Dear Friends in Christ,
I want to thank all of you for making my first couple months with you such a wonderful experience. Thank you. The encouragement and support so many of you have shown me has made my transition into ministry with you so enjoyable. I am constantly amazed as I have been meeting many of you how deep your connections are to St. Margaret in-the-Pines and I am honoured that you have received me with such open arms in order to serve the gospel amongst you.
Together we have begun online worship and I have again been amazed at the response to this. During this pandemic many churches have responded creatively with a vast array of online worship – many with very high production value and great beauty. Yet many of you joyfully have chosen to worship through our on-line service. Dare I say it a third time, amazing. To me this is God’s doing. A rich testimony to the ways God has bound us together not only with Him, but with one another.
I have seen and heard the depths of this work of God amongst you as I have come to know many of you through online town-halls and your coming to visit me at the church or me coming to you. I have been able to meet many of you and I look forward to continuing to get to know all of you. It has been a deep joy and privilege to serve God amongst you and I look forward to the weeks, months, and years ahead. Thanks be to God.
What lies ahead for us at St. Margaret in-the-Pines? The Bishops have set the tentative date of September 13th as a possible re-opening of our churches. I know many of you eagerly look forward to this in-person gathering and every effort will be made so that when we re-open, church will be a safe place to come and worship. When we re-open I want to let you know we will continue to have online worship so that as many people as possible can continue to be gathered into worship. This is important because church will look and feel different when we return.
In the meantime St. Margaret will continue online worship, even while I go away on vacation. On August 2nd I am delighted that Rev’d. Irwin will lead you in worship from the church, but August 9, 16 and 23 St. Margaret will be doing something a little different. St. Margaret will continue to have online worship but it will be Morning Prayer from home. From his home Rev’d. Jim Garland will lead the church in prayer. Thank you, Rev’d. Irwin and Rev’d. Jim!
My friends in Christ. Thank you. It has been a joy to begin ministry amongst you. I love it. I give thanks to God that I am called to serve amongst you. I still can’t believe it. Please pray for St. Margaret-in-the-Pines and all our sisters and brothers in the Anglican Church as we get ready to re-open. For now I go for some rest. I look forward to being with my family and having a week by a lake at a cottage. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have some new music I look forward to hearing. I have a number of books lined up, not all of which I will even begin, but I look forward to finding out which ones I will read! They are (in no particular order): Figural Reading and the Old Testament by Don Collet, Dorothy Day’s autobiography The Long Loneliness, The King Must Die by Mary Renault, Late Migrations: a Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl, and Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino sit on my shelf. How fun! See you when I get back.
In Christ,
Andrew+