Let’s Celebrate All Five!
Every last Sunday of January, the Holy Spirit congregation gathers to mark the year. It is an interesting day to do so considering how many other moments we have, both secular and liturgical, to delineate chunks of time. This marking of the year is, at least in appearance, a meeting meant to do what some would call the work or business of the church. I would like to suggest that this meeting is actually about our faith.
Our Annual Meeting will take place in the Nave after the 10:30 service. After the final hymn, you are invited to remain standing as I will offer the opening prayer. We will celebrate all the ways God has blessed us in the year past. We will celebrate the financial health of the parish. We will celebrate a year in which we came back together to worship in person while also beginning to stream of our service. We will celebrate thousands and thousands of bags of food we have delivered all across this city to feed thousands of children every single week. We will celebrate that our congregation is a formative place for clergy. I certainly have grown as your pastor and priest, but I am more specifically referring to the successful embarkment of Korey Wright to his new ministry as Rector of St. Thomas’ in College Station. We will celebrate the creativity and devotion of our church staff who has pivoted so many times this year that they must be dizzy! We will celebrate that God will bless Holy Spirit with a wonderful group of new vestry members and Diocesan Council delegates to be elected on Sunday. We will celebrate for certain…and there is so much to celebrate that you may not believe me when I say the meeting will only last about an hour…but there is a small group of people we will especially highlight...
If you are on the fence as to whether you would like to join us, I ask that you please do so in order to honor the vestry members who have completed their three-year term. Will, Kim, Michael, Lois, and Marjorie have spent more than half of their vestry term navigating a global pandemic. Much of what they likely hoped to offer in service to the church was not possible because of this reality. Much of the joy that comes with participating in such a group together was placed in the context of a zoom screen. Much of the decisions they have helped decide have been in the context of unprecedented times. And through it all, they were so very faithful. They served you well and they blessed me as we shared in the ministry of caring for this parish. If you come for no other reason, come to applaud all that these five Holy Spiriters have done to ensure that Holy Spirit continues to be a wonderful, healthy, growing place centered on the promise of God’s grace and peace of God’s love.
Come worship and stay for the rest of the celebration.
We love you and God loves you,
Josh Condon+