Beloved of God,

September has arrived—and what a full September it promises to be!  Our RE/vision process is in full swing with smaller focus groups meeting in earnest (look for a progress report before the month is out).  Our worship life shifts into a new gear beginning September 11thas we mark the beginning of the program year by observing the four week long Season of Creation (note the invitations that come with that season elsewhere in this edition).  Unique and important seminars on the stewardship of creation are on the calendar this month (details below) as is the 25th Anniversary AIDS Walk and the marking of PLU Sunday.  

John Gulhaugen, who served faithfully and admirably as Peace’s choir director for the past eleven years, tendered his resignation over the summer and Chris Kindem has been appointed as Interim Choir Director; a search team for a new Director of Music is being formed under the leadership of Council Vice President Dustin Smith.  We will miss John, and his partner James, as they move on to new ventures.  On October 16th we’ll take the opportunity to recognize and thank John for his contributions to our worship and community life.  Stay tuned for more on that as the month unfolds.

Combined with the start of the school year, the long litany of new activities, responsibilities, and commitments can leave me feeling, at times, breathless.  Where to find the balance?  That’s a question we all struggle with.  This month, perhaps especially, I mean to take the advice Mary Oliver offers in her poem The Trees: to think “quietly and deeply” of our firmly rooted forest kin who have found a way to remain amply rooted and flexible (rather than rigid), as they lift their branches toward their Creator, “holding on to the old, holy ways.”

God tend your roots and branches! 

Pastor Erik