I hope and pray that you are well! Holy wow, life is busy. At the church, we are gearing up for Christmas, while at home, the Smith children are prepping for final exams and doing their best to finish the semester strong. For many of our families, I know that this is a busy time of year. Please know we are holding you in prayer.

I hope and pray that you are well. I am sitting with a Bible and prayer book/hymnal that I keep in my office. Both were given to me 19 years ago at my ordination to the diaconate. The first services where I officially proclaimed the gospel, bid the confession, and served at the altar were Advent services. I remember during this time looking back on seminary with a mixture of gratefulness and relief. I also recall looking forward with expectation towards a life in ministry while also celebrating that our family of two was about to become a family of three. From this point on Advent would represent for me a season of preparation and prayer (as our faith tradition says) as well as a sense of adventure as Denise and I stood at the beginning of the unknown.

Happy Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving. I love the meal, the time with family, the whole process. I love to cook and so in some ways, Thanksgiving is my Super Bowl. It's fun for me. It is also a day when I will try my best as a Christian to share the blessings I have been given by making a donation to the church and getting some presents for our Giving Tree. I will try to practice gratitude.

This Sunday is our Annual Meeting. For those of you who are new to the church, the Annual Meeting is a required day, where once a year the parish gathers to hear the business reports of the church. My sermon will serve as my annual report. After church at coffee hour and again at the Annual Meeting we'll show a slideshow of images from this past year. After the 10:30 AM service, we will elect our slate of vestry nominees and a delegate to Diocesan Convention. We will then have a budget presentation, a presentation from our foundation leader, and hear a few words from our Junior and Senior Wardens.

I hope and pray that you are well. This Sunday promises to be a day of celebration and fun as we celebrate our parish's namesake, Saint Martin of Tours. Along with being our patron saint, Saint Martin of Tours is considered the patron saint of all veterans. He also was one of the very few saints of his time who were named a saint but never martyred. Instead, Martin was held up as an example of what it means to faithfully serve God for the entirety of one's life, but I digress...

As always, I hope and pray that you are well. As I write my letter this morning, I find myself at a loss for words. Some in our midst are celebrating, others are sad, hurting, and afraid. As a priest, a large part of my vocation deals with trying to make sense of life, through the lens of faith, particularly through the lens of our Baptismal Covenant. Sometimes this is easy. Sometimes it is hard.

Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden is light."

Happy Halloween! I hope and pray that this email finds everyone well. I also hope you get to laugh and enjoy some of the day's festivities. My day has been and will be a day of costumes and candy. It began with dropping Lydia off at a pre-dawn costumed track workout, and it will finish with a promenade through the neighborhood with some friends whose kids still require parental trick-or-treating assistance. 

You’ve probably heard announced that our Bishop is coming to visit us at St. Martin’s on Sunday, November 17th. But who is the bishop? And what does that mean? You’ve come to the right place!

This Saturday Heathwood Hall will host the SC Cross Country Championships. Our kids and several others from our parish will compete. For our family, it is an exciting day. My parents will be in town and some close friends will be coming to cheer.

Before all of that, Denise and I have some work to do. Once upon a time, we volunteered to paint the starting line and starting boxes for a home cross country meet and the job has been ours ever since. Now I am not one to brag (yes I am) but I feel the need to say we paint the straightest, most uniform, starting line that the kids will see all season. When the kids start the race tomorrow it will look like they are racing on a college course, or at the least a course deserving of a state championship. It has become a point of pride that some may think silly, but we as a couple care about that line and put effort into it. The starting boxes will be exactly four feet wide, and exactly the same. What began as a "one-off" volunteering experience has morphed. With each race that we do, we try to make it better.

I hope and pray that you are well. I have many thank yous to offer. First, thank you to everyone who has helped with disaster relief. Folks from St. Martin's have helped to clear 17 trees. That's a lot for volunteers! Thank you!

I want to thank everyone for their prayers for my family in Florida. Your text messages and emails both yesterday and today have filled my heart. Let us continue to pray for the many who continue to be affected by these terrible storms. I ask for your special intentions for Jose Cotto from our parish. Jose is serving others through his role in the US Army while living in a home with no power in North Augusta.

Greetings from Greenwood, SC. I'm with a team of volunteers from St. Martin's and St. John's helping with hurricane cleanup at the Church of the Resurrection. On Monday we have another opportunity to help in Simpsonville, SC at Holy Cross Episcopal Church. I am happy to be able to lend a hand and if you can volunteer, please join the Disaster Relief Ministry Team in the St. Martin's App. I will do my best to keep that page updated.

I hope and pray you are well, safe, and dry. Please take a moment today and say a prayer for all of those who have been and are currently being affected by Hurricane Helene.

Holy wow, we have a huge weekend here at St. Martin's! Please know I am deeply thankful for all of the volunteers who will help to make it happen. On Sunday, we celebrate the kick-off to our stewardship season, Jazz Mass at 10:30 AM, and our SayLove band will be playing at the 5 PM Eucharist.

I have sometimes nicknamed this upcoming Sunday, "Children's Sunday." In our gospel reading Jesus, filled with compassion, picks up a child, places it amid the disciples, and then invites the adults to experience the kingdom of God as the child does. In the words of the Godly Play lessons that we teach, "I wonder..."

I hope and pray that you are well. Soon, you will be getting letters and mailings announcing the start of our 2025 stewardship campaign. For those of you who do not know, St. Martin's is entirely funded by your tithes and offerings. Unlike many parishes, our endowment isn't used to pay operational expenses, all of it is earmarked for mission and ministry.

I hope and pray that you are well! This Sunday, after the 10:30 AM service we will be hosting a potluck. Bring a dish to share, but also know that if you don't, you are welcome to come anyway. At St. Martin's there is always plenty of food.

Gathering and breaking bread together is part of what makes a house of worship into a church community. Sitting, talking, and laughing with friends is how we form the relational bonds that sustain us in times of trial and need. In many ways, the bonds of friendship that happen in a church are as important, if not more important than any program or project. In fact, often, it is the bonds of friendship or friends working or learning together that make our most successful programs what they are.

I hope and pray that you are well. For parents, teachers, and students, I hope that your school year started off smoothly. Some families crave the daily routine of the school year, others need to adjust to it. 

One change that Denise and I have made this year is waking up a bit earlier. We have been waking up together around 5 AM and we have been starting our day with a 3 to 4-mile walk. At first, I have to say it was pretty hard. However, I have found myself adjusting rather quickly. This morning, after a late-night cross-country meet that had Lydia and I eating dinner close to 10 PM, I told Denise that I was going to take the morning off.