Journal of the Diocese of Northwest Texas-1995
“Minutes:37^th Annual Convention Sun. Oct 29 1995”
¶9 “[for the Missions Committee] The Rev. Jo Roberts Mann … announced that St. John’s Parish in Odessa would continue to have parish status and that St. Barnabas’, Odessa, would be applying for mission status at the 1996 Convention.”

Uncoupling The Mission of the Daughter-Church

The sentence from Diocesan Convention, ten years ago, signifies a milestone for our Parish. About half of our newsletter recipients were present for that time in our history. I and others must learn this history second hand. But what emphasis will the story have?

All of us tell stories with some kind of slanted perspective. Inevitably, the viewpoint of the past affects our future. Thus, Christianity historically calls us to remember our mission in Christ as a priority. The story of Christ is not a tragedy which ends with the death of Christ. His resurrection and ascension point toward a 1975 year-old (union/marriage) of the Spirit & the Church. The triumph of God is more powerful that humans who sin.

So I also encourage us to remember this milestone as a moment when God was working purposefully among us. I encourage the historical members trustingly to choose to tell others that God was bringing the good we have today from the choices of the leaders then.

Certainly, those of us—who have come after Oct. 29, 1995—can testify that we lean on the parochial and diocesan wisdom of that moment. The blessing which we have in St. B’s is indeed born of many moments, but Oct. 29th is a big one!

I’ve chosen to “set aside” the traditional name for this milestone (uncoupling). We are indeed the “daughter church” – even if that identity wasn’t the original intent of leaders in the 1970’s. We do have wonderful “DNA” and habits which we’ve inherited from life patterns at St. John’s, Odessa, our “mother.”

So, now as a grown-up “daughter,” we’re on a divine mission to love the folk of Odessa. We’ll “mother” Christians on our own side or Odessa, just as our mother gave us roots AND WINGS for the task..

Even though we honor those who have made sacrifices which we remember, our focus is the mission of mothering Christians. At my installation as rector, the bulletin cover recalled a Haida [Indian/Native American/First Nations] saying: “We do not inherit the land, we borrow it from our children.”

We, too, affect how others might tell our story—in 10 years or a 100 years. I hope they’ll say, “In 2005, St. B’s folk did not inherit the church buildings…they borrowed them from us!”

In Christ,
Fr. David+