Happy New Year

Dear Friends in Christ,

God bless you in this new year, 2021!

I thank you for your prayers and patience in my time away on Sabbatical; it was fruitful. I have prayed, rested, been quiet. I have painted, read, and worked on various writings – including the book on spiritual care of children and families as a way to think of parenting as a sacred, spiritual practice. It is not completed, but it is much further along, praise be to God!

I also just read scripture, and sometimes painted it into pictures like this tree and its roots in the Earth. It is a calming thing, praise be to God.

We are only weeks away from our Lenten journey this year, Ash Wednesday is February 17th, and we will announce in the days ahead how we can offer this ritual for our spiritual reflection this year. I wanted to offer a free Lenten devotional that has to do with your spiritual well-being and “lifting up” rather than only taking away, as in, I am “giving up” something for Lent. The focus in the spiritual discipline of “giving up” something for Lent is that we are making space for Christ, through and with Christ, in our mind, body, and spirit. When we find a path that makes plain the grace He gives, we are made well minute by minute! This Devotional will be available for you in the office by February 3, 2021. We will get them to you!

I hope and pray that as we journey to the cross with our Savior this Lent, we will seek not only those prayers of wholeness for the mind and body though Jesus Christ that God has blessed us with as individuals, but also the soul of the church and community in which we live through mission and ministry in His name. I am constantly reminded of the language of the church as, the body of Christ” here on Earth. We are here for Christ and because of Christ; our love for Christ will deepen as we come upon new ways to love one another. We pray also for the whole of creation that continues to be wounded by virus, illness, hatred, violence. I add to this list anything that is a barrier to God’s great love to produce peace in the name of our Lord.

I look forward to being together in community after my time away for spiritual renewal and reflection even though we continue to care for one another behind facial masks, through a computer screen in meetings and prayer, remember that we never need to social distance from Jesus!

In God’s grace, Rev. Robin Blair, DMin