A Letter From The Rector

Dear Friends,

We are now fully into Advent, the season of expectant waiting and preparation. We prepare for the yearly remembrance of the birth of Christ, and more importantly, we prepare for the second coming of Christ, when all things will be made new and whole. It is a season of preparing ourselves now to participate in the future as well as the present. It is a season of looking backward and forward.

This is particularly appropriate for us this year, as our looking backward and forward is not only for the manifestation of Christ in the world, but also in ECA’s two concurrent transitions. As I am retiring at the end of this month, we look backward over the past seven and a half years that I have been your Rector and we look forward to the time next year when you will call your next Rector.

We also look forward, as we work toward it, to a re-enlivened, sustainable faith community reaching out toward our neighborhood in the Church of the Future. Transitions begin with an ending, go through a fallow period of work and preparation, and end with a new beginning. This inevitably involves goodbyes and some grief. And inevitably also involves excitement and hope with a new beginning. My retirement does both for us.

Over my time as your Rector, we have had excitement, joy, and growth and we have had disappointments, disagreements, and pain. For my part in the latter, I apologize. And from my perspective, we have had much more of the former than the latter. For this, I give thanks. I have been greatly blessed to be your Rector, your pastor, and your spiritual leader. It has been my joy to be with you in happy times and difficult days as well, and we are bonded together in love. This bond of love is unbreakable because God is love and love is God. This is what stands permanent in a world in which all else is impermanent. God in our loving relationships, God in our worship, God within us guiding us. Memories are incarnations of our love as well as incarnations of everything else – hold on to the love, as I will.

As you move into the future that God is preparing for you, and in which you are fully participating, you will remain in my heart, my thoughts, and my prayers. I pray that God will richly bless you, continue to guide you with gentleness and inspiration, and will surround each of you with love beyond our understanding. God’s love will continue to bind you together as a faithful community and carry you ever closer to God’s Heart.

With blessings and so much gratitude,

-Shelley