So much ahead of us.
Dear friends and members of St. Matt's,
Welcome to September! Can you believe it? As I write this note, it's my third day back in the office and I'm busy trying to excavate my inbox and make plans for the coming season. As you'll see in this edition of the e-news, there are a great many things getting started and going on. While I was on leave, your lay leaders and staff have continued to work hard - and there are some wonderful things before us in the next few weeks and months.
Before I share some news, I want first to thank the staff for their excellent work this summer. We are so blessed by this wonderful team of people, their faithfulness, their plans for you and for our community. I am so grateful for all their gifts and for the unending energy they bring to our work together. And I'm equally grateful to our Officers and Vestry, especially to Brian and Pam for their many and myriad efforts over these last few months in my absence. We are blessed with lay leaders who love God and love St. Matthew's and have given so much of themselves in this last season to see our life together grow and thrive. Thank you so much for all this good work.
I'm a little sleep deprived - but I'm very happy to be joining you at this point in the year and really looking forward to what's ahead of us. Please take a careful look through this e-news to see all the wonderful ways to be connected, involved, have your kids here in person, and dive into an exciting new year together. There is a lot to see and put on your calendar!
Among those new opportunities is a particularly rare piece I want to share with you today. It requires a bit of storytelling. Before the pandemic, I was approached by a donor with an opportunity to do something really special for our community. Among the many ideas we discussed, and a few things we did, one special dream emerged: a new Altar and a new Baptismal Font. New sacred pieces that would match our space and serve our life better. In a rather short period of time, we made a study of some places that we might contract with to build these special pieces for us. And we settled on St. Paul's Fabrication, a place I was particularly fond of because they built the altar (and various other pieces) for my seminary chapel at Yale. Located in Minnesota, they do excellent and holy work - and indeed it was a faithful endeavor to work with Ken at St. Paul's to design our new altar and font.
Ken drove them here from Minnesota last weekend and they arrived on Monday, August 30th. They are currently in the narthex so that you can see them up close. This means we have some work to do. While the new altar and font will remain in the narthex for the next two Sundays, we will deconsecrate the existing altar at the end of our worship on 9/12. And during worship on 9/19, we will consecrate both the new altar and the new font. This is really a rare thing for a church. Rare and special. And at this moment in our lives, it is a tremendous gift.
Baptismal fonts, the place where we baptize members and welcome them into the Body of Christ and the family of faith, are at the very center of who we are. The waters of baptism transform us instantly. And the promises we make at Baptism continue to transform us all throughout our lives. These are the basic tenets of who we are - the outlines of a faithful life. The altar, as you know, is the center of our worship on a weekly basis. It reminds us of our ancestors who worshipped in the wilderness, of Jesus who shared a table with his friends, and of our own tables where we share with people we love. As you might imagine - I have quite a lot more to say about this moment and about these two pieces - but for now, I hope that you will come see them on Sunday. And don't miss St. Matthew's Day (9/19) when we will have a glorious day for many reasons - and consecrate these two new pieces for service...so that their life and purpose will nourish this community for many, many years to come.
I look forward to seeing you on Sunday. God loves you. And so do I.
Faithfully,
--Marissa +