Remember our End-of-Year Story on June 26th? You can see the presentations online here. Take a look please. Even if you did attend, the videos are so much better than the real thing. For instance you can actually see the slideshow that both Sean and I are talking to, which on the day was not so clear. Over the last two weeks I have reviewed numbers 2 and 3 of our three strategic RenewalWorks priorities: Engaging Our Passion and The Heart of the Leader. This week I want to review priority number 1: Embedding the Bible in parish life. The most direct way to deepen the spirituality of a community is to engage in some form of collective Bible Study. In the first year of implementing this priority we have chosen to read together something called The Story. Our purpose is to literally discover the narrative flow of our salvation story by starting at the beginning and working through to the end. Even though we know how the story ends. It ends with Jesus, or more correctly, through Jesus the story continues with us, the people seeking to live faithful Christian lives amidst the turmoil of this part of the 21st -century. We can't really understand the ending until we know how and where it begins. +
Remember this Sunday, July 17th is the next installment of our discussion of The Story. Please have read chapters 10-12 in preparation. You can find the discussion questions already posted here. At the End-of-Year Story, Sean Mulholland presented our immediate budgetary challenge. The Finance Committee and the Vestry want to be transparent and to update the congregation concerning the follow-up from the Executive's letter, sent out the day after the End of Year Story. In this E-News you will find a communication from Sarosh Fenn reporting the latest update on the call for all of us to help bridge this year's operating deficit in order to avoid drawing another percentage point on the Endowment. Please read Sarosh's note. You might note the pleasing dollar amount of the response alongside the less encouraging percentages of those who have, and have yet to step-up to the plate! You might like to check out the sermon for last week, titled- Race: the current lightening rod for otherness. Looking forward to seeing you in Church, this Sunday. Mark+ |