Hallelujah our God reigns!
I love hiking! Often when you walk a trail that you are familiar with, you see things that you have never noticed before: if the light is different or something is flowering and draws your attention, or it’s rained and there’s new growth, or sometimes a bird flutters and you look more intently into the same tree that you have passed so often before, and there it is – something new, that’s been there all along, but ignored by you as you walked by.
Life’s like that. We pass each other by and then suddenly become aware of something and our relationship changes, it grows, it deepens, it becomes more intimate. And how our lives improve when we stop awhile, and seek to find something new in each other and in ourselves. How often do you walk past someone, not knowing that they share your dreams, your pain, your fears and your desires? Put there by God to journey with you, but we are blinded by business or indifference or preoccupation.
And so I encourage you to linger, open hour heart to another – hear their story and allow God to minister into your lives.
I like to use the opportunity of my birthday to thank people, for their love and participation in my life. And this week I’d like to thank all of you for what you mean to me. I don’t think I express my gratitude to you enough, you make it possible for me to live among you serve you, and for that I a grateful.
I love ministry, I love leading the parish and I thank God for the opportunity.
After 10 years of full-time ministry, (6 here at St Mary’s). I realize that I need to make a few changes and so I’ll be taking a sabbatical at the end of the year to spend time reordering my life with the intention of being more focused and effective in 2019 and beyond.
Be assured of my love and my prayers as we journey towards the end of 2018.
Yours in Christ
Rector
Fr. Andrew