Dear Friends,
The joy and good news at All Saints continues! We’ve got lots going on and lots coming up, and every Sunday I am amazed by the good will and connection and desire to be part of community that helps each of us connect more deeply—to God, to one another, to the needs of our neighbors.
As we all know, there are hard things happening in our nation and the world (though let’s please celebrate the amazing power of the people in Minneapolis that led to the good news that the ICE “surge” there is ending). We might be a bit demoralized after what feels like months of January and the knowledge that we’ve still got a ways to go before Spring arrives (though the sun today is a great mood lifter). We’ve all got life happening, whether that’s the busyness of ferrying children from activity to activity, worry about what’s next for kids or how to care for aging parents, jobs that distress or annoy or just insist we work more than we’d like, and more.
So, we are not unaware at All Saints of the slings and arrows of life, we do not pretend that life is always easy or that the news isn’t too often grim. But! But, we continue to treat each with warmth and kindness, we find joy as we sing to dismiss our children for church school at the end of the 9 am services and as we gather for fellowship at coffee hour or with sparkling beverages after the 11 am services. We gather together in all kinds of ways, some “official” like small groups and Lenten suppers, some in unofficial ways as you decide to gather people for a games night or for brunch after church or create a group around an interest and invite folks in. And we gather each Sunday to sing and pray and be renewed in our faith that we are in the hands of a loving God who will never abandon us and that we are not, do not have to be, in charge of everything. And that, dear Friends, is what we call Grace.
As we prepare for the more solemn season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday next week, I pray that we see it not only as an invitation to private reflection and repentance but also as a time to “turn again” (the meaning of “repent”), to return to the center of our lives–God–and to turn again, not alone, but together as the Body of Christ at All Saints.
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+