A Message from Our Pastor: January

Dearly Beloved:

Last month we began our Advent journey with the venerable tradition of The Hanging of the Greens. Our liturgy began with several questions concerning how we would prepare our house for the coming of the world’s Savior. In two services in two different settings, we filled our sanctuary and chapel with the symbols and sounds of Christmas, and our already beautiful house was transformed into a setting made even more beautiful by the light, hope, peace, joy and love brought to us as we ended the calendar year with God’s greatest Gift placed on our laps, held in our arms.

How shall we greet and prepare for the New Year before us, knowing this precious Gift that we hold together? Each day provides the opportunity to awaken to the radiance of this Divine Presence, and to welcome the blessings, the manifold blessings, this Christ-Gift carries. How can we forget that we are his home; that he lives and moved deep within us and among us? Holding him so close, how can we not help but manifest his love more deeply in our world? Moving into this New Year together, may we journey courageously and confidently, knowing that both the bright and dark moments will begin to shine be-cause we are the ones who carry this light to share with others.

None of us knows exactly what this New Year will bring; but each of us knows what WE bring into the New Year: God’s incredible Gift! We are the Gift-bearers, and we hold the light and grace that has the power to change the world! We know the New Year will bring changes; and sometimes we are afraid of change. But I believe we are more afraid when change happens to us. We tend to be less timid when WE are the ones who actually bring change; when we become the agents of transformational change that sheds light in places of darkness, brings hope in moments of despair, spreads courage in times of fear, and brings peace through times of conflict.

Together as a church family we greet, not only a New Year, but also a new decade in the unfolding story of this congregation’s life. Anona and I have had the immense privilege and joy of sharing ministry in this church for the past nine and a half years. We have another six months together to share our visions and dreams of how the gift of First UMC will continue to be lived out and shared in our neighborhood, in our Conference, and across the world, which, according to John Wesley, is the actual boundary of our parish!

Anona and I will be retiring at the end of this Conference year, effective July 1, 2014. We enter this new phase of our life with the typical anxieties of those who anticipate such a major life transition. But we also move into this new phase with the same faith, hope and love that has held and carried us together over many years. And we certainly know that we will have a whole rest-of-our-life treasury of precious memories of having served in this place, among our spiritual family here in Melrose.

Our congregation will be welcoming a new pastor in July. Surely our life will change; but it is a gracious and loving God who will bring this change and carry all of us to new life expe-riences! Our most capable and most gifted Leadership Team will be working very closely with Bishop Devadhar and District Superintendent LaTrelle Easterling. Their wisdom and their grace, along with the wisdom, grace, and strength of our Leadership Team, as they and we are all rooted and grounded together in deep prayer, will bring the changes we all hope for that will breathe new life into our church.

What will this New Year bring? Change! But the change we anticipate will be initiated by the God who has held and carried us through all the years. The change will also come through our initiatives as we are rooted and grounded in prayerful discernment about what our new life will actually look like and feel like.

I have often closed my New Year Gleam reflections as I do this edition; but somehow, for me, this one seems to carry additional meaning and weight: Anona and I wish for all our church family a wonderful, happy, prosperous New Year – and a new life!

With deep gratitude, hope, and love,
Pastor Chuck