October 2020 Pastor’s Column

Greetings beloved brothers and sisters,

I begin this missive this month with a hearty and heart-felt thank you to the whole of the congregation for the welcome Tina and I have felt over the past two months (WOW! Two months already — for a year in which nothing seemed to move at all, where have two months gone so quickly?). Not a day has gone by since our coming into the fellowship of believers here that, Tina or I, or both, haven’t received some sort of phone call, email, text message card, note or letter from one or another of you. The totality of it is both overwhelming and quite wonderful.

And all of this has been BEFORE this past Sunday’s Installation Service! We were fairly bowled-over by the presence of so many gathered outside in the parking lot on a beautiful, cool, crisp almost-Fall Sunday afternoon.

As Dr. Bill Crooks observed in his charge to the congregation during that service, it is a wonderful thing that God does in our midst. Yes, while it is true that the lines at the Safari Park may have been longer and that more people may have been gathered in local restaurants for “last-day-of-the-weekend” escapes from reality, we gathered to praise the eternal God and King of the Universe and to ask His blessing upon us in a time when His message is oft-overlooked and frequently unheeded. Yet this did not stop us.

Moreover, in the midst of this service, we had people from at least 5 different congregations gathered with us and have had nearly 50 others who joined us virtually after the fact by video recording on the internet or DVD. In real terms, that means we managed to touch almost 120 people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a day and time when it is difficult for the Church even to meet, and we did so in a way designed to keep people safe and healthy at the same time. God would appear to be doing something in our midst.

Now, before I utterly loose the knot at the end of my narrative thread as I write, I need to offer public thanks to:
∙ the 6 members of the Presbytery’s Installation Commission.
∙ to Sue Black (wearing 3 hats as commission member, Clerk of Session and PNC Chair).
∙ to the session, deacons and trustees for all of their hard work.
∙ to the PW members and other volunteers who offered their time and services to make the reception go off well.
∙ to Gerry Sankey, who, as always, made certain that the sound system was up and running so we could hear each other.
∙ to Carol Augustino, our secretary, for the extra work she had to do to make this happen.
∙ to Michele, Mark and Josh Bonnici for their musical and video assistance.
∙ to our son, Josiah, for his musical contribution to the service,
∙ to the congregation for participating and for the wonderful gift of wooden cross and beautiful Wendell August aluminum bookmark.
∙ to any and all I have missed inadvertently; your labors may have gone unrecognized, but are not unappreciated.

As we all continue our individual labors in the faith “handed down once-for-all to the saints,” let us do so — in the new way God has given to us — by continuing to wear the “whole armor of God, “bear each others’ burdens in love,” “speak the truth in love,” and continuing to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave us.”

We now take up our joys, burdens, sorrows, and duties knit-together by God through Christ at work in us and the abiding power, presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Again, many thanks to all, and may God, in His good providence, uphold and send us forward.

Grace & Peace in Christ Jesus our Lord
Pastor Rusty+