September 2008
Soon our green Ozark Mountains will change colors. I predict we will again be treated to an amazing display of colored leaves. There will also be a change in the temperature and we will start changing what we are wearing especially when we go outside. Change is a natural part of our lives.
I am reading a remarkable new book by Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years. She wrote: “What we often fail to realize is that living fully depends a great deal more on our frame of mind, on our fundamental spirituality, than it does our physical condition. . . .When we fail to meet life head on, we fail to live fully. . . God is the creator of change and there is a great wisdom to be learned from the changes in our bodies and in the way we choose to live with what God has created for all of God’s people.”
This fall we too are changing here at St. Theodore’s. Our stewardship campaign this fall will again be a challenge due to economic changes. Our Adult Education program is also changing and will include a new offering during the week and a change in our Lenten program from Tuesday nights to Sunday mornings. Our space requirements for these programs have created a need to use “The Gathering Area” before and after each of our worship services as a place for coffee and fellowship. We are working hard to make sure that as many events as possible can be around our Sunday morning worship in order to reduce the number of times we travel to church for meetings or other events. There will also be changes in our liturgies to reflect more accurately our liturgical seasonal changes.
I am excited about the way our national and diocesan leaders are addressing the changes in our denomination by helping all of us return to our spiritual fundamentals as a missionary people. We are moving from mere survival to becoming again a people on the move as we prepare for our future, which I believe will include another great spiritual awakening in America.
God has given to each of us many gifts and many talents to use to build up the church – the living Body of Christ – including the gift of years. May we be wise stewards of all of God’s gifts and all of God’s blessings and all of God’s changes in our lives.
Fr. Ken †
