Dear Friends,
As I write this I'm anticipating what a joy it will be to be back among you this Sunday for the celebration of our many years of ministry together. I have missed being with you over the last several weeks. From the time of the abrupt announcement of my diagnosis and start of my pre-surgery therapies until now, I have missed the give and take of the ordinary rhythms of parish life--the riches of our worship together and all the activities and events that, woven together, make up our life in Christ.
In these past few weeks Marguerite and I have deeply appreciated your wonderful expressions of support and your prayers. They have been deeply moving in their warmth, their faith, and their offers to be of help. Knowing that you have been praying for me so steadily has been an immense gift and a sturdy source of joy and hope.
And now on Sunday we'll have a chance to give thanks to God for our 18 years of life together. For this service I'll be sitting alongside you in the congregation with Marguerite and Cooper as Bishop Alan Gates helps us celebrate the journey we've shared. I know my heart will be full with memories of conversations, encounters, and moments of grace we have shared. I will be thinking of the mountains we've climbed, the valleys we've endured, and the accomplishments we've achieved by God's bountiful grace. I will be giving thanks for all of God's gifts and mercies.
Through my years at Trinity I've never stopped praying for our parish, for what we might become as we follow Christ's leading. Someone wrote me recently of a comment he remembered from my early days interviewing with the Vestry back in 1992. After listening to my presentation, someone responded, "Sam, you are really asking us to be Christians, aren't you?" And I was. I was feeling called to help Trinity build a strong, vibrant Christian community that knew and cared for one another--a community that would then go out into the world and help build God's kingdom of love and justice for everyone. And in time we came to see that helping to restore our glorious house of worship, the source of such power to move us, would for generations to come help attract new seekers who could discover the richness of a living faith.
In this second tour of duty I also wanted to be able to leave Trinity in a strong place for the future-with a clear sense of calling, the financial resources it would require, and the leadership it needed to move vigorously forward. One of the accomplishments for which I am most grateful is leaving you in the guidance of such a strong and able clergy team. More than one person has thanked me for assembling our wonderful staff, and I could not agree more heartily. This parish also could not have a stronger, wiser Senior Warden than Pete Lawrence. Trinity is deeply blessed to have him to lead it through this transition.
As you all know, Marguerite and I are looking forward to making our home in our beloved Sewanee, our adopted home. But you know, we are all on our way home, to our home in God, and our life in Christ is what sustains our journey.
Thank you, dear people of Trinity, for the privilege and joy of traveling this stretch of the way with you. We, as a parish, have been loved and blessed and stretched beyond anything we could have imagined. I will think of you, pray for you, and give thanks for our years of grace-filled ministry together.
Let me leave you with the words I've always loved from the early Christian Boethius, pointing us to a God who will always be with us:
"To see thee, O Lord, is the end and the beginning; thou carriest me and thou goest before. Thou art the journey and the journey's end."
God be with you,
