Like many of you, I wonder about the world in which we live. Mostly I am grateful for the many opportunities for ministry that exist in this world. For example, the other day our Vestry went on a Retreat with me and we explored the nature of parish life through a variety of lenses. What we learned rather quickly was that our life as a parish – and by no stretch we are a “large” church by any measure – was that we had in the vicinity of 28 separate but integrally linked “ministries” going on here in which a significant number of our members are involved. That was a big surprise to us.

Yet we also face challenges. Placed here by the hand of grateful and benevolent people who wanted to see in this part of God’s Kingdom a place where people need not worry about whether or not they had the money to attend a church, in 172 years we have become a place that gathers people who are looking for a loving, inclusive, diverse, and liberally-minded place to worship and thrive. But at center stage of our lives together is to learn to live a radically different type of spiritual life – one that shapes us often in ways counter to the way in which the world would shape us.

As Christians in this world we need to keep in mind some essentials. One way of getting to this comes from this little example.

A friend once asked Abraham Lincoln to describe his religion. Lincoln said his religion was like that of an old man he had once heard speak at a church meeting in Indiana. The old man said, "When I do good I feel good; and when I do bad, I feel bad." That, said Lincoln, is my religion.

What we are about in this world comes from many sources; deeply felt is the experience of those who came before us. And what they lacked in material substance they more than made up for in spiritual substance. That legacy is still richly felt in the warmth of the welcome and inclusion that everyone feels when they come here for the first time.

Now, though, we live in different times and in a different “ethos” all around us. The radical nature of our lives together is that we keep ourselves pointed toward the future, not looking back to the tried and true of years past. We realize that churches need a great deal of volunteer and financial support – more so now than ever before. Churches are institutions that survive because people want them to. Here and there the sad reality is that churches often close to eventually become offices, condominiums, or are just torn down. Others bump along only to experience a renaissance from time to time.

We are blessed by an active and lively congregation, but the volunteer and financial support we need is real and the results are always remarkable.

If you are reading this message and have never visited us, I sincerely hope that when and if you are in Charleston you’ll come by for a visit. If you live right here in the greater Charleston area and have not visited, do so as soon as you can. And if you are a parishioner just dropping in to visit the site, please know that you are as valuable as anyone can be to our lives together.

The world around us will always have an impact on the lives of Christians everywhere. And here it is no different.  No one needs to be reminded that our society these days is an anxious one and that we are for now in a time of economic distress. Still, St. Stephen’s has been through this before and no doubt will again. We have thrived and even found moments of great triumph during those times. What a wonderful gift that faith can bring to us today!

It’s been said that faith meets reality in administration. I can tell you that the constant tinkering that goes on here is where our faith meets the demands of everyday life. Of one thing I am grateful, and that is when we ask for help we can usually depend on our church family to respond.

Please know that we need each and every one of you to support us now and in the future. From time to time I’ve found myself saying to those who visit Charleston and then live to rejoin their lives in other places, “You will always take just a bit of St. Stephen’s with you wherever you go, because whatever we brought into your life while you were here will remain somewhere inside your soul.” I believe that, and I hope if you have been with us or are planning to come by, you will have that experience.

In any case, I wish you a wonderful Spring and Summer. And may God grant you and all of us enough light for each day’s walking.

Faithfully,