August 25, 2022

Holy Comforter

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Sabbath

Dearest Holy Comforter Family,

 These past few weeks have been busy and presented their own set of challenges. Covid has been making the rounds within our staff, there has been the sorrow of laying two beautiful women to rest, preparing for all kinds of fall activities, and even looking ahead to the season of Advent and Christmas.

Now, I am getting ready to do something that feels pretty big to me. I am going to take just a little bit over a month of time off. As we were preparing the annual budget for this year last year, I negotiated with the vestry to have my salary reduced a little so that I could have a bit of extra time off, including a whole month off in September. It’s time I very much need to recharge batteries, and have some time quiet my mind and make sure I am listening and I am open to the gentle nudges and prodding’s from the one we call Creator, Incarnate Word, Holy Advocate and Guide, our Triune God.

One of the things I’ve been doing to prepare for this time of rest is re-reading the beautiful book by Abraham Heschel, “the Sabbath.” Heschel makes the case that when we honor the Sabbath, we have the opportunity to sanctify time in ways we don’t the rest of the week or the rest of our days. On the Sabbath, “…we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else.”[1] 

During the first part of my time of Sabbath, Sherod and I plan to convert a small shed into a new chicken coop. Horses who once boarded with us are now living with the new family. That will allow us to give our chicken girls a much larger space to sleep safely at night and a big chicken yard in the pasture to spend their days looking for all kinds of chicken delicacies. It delights me to think that some of my time will be spent tending to a small part of God’s creation. There are also friends in different parts of our state I plan to visit. They are all people dear to me, including Kathy and Hank Poore, and I know being with them will be a joy.

Then, in the middle of the month, I am going to fly to Portland, Maine, where I will spend two weeks doing a lot of hiking and exploring at Acadia National Park and in the beautiful small town’s along the coast. I plan to see Dabney McKenzie, and I will also visit my godchild who is all grown up now and has just bought a small market. I so look forward to being outside (in cooler weather than we have here now): it will be wonderful to smell the fresh scent of pine trees all around me, to sit out on a large granite boulder, allowing the sounds of the Atlantic to bring me to some quiet and peace, and discovering some more about the magnificence of God’s creation. I hope to write, take pictures, and maybe even sleep in late on a few of those days!

While I am gone, our deacon, the Reverend Lee Wilkins, will lead services at the usual time on Sunday mornings. I am leaving enough consecrated bread and wine so she will be able to officiate at “Deacon’s Masses” each week. Additionally, I am enlisting the help of several priests in the area to provide coverage during the week in case of any pastoral emergency. Although Lee would be more than capable of handling anything that comes up, since she works full-time and lives in Auburn, I want to make sure we have all the coverage we need while I’m gone. Randy, Diane, Terri, and Missy are also going to be here making sure that everything else runs without a hitch in my absence. And then, when I get back all of the action and excitement of autumn move into high gear. You will find information about several upcoming events that I hope will be opportunities for this community that loves nothing more than to gather for laughter and fellowship, to keep moving boldly and joyfully into the future.

In those quiet moments when I am listening for God’s grace and guidance, please know I will be raising our beautiful community up to the light and love that blesses us day in and day out. I ask for your prayers as well and I look forward to coming back to my church family filled with new energy, hope, and joy.

With prayers that you too may be blessed with moments of Sabbath and renewal in the weeks ahead, Rosa+

[1] Heschel, Abraham Joshua. The Sabbath (FSG Classics) (p. 22). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. 

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Make One, Take One rescheduled

We have rescheduled the “Make One, Take One” gathering to September 11. This is a lovely opportunity to gather around simple food preparation. The menu includes chicken salad and fixings. Remember: each of you who participates will be able to take home your Sunday dinner. That means you get to enjoy fellowship and take care of a Sunday meal for your household. We also ask you to deliver a meal for another household in our church. We've identified 7 households who would be blessed by your willingness to make a quick stop and deliver a full meal for them. Often these days, your leadership team hears that for the people of our church, gatherings for fellowship are a source of great joy and go to the heart of who we are. Help us keep reviving and renewing this beautiful part of what it means to be, “holy comforters.” Signing up is easy. There is a clipboard with a sign-up sheet in the narthex. Additionally, you can call Zola Powers to let her know you'd like to participate. We ask that all reservations be made no later than September 6th, this will allow us to purchase enough ingredients to serve all the participants and households receiving a meal. Be there or be square, Aloha!

Coffee Hour to Resume in McMaster Hall

Sunday, September 11th

One of our dearest traditions, coffee hour after church, came to a screeching halt on that awful day in March of 2020 when the Bishop asked us to close down our churches to be as safe as possible during the pandemic. We have been slow to resume that part of our Sunday morning life together as COVID-19 ebbed and flowed. Although the virus will be with us from now on, this is too important to cancel permanently. For that reason, we are kicking off the reopening of McMaster Hall for coffee hour on September 11th. Your staff has spent considerable time reviewing what might be sustainable for a new chapter in our life as Church of the Holy Comforter. Before COVID, Coffee hours were often quite lavish and delicious. With fewer of us, that does not seem as important as simply being together to touch base with each other on a monthly basis. Terri, our Parish Life Coordinator, will start reaching out to parishioners to make a schedule and will explain the simplified snack and beverage plan we've come up with. We hope you will be willing to say yes and host an occasional coffee hour. We also hope lots of us will want to resume a practice for being together that brought so much joy through the years.

See you on the 11th!