At Redeemer, we believe prayer is not just a ministry—it is central to our life together. Prayer is where we meet people in their deepest places of joy, grief, longing, and hope, and stand together before the Lord who hears, knows, and acts. Through prayer, we participate in God’s ongoing work of healing, freedom, and redemption in the lives of his people, including those who find themselves in places of pain, despair, or brokenness.

The Search Team meets monthly to evaluate potential long-term home options for our parish. Our criteria are based on preferences and needs shared by both the staff and the congregation, including:

• Desired location

• Aesthetic considerations

• Programmatic needs

• Cost of purchase and potential renovations

Every Sunday about ten minutes after the hour, a wave of parishioners (mainly under 4 ft tall) swells through the sanctuary and into the classrooms, where they stay until they come flooding back in before Holy Communion begins. For many sitting in a service at Redeemer, this sweet movement begins and ends as they pass through the doors of the sanctuary. But what happens on the other side of those doors?

It’s almost that time of year again! We have learned from older, more established ministries that the summer months provide two unique opportunities for our parish. The first is to allow our hard-working Redeemer Kids volunteers a much-needed chance to slow down. The other is the chance to embrace more participation from children during the worship service for the summer season for the sake of both our children themselves and the adults around them! As our parish moves into the season of Ordinary Time and we find ways to practice our faith in, well, ordinary ways, this is a wonderful time to shift the way we teach our children as well.

The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “for everything there is a season,” and this is certainly true in every space of life, including the life of a parish like ours. Seasons begin, seasons end, and new seasons begin. There are ebbs and flows to parish life.

May is pledge month at Redeemer. During this time we encourage all members to make Membership Commitments which involve giving Time, Talent, and Treasure to the Lord Jesus through his body, the Church. Whether you are becoming a new member this month or are a returning member, this is an important action item for all of us. Pledging provides important information to our Vestry and Ministry Leaders to make wise and strategic plans for our parish.

On Sunday, May 18th, we have the joyful opportunity for you to be Confirmed by The Rev. John Guernsey and welcomed as new Members into the Parish. This is a wonderful event that takes place only twice a year, and is available to all who have been baptized and attended our Foundations class! I thought I’d take a moment to share a few details about what it means to take this important step in your faith.

Holy Week is nearly upon us. I want to take a few minutes to explain what it will be like to participate in the most important days of the year together. Please, if you can, read the following in its entirety.

Over the years, I have found confession, in all its forms, to be a deeply helpful and encouraging practice. I find that, once I get over my fears, God is more tender than I expected, my friends are more understanding than I anticipated, and the priest to whom I confess is utterly without judgement or condemnation.

As I greet our students each week on their walk into our homes, I witness a quiet miracle as they move from the dark silence of the street and settle into the bright noise of fellowship. This miracle is the assembly of a spiritual house, as one by one the stones are gathered and find their place among the others.

Today, as an 8-year-old parish, we are blessed with more babies than ever before. Looking back on our childcare staff, I’m thankful for the leadership team that made the early decision to address the needs of our nursery. What started as a practical solution to an overcrowded nursery has become a beautiful partnership that supports our mission of creating a space where families with young children can find belonging in our church community.

Over the past few years of ministry, I’ve heard a common refrain from adults in our congregation who are new to the practices of our church, either Anglicanism or Christianity altogether, that they feel a reluctance to fully engage in what Redeemer is up to that season. They want to spend some time observing before they try out a new practice or attend a new kind of service. Perhaps more honestly worded, they want to gain more information before they run the risk of not being good at something new. What naturally flows downstream of this hesitation is that they wait to bring kids into a spiritual practice until they are able to articulate their decision well.

This year, instead of throwing one big Shrove Tuesday party in the basement of 2715 Grove Ave. like we have done in past years, we are going to celebrate this feast in homes with our Redeemer Small Groups.

Redeemer Family,

We are in still in Epiphany, but Lent is coming soon (March 5th), and it is such an important season that it warrants some forethought and preparation. For those of you unfamiliar with Lent or in need of a refresher, keep reading!

Every March Redeemer members elect two members to join the vestry—our parish's governing body—for a three-year term. Any member in good standing can be nominated to serve on the vestry. If you are a member of Redeemer, we encourage you to prayerfully consider whom you might nominate for these important roles.

The first bit of underlying logic motivating our Epiphany series is the conviction that we human beings live out of our imaginations. Many of you have heard me say this before and I have written elsewhere, “From the imagination springs desires; from desires flow actions, which over time wear grooves into habits; from habits develop beliefs that justify; and from beliefs come doctrine.”

We are homo imaginari.

The second bit of underlying logic is the conviction that our imaginations can be molded, shaped, and changed by our practices. The human imagination is dynamic, not static.

Therefore, our practices (especially the ones we take for granted) are of profoundly deep importance to the spiritual wellbeing of our souls.

Now, what does all this have to do with Redeemer’s search for a building?

Jesus often withdrew to quiet places and prayed (Luke 5:16), even amidst the busiest moments of his life. He didn’t allow the stress — or success! — of his work to outweigh his need to break from his regular rhythms and get away to spend time with his Heavenly Father. We’d like to invite all of our Redeemer family to attend our Men’s or Women’s Fellowship retreats this spring. Each will have some good biblical teaching, conversations for connection and encouragement as we listen for God’s direction, and plenty of time for rest and play.

The answer to this question has undergone a dramatic shift in the past few decades. For hundreds of years the answer was a quick and easy “church holiday.” What else could celebrating the birth of our Savior be? Of course, there were family celebrations that often accompanied Christmas church celebrations, but these were understood to be secondary.

During the seasons of Advent and Christmastide, we will begin our worship services on a more contemplative note to help our hearts, minds, and bodies prepare.

If you're tripped up by the apparent false start of Advent, you're in good company. Christians do New Years weird. We don't start with fanfare and champagne; we kick off with minor keys and cries from “lowly exile.” Tish Harrison Warren notes that part of the usefulness of Advent is to “make Christmas weird again, to allow the shock of the incarnation to take us aback once more.” I like this because the Incarnation of the Son of God is nothing less than an earthquake, and it should strike us as such.

“I come to see my friends.”

It was a tentative answer preceded by silence and knowing glances. I had just asked our students, “Why do you come to Youth Fellowship?” I think they all wondered if Christian friendship was a sufficient answer.

Even if it’s not everything, it’s a perfect start.

Over the past few weeks, several people have approached me about volunteering in the nursery. While they initially ask about logistics—arrival times, expectations, and so on—the conversation invariably leads to this question: "Is volunteering in the nursery just babysitting?"

“Church time is sacred time with a story. And in sacred time, memory, imagination, and meaning work together so we can celebrate the shared stories of God’s activity in human history by remembering them as though they were happening to us. Memory enables us to remember and recall the story; imagination enables us to relive it, make it new again; and meaning interprets and applies it to our actions.” – Young Children & Worship, Steward & Berryman

As the presidential election draws near and tensions in our country run high, it would be wise for us, as the people of the living God, to draw together in prayer for the peace, justice, health, and flourishing of our nation.

During the Q&A portion of our Parish Town Hall last year, one of you asked me, very kindly, what sort of challenges our parish is facing. I answered that, amongst other things, a lack of ordained clergy to serve our parish was (and still is) one of the most difficult handicaps that Redeemer faces. While we have a fantastic team of people in leadership, both on staff and Vestry, we have very few ordained deacons and priests for a parish of our size.

On Sunday, November 10th, we have the joyful opportunity for you to be Confirmed by our Bishop and welcomed as new Members into the Parish. This is a wonderful event that takes place only twice a year, and is available to all who have been baptized and attended our Foundations class! I thought I’d take a moment to share a few details about what it means to take this important step in your faith.

In just a few weeks time, on November 3, we will have the joy of celebrating the sacrament of baptism. Here’s who should consider participating.

Thank you for those of you who were able to participate in our First Impressions Gathering (and thank you to everyone who helped with childcare!). If you were not able to attend, or if you were upstairs helping with little ones, I have 3 favors to ask of you.

I’m never ready for this week.
I see it coming a mile away and I’m still unprepared.
Summer has boarded the ship and is waving farewell as she sails off and away.
Let us raise a glass, toast her splendor, and fondly remember how we felt that first week of June.
Alright, enough that.
Fall is here!