Dear Friends,
Beginning next week, I will be on vacation until August 2nd. You will have a variety of supply clergy (maybe a few long-time friends!) for Sunday, and information and pastoral needs can be directed to the Wardens Chris Leonardo and Sasha Killewald. I hope you are all likewise renewing and refreshing yourselves!

Jesus frequently modeled for his disciples that rest and renewal were essentials to faith. Clergy traditionally resist taking all their vacation (i know I did up until a few years ago!) but there are a number of reasons why its important for all of us to take time off from even work we love for rest and renewal.

1. For Ourselves: All humans need time off from cares or concerns. even when we love our work dearly, having a time to rest from thinking about or thinking through concerns gives us time to turn our thoughts to thinking about God.

2. For our Families: Today’s families have less time together than they ever have; both adults and children spend less time simply checking in with one another, playing or listening to one another. We all know that relationships take work, and we all need the time to reconnect with our loved ones.

3. For God: Spending time in prayer and listening to God is essential for our spiritual health! Just like our relationships with our human loved ones, the Holy One needs our time and attention as well.
Wishing you all rest, renewal and refreshment!

“The Peace Of Wild Things”
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

May this summer help us all “rest in the grace”!

Rev. Rebecca Black
Interim