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Highlights
Like every New Year, it's time to start over. We get one in Advent; we get one at New Year's; other folks have other days. And who ever needed more of a fresh start than we do, right here in our local communities and on the much broader scale of US politics, a statement true regardless of where a given person falls on any given scale? I adore New Year's resolutions. I don't ever keep them but they're fun to make. Sometimes I deal with them by making resolutions promising not to do things I never ever do anyway.
That backfired once with "I will not attend football games this year." I hate football, largely because I find it entirely mystifying: folks run this way and that way and then back again and then everyone screams or boos at random, and I'm always "what just happened??" That was the year my university's football team went to the first New Orleans Bowl ever--even I got the fever and went to New Orleans. Our team literally won the game in the last half second, a kick that sailed so straight and so true that it was evident, even to me, that it was going to go right between the two goal posts, from over two hundred yards away. And those 3 points put us over. I really do mean the last half second: the ball flew and the timer went off way before it went through the goalposts. We all screamed. Even I knew what just happened.
Sometimes, even in those last minutes, things just work out, but not because of luck. There was zero luck in that kick. It was skill and hard work that paid off, even if it was last minute. And that's what happened with the Pop-Up Warming Center. On the one hand, it was VERY last minute--I read the newspaper one day about this terrible cold spell coming late December, and called around to the folks I know who have a heart for taking care of the marginalized: in this case, the many folks who spend their lives living out of their cars. In one day, I had a meeting with folks from St. Andrew's, and with folks from the community including the REdisCOVERY Center. Anna, Jerry, Jeff, Steve, Father Karen, everyone just made this thing happen. We made a plan and the Pop-Up Warming Center was opened Christmas Eve for those, who like Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, were exposed to the weather. And multiple communities responded. Viola Ware of the REdisCOVERY Center reached out to the police, the fire department, to the local media and other churches, such as Holy Trinity Lutheran, who loaned us a coffee urn--it all came together. And then the Fellowship Committee, all deacons at heart, every one of them, like so many members of this parish, brought stuff. As I write this, all that stuff--clothes, tents, blankets, hand warmers, and on and on--were available when other folks might have said "wish we could do something." But we didn't. We provided, as we have provided for years.
We will have to make several trips but absolutely all the stuff we collected as a community will go to TAFY, The Answer for Youth. They will help their clients (young persons and families) make this winter that much better by helping them get through this weather.
Thank you all for being the best parish family any deacon could hope for.
With much love,
Deacon Keith
Upcoming Events
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Contemplative Prayer
Jan 18
Tomorrow
4:00 PM
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Morning Prayer on Zoom
Jan 19
Wednesday
11:00 AM
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Virtual worship on
ZOOM
Jan 22
Saturday
5:00 PM
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Manna Sunday
Jan 23
Sunday
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Rite I
Jan 23
Sunday
8:00 AM
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Rite II
Jan 23
Sunday
10:00 AM
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Annual Meeting via ZOOM
Jan 23
Sunday
12:00 PM
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St. Swithin's Evening Prayer
Jan 23
Sunday
5:00 PM
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