August 10, 2022
Beloved in Christ:
Year after year it happens: the end of summer creeps up on us, the State Fair comes along, and the crickets at night offer the last sounds of summer as the nights grow cooler. This year, the end of summer and start of fall, school, program year at church, feel particularly important and significant as for the first time since the fall of 2019, we are approaching a new school and program year without the full specter of Covid hanging over us. Yes, it is still there and will be there but between vaccines, boosters, and enough people getting the virus and recovering from it, the Covid rate in Minnesota just turning to the “low risk” status and people understanding that this virus is now a part of our daily lives, we feel much safer gathering for worship, school, meals and other ways of fellowship. It’s been a long time coming. Calvary has worked so very hard these past years to move forward in faith and hope while caring for ourselves and our neighbors. We’ve weathered staff changes as well, and like every other institution, retail shop, and medical facility in our world, we find hiring new staff a struggle. It was such a relief to welcome Bob McCurdy as our new Parish Administrator in July. Bob is getting settled, meeting parishioners, and organizing our files and office area in an impressive manner. Bob is very gifted at looking at systems and identifying ways to do things more efficiently with better flow and better communication in order to support the mission of Calvary and her people.
The Director of Music Search Committee continues to look for our next DOM/organist. They have interviewed a few applicants but haven’t found the right person yet. As we move forward with faith in that area, our current Interim, Sarah Stender, will be staying on through October 2. She will begin to rehearse with the Motet Choir on September 7. When Sarah leaves, (she is due with her 3rd child on November 1), our own Jeff Daehn will pick up the Interim reins. I am so grateful to them both. I am also grateful to our Motet Choir who are hanging in there as they weather interim times, and continue to lead our worship music with skill, grace and joy. Some more joyful staff news is that beginning this week, parishioner Chris Sikkema joins the Calvary staff as our part-time Communications Specialist. Chris will be maintaining and improving the Calvary website, publishing The Visitor, and helping with many other communications tasks. Welcome Chris!
