For all of my blog followers and friends out there, I hope you had a joyous and meaningful Easter celebration with your family and church family.
If you were here at Nativity, we were thrilled to welcome you, along with upwards of 7,000 others between the Triduum and Easter Sunday (as well as thousands more online).
If you were here, or you know our culture, you know that we don’t do a lot of public thank yous. We are, in fact, decidedly not self-congratulatory. This is in deliberate contrast to a common practice in many churches of ending (and even beginning) every service and event by thanking all the staff and insiders who helped make it happen. We don’t do that. We don’t thank one another, we thank visitors and new comers instead.
But that’s publically. Behind the scenes, among ourselves, we try and cultivate a culture of gratitude and thanksgiving. So, allow me to us this Easter Sunday Blog to say some words of thanks.
Thanks to our musicians who are obviously remarkably talented and quite a pleasure to work with. They very powerfully shape an atmosphere of worship and praise that is really quite transformative. Their amazing artistry is a hallmark of this parish.
Thanks to all our volunteer ministers without whose services we could not possibly accommodate the number of guests who showed up, much less do so in an exceptional way. I am thinking of the parking and shuttle teams who do more than bring coherence and good order to our parking, they establish an experience of welcome and hospitality for our guests from the very beginning of their experience. The greeters and hosts, the Eucharistic Ministers, and the children’s ministers whose joyful, prayerful, playful interaction with guests is an indispensible element of our ministry and message. Behind the scenes are the Ops Teams, the Café Team, and the Tech Teams who are shaping the environment of excellence.
I want to thank our ministry leaders. This small circle of people are in a class by themselves. They have all the responsibility of paid staff, they’re just not paid. They’re volunteer leaders who literally serve the servants.
Finally I want to thank my staff. It is often pointed out to me that I have an excellent staff. People tell me this as if it were information that I have somehow overlooked. Just because I don’t (and probably won’t ever) offer thanks publically my heart is full of gratitude for all of them.
Thanks
