Gratitude

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

It is always good to be thankful, but this is a particularly good time of year to express gratitude, so let me start.

I am grateful for the paid and volunteer staff of Memorial Church. Not many churches have the kind of dedicated volunteers, Like Becky Clark, Paul Seaton, John Seeley, Bill Roberts, and Pam Fleming who are here more often than most of the paid staff (Sometimes the Rector!) and make this place run.

I am grateful for our clergy - for Natalie, Jill, Ken and Bradley, and for our clergy in training Carolyn who make Sunday Mornings more fun.

I am grateful for our staff, For Kathy, Justine, Hannah, Pierre, Nirina, Valerie, and Barry who work hard to keep an old building going, the programs printed, the budget on track, and kids learning and growing, coffee hour flowing and your Rector from not falling apart.

And I am grateful for all of our volunteers - the vestry, choir, altar guild, acolytes, welcomers, greeters, vergers, flower guild, Lectors, Eucharistic ministers, committee chairs, Samaritan Community volunteers, and for each and every one of you who sponsors a child at Christmas, volunteers at a community event, supports your local school, works for justice and equality, or just smiles at strangers on the street. You are part of the ever expanding bounty of Jesus’ love for the world that comes out of Memorial every day.

Baltimore is a tough city sometimes. It can be hard to be thankful here. But there are hundreds, thousands of people who work every day to make this city a better place. From kids who spend their summers working with youth works, to the teachers in our schools, to the countless non profit staff and leaders filling gaps in social services and networks across the city, to doctors and nurses and counselors and city employees who just try and keep lights on, streets clear and people moving around the city. Lisa Snowden, Editor of ‘The Baltimore Beat’ collected a list of ‘People making Baltimore Better’ on Twitter this week (https://twitter.com/lisamccray/status/1199322653229797378?s=21) and it was really inspiring and hopeful to see so many people lifting up friends and colleagues and neighbors who do their little part to make this city a wonderful place to to live, to work, to serve, to worship and to call home.

I hope that you feel the same way about Memorial. That it is a place to call home. Whether you live in Ellicott City, Bolton Hill, Dundalk, Lauraville, Patterson Park, Catonsville, Columbia, Upton, TV Hill, Stone Hill, or any other hill you can find — I hope that you are grateful to call Memorial home, and that in this place you find a community that helps you deepen your relationship with Christ, with the Church and with the World.

I am thankful for this place, and I hope you are too.