Last week, I was surprised by the Parish Council with a celebration of OUR five year anniversary. It was just five years ago that you received me as your new Dean. It seems like yesterday that we were meeting each other for the first time. Since that day five years ago, we have celebrated hundreds of liturgies together, laughed and cried together countless times, danced together, and even survived hurricanes together. Five years ago, I stood in front of you and promised that, together we would learn from each other, and in each of these moments we have indeed learned from each other. Thank you.
Today, just five years after our first Sunday together, we now prepare for our future together. We have come a long way, but have much further to go in our journey together to heaven. Christ has called us to live in unity together with Him not for our own glory, but so that others can find hope for a new future. We each know at least one person who needs hope for a better future. Our future is not a future of wealth and fame, but a future of love and grace surrounded by God’s mercy.
The past two years of COVID19 have revealed to us that everything can change instantly. In just the blink of an eye, we have lost friends and family to this disease, we have lost business opportunities, and some have lost peace. In every moment of the pandemic our Cathedral Family has proven that we can remain united in our love for Christ and His Church. We have endured the pandemic together, and we will rebuild our future together.
As we look ahead to our future at today’s Parish Assembly, I invite you to consider how you can help bring hope to those who have lost hope. I invite you to ask yourself how you can help those who have not returned to Church, find a way home to the Church. Most importantly I invite you to ask yourself how you can help bring our Cathedral family closer together for the glory of God.
Remember the final prayer of Christ before His death on the cross. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17.20-21)
Thank you for the past five years…..here’s to the next 45 TOGETHER AS ONE.