Every year, the Annual Meeting provides an important opportunity to stop, reflect, and remember what God has done in and through the people of St. Matthew's during the past year. The Holy Spirit has taken us in some new directions, and we have learned through "successes" as well as "failures." We are not just a faith community, but also a learning community, and it is important that we take time to pause, pray, reflect regularly, and to ask "What did we learn together this past year?"  When and where did we experience God's presence? What was life-giving and what was life-taking? What is God up to in our lives, neighborhood, and world, and how are we now called to participate in God's healing, reconciling work?

 The Annual Meeting is also a time to look forward. Based on where we felt God nudging us to go, what will we focus on this next year? At Sunday's Annual Meeting we will hear more from the Discipleship Task Force, a group of church members commissioned by the vestry to listen to the people of St. Matthew's and learn what they need and are hungering for as they seek to be followers of the way of Jesus in daily life. In 2013, the focus of the vestry, staff and congregation will be guided by these important themes which emerged "from the bottom up." This is often where the Holy Spirit's leading comes from.

The Annual Meeting also provides an opportunity to thank our current leaders, elect new leaders, and review the budget the vestry has approved for 2013. We will also hear more from Ann Nerland about a service auction that will take place on April 27. My address, a reflection on what God is up to at St. Matthew's, will take place at the 10:30 service during the sermon.

We will also have an opportunity to pray and dwell in scripture together, as well as to thank members of our faith community. We are a Eucharistic community, and in the Greek eucharisto means "I give thanks." The Christian life is a life of thanksgiving to God and others for the gift of life and the many other grace-full gifts we receive every day.

This year we are beginning the breakfast at 8:45 am in the hope that everyone will come a little early for food and table fellowship before the meeting begins promptly at 9:00. We invite you to bring egg dishes, baked goods, fruit, and juice to share. If you can bring any of these items, please contact Rosa Uy, rosauy@aol.com, and bring your offering by 8:45.

Please note there will be no Sunday school classes during the annual meeting. Childcare will be provided in the nursery and a movie will be shown in the library for children, but all ages are welcome and encouraged to attend the meeting.  

I thank God for the people of St. Matthew's! Every time we gather together I have a taste of God's Kingdom.

Faithfully,

Blair