Beloved Community,
Over these last several weeks I have been very moved by your level of engagement at Epiphany. The Rector Search Committee has been working very hard providing listening sessions on Sunday mornings as well as other times. All the committee members have been given “homework assignments” and have reached out to the many groups and ministries that make up the fabric of this Parish. They even came to one of our staff meetings to listen to our take on all of the questions in the Self-Study packet.
As we move through the fall, I hope that you will continue to be engaged here at Epiphany. Often during an interim time in a parish, it can be tempting to disengage and wait to see who the next Rector will be, or how the Parish may change, etc. And yet, one parishioner remarked to me on Sunday that she has found interim times to be times when lay people really take ownership for the Parish. That is my prayer for all of you.
Epiphany has a long history of gifted and committed lay leadership and that is the case now with our Wardens, Vestry, members of the Search Committee, and the chairs of the many ministries in this wonderful Parish. Let us continue to support everyone who gives so generously of their time and talent. Let us pray for each other in the days and weeks to come, that we will stretch ourselves and introduce ourselves to someone we may not know very well, that we will support the Vestry’s efforts in connecting each other through “virtual neighborhoods” or fellowship groups, and that we will come together to worship whenever we are in town. Our common worship grounds us in everything else that we do and informs our life and ministry. Worship lies at the very heart of the Christian life along with prayer, and reading and reflecting on the Holy Scriptures.
St. Benedict, the great religious reformer of the late 400s and early 500s and known as the “father of Western Monasticism” said, "Always we begin again.” What a wonderful quote to remember in this time of transition at Epiphany. We begin another program year together, full of promise and opportunities to grow deeper in our faith and deeper in our relationship with Christ and each other. We begin again as we launch a search for our next Rector, excited for what the Holy Spirit has in store for us. We begin again as we prepare to launch another Stewardship season, pondering our commitment of time, talent, and treasure. We begin again as we open wide the doors of this wonderful Parish and the doors of our hearts to all who enter here.
Always, we begin again, reassured every day that we are God’s beloved. Let us share that love with everyone we meet, wherever we are, wherever we go.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
