Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen
So this is the last time I will be sitting down and writing to you as your Interim Pastor. What a ride we have had for the past 7 months. A ride full of grace, love, laughter and tears. A ride full of unexpected challenges which have been met by the leadership of this congregation and its staff with grace, determination, steadfastness and grace with a lot of forgiveness and patience thrown in for good measure! And I mentioned grace twice for a reason! Everyone has given so much of themselves—over and above again and again. I thank them. Now we begin a new ride, a new chapter in the life and ministry of St. Matthew with Pastor Eric Trozzo leading us starting September 1.
With the blessing and encouragement of Pastor Eric, I have offered to begin dialogue on the very difficult issue of racism in our communities, our society and, yes, within ourselves and our congregation. To begin this dialogue there will be two opportunities for all of us to participate as we learn more about racism and what it looks and sounds like and feels like.
First: A book club discussion group via Zoom! There are many excellent books on racism available for us, including two on the New York Times Best Sellers List. Instead of starting there, we will begin by reading about racism from the point of view of young black youth and authors. Our first book is, “Dear Martin,” written by Nic Stone and available on Amazon for less than $6. We will begin in September (day and time to be announced later). In the meantime, I encourage you to get the book and begin to read it.
Second: An opportunity to be in dialogue with others in our congregation around the issue of racism is being offered Tuesday, August 4th 7pm via Zoom. Denise Cole, chairperson of the Social Ministry will be facilitating this gathering. The ELCA Statement on Anti-Racism will be our starting point as we talk about how we want to address the issue as a congregation. We want to create an action plan and we want you to be part of this important work of the church. Please email Denise at denisemcole@earthlink.net or me, if you wish to participate, we will send you the Zoom invitation.
I thank all of you for the privilege of serving as your Interim Pastor since December 2019; my last Sunday worship will be August 30.
In Christ,
Pastor Peggy