Letter from the Rector ....Fr Alan Sutherland
Dear Friends,
One and half million dollars is an awful lot of money to spend on a building. Just think of how many people you could have fed, how many people you could have clothed, how many people you could have housed with that amount of money. That is fair question and one that has been asked in various ways. It is question that I have struggled with in all the capital campaign funds have been involved in with previous churches. Yet am always reminded of the old saying“give person fish and he can eat for day. Teach him to fish and he can eat for lifetime.”
In the last 4 years as your Priest, I have been amazed at what the facility of St. John’s has allowed us to do. St. John’s was the center of operation and the welcome center when families relocated here from Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina. Each week the Woodford County Hospice team gathers for its interdisciplinary meeting to plan the best possible care for people in their last stages of this life and their families. Every other Wednesday during the school year, and for week’s summer camp, children in the 3rd and 4th grade who struggle with reading are referred by teachers to come to St. John’s and improve there their reading skills. Children are being taught the beauty of music as they learn to play guitar. People who have chosen to live life of sobriety, most times after living life of hell, meet for support and encouragement. Their families also meet to learn about the disease of alcoholism and encourage one another in ways of helping the alcoholic. Choirs meet to deepen their repertoire that enhances our worship. Among all this and from all this we gather to worship as the community of faith. We teach discipleship, study the Bible, pray together. We see ourselves as a place not just for ourselves but for the larger community that God has placed us in. So we invite the larger community to eat with us, play with us, enjoy concert with us whatever they need that we can provide.
I do not think it odd that Jesus had custom of going to the temple and synagogue. He cleansed the temple of the wrongs it was doing, but declared that his house be called house of prayer. We have facility that has not only been prayed in for the last 160 or so years, but has responded to that prayer in a call to mission that has shown the face of Christ to thousands upon thousands of people.
I know that some mission would happen if we did not have a place, but having a place offers all kinds of mission opportunities. Some that we may not even know of. Our facility is to enable us to teach people to fish so that a lifetime is affected, not just one day. Our calling at this time is to catch up on the deferred maintenance, and put our buildings in good order so that for the next 50-100 years others will be taught to fish.
With all my love and prayers,
Your friend
Fr. Alan
With all my love and prayers
your friend,
Fr. Alan
