I am writing this at my new desk with a smile on my face as I imagine your smiling faces, as well as your tired, surprised, confused, angry, or lonely faces. Why do I mention more than smiling faces? Because I am actively welcoming all that you are experiencing right now. You are a blessing just as you are. I welcome you in my ministry.
I am minister to this community through thick and thin, happy times and hard. Who knows what lies ahead, what stories we will tell one another in the time to come? Some of those stories will be happy, others will be sad, most will probably make us laugh somehow. Whatever they will be, they will be our stories. I welcome the possibilities we are creating together.
I hope that we all can find awe and creativity in the possibilities that we create just by being ourselves together. I invite you to ponder those possibilities the next time you talk with a member of the Fellowship. What is possible because you are talking to one another? As you greet one another in small groups, after worship, on Zoom, and elsewhere, are there stories that you like to tell together, support you can give, things you can imagine, that you might not be able to do on your own?
Let us wonder, what unique possibilities we create just by bringing all our experiences and perspectives together–just by being present together. Are we the possibility of spiritual growth? Of connection across difference? Of intergenerational wholeness? Of delicious, shared meals? Of warm welcome to folx of all backgrounds and identities? We are full of beautiful possibilities.
As our time unfolds into weeks and months, I look forward to exploring all of our possibilities together, and I look forward to getting to know each of you as the remarkable individuals you are. It is a joy to begin as your new settled minister, and I look forward to all the stories we create together.
Welcome to what we create together,
Rev Pippin
