For Such a Time as This

This Sunday upcoming, September 29, 2024, is the only time this year that we will have a scripture reading from the book of Esther. I invite you to read the entire book as part of your spiritual practice this week.

Esther is only ten brief chapters in length, although the Greek Bible has several additional chapters and addenda to chapters. Esther is the only biblical book that bears the name of a woman.

This book reminds us that each of us has a part to play in whatever is transpiring in our lives and in our world. We are never asked to do everything, as if we could. God is only ever asking us to do our part, sometimes a part that only we can fill. When we discern what that is, we are honor-bound to do it--our part, not someone else's part in addition to ours, and certainly not God's part, as it that were even a possibility.

This is the ongoing question for each of us and all of us: What is my part? Other questions also come to mind: What is mine to do? How do you discern your part? How do you come to understand what is yours to do and yours to give?

After more than a decade of talking about the need for a capital campaign, we at St Paul's, Key West are at last beginning such a campaign. It is the first large-scale capital campaign in the parish's 192-year history. We now have in hand an engineering study of the church building, an architect's proposal for urgent repairs to the church building, and a matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places to undertake the most urgent structural work. Additionally, we have a proposal for the full restoration of the amazing stained-glass windows of St Paul's.

As we move farther along this capital campaign road, each of us and all of us must consider what our part is in this campaign as well as what our part is in regular, annual giving to support our mission and operations.

Perhaps your part will take the form of a planned gift such as a bequest, a gift of stock, or a charitable gift annuity. We are able to receive quite a number of different types of gifts. I am happy, as are our treasurer and parish administrator, to discuss those gifts with any of you who have questions about them. 

What is my part? The question persists each and every day. God help us all discern and do our respective parts with generous and grateful hearts.

Padre's Blog A la Mote