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A Message from our Rector-
Blessings to you all!
I miss you all. I really want to come join you on Sundays but staying upright and focused for an hour is still not predictably within reach. Goodness I wish it were different. I wish a lot of things were different right now, in my own life and in the world.
Thankfully, my spirits have been surprisingly high throughout all of the going’s on I have endured over the past months. (Surprising to me, and more critically, Windy)! Embracing a “One day at a time” view of life, leaning into the “sacrament of the present moment” has largely worked. Thanks be to God.
I do have to say, though, this just passing bout of COVID pushed me to my limits. It was the exhaustion and the isolation that did it. It has been a dark couple of weeks.
Thanks be to God COVID is now in the rear-view-mirror. No one else here at home has caught it and now we are cleaning up the mess of a couple of weeks of disruption. I am back to “normal” working on these migraines. (We have another trip to Mass General this week for a Botox treatment and a check in, so we’ll see what they say).
Normal…. There hasn’t been much normality in the world for a long time. (Of course nothing in the world is ever actually normal, but in other times it has been easier to fool ourselves). The problem is, that in our individual lives and our collective lives as a Christian community, the normal every day ins and outs of life continue regardless of how acrimonious the election cycle is, how scary Vladimir Putin is acting, or how disrupted parish life is in these post-COVID/sick rector times.
Right now, in these abnormal times, we are having a couple of very normal church problems that we really need some help with. The real critical part is our stewardship campaign. I hear that it is going well, considering the amount of disruption, but that we are a bit behind where we’d like to be. I wish I was there to back up Anne and Peter with some admonishing over the spectacles priestly looks, but I am not. So instead Milissa will give one…. Thanks for feeling motivated to get those pledge cards in.
Second, along with many other volunteer driven organizations, volunteers have been very hard to secure. In particular, the altar guild, the folks who make sure that the altar is set with the requisite grace and beauty, is desperately in need of assistance over the winter months. The flower guild is similarly in need of arrangers. If you have a bit of time (a couple of hours every couple of weeks), please get in touch with Suzanne Decrow (altar guild) or Nancy Peers (flower guild). I am giving that look again. Thanks.
The last normal problem we are facing doesn’t come with an ask (or a look), yet. Mother Regina has tired really hard to get a Sunday school off the ground this year. In part due to the volunteer shortage, and in part the disruption due to my absence, it just hasn’t come together, St. Francis’ visit last week notwithstanding. At this point, we have decided that launching a major ministry is not something that we can do as things are. Thank you Regina and Marty for your efforts. While it is sadly normal for Sunday schools to struggle, we’ll have to try another angle when things get back to more normal times at St. Francis.
Otherwise, I keep hearing about how well things are going. Thanks especially to Barbara Brady for her constant vigilance, Kevin Hunt for his dedication and Milissa LaLonde for everything else. Thank you.
Please keep Windy, the girls and me in your prayers as we travel to Boston this week. You are ever in mine. I so appreciate your presence in our lives and in the lives of this community.
In Christ,
Brent
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