“Walk in Love” Stewardship Campaign

St. Paul’s 2025 stewardship campaign launches with this year’s theme “Walk in Love”

Paul , Vestry, and our Stewardship Committee are engaged in the important and holy work of asking each of us to prayerfully consider our offerings of time, talent, and treasure for 2025. This annual expression of our faith is vital to preserve and grow our St. Paul’s community.

If you currently pledge, or are considering pledging for the first time, you know our planned contributions are central to what it means to be actively Christian, with all pledges valued as personal expressions of faith and loving intention.

As in the past, there will be announcements with further details in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, some of our committee members will be offering in The Communicant  how they see, and have seen, “Walk in Love” manifested at St. Paul’s.

For Nov. 17, Todd Deye writes:

How have you witnessed parishioners walking in love?
There are many ways parishioners walk in love at St. Paul’s. Walking in love as a community is what I witness most often. While a broad statement, I can describe it briefly. We walk as a community within the church and outside of it. Sometimes life can feel solitary, but we are not alone. Life can burden us with pain, loss, injustice, grief, and intolerance but we are not alone. We have community in Christ, and community through St. Paul’s. Our community is sustained through acts of love, study of scripture, prayer, communion, outreach, food donations, craft, meals, fellowship, and more. When we go through our day and feel that love, we know to shine it on others. We can spread love because we know when we leave the building we are in community through Christ.
Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:2

For Nov. 10, Donna Dick offers: How I see Walking in Love at St. Paul’s

I see walking in love at St. Paul’s when I attend Sunday services and participate in the many opportunities at our church. During Sunday church services we participate in the Holy Eucharist, read from the lectionary, listen to Paul’s sermon and pray. The Episcopal church uses the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) as its three-year cycle of Sunday readings, and Paul’s sermons help give light, meaning and application to the readings. I feel God’s love as we participate and worship together and pray for those in need and in the military service.

Community is a common theme that comes up in Paul’s sermons and there are many opportunities at St. Paul’s to walk in love and build community both within the church, with other Episcopal churches and also with the larger community. Advent and Lenten dinners, Bible study, Christmas Songfest, Summer picnics, the food pantry, book club, Neighbor to Neighbor program and many voices book discussion group, Elisabeth Guild are just a few.

Jennifer teaches an excellent Sunday school class at 9:00 am on Sunday mornings between the services, and I have learned so much on a variety of topics by attending this class. Sometimes we read a book together or watch a short topical video, and other times Jennifer plans the lesson and shares information with us. Gratitude was a theme of one of the latest books (Braiding Sweetgrass by Kimmerer) we read, and we learned about a concept held by many indigenous societies of being appreciative of the earth and giving back what has been given to us. I see God’s love at St. Paul’s as we share in the discussion, allowing everyone a voice and respecting everyone’s input.

The last few weeks we have been learning about immigration in the Sunday school class. St. Paul’s will be sponsoring an immigrant family and helping them get settled and adjusted to life in America. This is another example of how I see St. Paul’s walking in love. There are many versus in the Bible that emphasize helping immigrants and Matthew 25:35 is just one of them. Matthew 25:35 states, “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

The next few weeks in Sunday school class we will be learning about different forms of prayers and how to deepen our own prayer life.

As we all begin to think and pray about our 2025 pledges of our of time, talent, and treasure , I hope you can take a moment to reflect on how you see walking in love at St. Paul’s, and how we can work together to build St. Paul’s future.

 

For Nov. 3, Jerry Martz offers:

“When I reflect on ways that we “Walk in Love” together, literally walking into St. Paul’s comes to mind. Walk through either front door and each entrance leads to the vestibule where historic dedication plaques and artifacts are displayed. Like others I suppose, I take them for granted. But take a few seconds to read one or two. They remind us of the heartfelt love and dedication that those with us, and before us, have given in the name of loved ones at St. Paul’s Episcopal.

A few steps further and at the back of the sanctuary we’re greeted with more plaques that testify to our love of God, love of others, and love of our traditions. Glance at each hymnal’s front cover to see dedications, lovingly expressing personal tributes. And what could be more traditional than the Book of Common prayer with personal dedications inside each volume? We’re surrounded by testimonials to Christian love in our history and traditions.

Marty Wendler, in her introduction to Beacon in the Wilderness, offers “…(St. Paul’s history) is the story of a small group of dedicated people who petitioned for a religious outpost in the wilderness…”. It’s our blessing to extend that same dedication to our 21st century version of serving real physical and spiritual needs in our communities.

I hope we’ll have a new awareness of our history and traditions as we “Walk in Love” through our buildings and campus, where even more dedication plaques hang. We’re blessed by our history, and our traditions, as together we faithfully build the future of St. Paul’s. Our 2025 pledges of time, talent, and treasure continue to make that possible. Episcopal tradition is one aspect of our “Walk in Love” at St. Paul’s. Other Stewardship Committee members will offer how it thrives in our hearts and manifests itself in many important ways in the name of Jesus Christ at the corner of Elizabeth and Wayne.”