Hello, fellow pilgrims. We enjoyed a wonderful visit from our Bishop, +Carrie Schofield-Broadbent, and our Archdeacon, The Venerable Denise Schiavone, on Sunday, and confirmed/received four beloveds into The Episcopal Church. Bishop Carrie blessed the site of our vegetable garden, and then I had the joy of bringing our Youth Group on a ropes course and zipline adventure at Tree Trekkers! What fun that was!!! (Yes. I was very tired after that—and keenly aware of muscles I’d forgotten about for a couple decades. LOL) After ziplining with our wonderful youths, I retreated to Clergy Conference. This morning is my first day back in the office after a nourishing two and a half days at the Conference with my peers. It was the best and most thoughtful clergy conference I’ve enjoyed so far, with lots of opportunity to appreciate the regenerative beauty of creation and fellowship among peers. We shared worship together, ate together, sang together, and shared ideas and passions. We rarely get the opportunity to be with our peers from across the diocese, and it was such a gift. There were 144 of us present. I will be posting pictures over the next few days/weeks. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, as we approach the Day of Pentecost, I invite you to anticipate and celebrate the joy of welcoming two new young ones into The Church by way of baptism. What a beautiful day it will be, even with the rain. I’ve always seen rain as God watering the garden of Creation. Perhaps this Sunday, we might look at the rain as God reminding us of our own baptisms—asperging us with heavenly waters and refilling the aquifers of our landscape and our souls at such a time as this.
You are beautiful, and you are beloved.
Angela+