As I announced last Sunday, we got our letter from the Rt. Rev. Marty Stebbins to officially release Church of the Incarnation from its Impaired Status. Bishop Marty added this comment: “I look forward to seeing Incarnation flourishing as it grows the ministries that Christ has called you into.”
Even though Sr. Warden Peter Jennings said months ago; “We don’t feel impaired anymore,” the official pronouncement from Bishop Marty is cause for celebration and joy. Your rector search committee, hard at work on a portfolio to introduce prospective rector candidates to the people, ministries, and mission of Church of the Incarnation, has expressed your restoration this way:
“I felt the palpable presence of our Lord filling the sanctuary and knew it was the culmination of a tremendous amount of love, faith, and belief that we could come back from a low time. All around me were friends in Christ who had held the church together through thick and thin. My heart was full.”
Restoration is a dominant theme throughout the Bible. The stories of God’s people teach us hope is never in vain and God always intends good for our individual and common lives. Rarely are we shown a straightforward path or a vision as clear from the outset as we would like it to be. Nevertheless, our faith is built on this promise. One of the prayers from the ordination service beautifully expresses both our faith and God’s hand at work at Incarnation. Here is a portion of it:
“Let the whole world see and know
that things which were cast down are being raised up,
and things which had grown old are being made new,
and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord…”
With thanksgiving and joy,
Pastor Lori+