Wednesday, April 22

Weddings

I am so sad that it has taken me this long to blog again. Shortly after my last post, one of my best friends got married and I went on vacation with my family. My mother and I share a birthday, and we go to the mountains of North Carolina every year for the last 27 years to celebrate. We had a wonderful vacation and I came home with some surprisingly fun news. Patrick I are engaged!!! Needless to say that the weeks since have been a little hectic. I have been wanting to say hello, and I have had no time. This week isn't much better. Two of our young adult leaders in this Diocese are getting married on Saturday and I am in the wedding. I have been trying to help them get ready as much as I can.

I love it when couples allow their friends to join in the fun and help them get ready for the wedding. I think weddings are all about the couple's community and I love when they allow family and friends to really join in the celebration. I hope when I actually start planning that I allow people to really be there and help prepare. I have always been into tradition and symbolism. Traditional wedding celebrations were about the couple, but they were also about the village and the joining of two families. I want to be a part of something like that one day.

I have always been a big proponent of community. I think community is the most important part of being close relationship with God. Jesus was a man of the people. He was constantly finding ways to buck the establishment and be in community with all types of people. I commend you Charles and Julie. I think you have set a great example of how Jesus would have wanted this beautiful and joyous time to be. I wish you all the happiness in the world and I hope your community of loved ones grows and grows for the rest of your life together.

1 comment:

  1. Dear friend,

    Congrats on the exciting events that are going to happen to you soon. I do have a couple more exciting events for you... May 15th would be my 10th anniversary of my confirmation as an Episcopalian! I couldn't believe that until I checked my confirmation certificate the other day. Then on May 17th, my Episcopalian godsister in Diocese of Central Gulf Coast is getting confirmed. (Sadly I couldn't make it due to school is going to start the next day.)

    Anyway, community is INDEED the most important part of being close relationship to God. When I think about that, I was thinking about how brilliant my rector was in setting up the church's version of ministry fair in a week and a half... as my diocese didn't organize one this year due to GC. Sure, mostly it's the church's own ministries... but there are some "outside" ministries as well.

    I actually am the youngest person who would host a table/booth (whatever you call it) that afternoon after our main service at 10. I have too many ministries to choose from, but I ended up choosing Asian ministry. After all, my past attempts of introducing that ministry were informal. This time, I am using the opportunity to introduce the ministry formally. I feel that by formally introducing the ministry, my church would be a better community... especially to some Asian visitors who might visit my church for the first time. After all, I agree with an elderly lady named Gayle, who recently relocated to my church like me. She said that (don't know if I phrase that correctly) we should accept people who come to our church communities as Christians first, before race or ethnicity.

    Meanwhile, I also am hoping that some youths in my church would see me as a role model in ministry. After all, I hope some of them can see that they not only can be leaders in the church they are in, but also reach out to serve people they might not know... whether it's members from other churches or people who are trying to find a church to call home and a community they could belong. Of course, to go this step, it is a series of advanced applications of what's taught in J2A or Rite-13 materials.

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