Next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we will begin together here, and with the whole Church, the holy Season of Lent.  It is, as the Scriptures tell us and the Prayer Book reminds us, a special time of prayer, fasting (moderation) and the giving of alms (time and resources).  We are being called into reflection and renewal!  This year our theme for focus will be one of Forgiveness and Reconciliation.  Our Sunday Scriptures as well as our Sunday School sessions and other Lenten opportunities will help pry that open for us. I invite you to take Lent 2024 seriously and to engage where you feel called, with others of our parish family, in the time we have together during this holy season..

I am so looking forward to spending time this weekend in prayer with you all as Bishop Doyle visits and we are blessed to Confirm and Receive 6 individuals into our Church and into our Parish Community. I hope you can make it to celebrate with us at our one, great celebration beginning at 10:30AM.

I am also happy that we had a great turnout for our Annual Meeting last Sunday. One of the discussions that the Vestry continues to have, an issue that was confirmed at our meeting Sunday, is the continued need for volunteers from among us and the efficient coordination of those volunteers.

Dear Friends at Holy Spirit,

We need your help with a couple important things:

I’ve been here a couple months and have often opened Realm, the Church Data Base, to find information, addresses, phone numbers and the like. One thing that would be MOST helpful would be a picture… of you! Learning names is rough but hundreds and hundreds is even more difficult. If not for me, for your new Rector. Please log in and upload a picture of yourself, if you would, please. Thanks!

Over the last seven years I have had the unique experience of being a ministry leader for Holy Spirit Church and School as Director of Family Ministries for the Church and Chaplain for the School. I am an active staff member of both the school and the church. As the first School Chaplain at Holy Spirit Episcopal School, it was an intentional decision to hire me to have roles in both the Church and the School to help bring together our community.

School Sunday is one of our many community events that brings us all together.

It’s that time of year when I get questions about giving and stewardship from members of the finance committee, vestry, and parishioners.

Every fall we have a Stewardship campaign where the Stewardship Chair reaches out to our congregation and asks us to prayerfully consider our connection to Holy Spirit Episcopal Church. This encompasses time, talent, and treasure because we rely on our parishioners to share all of these in varying degrees so that our community can flourish in faith, fellowship, and outreach. We are collecting those pledge commitments now!

This Sunday, 15 October, we will Celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism, NEW LIFE, for our sister-in-faith to be, infant Clara! Come and join us as we gather around the font and the altar and welcome her into the community of followers of Jesus. We will prepare ourselves, and all are welcome, at our regularly scheduled Sunday School session in the parish hall beginning at 9:30AM. There, we will study about Baptism as well as our other Sacraments in the Episcopal Church.

I have now been at Holy Spirit as your Interim for one month. What a month it has been! I remain delighted to be here and even more interested in what we might be able to do together in the upcoming months. I have addressed some of the requests made to me by the Vestry, especially focusing on our common Liturgy and Christian Formation. I’m delighted in the participation on Sunday mornings in our study of the Beatitudes as well as Wednesday morning’s Isaiah Study. It’s been wonderful to gather and share our faith together.

On 4 October the Church celebrates the Feast of St Francis. We here at Holy Spirit will remember him as we do the “Blessing of Animals” during the 5:00PM Service this Sunday. I have been associated with the Franciscan movement and Franciscan communities since high school. I love the Spirit of Francis and Claire of Assisi and have spent much of my life studying and attempting to emulate that spirit in my day-to-day life and in my prayer.