The Joy of Community: Quarterly Congregational Meeting This Sunday!

Beloved in Christ,

This coming Sunday we will have our first quarterly congregational meeting in 2026. I genuinely cannot believe that we are a quarter of the way through the year already, it has truly flown by!

(On a side note, as a new priest, I’m realizing that the first quarter of the is a particularly liturgically FULL time with Christmas ending, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter all crammed into it - at least this year!)

Our congregational meeting will be an opportunity for us to remind ourselves about our mission as St. Andrew’s, who and how we are here on our little corner of Tucson. I think having a clear sense of our identity as rooted in Christ and blossoming outward as a response to God’s call is critical for our collective movement forward.

I also think that being able to articulate that identity is crucial. So knowing who we are - in response to God and lived out in our context - is marvelously important, and also easy to get lost in the busyness of the world.

Anecdotally, in my own experience, I get the sense that many Episcopal churches that have a clear sense of identity, rooted in God and articulated dynamically by the parish, tends to be a church that is growing and alive. In large part because they are actively discerning God’s call, and responding to it, as a people.

Our first quarterly congregational meeting this year will be an opportunity to see an update on our financial position, and to see and understand how it is that I and leadershop are stewarding the moneys and resources entrusted to us.

It will also be a time to learn of the joyful ministry which the church is engaged in - and in which many of you participate in both out of a desire to volunteer, but more fully out of a desire to live out your Christian call in this wonderful community we call the church!

I also particularly love these meetings because they provide us a point to share fedback about how things are going - what’s going well, what could be improved? What are our hopes, and dreams for this church, and how does what we are doing now align with our mission and long term vision of the church.

I am so grateful to get to serve at St. Andrew’s alongside each and every one of you!I hope that everyone can make the meeting on Sunday!

Yours in Christ,

Alex+