Shared in Worship, June, 2023

As I was packing my office some pieces reminded me of you and the time we’ve shared.

• The Gathering, Forming Sending Prayer Cloth woven throughout our 2016 visioning events with your ribbon written prayers remaining inside,
• Wheat; a symbol of Christ, the motif in golden stained glass that wraps around you every Sunday morning, these gathered grains from our 2017 dedication Sunday of these renovated spaces
• A steadfast circle of people statue with hands joined, circling as St. Paul’s has done since 1836….a circle without end, an eternal circle of faithful friends from so many places! And all the saints who have gone on before us.

With these in my mind,
Feeling God through St. Paul’s,
these words come alongside…

There is a place in this city
holding something of faith.

I close my eyes.
You can too
to imagine it…
an energy here.

A moving body
colors bright
like the people who
sprinkle in and out
and weave through the spaces,
a God-made cloth you are
with prayers of longing
woven inside you
with hope
of a better day
a better way
for the humble
the hurting
the healing.

Your strides
strong and long
some short
playful skips of chattering children
other steps
steadied and slow
intentional
some curious
serving, searching.
All these
dance
through the decades
in acts of conviction
and witness
to love,
to justice.

There is a place in the city.
A Grace Place.
…preserved,
renewed,
ready
to
break bread!
Because something matters here.
From this place in the city.

Because we believe.

So,
Keep the fabric flexible,
porous enough to weave in
new people, prayers, and projects
beyond the walls

Keep the grains of faith growing,
letting seeds fall, to die,
only to let God grow something new.

Keep finding the hand of a friend here.
Hold something in faith together.

Beloved.
This place in the city
is You.

God’s spirit sings bright!

I hear you.
Humming.
I see you anticipating!

St. Paul’s,
you are alive!

This is my challenge and charge I leave with you:
to ever more completely, discover who you are and give yourself for God’s purpose.
Live the life you are called to live!
You are not too old or too small.
Or too anything.
You are alive!
As you build up the body in love.

As John Wesley would say, Go on… being perfected in love.

Grace and peace to you, Sherrie