Following Christ Through Thin Times

"But I tell you, unless you repent...." Luke 13:3

Dear People of St. David's,

I pray that you are well. I am writing ahead of my vacation to share some comments about our national church and Jesus' call to follow Him.

St. David's is part of a national body of Christians known as the Episcopal Church. As part of the Episcopal Church, we belong to a huge mosaic of Christian communities and Christian individuals that are varied and different, similar and alike all at the same time. Sometimes this great community looks a lot like St. David's and your Christian life and sometimes it's hard to tell if we share anything in common. And if you've been following the news about our denomination and this most recent General Convention that I attended in Indianapolis, you can get a sense of the variety.

I write about this because several of you have expressed your dismay and disappointment at the downward direction the Church seems to be taking or about decisions that have been made by our community on a number of issues. We as a denomination have seen a decline in rolls like all of the main line denominations. We have also been struggling to find center after several decades of cultural upheaval and change, which to many of us, feels like sifting sands. With these changes, we wonder about the future of the Church and what's next.

These are thin times for many congregations and Dioceses and for our national Church in many ways, yet I am confident and fearless that God is in fact leading the Church and is in the process of renewing it-though it looks much more like Good Friday to some people rather than Easter morning.

This is a long way of saying pay attention to your own following of Christ. It is interesting to have opinions and even judgments about where our Church is going, but if it becomes a distraction from following Christ, then let me invite you to set those opinions aside. I've found, as have many of you, that following in the ways of Jesus is a pretty full-time commitment. So turn to it. Lift your cares and concerns to God and then allow God to make you into the best Christian you can be so that you may experience God's grace and presence and draw others to him by your shining example.


Grace and Peace,
WFA