Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:1-2 NRSV
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A Letter from Father Paul as we enter out Stewardship 2025 Season
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
On many Sundays throughout the year, we hear the words “walk in love as Christ loved us” just before we say the communion prayer and partake in Holy Communion. Those words are not just a phrase, they are an invitation to know and share in God’s love manifest in Christ. Generosity is a journey, it’s a practice that we learn and nurture within our hearts. It just isn’t in our nature to give away what we have worked hard to acquire or to donate our precious time without compensation. It takes something as radical as Love to inspire us to share our time, talent, and treasure with others. This is a journey we make together, a Walk in Love.
As we have lived with the Gospel of St. Mark this year, we have been brought into a world turned radically upside down by the love of Christ. The laws and customs that had been in place for centuries were challenged, power and dominion have been questioned, and a culture hemmed in from all sides by oppression and subjection desperately seeks a way forward. This same love invites us to challenge ourselves and our communities with the Love of Christ used to change the world.
As it turns out, it is not clever politics or force that cause the change in society, but the simplest concept of Love. Jesus causes a revolution of thought and heart by daring to reach out to the outcast and teach others to do the same. He walks in love with the marginalized, with the poor, with the sick, and brings us along with him on his journey. ECA has maintained the practice of helping not only parish members, but those outside our walls in our communities in big ways. We are the parish that prides itself on the phrase, “It’s what we do” and we do it so very well.
The most miraculous gift of Love is that it was there within us all along, all we had to do was find it, tap into it, and begin growing it. And look what happened! We learned to share, to give, to volunteer, to accompany others, to feed, to pray, to visit, to strive for change. This year as our Stewardship Campaign kicks off, we will be intentionally raising up stories of how we Walk in Love with each other in our congregation. Every year we seek your continued gift of time and talent as we also seek the generosity of your financial gifts. Our ministries are not possible without your continued financial generosity and we ask you to prayerfully consider your support for our 2025 budget. I invite you to share your stories of inspiration and connection with our shared ministry in this place and with each other. I invite you to Walk in Love.
Walking with you in Love,
Fr. Paul McCabe +
The Rev. Paul McCabe
A Letter from Senior Warden George MacDonald as we prepare for the Walk in Love Campaign
Dear Friends,
As we prepare for our annual Stewardship Campaign, I am writing to invite you into prayer about the journey you make with our congregation – our spiritual home. We are companions for each other as we navigate the ups and downs of our shared lives. It is a walk of love that we make with each other.
Throughout this year I have been inspired by the ways you accompany each other. I have witnessed the way you care for the sick and shut-ins in our congregation. I have eaten at the table with you as you share your recipes and efforts for our community meals and potlucks. I have watched as you supported each other when you were struggling or needed a hand or a shoulder. You have helped me when I needed it.
This is what it means to be in community with each other – this is what walking in love looks like.
We have so many gifts to share here, gifts of time, talent, and treasure that we freely give to support our ministry and to do the work of mission in our neighborhoods and communities. We do this not out of a sense that we will get back what we give, but because we are motivated by love. When Paul wrote to his friends in the Church at Ephesus, he reminded them that the very spark of love that founded their community of faith was one of giving. God showed God’s love for humanity by giving us a part of the Divine.
Certainly, this is what we do when we place our gifts on the altar – we bring our whole selves and share the best part of our love and labor. As you consider what you will share with the Church this year, I invite you to give thanks for the many people who have walked with you in love, supported you in your faith, and shared their gifts with you.
Walking with you in Love,
George MacDonald
George MacDonald, Senior Warden
A Letter from Kate Martiny, the Vestry Liaison for Finance and Stewardship, as we kick off Stewardship 2025
Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved usand gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:1-2, NRSV
My Dear Friends in Christ,
I am grateful to lead our Stewardship Campaign this year and to spend these weeks with intention as we enter a season of giving. Our theme this year is Walk in Love, and it calls us to remember that our greatest gift in community is how we come together in purpose and mission. When we walk in the same direction, we can do so many things. In the midst of all our loss over the past year, I have seen this church family come together to honor and celebrate the lives of those we love. Our church is consistently a light in the darkness, a haven in this difficult world and a soft place to fall for those in need of support. I have heard parishioners say that they find great comfort and peace from being on this church property.
During this season we talk a lot about money and our budget. Yes, those things are important, they are the way we fund the Church, but our real focus is on what our gifts can do for the world. Jesus calls us to heal, visit, feed, accompany, protect, advocate, love our neighbor, and sharing our time, talent, and treasure is the way that we make this happen. Your pledge helps us move forward with the work of our mission by serving through Emmaus House, Open Hearts, Southern Comforters, Never Alone, Papa’s Pantry, Church of the Common Ground, Camp Mikell, Softer Streets, Shady Grove, meals, and support of our parish family when someone is in need.
Each of us hears the stewardship call differently, just as each of us has been blessed by God differently. Our talents and training have been gifts freely given to us in Creation so that we may share them with a world in need. How will you feel God’s call to walk in love this year?
With this letter you are receiving the invitation to make your promise to the Church for the year to come. Before you fill it out, I ask that you pray about it, discuss it with your family, and discern how God is calling you to share your gifts. Pay special attention to both sides of the form and let us know what time and talent offerings you would like to learn more about this year.
Our Stewardship campaign will end on November 3rd, 2024. Please return your answer to us by then if possible so that we may count your pledge in our ingathering where your gift will be added to many others to be blessed, broken, and shared with the world. If there is anything I can do to support you or questions I can answer, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Walking with you in Love,
Kate Martiny
Jr. Warden and Vestry Chair for Finance & Stewardship
Walk in Love TENS Reflections
Reflection:
In nearly every Episcopal liturgy in which I have participated the celebrant quotes from Ephesians 5:2 to invite the offerings of our time, talent, and treasure to be placed on the altar. “Walk in love,” the offertory sentence begins, “As Christ loved us…” These words are said at the pivotal moment in our liturgy as we move from the reading of and response to the Word into the sacrament of Holy Communion. It is poignant to observe that we mark this moment of transition with an invitation to walk in love. When we walk in love, there is clarity and purpose. We move in alignment with each other and with our values. Walking in love is also something we cannot do alone – by definition it implies connection and community. Whether we walk with our children or our spouse, or form an orderly line, or rely on the help of a friend or a neighbor to come to worship we carry with us all with whom we are in communion and they carry us with them. Our journey is one made by millions, over thousands of years. A cycle of sharing and invitation. What a way to bring our gifts forward: first the bread and wine followed by the offering plates, and finally ourselves – walking in love! When we gather in love, bless, break, and share our gifts and ourselves with the world, we bring healing and transformation to our world.
This year you are invited to join in the timeless call to walk in love as you share your wealth, works, and wisdom with a world in need.
Modified from the TENS Stewardship Campaign Materials 2025
Reflection
“Walk in love…” is in my neural pathways now. It’s worn in, if I say those three words the rest of the offertory sentence flows with little conscious effort. It is almost pre-linguistic: a reflex. You could argue that the idea has become rote. That is what people say about liturgy often repeated. It means nothing. But I don’t think that is the case. I think that the idea has now been written into my brain so deeply that it has become a part of me. “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.”
Modified from the TENS Stewardship Campaign Materials 2025
Reflection
Our walk is meant to imitate Christ’s walk. Our walk should emulate his self-offering. Our walk is a reminder that everything we have and are comes from God, and living life with that attitude reminds us that we should walk through life as though it is a gift, not a possession. I know this most in the summertime when I go for long walks with my dog or walk with my family or friends. The first 10-15 minutes of any walk my mind is often turbulent, chundering and fussing about the stresses of the day. But at some point I will hear a bird, or see the sun breaking through a leafy branch. My attention will shift and I will take a slightly deeper breath. My mind will still, and my walk will become one of love. This is the moment I remember I am a beloved child of a loving God. This is the moment when I become me. This is the moment I become generous.
Modified from the TENS Stewardship Campaign Materials 2025
Reflection
Author and Motivational Speaker, Brian Tracy, is noted to have said, “we should always give without remembering and always receive without forgetting.” It is to this end that I reflect on our wonderful church community in which I have seen ways of walking in love manifested. In thinking of the compassion of this congregation, my mind reflects upon all the occasions when our church members have stepped up and reached out to generously provide necessary sustenance, basic needs, cards with well wishes, caring compassion, unlimited kindness, and useful support.
The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand hearts bowing in prayer. Or as we read in scripture, “faith without works is dead.” -James 2:17. I think of the ongoing love that the church displays in reaching out to one another and the community with its outreach to Emmaus House, Open Hearts, Southern Comforters, Never Alone, Papa’s Pantry, Church of the Common Ground, Camp Mikell, Softer Streets and Shady Grove. ECA consistently reminds me that just as I have been blessed, I should also be willing to help someone else who may be in need.
Modified from the TENS Stewardship Campaign Materials 2025