January always feels like such a transitional month. We’re coming down off the Christmas holiday high and hustle and bustle. We’re facing 2-3 months of wintry weather. We’re learning to write a new date on our checks and correspondence. We’re taking stock of our lives as one year ends and a new one starts. As we get back into our daily and weekly routines, we’re wondering what the future holds.
This is certainly true here at church, too. During this season of Epiphany, when God’s Light is revealed to the whole world, we are all invited to live into our baptismal identity as children of God and Jesus’ disciples. We ordain and install our new elders and deacons on January 22nd. We review 2016 as we write and compile our annual reports and prepare for the annual congregational meeting and brunch on February 5th. The leadership of the church spends a weekend on retreat together discerning God’s vision and direction for our church. We look back and we look forward, as we live into the present as God’s people here at FPCY.
We’d like to say a special word of thanks to the outgoing elders and deacons who have served us so faithfully over the past 3 years: Elders Donna Gresh, Beth Gruber, Jessica Mayes, Eugene McGrath, David Ramage, Ian Spence, Cathy Talbot and youth elder, Megan Switzer; and Deacons Carl Anderson, Cynthia Fritz, Chuck Radke and Jocelyn Ramage. Thanks also to elder Debbie Bernardini, youth elder Justin Leftwich, deacon Carol Thorne-Gaetani and youth deacons Ellen Gruber and Max Tieche, who have graciously agreed to stay on and serve an extra few months or year to help fill vacant terms and adjust to the new youth officer calendar. We are so grateful for your leadership and ministry in our midst!
In this Epiphany season of light and new beginnings, how and where is God calling you to follow the star, to serve the Light of the World? As we pack up decorations and put away our Christmas presents, what gifts do we offer the Christ child throughout the year? As we hear Jesus calling us, “Follow me,” how will we grow in our relationship with God and practice our faith, not just at church, but in our daily lives? As we begin this new year together, let us look back at 2016 with thanksgiving, look forward to 2017 with hope, and live in the everpresent light of Christ, sharing that light with the world.
~See you in church, Tami