One of Frederick Buechner’s most boring books is called Speak What We Feel, Not What We Ought to Say. (The cumbersome title is a quote from the end of Shakespeare’s King Lear.) In it, Buechner highlights authors who show us the inconvenient emotional and spiritual truths of human life. His goal is to train us, his readers, to speak the truth about our own lives, even though doing so is at least socially awkward. Buechner’s instinct that we need training and inspiration to tell the truth about our lives—even to ourselves!—is right, I think. It takes real courage to say “I’m miserable” in a culture that has bet the mortgage that a readily available consumer product is the principal ingredient for bliss. It takes courage to say, “I need to be loved more” in a culture that relies so heavily on the curated, facile connections of social media. It takes a fierce honesty and a certain kind of hope to say, “I was wrong, and I deeply regret what I did” in a culture that has forgotten the practices of repentance and reconciliation.

This is maybe even harder to do these days in relation to the groups we love. Just try publicly admiring the skills of the Los Angeles Dodgers right now. But more seriously, telling a full truth about the groups to which we belong has somehow come to seem disloyal. All of our groups suffer from this reluctance to tell the truth. The church needs to be different. It needs to be a place where we can speak what we feel, can tell the uncomfortable truth—and can be heard when we do. This uncommon practice of speaking the truth with courage and hearing it with humility makes the church a more faithful community. But it also can play a crucial role in healing our own souls.

We are very much in a time of transition at Saint Paul’s. As much as we all long for stability and predictability, most of our plans are necessarily provisional and the terrain ahead of us is uncertain. This time of near universal transition—from one priest to another, from one budget to another, from one stage of the pandemic to another—is an excellent time to speak what we feel, in love and with hope. The conversations we have now will determine what our new normal, one day, will be. Let’s have them: in Sunday formation, on the church portico, in our committee meetings, and at the backyard Eucharists. If none of those venues work, let’s have them in my office and on your front porch and over lunch. When we speak with courage and listen with humility, lives are changed, groups are changed. Dare we hope, our communities and God’s beloved world can be changed.

Eric+

Dear People of Saint Paul’s:

The Vestry began our regular monthly meeting with the celebration of Evening Prayer. We are preparing for a presentation to the congregation during Sunday formation to further explain the amended budget (even though our year will soon end). We are also planning for parish wide conversations on a memorial policy and the Polk process. Fr. Biddy encouraged us to focus on being faithful and supporting the Church's mission with what we have. Some wonderful renovations are coming to Tyler Hall kitchen, and we look forward to seeing the plans as they materialize over the next few months. As it was the Feast of Saint Luke, we contemplated healing, especially in our lives and in the life of this Church. 

Yours,

Ashley Wright

Senior Warden

It was music that brought my family and me to Saint Paul’s the autumn of 2007. I’m an artist who speaks, thinks, lives more in poetic metaphors and images than facts and strategies...baffled by the concrete, but connect intuitively with the abstract. I arrived knowing that we don’t dictate, keep, or own the gifts entrusted to us, but nurture, share, and give back what already belongs to God. With a gracious flip of rule/requirement, God who unconditionally, relentlessly dignifies and delights in us...also invites and includes our participation in the work of becoming as well as giving.

Yes, we need resources to survive, support, and sustain our shared, sacred work...as we have means and are so called. But maybe what shapes that calling is understanding that the currency of stewardship is a holy flow and exchange of gifts—that our wealth also shows up in our breath, time, talents, energy, and very presence. We all have gifts, bringing our beautiful separate pieces into a synergistic whole. As a community, we are incomplete without the other.

A beloved story...extraordinary multiplication in the unlikely feeding of the 5,000. One boy’s lunch, barely a snack...taken, blessed, broken, given...baskets of leftovers to spare. Our act of faith starts with the grace of simply sitting and receiving, but then...what small loaves and fishes in our hands are we brave enough to relinquish? It’s not what we offer, but how we offer. We may not have materially much but can still house a generosity and hospitality of spirit. Our intentions/actions give backbone and embody a willingness to live from a position of risk and trust. We believe...or do we?

Showing up to sing years ago, I didn’t know I’d also continue the journey of inner expansion. My framework shifted to see—especially in times of lack—a God of abundance, not scarcity...not a transactional one with whom we trade and bargain, but a deeply relational God with whom we commune. Stepping vulnerably beyond the known/familiar is where I most find compassion and belonging, discovering that “I am enough” is so intertwined with “I have enough.” My family’s call to simplicity/contentment might be necessity but it’s also a choice...in hopes of laying groundwork for future flourishing, of widening the circle and creating space at the table for still others to belong.

--Kathleen Chandler

TUES -- OCT 26, 5PM

THURS -- OCT 28, 6PM

SAT -- OCT 30, 10AM

WED -- NOV 3, 6PM

Throughout fall, we'll continue to offer opportunities to attend an event and we hope that everyone will do so. If there is a time/day you'd like to see OR if you'd like to host an event in your backyard, please contact Elisabeth in the parish office. 

Our 2022 annual pledge campaign is underway. Please prayerfully consider your contribution to a momentous year. If you did not receive a pledge appeal in the mail or have simply misplaced yours, please email the parish office or contact by telephone at (706) 724-2485 ext. 225. You may also pledge online using the link below.

Pledge Cards Received: 61

as of 10/13/2021

Offerings received this Week $7,821.90

Operating Expenses to Date $671,044.78

Total Income Received to Date $686,275.96

Please contact the Parish Office to update our files.