Dear Friends in Christ,

I first came to Saint Philip’s on Christmas Eve 2023, gave Mtr Taylor Devine nothing but my first name in a brief exchange, and then left. Nevertheless, she and Fr Robert Hendrickson found me, brought me out to an interview in February of 2024, and what seemed like an almost impossible proposition of moving across the country to the Desert Southwest gradually—improbably—fell into place. In the intervening two years here, it has been my privilege to walk with you in navigating an extraordinary pace of change, through transitions of staff and leadership, major building works, and the daily rhythm of worship, teaching, and fellowship.

In the glorious choral liturgies of major feasts, in the quiet noonday masses in the Baptistry Chapel, in the classroom, and at the hospital bedside, I have always felt—and have been supported by—the presence of the Holy Spirit in this place. I think that Saint Philip’s is alive with that Spirit. This is a congregation of extraordinary individual gifts, with a lay leadership—administratively, pastorally, catechetically—that is building up the Body of Christ. There is much work to do in the years ahead: completing major building projects, continuing to deepen our educational offerings for both youth and adults alike, expanding our pastoral offerings to the elders of this congregation, and—most pressingly—taking the Gospel out into the broader community by serving the most in need. These are needful enterprises of the Church, but they are not the ends in themselves.

The mission of the Church, we are taught, “is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” (BCP 855). Every liturgy, every class, every offering, every melioristic enterprise of the Church begins from this. They take all their meaning in the truth that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. They take all their meaning in the truth that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And it is this Incarnate God whom we encounter, day in and day out, in the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist.

What greater comfort is there than this?

If we can fix our eyes, our minds, our hearts on this reality, in all that we do at Saint Philip’s, we can scarce go wrong.

I am honored to have been called as the sixth Rector of this parish, and Emma and I are so delighted to continue to worship with and learn from this community—and now to bring Magdalene up in it. Please know that this parish, its people, and its needs will always be in my daily prayers, as will many of you by name—prayers in times of illness, or loss, or expectation and joy. I humbly ask, of your charity, that you might pray for us also.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew