Dear Friends,
It has been a most difficult year in ministry. Never before have I had to face what we all have had to face. I have experienced, as you have experienced, deep personal loss, tragedy, circumstances beyond our control, anxiety, sleepless nights, worry, the feeling that the fabric of life was being torn. I'm not going to recount the all too familiar incidents to you as we still move through a process of understanding and healing.
Even in spite of the rawness of our pain, out of the difficulties of the year past something else by way of blessing has occurred. I have had to dig deep in the recesses of my soul to find the pools of mirth. I have had to seek out within myself those places where strength resides. I have been deepened, quickened, transformed and changed. And throughout it all, like no other time in my ministry or my life have I felt the sustaining presence of God coming through this community. I hope you have felt it as well.
What has been accomplished is clear - what is missing is the humanity behind
all our activities. We have experienced both life and death, blessing and
curse and we have continually chosen life. Life in community with one another
is not about conformity it is about unity. And unity comes when we open
ourselves, our hearts, our minds, our lives, our fears, our secrets to
one another. Unity comes when we live authentic lives. Lives based on mutuality,
respect and fundamentally lived out of love. I thank each and every one
of you for the pouring out of your lives into this community well. Drop
by drop, rivulet by rivulet, stream by stream, we flow as a conduit of
God's grace and presence. And just as we are filled like the cup of life
in the 23rd Psalm, we shall overflow into the lives of others
around us.
In Christ,
Shaun E. Fryday