October Rector’s Letter
Dear Parish Family,
Isn’t it so great to have some cooler weather!?!
In this month’s Rector’s Letter, we talk about the situation in the Holy Land, the incredible participation that we’ve had at St. Laurence this fall, our upcoming Stewardship campaign and more!
Clergy Appreciation
On behalf of my brother priests, thank you! You all were so generous to give us clergy appreciation gifts and we are very grateful. We all consider it a great privilege to serve here at St. Laurence. Your devotion and generosity inspire me everyday. Please know of my deep gratitude to be able to serve the Lord here.
Peace in the Holy Land
Please pray for peace in the Holy Land. The stories and images of the conflicts so far are horrible. I saw a few days ago that the rockets being fired by Hamas are aimed at a number of Israeli cities, including Jerusalem. The name Jerusalem means "city of peace" and we of course pray that the Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ, would rule in every heart and in every land, especially the Holy Land. Psalm 122:6-7 says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels." So, we pray for peace.
Join me in this prayer from the 2019 Prayer book, which we will begin using at St. Laurence on the first Sunday of Advent (Dec 3, 2023):
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn
but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love:
So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered
under the banner of the Prince of Peace;
to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Many folks have asked me what impact this conflict will have on our pilgrimage that we have planned in April. The short answer is that it’s too early to know. I really hope this war doesn’t last that long, not because it would disrupt our trip but because if it does go on that long it will represent a lot of human suffering. We will monitor what’s happening and mainly pray for all involved.
Incredible Fall Participation
Things are really humming along at St. Laurence this fall and we’ve had some amazing participation. Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights have been incredibly full. We are so blessed that so many of you are plugging into our many different ministries. If you’ve been meaning to plug in but haven’t yet, please pray about how you can be involved in the many ways we worship, learn, serve, and care for one another here at St. Laurence. You can find our upcoming events here.
Capital Campaign Checkpoints
The Capital Campaign leadership was together for the first time Sunday evening—a huge milestone for us! What an amazing group of folks we have! We need your help to serve on one of our 10 teams that we have formed to handle different aspects of the upcoming campaign. Contact us here if you’d like to help.
We have two upcoming All-Parish meetings that are identical in content:
November 5, 9:50 am, in between the services, briefer
November 12, 5:45pm, slightly more leisurely with wine and cheese, and lots of time for Q&A
The purpose of the meetings is to update you on all of the work done so far and to gather feedback from you on how we should proceed. A ton of work has been done behind the scenes by our 3 campaign leaders: Greg Jones, Lisa Lapiska, and Mark Jameson. We want to share it with you! We are in great hands and are so thankful to have this opportunity to build up God's Church.
One of the 10 committees that has been formed is the Prayer Team. I’m not sure if you knew, but you are on the prayer team: we all are! I hope you’re already praying for St. Laurence every day and I’d ask you to consider adding prayers daily for this upcoming effort. Please pray for guidance, wisdom, and discernment as we proceed. I’m so excited to see all of the ways that God is going to bless us.
Bragging on our Choir
On Sunday evening October 8, the St. Laurence Chorale really outdid themselves singing one of the most beautiful services I have ever heard. They sang an Evensong setting by Mendelssohn that would give any choir, anywhere a run for their money. We are so blessed to have so many talented folks singing in our choir: they are rockstars. They sing every Sunday at 10:45 and then occasionally we are planning these bigger musical events. The next big event is the singing of Bach’s Advent Cantatas on Sun, Dec. 10 at 5:00pm. Mark your calendars: you won’t want to miss it.
Stewardship
Be on the lookout for a packet that will be hitting your mailboxes in the next week or so as we begin our annual stewardship campaign. We will also be talking about the campaign the next few Sundays in Church and the spiritual principles behind it. The basic principle is this: God is generous to us; He created us, He sustains us; He gives us all that we have and He asks us to be generous also. You all have heard this message before and have always been so extraordinarily generous. Please know we are grateful.
We are so blessed at St.Laurence and we give thanks to God for it all.
Go Rangers!
Fr. John