I spent some time today with the Annual Report. Ours. Emmanuel's. You'll have a chance to see it Sunday morning at the Annual Meeting and then later in the week on the website. As I was reading it today, I was struck by a couple of things. One is the quality and quantity of ministry, the work of God's people, that happens in, through and out of Emmanuel. It's astounding really how much this congregation makes happen. But perhaps even more important than the amount of projects and groups and people impacted by our work, is the love of God and of fellow human beings that is expressed in the doing of it. In so many of the reports, I could almost hear the voices of the writer, usually the ministry leader, and I pictured them and the people they work with. I could see the St. Anne's Guild making our Sunday bread, the Social Action Commission discerning where Emmanuel's offerings of time and money should be directed to care for "the least of these, my brothers and sisters," the vestry sitting in our period of silence at the beginning of our meetings. Just insert the ministry group and there is something about them (you) that comes to mind that makes me grateful to know you and to serve God with you.
At the meeting we will hear about what's going well and we'll be talk about concerns us. You'll have a chance to read the Mutual Ministry Review, which a sub-committee of the Vestry worked so faithfully to discern. It will be a road map for the vestry and me to set goals for the coming year. I'm grateful to the people who discerned with such care and concern for me and for Emmanuel. We'll also have a chance to weigh in about our newest ministry project--the Tribes. An instant "taking of the temperature" of the congregation and a project of our Congregational Development group. (You'll hear more about that as well.)
Please plan to be at the meeting on Sunday at 9. And if you didn't go to church at 8, plan to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany as our children offer the dramatic reflection on the Gospel at 10:30.
Following that yonder star,
Hunt+
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