Dear Friends,

As I was looking over this newsletter, and reflecting on the last few weeks, I was struck by how blessed we are. In our journey together, we are invited again and again to  behold the fullness of God.  It is a fullness the touches every part of our lives, and connects us with all the faithful beyond our walls, including those who have come before us and those yet to be born.

Read about our life together, and you will know that you have played a part in creating a nursery school for the youngest of  children in Kizara, Tanzania. Elsewhere, you will see that we are engaging in challenging and reflective conversations about what it means to grow old and deal with the inevitable diminishments of aging and death.

Some of us have just returned from Israel/Palestine, where we explored the ancient roots of our faith. Others of us just this week at annual meeting  were bubbling with excitement about the possibility of creating new ministries for the teens and adolescents in our midst.

We are reflecting on corporate  and verbal expressions of our faith – why we say what we do in the Nicene Creed – and at the very same time  are being invited to enter more deeply into the intimacy of our individual  relationships with God, through the gift of centering prayer.

Even the Superbowl became a vehicle for expressing our gratitude to God as we  donated funds to Episcopal Relief and Development. No part of human life,  no part of human history is outside the realm of God’s gracious activity.

And so, as we enter more fully into the year ahead, these words from the third chapter of seem a most suitable prayer for us all:

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Faithfully,

Tom