Thank you to all who came to the Annual Meeting and helped to elect four members to the Vestry. Congratulations to new vestry members Steve King, Christine Morrison, Colin Chambers, and Bill Boyd. I am looking forward to working with all of you. At our brief meeting after the Annual Meeting, the Vestry elected Nigel Jones as Junior Warden, Blain Lagergren as Clerk of the Vestry, and Chip Buckner as Treasurer (non-Vestry member). I also reappointed Steve Moore as Senior Warden. Thank you to all of you for your willingness to serve. We have set our Vestry retreat for March 8 where we will focus on growth, among other business, and make committee assignments.

Our focus now turns to the month of February and the many activities we have coming up. Our Trivia Night takes place in the Common Room on Friday, February 7 at 6 p.m. Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m. is the Celebration of Life for Barbara O’Hearne. There are two diocesan events as well: an Absalom Jones fundraiser luncheon and panel discussion on Saturday, February 15 at 11 a.m., and a Congregational Vitality workshop on February 22 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. We will have our regular service of Evensong on February 16 at 5 p.m. and will host the closing Eucharist for the Episcopal Parish Network (EPN) Conference on Thursday, February 27.

If that isn’t enough for you, this Sunday is a Feast Day. February 2 is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. This day, forty days after Jesus’ birth, marks his presentation in the Jerusalem Temple along with the purification of Mary, in accordance with the requirements of Jewish law. It is in this event that Simeon and Anna experience the Christ child and Simeon prays the words we now know as the Song of Simeon, or Nunc dimittis. This Feast is also known as Candlemas and the Feast of the Purification.

Please continue to pray for one another, for our Cathedral family, our nation, and the world.