Dear Cathedral Family,
This Sunday will be the first time since the pandemic began in March 2020 that we have celebrated a baptism during our regular Sunday worship service and not in a separate smaller family service. Together, as the Prayer Book intends, we will welcome Margaret Gaillard Gordon into the household of God. We will promise to do everything in our power to support her in her life in Christ, and we will join together, along with Maggie and her godparents, in renewing our own baptismal covenant.
Renewing our baptismal promises together is one of the most significant acts of our shared life as the Body of Christ. It is both profoundly personal and necessarily corporate: our covenant guides every intention and action of each person’s daily life, and it is the bond that unites us all, through this life and the next. That unity is what we will express at the beginning of Sunday’s worship: “There is one Body and one Spirit; there is one hope in God’s call to us; One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; one God and Father of all.”
Our reading on Sunday from the Letter of James emphasizes, in the letter’s conclusion, the vital importance of communal prayer, of our praying together for each other, which James says is “powerful and effective.”
One of the rare gifts of the pandemic has been the streaming and videoconference technology that has allowed us to continue to pray together even when we are not physically gathered. I am thankful for the numbers of you who join in to pray and worship together from work or home on Wednesdays at noon, and for many this remains the best and safest way to worship on Sundays.
For those of us now ready and able to gather in person, this fall will be a time of reconnecting and rebuilding community after over eighteen months of continual change and disruption. You received an email this week about signing up for supper clubs. We will have pizza in the garden together next week after worship. New forms of Sunday School and some outdoor fun times for young members are coming in October. Several adult small groups for study, conversation, prayer, and pastoral care are forming. Please find at least one way to reconnect with your Cathedral Family. We need each other for many reasons. And our praying together is powerful and effective.
Faithfully,
Beverly+