June 2014 – Pr. Anthony’s Letter
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have come to the end of our first full programmatic year as Circle of Faith Parish. The year began with many cottage meetings happening throughout the parish. At each one of those meetings we began by reading from the letter of 1 Peter 2:2-10, which included our theme verse throughout this year:
“…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9
We have spent the last 9 months wrestling with and challenging each other with this text. We also spent this time tackling the question, “Who Are We?” As I look back over these last 9 months, I can see that we have begun forming an identity for ourselves as a parish. We are not just three congregations sharing two pastors. But rather, we are three congregations that have partnered together to proclaim the risen Christ in a new and stronger way in Southern Minnesota! There are already ideas and projects in the works for next year and all of this is because God has been working through YOU to be his hands and feet in the Ceylon, Trimont, and Welcome communities.
Our focus on 1 Peter 2:2-10 is coming to an end with the Bible study on 1 Peter that has just finished up. But our daily devotion and our regular worship and giving never ends. We continue to deepen our relationship with God with prayer, reading of scripture and regular worship (even in the summerJ). One of the ways you can do this is through a new worship time! This summer we will be offering a Wednesday night worship, meal and Bible Study. The worship service will be a simple 30 minute service with Holy Communion. The free meal and Bible study will happen at the same time (eating while we study). Worship begins at 6:00 pm with the meal/study at 6:30 pm. We will be done by 7:30 pm each night. You’re certainly welcome to come to both, but if you can only come to worship or only the meal/study that’s just fine. Come as you are for either one, or both. This will happen 4 times this summer (June 25, July 9, July 23, and August 6) and each time will be located at Trinity.
Remember, just because our normal program year is coming to an end, the church does not end. Our relationship with God and the work of the Gospel doesn’t take the summer off. The leadership of your parish will be working hard this summer to get some of these new projects and ideas turned into realities for this coming fall. One thing that we need your help in doing is coming up with a service project that we can do together on Sunday, September 7th. On that day, all 10,000+ ELCA congregations will be going out into their communities to serve their neighbors. What would you like Circle of Faith to do? Talk to me or a council member about your ideas.
God bless you in your summer journeys, travels and adventures! And remember to take a break for God and for yourself!
In Christ,
Pastor Anthony
