Surely it is God Who Saves Me
Pledging is easy and can be done online.
Surely it is God Who Saves Me
I knew I had fallen in love with Christ Church and its people on Christmas Eve 2014. After having been here a year and a half, I looked out at the congregation that Christmas, and the faces were no longer those of strangers but of people whose stories I knew — their joys and sorrows, triumphs and challenges. It was the moment I realized that this is my home.
Occasionally, I say my morning prayers by going into the silent and empty Cathedral. I sit in the pews where I know particular parishioners usually sit, and there I say my prayers for them. It’s a practice that makes palpably real my connection to our people. It tethers the Spirit in me to the Spirit in them. It also reminds me how very important this sacred space is to each of us. We meet God in many ways and in many places, but we most assuredly meet God here.
And, amazingly, it’s been that way now for 181 years. That realization reminds me of the great quote from the Wendell Berry novel, Jayber Crow. Jayber, who is the gravedigger for the churchyard, slips into the back of the church on a hot summer day for a nap. There he has a vision of the Communion of Saints. Here’s what Jayber says:
“One day when I went up there to work, sleepiness overcame me and I lay down on the floor behind the back pew to take a nap. Waking or sleeping (I couldn’t tell which), I saw all the people gathered there who had ever been there. I saw them as I had seen them from the back pew, where I sat with Uncle Othy (who would not come in any farther) while Aunt Cordie sang in the choir, and I saw them as I had seen them (from the back pew) on the Sunday before. I saw them in all the times past and to come, all somehow there in their own time and in all time and in no time: the cheerfully working and singing women, the men quiet or reluctant or shy, the weary, the troubled in spirit, the sick, the lame, the desperate, the dying, the little children tucked into the pews beside their elders, the young married couples full of visions, the old men with their dreams, the parents proud of their children, the grandparents with tears in their eyes, the pairs of young lovers attentive only to each other on the edge of the world, the grieving widows and widowers, the mothers and fathers of children newly dead, the proud, the humble, the attentive, the distracted — I saw them all. I saw the creases crisscrossed on the backs of the men’s necks, their work-thickened hands, the Sunday dresses faded with washing. They were just there. They said nothing, and I said nothing. I seemed to love them all with a love that was mine merely because it included me. When I came to myself again, my face was wet with tears.”
That vision is as real for our Cathedral as it is in Berry’s novel. These days of the coronavirus have underscored for me just how important the Cathedral is in the lives of our parishioners. And never before has our collective financial support been so important. 2021 may prove to be a really tough year for our vital ministries financially. Our Every Member Canvass theme is the First Song of Isaiah. It begins, “Surely it is God who saves me; I will trust in God and not be afraid.” And it ends, “Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy, for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.”
I hope our pledges this year — yours and mine — will reflect these two sentiments. Our need is great, but beyond responding to bare need I hope we will pledge through our trust in the God who casts out fear, and through the joy we know when we meet God in this place.
Grace and Peace,
The Very Reverend Barkley Thompson, Dean
Learn more about this year’s EMC at: www.christchurchcathedral.org/emc
Supporting the Cathedral
The Cathedral continues to be engage in ministry. Our pastoral care, outreach, worship, and program ministries carry on, and supporting Cathedral ministries is as important as ever. You can make your offering in any of these ways:
· Visit the Cathedral Give page to find out the many ways you can support our church.
· Make an offering or give in other ways using PayPal.
· Text the word “Give” to 888-998-1634.
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