Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Greetings to you in this New Year in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As a congregation in this New Year of 2023, we will consider God’s ongoing promises in our lives. This focus is drawn out of the lectionary scripture during the season of Epiphany. As we enter a new calendar year, we often make many promises to be a new person. Maybe it is through New Year resolutions we say we are going to do, or we focus on the popular cultural statement, live in the “New You.” The result is that we are often so distracted by our daily lives that we forget the unchanging promises of God in our own lives. God’s promises never change; even when we feel that God has changed or left us, we will find that he has not left us but is calling us to live in the new life of our baptism. The hope is that during this time, we can be reminded of God’s ongoing and never changing promises to encourage us individually and as a congregation to see what God has in store for us in the future.
As a congregation, we look forward to this new year of 2023. We have an important date at the end of the month for our Annual January meeting. Please ensure you mark your calendar for January 29th, so that we have a number of people to attend. In addition, Lent starts on February 22nd with Ash Wednesday, and I look forward to our Lenten meals during the season of Lent. This time is a good time to fellowship together as a congregation and is a time of personal connection with one another. The meals are also a good time to invite guests to participate in and then also join us for evening prayer and our Lenten devotional focus.
I hope this new year will be a fruitful year for you, your family, and this congregation.
In Christ,
Pr. Tom