FM's Message | Sunday, December 31st, 2023

Happy New Year to one and All! I hope this new year is one filled with the experience of Christ for you personally and for your families and for our parish. As is common in our time, we have some resolutions for the parish. We are resolved to make the parish a place that anyone can feel that the love of God is present here in our worship and our programs. I want to remind everyone that we have a mission and a vision. It is linked to our aspiration which is “to be a parish that others look at as a great example of Church renewal”.
This is our vision To be a bi-cultural parish, where people come to meet and experience the love of Jesus, be in relationship with Him in prayer and the sacraments, and as His disciples go out to the world and share that experience and relationship with others.  The only way to accomplish this vision is for all of us to recognize that we are all called to bring Jesus to others. Our singular local mission is to “proclaim the Gospel message and healing love of Jesus Christ inside and outside the church in Salem”. Every program and all our resources are directed towards this vision which we hope to see realized more and more effectively as we grow as disciples.
In the recently completed Grateful Discipleship Program, we identified several ways that people can serve and help us to prepare for the future church. I sometimes wonder what Mary thought after the beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel. She and the apostles saw enormous changes in the way that they presented God to others. There was a sense of a new mission using new methods. The message was that a personal relationship with God through Jesus was available to and achievable by all. The message, from the prophets had not changed and Jesus showed us in his miracles, teachings, suffering, and death concretely how much we are loved by God. It is the same message but now we are charged to live and share it. What Jesus did do revolutionized the way the message was proclaimed and lived. They went from strict religious services performed by a few to many people from everywhere proclaiming the saving message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
In some ways that pattern is being repeated in our own time. We have a new reality to face and accept. However well the practices of the recent past worked, it is a time for new methods and new ideas to teach the eternal truths of the Scriptures and our Tradition. This statement is no more than what the last five popes have been saying. I am sure Mary and all the other disciples saw this and in fact their story of renewal is contained in the Acts of the Apostles. We can see it in our story too. In the programs that we use today, everyone is given the opportunity to explore, question and find for themselves a place where a good relationship with Jesus comes first in the context of our faith and worship. All are then encouraged to continue to grow as disciples. It all begins with a relationship with Jesus, and then once we have one for ourselves, serve Christ in others with our gifts, then lead others to the same truth.
We have been looking at how we can discover leaders and train them to serve the church and be instruments of Evangelization and Healing. One of our newest leaders, and a recent Alpha graduate, is Elise Sweet. Elise has graciously, supported by Christine Williams, who oversees the small groups in our parish to offer a small group entitled 60+. As a parish that has a youth group, a 20/30 group and a variety of other groups, we hope that this group will help those who are on the “second journey” to have an opportunity to meet, read, pray and support one another. As someone who has passed that threshold, I am pleased that we can offer this to thos who are interested.  Look in other parts of the bulletin for more information about this newest group.
Peace,
Father Murray



Building news: We are looking for a few strong people to run the snow blower when we need assistance with the snowstorms. We could also use someone to pre-salt the walkways as a way off clearing the walks quickly after a snowstorm. We could also a pray for no snow, but as a skier, I don’t think I want to engage in that. We have had a few problems with the boiler rooms and I am pleased that our new property manager, Franklin was right on it. Very assuring.