Rector's message

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Dear Parish Family,         

Over the past few days, I have been asked a number of times, "How was your Christmas?" "Different," usually has bben my first response. Of course, Christmas 2020, could not have been anything but "different"." but that wasn't all.

As I have reflected further, I am aware that my experince of this christmas, even in this year of pandemic, was, for the most part, the same heartwarming, substantive and holy experience it has always been for me.  I am blessed that I was  brought to church as a child, so that the carols, the decorations, the Nativity story, and the prayers and pageantry were woven into my inner sense of the Mystery of Christmas, It had comforting power then, and it still does.

Christmas, different and blessedly the same. THese are the themes stirring within me as I have reflected on this Christmas. "Different" and the "same" came together for me on Christmas Eve as we shared worship via Zoom  electronically and differntly from any other year.  Yet there was the same sense, or nearly so, of being community together on this holy of Nights. There we were, for each other,  the faces and voices of the beloved people of God called All Saints.

This Christmas Eve service with the Eucharist done differently "at a distance", didn't feel to me like we were distant at all.  In fact, as we shared the Body and Blood of Christ, even from tiny chalices, I sensed we were truly One in Christ.  As the dismissal was pronounced, I left our blessed time together feeling that I had truly been to Christ-Mass. I hope you felt that way too!

Blessings,           

David+