptions in the parish hall and meeting space for parish, diocesan and community groups.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, we have secured a quartet (SATB) of singers from Westminster Choir College in Princeton to serve as new section leaders in our adult choir. They were formally introduced to you in our Homecoming service on Sunday 16 September. Their names are Madeline Schmidt, Sarah McMahon, Lucas DeJesus and Chaequan Anderson. All of these young people exhibit a great aptitude for music, as well as friendliness and seriousness of purpose. If you happen to cross paths with one or more of these folks while at church, please welcome them and introduce yourself. Needless to say, I expect great things of them, musically, as the year progresses. But, don't forget - just because we have engaged four new people to help our sections does NOT mean we have to stop recruiting new choir members. We have plenty of room to accommodate many more singers (especially young ones!) into the choir. If you know of anyone who has an interest in singing, please have him or her contact me immediately. And we're not looking for Met Opera stars; we merely want to reach out to those folks who have a love of music and wish to contribute whatever talents they possess to support the music program at St. George's. So come one, come all!

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