As I think about God and my relationship with St. Mark’s during our Stewardship Campaign many of my thoughts are about gratitude. There are a multitude of reasons that I am grateful in this life and near the top is St. Mark’s and the community we form together. We are a diverse community with a wide range of interests yet we worship together, support each other, try to learn more about our Christian faith and try to provide help to our neighbors, sometimes close and sometimes farther away. Even though we have been challenged by Covid – 19 we are carrying on our Anglican/Episcopal heritage as we try to include scripture, tradition and reason into our lives and our worship.
Worship is a very important part of my St. Mark’s relationship – prayer, music, scripture, sermons and sharing the Eucharist together. We are blessed and grateful to have committed clergy, magnificent musicians, learned lectors, garrulous greeters, an able altar guild and fabulous flower arrangers to enhance our worship together. We also have outstanding office staff that help make everything work and functional facilities that we occupy. In addition to our worship we have a number of other activities and opportunities to grow our spiritual and communal lives – child and youth education, agapes, forums, retreats, outreach activities, parish work days, picnics, music events, and the list goes on. Our worship and these activities and opportunities happen because they are part of who we are and we support them.
As a long time member of St. Mark’s I am grateful for the on-going support that I observe relating to our stewardship of St. Mark’s. I am thankful for the time, talent and treasure that is offered, even in difficult times. This coming year as we continue to move to the “new normal” we have what is more or less a cost of living budget which includes a modest overall increase. Hopefully most of us can increase our treasure pledge, some more as some will not be able to increase their support. We have a wonderful history of supporting our St. Mark’s community over a number of years. However, it would be even more wonderful if this year we will document our treasure support by turning in our pledge cards earlier rather than later so our Stewardship Chairs and our clergy can relax a bit during Christmas. I know our time and talent support will happen throughout 2022 and I continue to be grateful for each person’s presence and participation in St Mark’s.
David Kennedy