Hello –
This Sunday we return to worship via Facebook Live, which can be easily accessed through our website, stpaulssanrafael.org. Our seminarian, Peter Vazquez Schmitt will be our preacher this week. I have so enjoyed getting to know Peter these last couple of months as I know many of you have, either through Sunday worship or through one of our many Zoom groups. I am grateful that even more of you will get to know Peter this Sunday.
Sunday worship as distance worship at 10am will continue to be our norm at least until February.
In the meantime parish leaders are hard at work on three big projects:
• Plans are well under way for our second annual Consecration Sunday, which is a celebration of the generosity of the parish. Last year, the Rev. Molly Hawes was our leader. This year, I am proud to announce, our leader will be the Rev. Heather Erickson who, before she was hired by Grace Cathedral, covered services at St. Paul’s often and is much beloved. The Vestry unanimously chose November 8th, the Sunday after the election, to be Consecration Sunday. We will be making extra efforts to be connected on that Sunday.
• The RenewalWorks group is hard at work organizing a long-weekend event for January. Look for something that will be joyful, playful, edifying, and accessible for people of all ages and stages. The plan is to tap into the very best creative and loving energy of our parish to bring us all together. Stay tuned!
• Finally, in the middle of August, Bright Horizons, the corporation that bought Marin Day Schools in 2002, informed us that ours was among the 50 preschool campuses that they are closing. Your vestry and other leadership has been hard at work, with meetings nearly every week, figuring out our best way forward. I am so proud of the work that these 18 leaders have done over the last six weeks to make possible a healthy future for us. Our negotiations are in progress, but we have some good options available to us, and I am confident that we are doing everything that is in our control to do. I will let you know more as we know more.
Finally, please keep up your prayers. More than ever, we need to stay connected to each other. Please remember that you are not alone but are a unique and essential parts of a body much larger than any one of us, the body of Christ. More than ever, with Covid, the economy, the fires and the political tension, we are surrounded by forces that wish to keep us apart. But remember, love is stronger than the grave, stronger than any of these forces that wish to tear us apart. Keep up your prayers!