Together In The Church

Rejoice! I say again Rejoice!     Phil. 4:4

          Greetings, Creator Family!

          What a wonderful and joyful Eastertide this has been! Together in the Church, together on ZOOM, receiving the Eucharist—spiritually and physically—laughing on the portico, simply being a family in love and being loved by one another and by God. I am grateful for the Lord’s blessing and providence in seeing us through! I pray this message highlights for you the distance we have come and the many reasons we have to be grateful. I also pray for the return to in-person worship for all who desire it. 

          This week’s about-face on mask restrictions and the changing CDC recommendations are encouraging. At long last it really does feel like we are moving over the hump and venturing out to explore the new world we have been given. What opportunity we find and how we encounter those opportunities is ‘the stuff of faith.’ Thankfully, we are well prepared in the companionship of Jesus Christ!

          To carry on the ministry of service to our Lord, your Vestry met last week to discuss on-going projects and concerns for parish life. Among others on the list are grounds maintenance and improvement, Church signage, and our timely and most economical solution to the broken sewer, all within the context of prayer and blessing. How will we engage this new world and introduce its inhabitants to Christ? Lee Barron, your Senior Warden, and I have been praying and working towards the formation of a new ministry team that will meet the challenges ahead. This ministry team, yet to be named, will help chart our course—both physically and spiritually, as we discern the will of God.

          How will the building be used? How can we engage the community? What needs to be updated and what needs to be let go? What is our mission? How are we to serve each other and engage the world? Are we afraid or empowered? All these and ‘any more’ questions are fertilizer to the ground of the new land and we seek to plant and grow!

          Do you want to serve in this ministry? Perhaps God is calling you in a new way - one you’ve never before entertained or run from pre-pandemic. If you immediately said “NO!” you may be right, but you could be wrong. The pandemic has changed us all, in ways I pray you let the Lord minister to. No one, or very few people, could readily answer ‘no’ to such an open-ended description without dedicated prayerful reflection. This ministry group, committee, gathering, whatever it will be, will be a blessing of ideas, love, friendship, hope, and holiness. In constant flux, pulsing with the rhythm and divine possibility or deliberately, constantly, and reverently moving forward, this ministry has a calling and commission for our parish and our community.

          Please pray about this opportunity (and need) and then give us a call. At Creator, there is a niche for each and all because He calls everyone—no exceptions! It will be you, “those others,” and Jesus! You, the others, and the Holy Spirit! All of you and God!

Peace in Christ,
Fr. Bill+ ​