Dear Govans family,
This Sunday we welcome November with an extra hour of sleep, as daylight saving time ends and our clocks fall back. The church year is also turning. All Saints Sunday begins the final weeks of the Christian calendar, and on November 29 the First Sunday of Advent opens a new year.
This Sunday, November 1, we celebrate All Saints Sunday. We remember siblings who have gone before us and the full stories of their lives, their struggles alongside their courage. We will meditate on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1–12, and I will preach on “The Courage We Forget.” Come and give thanks for the saints in your own story, and discover how their courage might shape ours today.
It is a joy to invite you once again to my installation on Sunday, November 8, at 3:00 pm. My friend Dr. Natarsha P. Sanders will preach. Natarsha serves as Associate for Intercultural Leadership Development and Recruitment with the Presbyterian Life & Witness Agency of the PC(USA). She earned her Doctor of Educational Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary, where her research examined the impact of white supremacy on white Christian men over 65. She is passionate about education, the arts, and inclusion, and lives in North Carolina with her husband, Lorenzo, her mother, Cynthia, and her niece and nephew, Kiana and Kaden.
We are also in the season of stewardship. Our generosity grows from our faith and deepens when we see that faith take shape in the world. As we give, we inspire one another and grow together in vitality. This week shows where our shared gifts are already at work. On Sunday we gather for worship and linger in fellowship, while our children grow in faith in Sunday School. The Govans Community Farm tends the ground where racial, food, and environmental justice meet. We study scripture with our Knox siblings and gather again on Wednesday evening. The Dismantling Racism Training continues our work of community repair, and on Monday, November 9, Music Mondays welcomes Matthew Jenkins for CREATE, an evening celebrating the gifts and purpose God places within each of us. Many of us sense we have something to give and wonder how best to offer it. Stewardship holds our time, our gifts, and our financial commitment. If you missed last Sunday’s stewardship sermon, “To Put the Protest Back in Protestantism,” you can watch it here.
Whether you have given for decades or are considering a first pledge, we hope you will prayerfully consider a commitment for the coming year. Stewardship packets have been mailed, and if yours has not arrived, please pick one up at worship or call the church office, and we will gladly mail one to you. Visit the church calendar for full details on each event.
We are because you are, and your presence and participation make a difference at Govans.
Mooi Loop,
Dries