 Message from Our Rector, Simon Mainwaring
Dear saints,
Five weeks ago today, I wrote a note to you all in this weekly e-news with these words, "Over the next few weeks you will receive an invitation, once more, to be generous in this place, not because you haven’t already been immensely so, and not because it will be easy, but because this is a call that we feel is ours." The focus of that appeal to your generosity was the beloved of God who have arrived on our shores as refugees, and who have lost access to federal support via the refugee resettlement agencies we have long partnered with in this state. Our stated goal five weeks ago was to raise funds so that the six families we had built volunteer resettlement teams around could be supported for the first six months of the year. If we managed to achieve that goal of $75,000, we would then count it a wonderful blessing to be able to support an additional family with each $12,500 we raised.
There has been no letter writing or phone calling campaign. We have simply invited parishioners to share their experience of volunteering with refugee ministries on a Sunday morning and then watched the Holy Spirit move in this place. Louisa Merchant and I had hoped we might raise enough to help an additional 14 families, so 20 families in all. Well, we should have known better. It was Valentine's Day when I extended that appeal after all, and this parish has an immensely large and generous heart. All the same, I have to say that I am deeply moved and not just a little overwhelmed by the sheer scale of your generosity these past five weeks, which has meant that at the time of me writing this, our effort to be a light in our city has yielded just over a staggering $379,000.
I am someone who is rarely lost for words. Today I am. What more can be said, other than thanks be to God for this remarkable and abundant act of giving. Thanks be to each of you who made a donation, to each of you who volunteered to be part of refugee ministries, and to each of you who bought a ticket for our "Hallelujah Anyhow" celebration at church on Saturday March 29th - and you can still buy a ticket right here.
I should also say more one more thank you: to our own Louisa Merchant. I told her last week that while all of this is a beautiful testament to the core and character of this parish, it is also a testament to all she has worked so very hard to build here over the years of her ministry at All Saints’. So, if she is not collapsed asleep in the corner in Ellis Hall by the time we get to the evening of Saturday March 29th, please look her in the eye and say, ‘Hallelujah Anyhow’.
This is a time of quiet miracles.
Peace,
Simon +
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