When it comes to how you use the time, talents and treasures God has entrusted you with, what is the story of your stewardship journey, here at St. Peter's? That question is at the heart of Tell Out My Soul, our 2025 Stewardship Campaign. We gave you a sneak preview of the campaign in the spring, and it launches officially this week, with a letter from our Incumbent, the Rev. Bonnie Luft, which you'll see below. More content will follow in the weeks ahead, but in the meantime, we invite you to reflect on the ways God has blessed you, and how he might be calling you to pay those blessings forward.
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...”
Luke 1:46-47, NRSV
Beloved Saints of the Most-High God, Greetings in Jesus name.
Did you know as Christians we are story tellers? We have an ancient narrative, to help us understand our relationship between God and God’s Creation. We see this story grow through the prophets and finally in the arrival of God’s own son, Jesus, our Saviour. But the story doesn’t end with the Resurrection just as it did not end with the Cross, it continues on in each of us today as we grow in our discipleship by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luke’s Gospel is bookended by the animated storytelling of two women named Mary. Early in the Gospel, Mary the mother of Jesus, tells us of her encounter with the Divine who informs her that she will bear a child who will change the world. She proclaims her joy: “Tell out my soul! The Greatness of the Lord!” At the end of the Gospel, another Mary, Mary Magdalene, visits the tomb to discover it empty and receives instructions from the Risen Christ to go tell the others. She carries this Good News with jubilance to the Disciples.
What is your Good News; the idea, dream, challenge placed in your heart by God, which needs to be shared? What is the ministry to which you are called which will change the world, sharing your time, talents, and treasure with your community?
Our Stewardship Campaign this year focuses on these stories – the ones inside you, the ones you are still writing, the ones we tell about those who have gone before us. We are all a part of this ongoing narrative – the ongoing Creation. As you pray about how you will share your gifts with us this year, think about how God is calling you to tell out your soul, to spread the Good News far and wide. Hear the stories that we share weekly throughout the campaign that relate the creative spark in us with the ways in which we are called to serve God and love our neighbor.
Tell out my soul! The Greatness of the Lord!
The Reverend Bonnie Luft
Incumbent