Dear Friends in Christ,
Fasten your seat belts. The Holy Spirit is coming.
As you will read in Grace Notes, in July 2021 I offered Mother Nina a job at Grace with uncharacteristic (for me) speed. She and I had met for coffee as colleagues, and I was expecting only a casual conversation. It quickly became clear, however, that Nina was exactly the person Grace needed at exactly that moment. Half an hour into our conversation, I offered her a job. That evening, she accepted.
This was nothing other than the Holy Spirit at work.
This Sunday, we will say goodbye to Mother Nina, and it will be bittersweet. I know so many of us (me included) will miss her enormously. And yet, the Spirit that blew her into our lives so quickly is now urging her onward.
The Holy Spirit does not call only priests. It calls every single one of us.
Sometimes, God’s work is dramatic in our lives, and I suspect many of you have stories of sudden conviction or clear purpose. Other times, it is just a persistent breath, showing us the way to keep our souls alive.
I hope you will join this community honoring Mother Nina this Sunday. (She is preaching at the 7:30, 8:45, and 10:30 services, and we will have a festive reception in the Merrow Hall auditorium after the 10:30 service.)
But—even more—I hope you will honor the presence of the Holy Spirit in this community and in your particular life. We do so in worship in our Pentecost liturgy. And we do so every time we attend to our intuition and our hunches, every time we strain to hear God’s will.
God is ready to take us all places. My hope is that we will follow with all our hearts.
Yours in Christ,
Anne+