From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

Many of you will no doubt have heard of the real struggles of online learning for children this past year. Parents are seeing depression, exhaustion, and regression in kids who are otherwise happy and eager to learn. We’ve certainly seen this in our own home.

Of course, the standard education system isn’t always great in the best of times, but this last year has really exposed the limits of remote learning and the value of connection and relationship in learning and growing.

As we look toward re-gathering and a more normal second half of the year we are also planning further out—we are now planning our 2022 Cathedral Choir Residency Program. Dr Appel has written in this edition of Bell and Tower about just what this experience means for our kids and our choir program. For 2022, the group has been invited to Wells Cathedral.

After a year of zoom and distance learning we know now, more than ever, what being together and creating something beautiful in community can mean.

This year, to jumpstart our fund raising to send our kids on this residency trip after such an exhausting year, and to say thank you for the hard work so many of them did making music under unprecedented circumstances this past year, we are dedicating our Easter offering to the cathedral residency. To send a child costs around $3,000.00.

That money is an investment in the faith, confidence, connection, and ability of a child. It’s an investment in our choir program. More than that, it’s a concrete demonstration of this community’s care for children and for making music at all ages that glorifies God.

It’s a gift to have both a robust choir and a vibrant children, youth, and family ministry. In case you don’t already know this, the Saint Nicholas choir has been rehearsing weekly via Zoom, and recording a hymn and anthem weekly.

I hope that you will give generously this Easter to show our appreciation for both and to help shape the hearts, minds, and souls of these choristers. It’s a life-changing experience that you make possible.

If you would like to learn more about the residency program, I hope you won’t hesitate to contact Justin Appel or Bonnie Winn and talk more with them about it. In the weeks ahead we will have short interviews with the choristers, and you will hear more about what this experience means for them. Each week, and especially on feast days like Easter, we are blessed by their gifts — let’s bless them with ours, too.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert