Seasons of Life
The hardest year in my previous parish was also one of the most joyful. It was particularly difficult because it was one of those years where we just had a lot of funerals, including a number of pillars of the church. The sense of grief was palpable. Yet it was also joyful because, after years of faithful work, we were beginning to see areas of our life growing for the first time in decades. Remarkably, we didn’t really compartmentalize either the joy or the sadness: we tended to experience it all on a regular basis, like the tide going in and out all the time.
This summer at Trinity, we have seen the loss of several pillars of our congregation. Ed Metz served faithfully as our head verger for many years and helped to establish a sense of shared leadership of our beautiful services of worship. Cris Branche was a force of nature, a joyful leader at Trinity and the community of Cleveland whose loss, years after her illness began, is still felt deeply.
That loss is not diminished by the new life that is also emerging. Trinity has been blessed with an increasing number of new members in recent months, and ministries we’ve been cultivating for years are beginning to bear fruit. We continue to see folks returning to Trinity after the pandemic, and through the emerging ministries of Bishop Anne, The Abundant Table musicians, and our mission teams, the green shoots of new life are all around us.
This is the cycle of life in God’s garden. Joy and sadness interweave with one another. Real life comes from how we walk together through it all, keenly aware of the contours of grace.