Dear Christ Church,
The unseen and devoted faithful run the world. This is my final “CliffNotes” to you, a weekly practice I started 15 years ago when Deacon Nancy Lewis (née Scamacca) was our first operations director. She helped us to improve our communications (like creating this enews) and take some other “growing up” steps as a small parish transitioning to a medium-sized parish.
If you have ever been grateful for something I’ve written here, or that we have announced in the sections below, you can thank Nancy, or Julie Chewning who currently manages our communications. Or Kristie Hartwell or Danielle Pruitt or Carolyn Roman or Laura Smith or Kim Polk or Dave Allen or anyone who has ever had an operational role on our staff–not to mention our amazing volunteers–you can thank all of them. Their servant-hearted work is to Christ Church what vital organs are to the body. They’re unseen; they sometimes get taken for granted; but their coordinated work is essential to life.
In this last CliffNotes, I want to thank all the staff and volunteers whose names you might not know, those who serve behind the scenes with full hearts and skillful hands. I say “Thank you for ‘taking up the towel and the basin,’ for the ways you serve that might not garner attention or applause. You have been essential to my own joy and thriving, just as you are to the whole congregation’s ability to encounter the living God through the variegated life of the parish.”
Last Sunday Christine and I shared “the pulpit” with a look at how New Testament epistles were written, and then shared with you our own letter, “A Word to the Church at 112 Medina St., East Cesar Chavez Neighborhood.” Many of you have asked for a copy, which you can find right here. It’s also available by podcast and on our Youtube channel.
As I shared in last week’s sermon, I love you Christ Church and count these two decades with you, serving as your Rector, among the highest privileges and honors of my life. I will guard close to the heart so many memories of walking with you through joyful celebrations, heartbreaking tragedies, tensions, transformations, courageous risks, and compassion–all held within the faithfulness of God.
May your everyday and ordinary life be filled with moments of seeing the veil pulled back, the holy of holies revealed; may you know the friendship of Jesus as your companion and guide on The Way, and may the Holy Spirit rain down mercies upon you, renewing and refreshing you in the season ahead, under Fr. Matt Dampier’s loving leadership.
Peace, Cliff+
P.S. Don’t forget that we only have one service this Sunday, 10am. See our website for more information on extra parking, and budget time to come early!