Beloved Friends,
This Sunday we will gather once again to share a meal at 9:00am opening our doors wide to our extended community and then continue with our worship service at 10:00. This year we are trying something new- we got such positive feedback when we set up tables in the sanctuary for Homecoming Sunday in September, we have decided to do it again and also incorporate our short, but important 177th Annual Meeting into the context of worship at the time of Announcements.
This year’s “business meeting” has the following items on the agenda:
Approval of our new Vestry slate
Approval of our newly revised By Laws
Acknowledgment of our Annual Report (and acceptance of 2019 Meeting Minutes- see p. 4).
All in the context of giving God thanks and praise for another year of ministry together!
We are both the inheritors and bearers of a tradition that seeks to both honor the past and anticipate a hope-filled future. I am humbled and excited each day we take another step forward together in that reality. Below is a wonderful poem that I believe may help set the context for us as we prepare for our time together Sunday.
Messenger
by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird-equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren,
to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.
What wonderful words to hear and take in this week; most specifically the simple but powerful sentence lodged into the middle of this beautifully crafted verse:
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
January is always such a busy time for us at Trinity as we finish up the Annual Report and make the preparations for our Annual Meeting time. SO I deeply appreciate the reminder to stand still.
More than ever, when I do stand still I find myself giving thanks for this community and the life we choose live together in Christ. At every turn I see incarnate examples of God’s love and mercy. Looking back, when I stand still and pay attention to the multitude of expressions of how we have discovered and shared God’s love I am indeed astonished.
So come home this Sunday, to the community that needs what only you have to give. Come stand next to those who are willing to stand still with you so that together we can learn how to pay attention to the world’s needs as well as our own and be truly astonished.
May you never forget that you are loved.
Lisa