St. David's Episcopal Church | The Rev. Frank Allen | April 9, 2015
Monuments of Grace

 

"And when your children ask 'What do these stones mean?' tell your children all the Lord has done." Joshua 4:6

 

Dear People of St. David's,

 

I pray that you are well and that the joy and promise of the Easter season is filling your life with a deep sense of forgiveness and hope for this life and the next. We had a marvelous Holy Week and Easter celebration as we remembered all that God has done for us. I thank all of you who led our worship and all who participated from Palm Sunday to Easter Day. The sheer joy of the promise is renewed in my heart and, I hope, in yours.

 

Memory is an amazing part of God's creation for all of us. Memory reminds us who we are and where we've been over the course of our lives. It reminds us of some of the mountains we've climbed in triumph and those moments when we fell and allowed the love of God and the love of family and friends to lift us up again. Though the clear remembering of events and people may be selective or even fade at times, it is a gift for living and for creating future memories.

 

In this year of our 300th Anniversary Celebration, we have been remembering events from our past as a community even while we are making new memories as we live into our mission and life together. We've shared presentations of our history on Sunday mornings and actual artifacts and pictures at the Art of Faith weekend in March. We've worshiped God using the Prayer Book used at St. David's for our first 150 years. We've continued to live into our current mission in all its richness and diversity.

 

We're also creating memories this year and on the second weekend in May, we will all have an opportunity to create a memory for us and for future generations at the Cornerstone Weekend Celebration, May 8 - 10. On Friday, May 8 we will bless the newly renovated Fellowship Hall by making 30,000 meals through Stop Hunger Now. On Saturday, May 9 we will worship God at 4 pm with our adult choirs and the choirs from other churches. Then on Sunday, May 10 we will celebrate and re-dedicate the Church followed by a picnic on the anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone in May 300 years ago.

 

We will also place a monument for future generations at the Sunday celebration. The plan is to fill a time capsule with letters of faith and what St. David's means to us and bury it for one hundred years so that those who come after us may read about the grace and life we are coming to know.

 

I invite you to join in. Please take a few moments between now and May 10 to write a letter to the Christians and others seeking to know God one hundred years from now. Keep it to one page handwritten or 250 words if you're going to use a computer. Remember all that God has done for you and what St. David's is like today so that future generations will have our memory of our beloved St. David's. We will have baskets at the Church and the Chapel and in the office to collect our letters. Memory is a gift from God. Let's share our monument of grace with those coming after us.

 

 Grace and Peace,

                                                                                                                                                             

Frank Allen

 

 

 WORSHIP SCHEDULE

 Sunday, April 12, 2015

8:00 am, 11:15 am and 5:00 pm in the Church

9:15 am in the Chapel

                                

St. David's Episcopal Church | 763 South Valley Forge Road | Wayne, PA 19087
610-688-7947