Over the next two weeks, we have two very special Sundays. The first, of course, is this Sunday, November 1, on which we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, also known as All Saints' Day. In our church tradition, it is one of the church's seven principal feast days. What makes it unique is that, unlike Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, Pentecost, Ascension Day, or Trinity Sunday, All Saints' Day uniquely focuses on regular people like you and me. It's a day dedicated to all Christians who have carried the flame of faith before us, known and unknown, and to all who will carry it after we are gone. Thus, it is also a day of baptism, and I am pleased to say that this Sunday we will have three.

I hope and pray that you are well. St. Martin's has entered into a period of near-constant motion. Truly, something is happening here nearly every day, and something big happens almost every weekend. This weekend we will celebrate Trunk-or-Treat; the following week will be All Saints, when we will celebrate multiple baptisms; then St. Martin's Day with our Bishop's visit and our annual pig roast, followed the next week by Diocesan Convention. That's just the schedule through Thanksgiving, and it doesn't include weekday activities, classes, and mission projects.

In September 1976, The Episcopal Church USA, through a resolution at General Convention, officially welcomed all LGBTQ+ people into "full inclusion, love, acceptance, and concern" of the church. At that time, many denominations and a large part of society were mostly unaccepting of LGBTQ+ folks. For the Episcopal Church at the time, this move toward inclusion was considered controversial, and as with any church controversy, a group threatened schism. This threat of schism persisted until 2003, when, after the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, the Anglican Church in North America finally gathered the resources to break away. This, of course, is something our State of South Carolina knows a lot about, as churches from Columbia to Charleston joined ACNA and attempted to take their property with them. Holy wow—so much drama.

Sadly, as human nature often dictates, the threat of schism and the subsequent property fights took all the attention. What could have been a celebratory moment turned into conversations over property valuations and nervous debates about how many people the church would lose. It's sad how, even in inclusion, we can miss so much.

Happy fall! I have to admit that after the heat of the summer, I get a rush of exhilaration when I can sit outside on my porch, enjoy my morning coffee, and write my e-Messenger. Decoy is curled up on one of our pool lounge chairs while I am writing this. It may seem silly, but in this moment, all feels right in the world. I know a day is coming, and stress will play its part, but in this moment, I give thanks. I pray that you enjoy similar moments. For the weather, the quiet, the time, and all of you, I give thanks. Gratefulness is a practice. I hope you will join me in it.

This week our collect of the day is "Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen". 

I hope and pray that you are well! Our first reading this week is Isaiah 5:1-7. It describes a man who dug and planted a vineyard, built a winepress, and surrounded it with a hedge. He planted in it beautiful grapes and gave the vineyard to tenants to care for. The vineyard failed because of neglect and "wild grapes." Basically, the people did not do a good job.

A few things about this passage interest me. First, I realized this passage is written like a poem or a song. This, of course, makes it easier to remember, memorize, and share again. Like a folk singer offering commentary on society, the poetic love song between God and his vineyard is easy to remember.

This morning, at Lydia's request, I drove to the track to time her and a friend as they did their running workout. It turned out a coach was able to come, so my timing services weren't needed. That was fine by me! The cool air and slight drizzle felt great on my face. Instead of timing, I walked the gravel road and watched the sun come up over a dove field. It was a blessed moment of quiet that I cherished. For it, I was grateful.

Each stewardship season, I have made it a personal endeavor to recommit myself to a gratefulness practice. I do this for two reasons. The first is very practical. As a church leader, my livelihood and my family's financial health depend on, and have always depended on, the giving of others. I have found that non-profit leaders who forget that fact can easily shift from gratefulness to entitlement, and that shift is usually followed by a fall. Reminding myself to practice gratitude, quite frankly, makes me more grateful. It's funny how that works!

I hope and pray that you are well! For 75 years, St. Martin's has faithfully gathered together in the name of Jesus to worship and serve. Together, we make up a faithful community of friends, families, and loved ones. We celebrate together, mourn together, and break bread together as we navigate the journey of living our lives as followers of Jesus. St. Martin's is a special community and a special place. It is a place that Denise and I truly love, and that love grows year after year.

As we enter into this stewardship season, I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for pledging to St. Martin's. Together, your gifts to our annual stewardship drive fund our church's mission and ministries. They fund our beautiful worship and our service as we seek to live into our call to love God and our neighbor. Please prayerfully consider your giving to our church.

I hope you are well! Yesterday, I had the fun experience of serving at the commencement for Heathwood Hall. Heathwood's tradition is to begin each school year with a school-wide celebration of Holy Eucharist. At the service, Heathwood Hall was celebrating its 75th year. What I didn't know until recently was that Heathwood Hall and St. Martin's both shared space at the now-gone Heathwood mansion, since we were both started at the same time. As I understand it, we even shared preschools for a time. Knowing this history made the service all the more meaningful.

Some days, it feels like there isn't enough time to get everything done. For me, Tuesday and Wednesday felt like those days. You know the kind where a meeting stacks on top of a meeting, and when those meetings are done, you realize you still have work to do, like writing this e-messenger and a sermon for Sunday, but you also have to be a dad and husband and go to back-to-school nights and practice. Sometimes it feels like a lot. I know I am not alone in feeling this, especially at this time of year.

I hope and pray that you are well. This morning, as I took Decoy for his walk, I was caught a bit off guard by a little coolness in the air. Decoy noticed the air too, as there was a prance in his step. To be honest, it started to get me excited for the weekend. 

We have a couple of things going on. First, our class on Christian Nationalism continues this Sunday at 9:15 AM in the Garden Room. I am really looking forward to leading it and the discussion that will follow! Last week, 56 people came. It's been a great mix of folks from each service, and the conversation has been really fruitful. If you want to attend, please come. 

I hope and pray that you are well and hopefully surviving this heat! When I saw that it was only going to be 90 degrees on Saturday, I breathed a sigh of relief, which is a little bit funny. It's been hot, and so I will take this personal moment to complain about the heat, which, as a southerner, is one of my unalienable rights.

St. Martin's is currently teaching a Sunday School class on Christian nationalism. It's a topic that clearly hit upon a longing for information; almost 50 people came for the first week! We had to add chairs to our room setup. In the class, we have a road crew work sign. It is the one that workers carry to direct traffic. On one side, it says "stop." On the other, it reads "slow." We leave it up as a reminder of our group norms of mutual respect and no political ranting.

I hope and pray that you are well. This week, I especially remember parents, students, and educators in my prayers. The beginning of a new school year is always a mixture of stress, nerves, possibility, and excitement. Each year is, in some ways, its own unique rite of passage. At the bottom of this letter, I will include the prayer from our Book of Common Prayer for education. Please, if you have the time, take a moment and pray it.

The beginning of a new program year is a time mixed with quiet anticipation, busyness, and stress. On the surface, you could drive by St. Martin's and think, "This week, there is not much going on," or "There are not as many cars out front as usual, nor are there as many in the parking lot." Both statements are true. That said, if you were to come in, you would find Jim laying out this e-messenger and designing promotional materials, Caitlyn writing her curriculum for this year's Sunday School, and the office prepping for the arrival of Aaron, our new organist. On top of this, we are beginning to plan for stewardship and our upcoming capital campaign, all while we look for new volunteers to help in the ongoing mission and ministry of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. In other words, while this week appears slower than most, things are as busy as usual, and thank God they are.

Greetings from Chicago. I arrived here on Monday for a week of continuing education with other clergy from all over. We have students here from South Carolina, Alaska, Montana, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Minnesota. Each brings a unique perspective, born from their various experiences. We have been studying community development and church and civic initiatives built to meet the needs of the communities they serve. In some cases, I have been inspired. In other cases, I have been moved, and today I laughed hysterically as a goat in a church's community garden jumped up on a picnic table and proceeded to take a nap, belly up, like it was getting a sun tan.

I read something this week that has stuck with me. It was a comment on the Christian calling. We, you and I, are called to work in the world as it is, representing and working towards the world as it should be. In other words, we proudly and dutifully work with our feeding ministries such as our Sharing Garden, Harvest Hope, St. Luke's, and the Backpack Program, while also trying to make a dent in the root causes of food insecurity. Work in the world as it is, while working towards a world where food insecurity is no longer a thing. This in itself is a daunting task, but it always has been. The prophet Isaiah wrote about a dream of peace during a time of violence. 

I hope and pray that you are well. I am sure I join many of you in praying for a bit of relief from these temperatures soon. I also ask you to join me this week in both prayer and acts of service for all the people who have to work in this heat, and for the elderly among us, who, when the weather gets like this, essentially become trapped in their homes. In the gospel on Adam Steele's last Sunday with us, Jesus said, "Even one who gives a glass of cool water to one of these little ones in my name will certainly not lose their reward." In heat like this, a cooler full of cold water on a porch for delivery drivers, or even a simple gesture of offering something cold to workers or police officers whose labor places them in the heat, can go a long way. It's easy and simple.