From the Rector
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week offered two lessons on giving and generosity. One at the beginning of a life and the other at the end of a life.
On Wednesday, we had the funeral service for Tom Cross. Many of you know of his loving and generous spirit. The labyrinth and the pet memorial are two pieces of our community that represent his lasting mark on the lives of so many here. He gave of his time, talent, and treasure so freely that it was not a practice or a discipline or an action. It was a way of being.
He modeled how to live with a kind of radical openness to the richness of the world—and was willing to share what he experienced of that richness with others and with the church.
The other lesson modeled by one of our younger parishioners, Aurora, I’ll let you read below. Suffice it to say that her story shows how our beginnings set a course for a lifetime.
In the rush of things that happen, gratitude falls by the wayside too often. Thank you never gets said enough. Please know how grateful I am for the ways you all give to shape life here and how you help form the next generation of faithful Christians.
Karrie and I have pledged $19,000.00 this year because we are blessed by all the ways this community helps root and shape the lives of our boys.
Thank you to each and every one of you who will give this year in whatever ways you can. Know that we are extremely thankful to be part of a place that is generous in so many ways—a place where people like Tom and Aurora model a way of being that reflects all the richness of life together—from our beginnings to our ends and beyond, in Christ.
Yours in Christ,
—Fr Robert
By parishioner and parent, Angelina Hannum
When I was three years old, my family experienced profound Christian generosity through our church. It helped my parents rebuild their lives, inspiring them to become radical givers.
In the early '90s my family lived in New Jersey, and our church welcomed dissidents from Tiananmen Square. I watched my parents “pay it forward” as they donated furniture, clothes, and money to help these students start anew in a foreign land. They explained to me, “You can’t take it with you. We have been blessed with more than enough, and these people need it more.”
These early experiences instilled in me the importance of giving. My husband’s childhood was similar, in the sense that his parents were often the source of radical generosity. For him, he understood that proper and wise stewardship creates the pathways that allow generosity.
Years later, as we now raise our wonderful 8-year-old daughter, Aurora, my husband and I want to pass on the wisdom of stewardship and the spirit of generosity that is so important to us.
When she was a preschooler, we recognized that she understood the world through physical experiences. This inspired us to use sand timers to teach her about time passing—which, in turn, led us to create a way to teach her about money.
We implemented a marble system where each marble represented $1.00. When she turned four, she received a weekly allowance of 4 marbles for completing household tasks. To communicate that money is more than a means to acquiring fun things for oneself, we created three family buckets: Spend, Save, and Share.
With Aurora’s help, we labeled three jars, and each week she allocated her four marbles. At least one marble went into the Save jar, another one in the Share jar, and the other two could be used as she wished. (This led to quite a few close calls with bubble gum!)
That Christmas, she cashed out her Save and Share jars to buy books for the family. The next year, as she recognized poverty in our surroundings, I explained the importance of the Share jar. She subsequently contributed much of her Share jar to purchase items for the Manna Bags assembled at church.
This last year, Aurora became curious about our church’s offering basket. She asked why she never saw my husband or I put something in the basket. We explained that we make our donation with automatic deductions from our credit card. This left her less than satisfied. Aurora wanted the complete experience of putting something in the basket.
That Sunday, we went home and converted 60 marbles from the Share jar to cash. Aurora then stuffed different church envelopes with money and now she joyfully places her own dollar into the basket every Sunday. My hope is that she will embrace this practice of stewardship and giving throughout her life.