Monday, February 01, 2010
Dear Ones
Dear Ones,
I am so hopeful that your Epiphany season is full of joy and insight! I have been learning, learning, learning and on an occasion, able to offer some of the joy of that learning, and sometimes, even perhaps especially, the pain. Some of the joys have been learning more about our connections with the world and the Episcopal mission and presence in Haiti, the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and the Valley Forge Deanery and even more local and meaningful to me this month has been the joy of our connection to the Spring-Ford Pastor’s Association! The Diocese of PA has been an amazing source of guiding leadership as the Vestry prepares for letting go of the members leaving and welcoming the members arriving. Low and behold, there is a wonderful day planned by the Diocese just for Vestry members the Saturday following the elections at Annual Meeting. The Deanery has been an amazing source of guidance for me as I learn about Parish assessments to the Deanery and the Diocese and the missions those assessments support. The Spring-Ford Pastor’s Association has recognized a need for refreshment and revitalization and rediscovering an attitude of cooperation between parishes of the area more than competition. This is especially welcome to me as we approach lent and engage in all the programs the Association has joined together to offer (please see the calendar of Wednesday programs throughout lent and the final Maundy- Thursday offering just before Good Friday). Finally, the surety that has come to me in the collegiality of the ministers of the area has been dumbfounding. I was away at the very time of Larry Cox’s sudden illness and death. I was driving on a quick turn-around-trip to Massachusetts and yet there were four, no five clergy ready and willing to help in my 24 hour absence as events unfolded in the Cox family. These have all been incredible lessons!
Some of the more painful lessons and yet the greater demonstration of God’s love this past month has been mostly to do with the sudden death of Larry Cox. Unlike the passing of Bea Schofield who was so ready to go on and join all her friends who had already left her, I have been shocked and rocked by the very sudden passing of Larry Cox. Larry was not at all ready to go and I was not at all ready to let him go but he was taken suddenly and seemingly in the middle of many joyful, faithful, God-centered missions, especially with concern to his family and to the parish. It is a hard lesson for me to learn even as the love that poured from the person of Larry Cox has been reflected back to us by those who have been loved by him well. I have felt the love, watched as meals were lovingly made and delivered to Peggy who has found a way to enjoy these simple gifts even as she has a hard time receiving visitors. I have felt the love, listened to the fear, frustration, and then the burgeoning hope offered by the vestry and the various sub-committees who had come to so depend on Larry’s rock steady presence. I have felt the love, held in my arms as Christine, Larry’s daughter-in-law, who grieves Larry’s passing not only as a daughter, but as a mother whose children have lost their grandfather. There is love in the generosity of her heart as she holds her children in her capable hands and guides them through the truth of God’s love given to us through the life of Larry Cox.
So, the month of January and the season of Epiphany have been full of lessons of Love, joy, faith and struggle. I hope that the Lenten season which is fast approaching brings us an ever deepening awareness of God’s love for us and for his whole creation!
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