From the Interim Rector

Epiphany is the season that celebrates God being made known to us through Jesus Christ. The magi journeyed from the east and entice us to stop and take notice of what is right in front of us; God with us. Sometimes we need others to help us see what we can’t see for ourselves. Other times we need to be reminded of things we’ve forgotten. I often need to be reminded that I am not alone. Epiphany invites us to notice, recognize, and appreciate what is right in front of us.

For us at St. Christopher’s, it is a season about “seeing.” During the interim time of transition and preparation, we have been and continue to be intentional about “seeing.” During Epiphany, we will see made manifest the work that this congregation has been doing together for the past year. It has been an incredible year as we reconnect on what we hope is the other side of a pandemic. All of us have been partnering with the Search Committee and Vestry in examining and telling the story of this place and its people. Based on CAT survey results (the Congregational Assessment Tool), Small Group Summer conversations, and through the sharing of challenges, hopes, and expectations, the Search Committee will reveal the month the story of St. Christopher’s at this particular moment in time and space. We will be posting the Parish Profile and providing information for the Office of Transitional Ministry’s nationwide database. The story told by the Search Committee in these two well-produced documents, and which was approved by the Vestry during our December vestry meeting, invites applicants to submit their resume and their story as the first step in applying to be your next rector.

On Sunday, January 29, we will gather together as a congregation for the 111th Annual Meeting of the congregation of St. Christopher’s. What will be revealed at this important, informative meeting about the mission and ministry of this place, are the challenges of regrouping, rebuilding, and reconnecting post-COVID during a rector’s search transition.

The are other Epiphanies we will mark and celebrate. We will be invited to see, proclaim, and transform racial inequality and white supremacy as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King. We will be challenged to understand the divisive views of Christians regarding scripture interpretation and the ultimate meaning of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection during the Week of Christian Unity. We will pray for our nation’s leaders and about their willingness to govern as we pray on President’s Day.

And finally, on February 21, the season of Epiphany comes to a close as we celebrate the gift of incarnation and the company of God’s people at our 2nd Annual Gras and Ashes party, where we will bury the Alleluia’s, eat pancakes and jambalaya, perhaps drink a Hurricane or fruit punch, and then line up and parade as the Krewe of St. Christopher’s where we process to the church to pray and to receive ashes, preparing us for the season of Lent.

I wonder what new thing will be revealed to you about God, your life, and the congregation of St. Christopher’s as we journey through the season of Epiphany. We pray that God, who led the Magi by the shining of a star to find Christ, the Light from Light, leads us all on our pilgrimage to find God.

Faithfully,
Kevin