Fr. Elliott's Thanksgiving Letter to the Parish

My dear Sisters and Brothers,

This month is a very busy one for our parish it will see three couples make their commitment to each other, and God, in Holy Matrimony. It will also see our Church Schools return to activity. It will see the launch of the much-anticipated “Every Member Division” of the Leap for Faith Capitol Campaign. As well, it will, hopefully, see the return of the Western Window of St. Andrew’s from repair by Sattler’s Glass. This month we have many things to be thankful for.

On the 9th of October we mark the festival of Harvest Thanksgiving. We mark this day to remind ourselves where it is that all things come from. We remind ourselves that without God there would be no harvest of land and sea. We remind ourselves that we have much to be thankful for. Let us use this time to re-evaluate how it is that we give back to God from what He has provided for us.

On the 16th of October the Leap for Faith Campaign will be launched in this parish. I urge you all to give prayerful attention to what every Anglican is being asked to do and to give back out of the abundance that God has given to you. Our giving of gifts both of money and time are ways to offer back to God our thanks for His many blessings.

God has blessed this part of the world with many natural resources and those resources are sources of income for us all. You will all be receiving more information about this important work. Please read the letter that our Bishop has sent out and please evaluate what kind of commitment you could make to help make this campaign a success.

I know that we feel extremely isolated from the rest of the Diocese and that is a very natural feeling. But we need not feel this way. Last month we hosted the Region’s young people and we did so extremely well. We proved that we exist and that we are a vital part of this region and the Diocese. It is my hope that you all will see the Capitol Campaign as a way to further the work of expressing to the rest of the Diocese that we are here and that we can be counted on to do our part as a member of the wider Diocesan Family. As well, the more we contribute to the Diocese as a whole the more the Diocese will feel obligated to remember us and to be with us. If we contribute our share to this work then we will be able to say, with a clear conscience, “We do deserve the recognition that we have long been without.” Our isolation can be alleviated through our voices being raised and proclaiming to the Diocese, “We are here, we are part of the whole, we need you as you need us!”

And just as we look outwardly to support those beyond our parish we must also look inwardly to support our parish. As we evaluate how we are to give to the Capitol Campaign let us also evaluate how we give to our own parish. There are two ways to evaluate this giving:

1. Giving of our finances—our money, that we work so hard for, is a gift from God, we should, therefore, give back to God from that gift. I would suggest that you look more seriously at how you give what you give. The way that I evaluate this is to use a very simple formula: for every $1000.00 a year I make I give back, to our parish, $1.00 a week. This is not so hard to do and it is a way to give back proportionally of what I have received. Giving proportionally of what I have received gives me a feeling of returning in joy, that which has been provided to me
   
   
2. Giving of our time—time is the greatest gift you can offer to God because it is the one thing that you can never get back. Once time is spent it is gone. But what it is spent doing can mean all the difference to the life of our parish. “Many hands make light work” is an old saying but it is the truth. The greatest obstacle to the work of this parish is that we only have a few, very faithful, hands doing a lot of work and over time that work gets heavy. I fear that those few who do all the work of this parish will be so overworked that they will become burned-out and unable to do what they do for us. We need to return to God some of our time as well as our money. Ask yourselves, “What could I help with? What would I like to see happen at our parish and how could I make this happen?” The more people who offer their time and talents then the easier the work will be.

Finally, I would like to offer to you some of the things that I am most thankful for right now. I am thankful that God gave His Son, Jesus, to be my Master, my Lord, my Example, my Friend. I am thankful that God has called me to be here, in this place, at this time, working with and living in this – our – parish. I am thankful that God has blessed Wendy Faye and I with a healthy pregnancy thus far. I am thankful that God has seen fit to call me by name to be part of His church. I am thankful for our Veterans who sacrificed so much of themselves for me and for our freedom. I am thankful for each and every one of you; you are the individuals that make up this community and without you – each of you – there would be no community.

As we celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving, we can be mindful of the spiritual nature of giving. Of course it isn't so much the size of the gift, but the size of the commitment or sacrifice behind the gift that connects us as giver to God and to neighbour. Our gift of self through time, ability, and money expresses our thankfulness for what God accomplishes in our life. As we celebrate the festival of Harvest Thanksgiving let us not forget that it is to God that we owe our existence, it is to God that we owe our prayer and praise, it is to God that we must give back.

Wendy Faye joins with me in wishing you all a blessed and happy thanksgiving, one filled with the recognition that is due to God and one that challenges us all to be the people that He would have us be.

With God's blessings, I am,
Faithfully yours,
Elliott+