Dear friends,

As we move into October, life at St. John’s certainly begins to become more … lively … And so, I want to start this week by offering several thanksgivings and also a few reminders about upcoming events. It’s a longer letter than usual, but this is so you are in “in the know …”

Fr. Ed blessing a dog. (Photo by Tim Curry)

Our program year has started joyfully, particularly as we celebrated St. Francis Day last Sunday, with our Blessing of the Animals between the 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. services. Last week, over 230 people attended across our three services. The Labyrinth space was beautiful to worship in at the 5 p.m. animal blessing. And I would like to thank our Creation Care Ministry once again, especially Jennifer Seggev and her family, and Michael Pizziferri for all their efforts, including installing the new railing last week! The space is truly holy and was a glorious location for our worship last Sunday evening.

Our Stewardship Season has also begun fruitfully. I would like to thank Robin Kirk for his beautiful sermon last week, and to our Stewardship Chairs for this year, Andy Strehle and Sarah Murphy. Alongside Andy and Sarah’s incredible leadership are many other wonderful people. I especially want to thank our wardens, Jody Jones Turner and Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn. And I would like to thank Will Buckley in his role as Administrator for the Stewardship Campaign this year. Without these people and their exceptional efforts, this campaign would not be the inspirational journey that it is clearly already becoming. And again, a huge thank you goes to Matthew Ginn and Karen Slodden for the artwork and design of our poster campaign and the tracker you see in the narthex. I also want to thank everyone who participated in the “stuffing party” in the Upper Weld Library last week, to prepare and send out our stewardship materials. I hope you all received your note in the post this week!

Not only was I overjoyed when I saw that we already had 100% vestry participation, but, after only one day of the campaign we had already received pledges of $90,000. This is profoundly encouraging, and I want to therefore thank everyone who has already pledged and indeed our whole community as you prayerfully consider how you might support our parish in the coming year. We literally could not do any of this without you. Your Stewardship Ambassadors will be in touch in the coming days. Do let them know if you have any questions. As Devon and I made our own pledge last week, I, too, valued being able to connect with our team; again, such a program would not be possible without our ambassadors, and I am beyond grateful to them.

I want to thank Eva Dalzell our Curate, Will Buckley, Amsale Faye our Accountant, Alexis McElhiney our Sunday School and Youth Ministry Director, Skip Hull our Treasurer, and Kenzie Blackwell our Outreach Chair, for all their extra help and support in the Parish Office and with our financial operations during September. I cannot say how thankful I am for them, and I am beyond grateful to have them alongside me in this way during October. Our parish operations are still going strong because of them. Sadly, our Administrator search was unsuccessful last month, and so we are back to the drawing board. The position has been advertised again, and I am hopeful to welcome a new team member on board in the coming weeks. If you know of anyone seeking a position like this, please be in touch with me directly.

And … I am as ever thankful for Mike MacDonald our Buildings and Grounds Chair, and Tom Daley our Verger. We are currently experiencing boiler issues at the church, and so there are two reasons for why St. John’s basement is now a little more spooky than usual. There is a temporary measure in place, and the church will be warm this weekend, but maybe bring an extra layer just in case … I will notify you all beforehand if the church will be colder than usual!

And … finally … this week, things get even spookier in the basement … well, not-so-spooky. Our Not-So-Spooky Haunted House begins on Thursday, Oct. 17, and will continue on Friday 18th, and then Thursday 24th and Friday 25th. To Dan and Kaja Fickes, John Lanza, Monique Weiss Byrnes, and everyone who is volunteering to make this possible … THANK YOU!

See you in Church, at the Haunted House, or at a brewery near you,

Ed.