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| Chaplin Patti Maguire |
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CHAPLAIN REPORT – Patti Maguire
January’s unseasonable warm weather turned to its usual cold, snowy
days. Yet the Care Team continued
to visit, call and bring communion to our homebound congregation members. The Pastor and I worshipped with
our Edgewood Vista friends early in the month too. A number of congregation members have been in the hospital,
had medical tests and/or procedures recently. Our prayers, visits, calls and cards go out to them. Please let me know if you or someone
you care about would like more contact with Gloria Dei. The Care Team will be meeting after
church on February 15th if you would like to join this
group.
January 22nd, Jim Gangl from St Louis County
Public Health presented information on emergency preparedness for the Adult Forum. Julie Jagim and I have been talking
about how Gloria Dei might respond in a natural disaster or other type of
emergency. This topic will be
going to the Church Council this spring for more discussion.
The Arrowhead Area Parish Nurse group is in the process of upgrading its
status. As a member of the
Executive Board, I’m part of a planning team to set up a 501c non-profit
organization to expand the faith-based nursing programs in our area. This month, the peer group met at St
Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Esko.
In February we will meet in Buhl, and in March, Gloria Dei and First
Covenant will jointly host the monthly meeting about recognizing signs of elder
abuse. Anyone interested in this
topic is welcome to attend.
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Gloria Dei Youth Director
Tanner Hall
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OASIS – CONFIRMATION - Gloria Dei partners together with Trinity
Lutheran for Confirmation programming.
Oasis is for all youth (6th Grade
and up) to meet each Wednesday, 6-8 p.m., at Trinity (11th Ave E
and 8th St).
Join us! Email Tanner for more information
youthdirector@gloriadeiduluth.org.
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| Pastor David Carlson |
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How good, Lord, to be here! Yet we may not remain.
But since you bid us leave the mount, come with us to the plain.
– ELW # 315
From the Pastor
Dear Friends in Christ,
A neighbor once asked a farmer, “How do you make those furrows so straight?” “You see,” said the farmer, “I pick a point on the horizon and line up the smokestack on the tractor with it. If you continue focusing on that point and correcting yourself to it, you’ll make a straight line.” “Interesting,” said the neighbor, “that life is like that too.”
A Vision Statement is like that smokestack. It’s what we hold up as we move forward in faith, helping us align and realign our actions and decisions as a church with how we see God’s horizon coming into view. Take a look at the Vision Statement just adopted at our annual meeting this year, and the different “points” we’ve identified on that horizon:
Vision Statement - We are Gloria Dei
+ Our worship proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ with integrity, welcoming all to receive and share God’s grace in Word and Sacrament, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
+ Our diverse parish family finds unity in Christ’s reconciling love, building relationships of accompaniment that extend across the city and across the world.
+ Our faith grows in dialogue with everyday life, encountering and sharing the Word of God in written, spoken, and tangible ways.
+ Our social action is rooted in God’s justice and compassion, caring for local and global neighbors with courage, dignity, and attention to the whole person.
+ Our stewardship celebrates the abundance and the value of God’s gifts, practicing sustainability and generosity as joyful expressions of God’s love for all creation.
Although now and then we might catch glimpses of this vision being lived out, we can never truly say we have attained it. Rather, our Vision Statement is an articulation of the church we seek to be and to become through God’s work in and among us. In this sense it is a statement of hope, a prayer for how God might shape us by grace.
Where does this vision meet the real world? How is Gloria Dei - how is your particular ministry group - responding well to this vision; where do you see the Spirit nudging us to reflect the vision better? This month, we remember how Jesus’ disciples receive a vision revealing Jesus as he truly is. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter wants to capture the glorious moment and enshrine it by building booths. But Jesus reminds him and us that his ideal vision is lived out with down-to-earth action and on-the-ground discernment, especially as they begin to follow Jesus to the cross.
I’m thankful for the reports we had at the annual meeting – both written and verbal. In many ways it was a mountaintop snapshot of our parish, with lots to celebrate. We also had intentional time in the agenda for sharing new possibilities where action and on-the-ground discernment is happening – adopting a larger budget for ministry, passing a resolution in support of same-gender couples, and considering some space in our building for emergency family shelter in cooperation with Chum. I’m thankful for the honesty and faith expressed about both the promise and the challenge such decisions may mean for us in the months ahead.
THANK YOU for your role in living out our vision together! As we make the seasonal transition from Epiphany to Lent, I invite you to pray with me about how vision informs our action, and how action informs our vision. As God’s horizon continues to come into view, may these points in our Vision Statement offer guidance for our discernment and reflection on our ministry - to the glory of God and the good of our neighbor.
See you in worship!
+ Pastor David Carlson
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