A Message from our Rector

Anne C. Fowler

"Where do you most often meet God?" This question was asked recently in a class I’m taking. My immediate answer was, "in Church."

Perhaps that’s an obvious answer, since "church" is my business, my profession. But after 25 years as a parish priest, with church as my business, I might be disposed to meet God anywhere but in church.

And yet, each Sunday as I preside and preach at St. John’s, I am ever more aware of and delighted in the palpable presence of God in our midst.

The great religious teacher Frederick Buechner writes, "I think maybe faith is closest to worship because, like worship, it is essentially a response to God. It involves the emotions and the physical senses as well as the mind." He goes on, "If someone were to come up and ask me to talk about my faith...I’d have to talk about...the journey through time and space...the ups and downs of years, the dreams, the odd moments, the intuitions...Whatever your faith may be, or my faith may be, it seems to me inseparable from the story of what has happened to us."

And that’s what I encounter every Sunday in the sanctuary at St. John’s: the gathered community of faith, with all our hopes and fears, our ups and downs, our journeys through time and space, through doubt and hope. We come together bringing our longings, our sorrows, our challenges, our joys and triumphs. We bring our stories, our hearts, our souls, and lay them all at the altar.

And as I look around each Sunday morning, as I progress around the communion circle offering the Body and Blood of Christ, I look into all the beloved faces, and know that I am encountering the very heart of God.

I hope you’ll join us where we come to meet God.

Faithfully,

Anne +