Dear St. Timothy Folks,

Here we are in August.  For our young members, those who have children or grandchildren, and those who are teachers or school employees, it’s time for back to school and back to college.  Sunday, August 2nd, we will have the annual Blessing of the Backpacks, and special prayers for our students, teachers and other school personnel.  It is a time when we focus on the importance of learning and growing personally and intellectually.  It is also a way we let those members, young and old, know that we love and support them with our prayers, and wish them success in their school life for the coming year.   We especially value the presence of our children and young people in our midst.  As a sign of this, our young members will be taking on extra roles in the service.  Then we will all celebrate together at our First Sunday Brunch.

Blessing of the Backpacks can also be a reminder that we are learners, disciples, all our lives, as we continually learn more about God and God’s Kingdom, and what it means to follow and emulate Christ.  This year the Old Testament lessons for August take us from Jacob to Joseph’s story in Genesis, and then on to Moses in the book of Exodus.  The readings in Matthew’s Gospel tell us of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on the sea, his interaction with the Canaanite woman, Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus teaching on the cross and resurrection.  Paul’s letter to the Romans continues to offer us good instruction on how to live as Christians.

A balanced church life has three elements in addition to learning: leitourgia (worship, literally “the work of the people”), diakonia (service), and koinonia (fellowship).  St. Timothy’s offers opportunities for all these.  We can learn together, worship together, serve together, and enjoy meals and activities with one another.  We are gifts to one another and to the community around us. What wonderful blessings God gives us!

We are working at activating some of the ideas and plans that came out of our joint Vestry retreat with St. Mark’s in Dalton.  One of them was that we would pray for each other as parishes, so you will hear St. Mark’s added to the Prayers of the People.  Another decision was to have a joint family event, that will be a picnic at Ft. Mountain on Sept. 19th.  Please mark your calendars – details will be published later.

Blessings,

Rev. Linda +