We look out our sanctuary windows at trees planted 80 or more years ago that now look like a cathedral reaching to the sky. Legend has it that Martin Luther was once said, “If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.” We do not know what the future will bring. We live by faith. A sapling planted today will bear fruit in the age to come. Deeds of hope today will flower in eternity.
Deeds of Hope
St. Dunstan’s Church is enjoying a time of vibrancy and growth. Our worship is uplifting, our Sunday School has grown, our feeding ministries are thriving, and our advocacy for the homeless is making a real difference. Not only have we hosted a homeless camp each of the last 5 years, we worked with the Diocese of Olympia to allow Camp United We Stand to move to the closed St. George’s campus in the Lake City district. We have been blessed to be a blessing.
The time has come to plant new saplings. This is the time for deeds of hope. That is what we will do together at a Summit Meeting on Saturday at St. Dunstan’s Church, from 9:00 am to noon. For the past few weeks we have gathered stories of our best experiences while present at St. Dunstan’s and we have shared our hopes and our dreams for the future. A group of vestry members and I gathered to review these interviews, looking for trends and themes. What we found was a lot of gratitude, hope, and faith for the future of our congregation.
The summit on Saturday will begin with themes and ideas drawn from the interviews. We will engage in group activities to figure out what is most appealing and hopeful, and then we will look at what we can do to realize these dreams.
Planting Saplings
We enjoy worship, fellowship and ministry in this place because people before us built a church, Sunday School classrooms, a kitchen, planted gardens, and welcomed strangers like us. On Sunday we worshiped in a sanctuary built over 50 years ago, sang along with an organ installed over 40 years ago, and enjoyed food prepared in a kitchen installed decades ago and upgraded 8 years ago. What will we do to build for the people who come next?
We are currently contemplating making significant improvements to our worship space, our facilities, and our grounds. This summit meeting on Saturday is a chance to engage in dreaming and planning for the future. Our vestry will take what we learn at the summit and explore ways to realize our hopes and dreams. Please come on Saturday and help us plant saplings.
Yours in Christ,
David+