Here we are in June, technically the beginning of summer. We will see, as snow is predicted tonight as I write this (5/28!) June is often a month of new beginnings. It heralds graduation: high school grads aim their hopes on a successful college experience; college and grad students move into the working world with hopes for a good fit between employer and employee; marriages are abundant in June presenting a whole host of new issues: a new identity, possibly a new home, a new future determined by two instead of one.
The church is not isolated from this newness. We know that first hand as volunteer committees have been working hard to welcome us into the second floor of our new church for our place of worship beginning June 4-5. Included with this cover article are photos of the work done by our landscaping committee to welcome you home.
With all these new beginnings, the month of June also holds a reminder for us. June is marked by Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit, coming to us as our Counselor, our Paraclete, our Comforter to dwell within us and guide us, it is the surging power of the Divine. As we inhabit our new home, let us stay on our toes sensitive to the nudgings of the Spirit because the Spirit is a change agent.
Listen to Joan Chittester in her book, In Search of Belief. “The Spirit of God moves us to new heights of understanding, to new types of witness, to new dimensions of life needed in the here and now. The static dies under the impulse of the Spirit of a creating God. We do not live in the past. We are not blind beggars on a dark road groping our separate ways toward God. There is a magnet in each of us, a gift from God that repels deceit and impels us toward good. The Spirit of God is a wild thing, breathing where it will, moving as it pleases, settling on women and men alike…The Spirit is God with us, in us, around us, breathing us to life.”
Blessed Pentecost,
Nancy