From The Vicar: Draw the Circle Wide

From The Vicar: Draw the Circle Wide

From The Vicar: Draw the Circle Wide

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From The Vicar: Draw the Circle Wide

Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

One of my favorites of the songs we sing here at St. C's is "Draw the Circle Wide." The words we sing on the chorus are Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still. Let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side, draw the circle wide.

There are many reasons I love this song. I love it because we worship in a circle, with our sacramental table at the center, a place where God meets us in community week after week. I love the song because it feels like what we are about as a church, one of our particular charisms as community is that drawing an ever wider circle so that no one stands alone - no one of us, no one of our neighbors. We don't always live up to this vision of community, but I think we do hold on to it - a church where hungry are fed, where no one is a stranger, where shelter and comfort and company is easy to find. 

This Sunday is our In-gathering - the day we celebrate who we are, and how we practice blessing in the world from this base camp of a faith community. We will gather in pledge cards, and wine, and be gathering into community with a lot of music, and food and dancing. We will make it all happen together, and all within the circle of our sanctuary space. 

This community has big dreams. We dream of continuing to be a place where people from different cultures, economic classes, political parties, and backgrounds come together to love and be loved by Jesus. We dream of continuing to become friends with each other, and to build relationships that challenge us to find God in all parts of our life, work and home. We dream of raising children who know in their bones that they are deeply loved by their church, and by God. And we dream of learning how to worship and serve in ways that cross the borders of culture, language, race, and tradition. 

This Sunday we are going to live into our dreams. Not only by pledging support financially, and by bringing wine, but also by singing in both English and French, a common language for the Congolese choir who will be joining us. We will experiment with joyful movement, and our Sudanese community will bring a song to teach us, and ways of moving and dancing together for us to enjoy. We will eat a wonderful African lunch together - and all are invited to bring a favorite dessert of any kind to share as well. 

I think this Sunday is going to hold joy, and feel different, and maybe give us a glimpse of who we are becoming. I also think we are going to have a lot of fun.

Thank you for being a part of this place where we do our best to draw the circle wide. Come and see, come and worship, come and join the circle of loving community that is St. C's. 

with care and gratitude,

Alissa

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  St. Columba Episcopal Church   ·   Physical address: 26715 Military Rd, Kent, WA 98032
Mailing address: 31811 Pacific Highway South, Ste. B #342, Federal Way, WA 98003       253-854-9912       admin@stcolumbakent.org

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