This Week from Mitch

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope and pray that you are well. I am writing this from a hotel coffee shop in Houston. Our church has once again gathered with churches from across the country for the annual Episcopal Parish Network Conference, or EPN. EPN is a unique conference in that a huge piece of it focuses on money—how to raise it, how to spend it, how to talk about it, and how to ask for it.

At times here at this conference I am left in awe. We most certainly are not St. Thomas 5th Avenue with their 100 million dollar endowment and a 4 million dollar children's choir budget. We are not Trinity Wall Street with their billions, or Canterbury Cathedral whose dean I sat with yesterday, all the while thinking in my mind "I can't believe I am sitting at this table, don't ask about the royal family, don't ask, don't ask!!!!". I didn't.

We are not these places with a somewhat mythical status, nor are we like the hundreds of churches here trying to turn the tide of dwindling attendance and decline. We are something else, something more real and I am proud of this.

We are a place where all are welcome. We are a church where on Friday a group of friends will gather in a chapel and pray for a loved one facing a hard diagnosis. We are the kind of place where I may have to buy cribs next week because we donated ours to refugee families and our preschool needs them. We are a place where we give our support to mission, ministry and love. We are a church where we worship Jesus in the beauty of holiness and then work as his hands and feet in the grittiness of a messy world. As I prepare to teach a class on effective church stewardship, financial growth, and generosity, I realize that much of my teaching is simply telling St. Martin's story, your story. You are a people of God who give and work for the Glory of God, a people who take seriously God's commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I am inspired by all of you, and I think the folks here at EPN will be inspired by your story also.

In Christ,

Mitch