Sunday, January 20, 2013

Annual Meeting

At today's annual meeting parishioners listened attentively as our Senior Warden shared her vision of how with God's help we would be a sustaining and flourishing parish; welcomed the Reverends Becky Anderson and Sandra Haines-Murdocco who will be formally assuming responsibility for our worship services, pastoral leadership and pastoral care beginning next month; heard a review of last year's accomplishment; and joined in recognition and thanks for the support of the many who contribute to the various efforts that keep our parish running smoothly.

Before the meeting we enjoyed a wonderful pot luck brunch and after the meeting we left knowing that our parish family had truly shared a spirited start to the upcoming year.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A Christmas Poem

Each year at Christmas and frequently on other special occasions our resident poet, St. Paul's parishioner Joanne Honnen, provides us with a poem. This year's Christmas offering is shared below. Enjoy.  

Embrace this fleeting season well
Life is as we perceive
Be gracious then howe’er you will
We are what we believe.

We do the best that we can do
With what we have and know
Depending on where we are in life
And where we next must go.

Christmas is but a respite.
It forces us to pause
And look beyond our simple selves
for a higher, greater cause.

Small as we are in the scheme of things
like a single flake of snow.
Here but for an instant
To learn to love and grow.

To examine closely our inner selves
Is the purpose of our years,
To learn that we are wiser
Than our foibles and our fears.

Beyond the futile gifts and games
Of tinseled, glittered gore
Is something far more precious
That our hearts cannot ignore.

The knowledge that we are loved by God,
How wondrous we must be
That this eternal universe
Should treasure you and me!

However undeserving
We are no less than the stars
In the eyes of our creator
Who just loves us as we are.