Beloved in Christ:

The Season of Advent begins this Sunday, December 3. We mark the season during our Sunday worship services, and then continue with one of my favorite services of the season, Advent Lessons and Carols, at 4:00 pm that afternoon. Our traditional service is greatly enhanced this year by our partnership with the choir, people, and rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. John Schulz, a wonderful musician so many of us at Calvary know and love, will be playing the organ, as Austin Ferguson conducts the combined choirs of Calvary and St. Luke’s in this simple, traditional, and lovely service that leads us through the story of Creation from Genesis, and the Prophets, up to the story of the Annunciation to Mary, mother of our Lord. Lessons and Carols is exactly as described: Scripture lessons and a fulsome amount of Advent anthems and congregational carols. Lessons and Carols opens the door to this beautiful time of preparation and contemplation leading to the Feast of the Incarnation, Christmas Day.

Calvary will mark each Advent Sunday in a special way, continuing with the return of the Children’s Cookie Sale, first since Covid, on December 10, the Greening of the Church and decoration of the Brackenridge Christmas Tree, fueled by a delicious lunch of soup and sides, and the much-anticipated return, post-Covid (finally!), of our Children’s no-rehearsal, non-anxious Christmas pageant during the 10:30 service on December 17.  It is a blessing and a true pleasure to be able to gather together as a community of love and care for these special times during the sometimes-frenetic pre-Christmas season.  We will also gather on Thursday, December 21, at 7:00 pm to quietly and reverently mark the longest night of the year in a way that will give space for contemplation, prayer, and song in a service of Hope and Healing, meant especially for those who are grieving, anxious, or worried in a time when our culture expects us to be joyful and energetic 24/7.

This year especially, I crave the quiet, anticipation, and preparation time of Advent. As our neighbors and community partners at the Mayo Clinic embark on the largest expansion of their 160-year history, we are invited to be a part of this new and energetic time in our neighborhood and in our city. The full announcement by Mayo was made yesterday. I was honored to be there in person, along with Phil Einspahr, head of our buildings and grounds committee, and knowing that many of you were either there in the Gonda building or watching online. The $5 billion investment by Mayo in the future of healthcare will change our neighborhood, our city, and our state, and indeed change the vision and possibilities of healthcare around the world. The whole picture of the Mayo vision is a lot to take in, process, and understand. At Calvary, you are well represented in the conversation with the Mayo leaders through our vestry, buildings and grounds team, staff, and me – we have been in conversation with our Mayo partners for almost a year, in anticipation of yesterday’s public announcement. In early January, we will have our second forum to bring everyone up to speed on what is happening with Calvary and how we will be visioning our future, the call of the Holy Spirit among us, and God’s presence in the now and future of our faith community, even as we work to understand how Calvary will not just survive, but thrive, in the years to come in our place and dwelling in our space in Rochester, Minnesota.

That will be part of all of our work in due time. But for December, let us come together in fellowship and in worship to love one another, welcome our neighbors and welcome the stranger, and prepare for the birth of the Christ Child, God with us, Emmanuel.

In peace and gratitude,

Beth+