Dear Friends,
What a joy it was to have so many new parishioners and visitors come to our Newcomers Brunch! From what I observed, we are living into our calling of being a warm and welcoming congregation! I want to thank the Welcoming Team for all their work and love that made it such as special event.
You may notice a change in the bulletin announcements this week. Our Prayer List is moved. This ministry has been so successful, that we no longer have sufficient space for it in the announcements pages! (This ministry is addressing a real need – I cannot tell you how many people have asked to be put on the prayer list because someone they love is going through something quite difficult.) For the next two weeks, we will have it as an additional insert in our bulletins. After that, we will have the prayer lists prominently placed at the entrance of the church.
I have been asked by a few people in the church about the Lord’s Prayer. Some have asked, “When did we get the new Lord’s Prayer?” The Book of Common Prayer that we have used officially since 1979 offers two options: the old King James English version and a contemporary one. The latter reflects current language use, consistent with the tradition of prayer books using the language of the people, and the contemporary version is closer to the biblical text. Nonetheless, many of us have sentimental attachments to the old version of the Lord’s Prayer. Our parents and grandparents taught us using that language! If that is the case for you, you are invited to pray the Lord’s Prayer that is closer to your heart when we all pray together. At the same time, you are invited to occasionally pray the up-to-date version from time to time, and see if it provides a different meaning for you.
I do want to talk about our Kitchen Use. In the Fall, we began to allow Feed Thy Neighbor to use our kitchen during the week. Now, about 20,000 meals per month come out of that kitchen that is delivered to the hungry in our community! Even so, we still have use of it in the evenings, the mornings until 10am, and the weekends. With the amount of use that our kitchen is experiencing, things are not like they used to be. We are now working on additional storage for our use in the Parish Hall that will improve the order of our kitchen and parish hall.
As always, I welcome your questions and conversations.
Peace and grace,
Fr. Jonathan