Reconnecting to this Community

When I returned to St. John’s, just weeks before the onset of a worldwide pandemic, reconnecting with this community during this extraordinary and unsettling year was a God thing. The personal and pastoral relationships, the intellectual and theological dialogue, the spiritual connections – these are the things that kept me relatively sane and on track this past year. Whether it was an Easter Parade like no other, pre-recorded services using a jerry-rigged iPhone, in-person Sunday Services masked under a tent, finally returning to our beloved church in person, having to shut down – again – and move to live online services, to one of the most special Christmas Eve services I can recall – we met this year head-on with courage, creativity and heart, and you were with us every step of the way. I want to thank the staff of St. John’s for their loving support, brilliant minds, honest vulnerability, and for giving so much of themselves throughout this time.

I feel truly blessed, and my heart is full.

We have a lot of work to do. We are facing extraordinary social unrest. From the Black Lives Matter movement and riots in Portland and Minneapolis, to the recent attack on our Capitol, we are a nation in deep pain. There is an important role for faith communities to play in helping to heal this pain. In the year ahead we will have many hard, but important, conversations. I hope and expect that we are able to have these conversations from a foundation of civility, compassion and love, with a heavy dose of grace and mercy thrown in. I look forward to engaging with all of you, sharing our different perspectives, and learning from one another.

I look forward this year to expanding our relationship and work with the Wind River Indian Reservation (WWIR). The WWIR was hit hard by the pandemic. St. John’s partnered with the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole and others on deliveries of food and essentials to the WRIR. There are many great opportunities for learning, relationship-building, and partnership that we are excited to explore with our sister parishes, Our Father’s House in Ethete and St. Michael’s in Ft. Washakie, as well as with the Diocese, in the year ahead. Stay tuned.

Thank you for all you do and all that you are.

God’s blessings,

Mary