Epiphany 5 – 9 Feb 2025

Greetings St. George’s community,

I have been reading (a bit at a time because it is A LOT to digest) through the Annual Report and I am touched and impressed by all the care and work that this represents, the many meetings, meals, tasks, e-mails, phone calls, visits and prayers that go into making the shared life of this community what it is.

As we approach our vestry meeting it is a time to express our gratitude to all the hard-working people who make our ministry happen. Many of those who lead and serve in our congregation have done so for many years with multiple responsibilities. So, I invite you to join with me in celebrating and thanking those who take on high profile tasks with a lot of responsibility and those who humbly persist at jobs that we take for granted, those who count the money, keep a roof over our heads, and clean the bathrooms; sometime the same person does many of these tasks, so THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO SERVES this community!

As we look at the year ahead, I encourage you to think of 2025 not as “getting used to how Laurel does things” but rather a year of “asking where God is calling us” and “trying new things together.” I hope in the early part of this year we will identify some key priorities and work together to achieve them. I promise it won’t all be perfect and that we won’t do everything the way we’ve always done it. But I also promise that as we celebrate and let go of some old things, try some new things, and affirm the goodness of the things we know we are good at, we will learn and grow in trust and faith together.

I invite you to join me on a journey as both guides and fellow-travellers as I learn about how things work at St. George’s and I wonder about how it might be. I bet there are parts of this place that you don’t know anything about. I invite you to wonder along with me what new things God might be calling us to as a church -what priorities that we might share together, and as individuals what new ways might we share our gifts and talents, what God might be asking us to let go of to make room for something new.

In my decade as a priest, I never thought that parish ministry was for me. In saying “yes” to St. George’s community I am trying something I never thought I would do, and I never thought I would be good at. This year and in our journey of faith together, I am asking you to do the same. It is part of the work of the church, especially in troubling times, to be brave together. I hope that you will say “yes” to St. George’s with me.

Together in the adventure,
Rev. Laurel