Dear St Matthew’s Family,
Happy Labor Day Weekend! We are once again at the transition from summer to fall, and vacation back to school and work. It’s our hope that summer provides rest to fuel us for the new beginnings again. I hope that you have been able to find some of that, though I know life with its schedules and stresses often leaves us moving from one thing to another without enough of a break. If that is the case for you, may at least this coming Monday, this Labor Day, be a day for you to rest from your burdens and labor.
The church is abuzz again as teachers and staff get ready for the Day School to start. The first day of class is Tuesday. The Day School is a beautiful and important ministry of St. Matthew’s in and with the community. What a gift and a blessing to be part of encouraging and developing some of the youngest among us! We let you know that Kathy Lundgren will be retiring from the Day School at the end of September. We hope you will be able thank her and celebrate her long career with the Day School. As Mrs. Lundgren departs we have brought on a new Assistant Director, Dominique Richford. This is not Mrs. Richford’s first year with the school, but it is her first year as Assistant Director with us. We are so happy to have her in this role. Welcome her when you meet her. There is a lot of good stuff happening with the school, let’s keep the students, teachers, and staff in our prayers.
“…he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me…”
Sunday, September 11 we are kicking off all of our fall programming with a Rally Day/Ministry Fair directly following our time of worship. I’ve been thinking about the gospel text that we will be reading this day. It’s from Luke 15, it talks about a shepherd who rejoices after finding the one missing sheep and a woman who does the same after she finds the one missing coin. We won’t read it, but the text continues with the story of the prodigal son where the father rejoices as his son returns home after taking quite the detour in his life. All of these stories celebrate finding something that makes them complete or at least more so. These last years have left many of us feeling a little to a lot incomplete, as we’ve missed people and events and lost some of the activities and habits that gave shape to our lives. Much of that is gone or simply changed for good, but the thing that hasn’t is our ability to celebrate and rejoice in the reunion of friends to come together just because it feels good to do so. That’s what we hope comes of our Rally Day and Ministry Fair on September 11. I hope it is a time to be together and rejoice, through coffee, conversation and connecting with what is happening here now and in the year to come. I hope you’ll consider joining us!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kirsten
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