Looking Back at 2023 and Forward to 2024
Standing at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, there is so much for us at St. Paul’s to be thankful for. This has been a spectacular year. We got to celebrate Fr. David’s ordination to the priesthood and welcome back Fr. Dennis and Patti Ryan, congratulate Cathy Gates on a tenure as Senior Warden well done (this is bittersweet for us since she is no longer on Vestry, along with Gary Rigby). We welcomed David Smith on as the new Senior Warden and Joann Montgomery and Joan Smith as Vestry Members. Our Vestry has continued to work tirelessly to make St. Paul’s a beautiful, hospitable, and reverent place of worship.
For the first time since I arrived at St. Paul’s in 2019, we performed more Baptisms than Funerals and pray that this trend continues! We saw seven new confirmands and more receptions into the parish when Bp. Chad visited. Fr. David and I have started celebrating Holy Communion on a daily basis and we pray for each and every parishioner of the parish at the Intentions at least once a week. We have also continued shepherding our “satellite congregation” at the Brightview retirement community (Fr. David is primarily responsible for that now and they love him!). God has brought us new people, many of whom were previously unchurched or are “Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail”. A good number of those newcomers have ended up serving in some capacity through Altar Guild, serving at the Altar during services, ushering, and other capacities.
We blessed a number of houses during Epiphanytide. We continued our partnership with Riva Trace Baptist Church to assist them during their Winter Relief by providing a meal for their residents. Shrove Tuesday was another success! Ken Sabel gave a wonderful presentation about the Holy Land Pilgrimage that he and some other parishioners got to go on with Bp. Chad. There was a Sparkle and Shine Day in July as we prepared for our episcopal visitation. Everyone who participated did fantastic work! Bp. Chad communicated to me that he was very pleased at his visit. Raynaldo continues to be a dynamo in our community with the Brown Bag Lunch Program, the Back-to-School event, and his Christmas Party. We began a small reading group at St. John’s College with some of our students who attend. The Parish Picnic was a fun day of fellowship and food at Quiet Waters Park. We blessed a lot of pets for the Feast of St. Francis (still no cats though…). We had a wonderful Stewardship Campaign that once again proves how robust, active, and giving our parish is. in conjunction with that Stewardship Campaign, we had a great Committee and Ministry Fair where the various committees and ministries of our church got to show everyone all the important work they do and solicit help where needed. David Kamioner launched our new Veteran’s Group at St. Paul’s which has already helped out immensely at the Operation Sleigh Ride event on December 19. Lessons and Carols and the 2nd Annual Jingle Mingle were fun ways to get into the Christmas spirit!
On Fridays, we finished our Bible study on Luke-Acts in the Spring and, this Fall, began our ongoing journey through Dante’s Divine Comedy, a demanding but rewarding study! The Thursday night Bible study continues to go strong, as well, studying the Book of Isaiah this Fall. Over the Summer, we had our second annual Summer Study that delved into The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory by Abigail Favale. This is a book I highly recommend as our culture wrestles with important questions sexual identity, a debate that really stems from a more fundamental question about whether we are created by God or whether we get to create ourselves. There were multiple retreats over the course of the year. Our first was on the Canticles from St. Luke, the Benedictus, Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis that we regularly pray at Morning and Evening Prayer. In June, we looked at the harmony of Christian Marriage, Christian Family, and Parish Life. There was also a Ladies Guild Retreat that focused on the topic of forgiving ourselves. We weren’t able to record audio because of the conversational and personal nature of the retreat but I wrote three reflections on it in previous newsletters that were based on the three sessions of the retreat: The Three Dimensions of Forgiveness and the Problem of Self-Forgiveness; Our Identity in God; and Confession: Hearing God’s Story About Ourselves.
And of course, it’s important that we remember the departed members of our congregation who we said goodbye to (but not an eternal farewell) this year: Catherine Compton-Caputo, Emily Loiselle, Len Bender, and John Johnson. May light perpetual shine upon them, and may they rest in peace.
On a personal note, and I think I can speak for Fr. David when I say this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the opportunity to serve St. Paul’s. We are honored to be here and are thankful for each and every one of you.
What can we look forward to in 2024? On the one hand, this is always a precarious question because we will have to wait and see what God brings! However, on our end, we are looking to continue our momentum into the New Year by being faithful ministers of the Word and Sacrament. We will continue celebrating Holy Communion each and every day. We will keep looking for ways to integrate the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer into our life together alongside other helpful devotions and prayerful activities. Education and catechesis will continue to be a priority: a Newcomers Class begins in January, Thursday and Friday Bible studies will continue, we will be training some more new acolytes soon, and the Old Time Bible Hour will return. We will also look for more ways to intentionally lean into and learn from the Church Calendar so be on the lookout for some opportunities throughout this Church Year. Finally, in addition to being a parish centered on the Sacraments and Word of God, we want to continue being a “parish on the move” that focuses on mission, evangelism, service, and gathering. What God is doing for us here at St. Paul’s is so great, we have to share it with others and invite them into our common life together!
Thank you for making St. Paul’s such a phenomenal parish. It wouldn’t be the same without YOU!
Blessings,
Fr. Wesley