October 21, 2021
EVERY PERFECT GIFT!
The Stewardship 2022 Campaign
My Dear Doubters of Great Faith,
I find myself sitting, yet again, in amazement and gratitude for all of the “perfect gifts” that were on full display this last Sunday as we Doubters celebrated the culmination of our “Every Perfect Gift” stewardship campaign with the ingathering and blessing of commitments for 2022 on Christ’s altar, the place that has witnessed the generosity of so many perfect gifts across all these many years. This is, after all, the altar where so many of us, past, present, and future, have brought the many blessings of who we are, great and small, joyous and sorrowful, significant in their insignificance. I find myself wondering what makes every gift perfect.
It seems that what makes a gift perfect is the place, the location from which the gift is generated. Perfect gifts, no matter the size, shape, or color, initiate in the heart. They come from a deep longing and desire to share what we have as a way of connecting to something (someone) beyond ourselves, bridging the gaps of distance in time and space. I want to be with you, and so here is some of who I am, to solidify who we are, together, as a community, bound up in our hopes, and our dreams, our good times and bad.
I witnessed sacred, sacramental moments of reconnection as each of you came forward and gave of yourselves to God, touching the incarnational holy place with a piece, “Every Perfect Gift,” of who you are. You put yourself on the altar, yet again. It was an incredibly beautiful thing to participate with you in blessing our offerings.
Those sacred sacramental moments of reconnection were not and are not confined to pledge cards. Thanks to your generosity of spirit and heart, your “Every Perfect Gift,” we had a lovely receiving of Bishop George Sumner and his wife, Stephanie. I know they felt the hospitality, the love and joy that are hallmarks of the St. Thomas the Apostle community.
I am happy to report to you that as of ingathering Sunday, you have brought us to 79% of our stretch goal for 2022. We have taken in 50 pledges for a total of $235,227 toward our goal of $296,490. This is an amazing representation of your commitment to God and to the St. Thomas the Apostle community, and to the work and ministry that God has for us on this corner in the upcoming year, particularly as we re-emerge and rejoin ourselves on the heels of a pandemic.
It is my fervent hope and prayer that everyone, all of our “Doubters of Great Faith” will feel that deep sense of longing to reconnect, with God, and with this place, and will want to place the very best of what we have on this altar that we love so much. Because it really is our very being, for better and for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, everything that is offered up to God, the living sacrifice, that draws us together into “Every Perfect Gift!”
Please don’t miss out on that!
Fr. Christopher+
