Greetings All,
On Saturday evening, this week, my husband Michael announced “they” were delivering pallets to the July 4th bonfire site in Lane’s Cove. “They” being the mysterious persons, who, in the next week, will build an imposing hill of wooden pallets, left-over lumber, fish crates, boxes, broken furniture, old wooden doors, sometimes even an old Christmas tree. One year, the bonfire was topped with a small defunct sail boat; another year, an old outhouse graced the summit. We will make trips down to the cove in the evening each day, to watch the progress, greet the various by-standers, and shake our heads in wonder as the bonfire builders swarm up the sides of their creation like sailors swarm up ropes on a ship.
What this has to do with Independence Day, I am not sure, unless the bonfire is a lesser version of those oddly magnificent demonstrations of daring that produced the Boston Tea Party. The Lane’s Cove bonfire is one of those periodic outbreaks of ordered revelry ( I was going to say anarchy) that make life here so interesting. Its appearance certainly is a sign that summer has burst forth, full-bodied, ready for anything, like Athena from Zeus’s brow.
So much for purple prose. By the time you read this, we will be nearing the end of St. Peter’s festival, and entering July 4th celebrations.
This Sunday, July 1st, we will have a celebration of our own during the church service. We will be dedicating all our pledges and gifts for the “Building the Dream” campaign, and we will offer thanks to those who offered leadership during the campaign.
For my part, I thank all of you for your participation in this wonderful time in the life of St. Paul church. Thank you for your prayers, your friendship, your faith, your conversations, your questions, your concerns, your joys, your gifts of time, service and financial offerings. Everyone has been part of this campaign in some way, and I celebrate that. It has brought us together as a church community in many ways, but perhaps the most important is the knowledge that we can do what needs to be done. In the words of one parishioner, we are “the little church that could,” and did.
May God bless you richly this summer with gifts of peace and grace. May you find rest and recreation, and delight in the beauty of this corner of the world.
Your sister in Christ,
Pastor Anne Deneen