From the Rector
Dear Friends in Christ,
On October 8, Saint Philip’s will host the Blessing of the Animals and Animal Faire and on October 9, the Ministry Fair.
It will be a fun weekend of events, liturgy, food, and more for all ages. But more than that, these events get at what it means to be a Christian community. Simply put, it’s this: the Body of Christ doing the work of love.
At the Blessing of the Animals you will have the chance to see the mosaic artwork that is coming together. It celebrates the decades of blessing of all creatures great and small that have taken place at Saint Philip’s.
Being a blessing is more than the work of a single Sunday morning service. Being a blessing is a way of being in and with the world so we broaden the invitation from coming to a worship service to coming to see that liturgy as one piece of a web of care and love.
Consequently, the events of Saturday, October 8 will show a variety of ways to care for our animal companions. It will be a glimpse of what it means to love the world around us that God has given to our care.
The next day, Sunday, October 9, the Ministry Fair will highlight the many ways we care for one another and for the community around us. We are called to love our neighbor. That neighbor may be someone down the street to whom we bring a meal or someone around the globe for whom we buy a sheep or a goat or a chicken. Neighbor is a moral concept—loving in that sense is not just an act of charity but of justice. It’s a way of living into the call to be a people of the Kingdom.
There are so many ways to be at the work of love at Saint Philip’s. Whether it is in caring for four-legged companions or in holding the hand of someone with whom you share a pew or sharing a meal with someone with whom you don’t think you have much in common at all—there are many small ways for us to practice our faith.
Jesus could have just waved an arm over some crowds and called his work done. He doesn’t though. He meets those he heals, hears their story, touches their hearts, holds their hands, and truly sees them. He calls us to do the same—to be his hands and feet about his work of love in the world.
The way we care for creatures and for one another speaks to the depth and breadth of our faith. It should change not how we live for one hour on Sundays but how we live each minute between those times when we gather again, around his Table, to break Bread together. In that time of sharing in his Presence, our charge to love and serve is renewed.
On October 8 and 9 especially, I hope you will be inspired to love and serve in some new way. I hope you will find the Spirit giving a nudge to be about the work of love.
One small way you can help make that weekend come together may be to make a gift toward the completion of the mosaic. (See the story that follows mine.) I encourage you to reach out to Mtr Mary Trainor to talk about what you might like to give to make this piece of Saint Philip’s history and future come together. Her email is Mary.Trainor@StPhilipsTucson.org.
You can also make a secure on-line donation by clicking the button below and choosing the “Blessing Mosaic” option from the drop-down menu.
The care of creation is something that sounds like a big, lofty theological premise. But it really just means loving what God sets all around us. Loving our neighbors, loving nature, and loving the living things he’s set to scurrying about our lives, homes, gardens, and memories. May God continue to call us to such simple works of love as we find new ways to care for all that he calls good.
Yours in Christ,
—Fr Robert