To the people of St. Margaret-in-the-Pines,
Grace and peace to you in our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am very excited to be joining all of you at St. Margaret-in-the-Pines’ as your Priest. My family and I have eagerly been waiting for this day and now it is here. I am grateful to God and to the parish selection committee and to Bishop Kevin for asking me to serve God amongst you. Along with this pastoral letter I have attached a brief bio of myself so that you may get a head start in knowing me as I come to know all of you.
As I and my family arrive at St. Margaret’s to share in your life together many questions swirl around us. When public worship was first suspended many of us thought that this was a temporary pause, and come Easter our life together would resume as per normal. It is now Pentecost and our leaders and medical experts are telling us public worship, as we once knew it, is unlikely to resume in any short amount of time. In the meantime we have all suffered. The pandemic has been hard on all of us, but most especially to those who have always been vulnerable in our society. As a result, we as a church have very important conversations ahead of us.
Thankfully, we have just celebrated Pentecost, where we receive Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit. On this day, the walls that the disciples hid behind seemingly dissolve as the Spirit rushes in upon them, filling them with the love of God for others so that they may proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. The message of Pentecost is that the God revealed to us in Jesus has not left us orphaned, but has given us the Holy Spirit to share with the world the good news of Jesus.
As your new Priest I am eager to take up this work with you. I am excited to meet all of you, to listen to you, to pray with you. During this time of COVID-19 we must necessarily remain apart out of love for our neighbours. Our first act of love as a church is to listen to our leaders and medical experts and practise safe social-distancing. This does not mean, however, that we must remain apart. We have seen at St. James Cathedral and throughout the church that the Holy Spirit breathes creative manifestations of worship and love. I look forward to discovering what the Holy Spirit is doing amongst all of you at St. Margaret’s!
As I join you I want to meet you! In the coming weeks I will, with the wardens and Ken+,explore further ways God can bring us together “beyond the walls” of our church building so that we can come to know each other, so that our life together may be strengthened by God’s love for us, and so that we may serve one another and our community.
I am excited about our shared life together, and I know you are too. It is my prayer that even though our church building is closed, in the coming days, weeks, and months we may be shaped and formed by the life of Jesus for the sake of the world, especially in the community we live in.
Yours in Christ,
Andrew Kaye+