Thank you for your support of St. James’ Episcopal Church through our 2023 Pledge campaign! You can make your pledge online, or download a printable pledge card, here.
From Mtr. Meredith:
My dear friends in Christ,
What a joy it has been to join you as your new priest! Reflecting on these first weeks of ministry together at St. James’, these verses from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians come to mind:
“For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building… Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:9,16
I’ve observed that St. James’ has a beautiful culture of “working together.” Sometimes I see it in little things, like the way you spread news of our events, fundraisers, and services in our community and places like Facebook. And of course I see it in big things, like the way you all prayerfully and practically supported one another, your vestry, and your clergy through the extraordinary, sometimes invigorating, and often awful “changes and chances of this life” we’ve seen in these recent years of pandemic.
Through it all, St. James’ is here, and we are ready to respond to God’s call: for we are God’s servants, working together.
Your financial support of St. James’, and especially your 2023 pledge of support, is a crucial expression of our shared ministry. In 2022, 58 people and families made a pledge commitment, which is roughly two-thirds of our membership. My dream for our parish is that everyone would make a pledge commitment for 2023.
I am here to promise you that whether you pledge $1, $100, or $10,000, what matters most is that you join us in dedicating some portion of your resources to our work together: as God’s temple, God’s field, God’s building—God’s people. Imagine if every member of this parish could experience the spiritual joy of saying: “Working together, we are the Body of Christ—and I am part of it.”
If you’ve made a pledge commitment recently or for many years and will prayerfully continue to do so, thank you. And if you are prayerfully considering a first-time pledge commitment in 2023, thank you. No matter what: thank you for being part of the work of God here at St. James’ through your ministry, your presence, and your self-offering. You are a treasure, and God’s Spirit dwells in you.
Faithfully,
Meredith+
From Wendy Urban-Mead:
Dear People of St. James’,
Canon Jeanne’s sermon on Oct 16 was anchored to this line from the second letter to Timothy: “I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” (4:2)
The times we have just lived through have been simultaneously favorable and unfavorable, and how grateful I am that through all of this we at St. James’ have steadily proclaimed the message—of God’s love.
The sorrows, dangers, stressors, and isolation from the pandemic mark how unfavorable the times have been. Father Chuck’s departure after serving St. James’ and loving God with us for 23 years was a loss and brought a sense of uncertainty while the world itself felt unsteady. We said final goodbyes to not a few long-serving, beloved fellow parishioners.
And throughout that same time, the people of St. James’ found ways to keep worship alive by means both digital and in person—windows open, masks on, using the garden, Zoom, and YouTube.
The vestry worked with the diocese to find us a skillful, learned, steady pastor for the interim in the form of Canon Jeanne Person. Her prayers and wisdom served as the earthly face of God’s loving hand to the parish, and in particular, to the search committee’s work from Sept 2021 through July 2022. The members of the search committee felt the solemnity of their task, and we went at it in a spirit of abundance and faith—inspired by gratitude for the place of St. James’ in our own lives and in the Hyde Park community at large. And the community garden kept growing; the outreach committee’s tenacity found ingenious alternatives to meeting their goals; the vestry continued to tackle a multitude of challenges with solutions and a collective mind that sought to find the yes.
What a gift, now that Mother Meredith and family have settled in among us, to have this verse from Timothy as our leading thought just now: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable. With God’s grace and everyone’s full participation, the time at St. James’ may well be very favorable, very soon. The spirit of stewardship is alive and well. I invite you to commit anew—with your time, talent, and money—to join me as one who says YES to the flow of faith, good fellowship, community care, and sharing of God’s abundant love into the world here at St. James.’
In Christ,
Wendy
