Dear Friends,

Grace and peace to each one of you.  I have held you in my heart during my recovery from back surgery with gratitude for the love, support, cards, emails, meals, visits, and prayers that I have received from so many of you, and for the awesome work of our vestry, our lay leadership, our clergy and staff, and our Interim Supply priest, Jenny Montgomery.  As this spring has unfolded in all its radiant glory, I have embraced the gifts of healing and hope, not only in my own life, but in the life of our congregation, as we emerge from a year of pandemic and begin to regather in person for worship, fellowship, learning, and outreach to our community.

The time has come for me to update you on the status of my recovery. This week, I returned to my surgeon for my post-operative visit and am pleased to share that my spinal fusion was successful and is progressing normally. I will now begin physical therapy to build my strength and stability so that I can be ready to resume my responsibilities at St. John’s half time on June 1, and full time by June 15.  Until my return, The Rev. Jenny Montgomery will remain with us as our Supply Interim, and continue to offer us her loving presence, capable leadership, and team spirit.  She will also assist us as a supply priest with our Sunday services until I transition from part-time to full-time on June 15.  The month of June will be a busy month for St. John’s and for me, with a wedding, an ordination, and our Juneteenth Celebration with St. Peter’s taking place on three successive Saturdays.  And for that reason, Jenny’s assistance will be invaluable.

As the day of Pentecost approaches, the day on which the first followers of Jesus were given the gift and breath of the Holy Spirit, I give thanks for the wondrous gift of healing that has been made possible by our shared breath and life.  Not only through the unusual and unexpected acts of caring and kindness, but through simplest and most ordinary gestures.  You have no idea how much your shining faces, your words of encouragement, your outstretched hands have meant to me, and how much they can mean to someone else.  I hope you can trust in this is as we begin to gather again as a community.  In the words of the 13th Century mystic, Rumi,

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”

You certainly have been that, and more, to me.

In Christ,

Amelie+