Greetings and Merry Christmas!
It’s been a joy to celebrate Christmas with you all. From the baptism of baby Leo to our wonderful Christmas Winter Market and Christmas Clay Cafe, this season has given plenty of reasons for the St. Stephen’s and the Vine family to rejoice. Christmastide is a season of hope. The incarnation lets us know that the love of God has broken into the world and that love was on full display throughout December in our congregation.
Christmastide ends with the beginning of the season of Epiphany. Epiphany encourages us to celebrate the “manifestation” or the “appearing” of Jesus as the Son of God to the world. We journey with the wisemen following signs both spiritual and material that point to this revelation. As the body of Christ, we participate in this divine revealing by sharing this revelation with others and by learning how this revelation reveals new things in us. Like the wisemen in chapter 2 of Matthew’s gospel, we too must return home by another way.
In the coming months, we will see many opportunities to discuss what God is revealing in us. Our Annual Meeting, which will be on January 19, will give us an opportunity to reflect on our ministry in the past year and set a vision for the coming programmatic year. Our Requiem or Renaissance team will begin inviting us to intentional conversations about new ministry directions in our parish. Our Communications team will be revealing our refreshed website and teaching us to share more about the stories that connect us.
We are on a journey to return to wonderfully familiar things to St. Stephen’s and the Vine. Things we have taken pride in for years like the way we build community, the way we love our neighbors, and the way we enjoy sharing the gospel. All these and more, but we return to this familiar place with the hope of being transformed so that God may continue to use us for the glory of Christ.
May God continue to reveal in you God’s mighty work.
Wild blessings,
Father Aaron
