January 26, 2022
Dear saints,
If this letter has arrived in your mailbox it is because you and I share something in common: a large part of our lives orbit around caring for our kids. Of all the seasons of parenting that Monica and I have faced, these past two years have been unique in the depth and breadth of the challenges we’ve had to contend with. I imagine you might say the same.
For those of you with children at home who are under five years old and who are still not able to be vaccinated, I want you to know that I recognize how your journey through this pandemic has been especially hard. I also want you to know that we love you, that we haven’t forgotten about you, and that we are here for you in any way that we can be to support you along this long and arduous path.
At the other end of the age range, some of you have been doing your level best to help your high schoolers navigate their final years at home, college applications, and their emergence into adulthood—all the while living through an immensely disruptive pandemic. Some of you have bid farewell to college-bound young adult children only to see them boomerang back as colleges closed down their campuses.
And for those of you like us with kids somewhere between these two bookends of parenting, you have had to make your way through it all, trying to keep track of what might be safe and best for your children, while holding onto your work-life balance and your wits as you go.
I share all of this as an attempt to say that I see how very challenging it has been to be a parent these past many months, and that it is utterly central to my hopes for All Saints’ that we can be a church that offers care, support, encouragement and vitality to your life as a parent and to your children’s lives. We want to be the village that helps raise your children.
Through the course of the next several months you will hear me and others issue an invitation to you and to the parish as a whole to step into the lives of the children of this church, as volunteer teachers for Sunday school, as volunteers at Friday night attic invasions and Sunday night high school gatherings, at trips off the block and movie nights on it. We will be offering parenting classes, and all and anything else we can to say to one another that the nurture of our children within the love of God is integral to the life of this church. Expect to see more children and youth taking part in services on Sunday. We want our children and youth to feel that this is their church and that we are with them, and with one another as they grow.
If you would like to help us grow the village that will raise these children, including by joining a new committee for children and youth ministries, please do let me know. And if you are just needing us to hold you in prayer and save you a pew while you remain safely at home for the time being, then know we will keep that seat warm for you and for your children when you’re ready to return.
For all of us who have the immense privilege of raising children, may we know the God whose love is always enough and will never let us go.
