From the Rector
Dear Friends in Christ,
We’re beginning the gradual ramp up of life here as we head toward the holidays. Poinsettias and wreaths are being ordered, the stock of ribbon measured, greening planned, and more. We’re preparing music lists and sorting out liturgical details for Christmas Eve. We’ve worked on pageant costume counting and sign ups.
Even as we find ourselves in the midst of the fall program calendar we start the preparations for the next seasons, too. There’s a routine to it. There’s a kind of steadily frenetic pace that we know and is familiar.
The familiarity feels good even as we’re all still adjusting to the service schedule change and exploring the possibilities it offers (such as the really terrific presentation by the children and youth about the residency and pilgrimage last Sunday). Having the consistency of Evensong has been a particularly lovely way to close out busy Sundays and find a space for peace as the week begins.
Since Covid, routine has been hard to find. Things were re-starting, or being adapted, or only online now, or ending. Each service, committee, class, and more were having to be almost re-imagined because the patterns that were so familiar in 2019 were lost.
I’m delighted to say that some other things from before Covid are being recovered this year. We will soon be able to announce another large medical debt purchase because of the generosity of so many of you. It looks like we will be able to purchase and forgive $3-4 million in outstanding medical debt providing relief to families across southern Arizona.
The Vestry is deciding which agencies we will give our Christmas Eve offering to this year. We intend to give it away in its entirety and it’s always a joy to be able to present non-profits doing incredible work with that generosity. Typically that runs between $20-25k, so it’s a sizable sum for many agencies and represents the largest single day of giving we will receive in the year. I think it’s an important statement about how we give and serve that we designate it to be given away.
Our conversations about addressing the housing crisis here continue. Through our partnership with Pima County Interfaith, we are looking at partnerships with local churches who also have an interest in finding ways to help alleviate the pressing needs around housing.
The traditional Thanksgiving Day service and meal will happen this year but with an added element: we will take food to folks in need around the community. We will pack up meals and take them out to feed those who otherwise might go hungry. On a day when we are reminded of our blessings in life it seems right to try to be a small blessing to others, too.
These are a few things on the horizon. Mosaic, the family retreat, First Sunday breakfast, Sunday forums, and more are markers of the return of patterns of life together though each has been changed and adapted in some way. One of the new things this year is a take on an old-fashioned practice as Joyful Noise holds the hymn sing as its model. I got a text from Karrie after last week’s Joyful Noise service that read, “I loved every minute of that!” Something about those old hymns brought back rich and deep memories.
That’s sort of the whole story of these last few years. We’ve all been changed and adapted in one way or another just as life together here has changed and adapted. Maybe that’s the sign that we’ve lived through it and are coming out the other side with some new normal settling in.
But the most crucial patterns of worship, service, prayer, and care have remained as the steady beating heart of the church. Seeking and serving Christ in all these different ways is the rhyme and rhythm of our life together. I’m sure other things will change, some will return to the way they were, some never can, but in all of it we will find our hope and calling in the steady work of growing in Christ alongside one another no matter the changes and chances of the day.
Yours in Christ,
—Fr Robert
