Dear Friends,

I am writing to welcome you into the season of our annual stewardship campaign when we ask for your financial contributions to our church.

In a year like we’ve had, those of you who are reading this most likely have already given a lot. This is a season in all our communities where we have called “all hands on deck” to retrench, restore, and re-evaluate. Here at Christ Church we’ve had to scale back on some of our most precious ministries: outreach initiatives, our music program, our youth program, our fellowship hours, and our campus footprint with the sale of the Jefferson Building. For most of us, this has been a painful time. In fact, in this time of social and institutional change, deep political divisions, perpetual pandemic, climate change, and economic uncertainty, it is a wonder that we still have faith at all.

But we do. And for good reason: it is impossible to miss the signs of growth showing forth in our community. Look all around you and you’ll see the seeds of a new future starting to take root. Look to your right, look to your left, look to your own hands and you’ll see the angels who are planting them.

You’ll be familiar with the traditional offertory phrase: “Let us with gladness present the offerings and oblations of our life and labor to the Lord.” As a teenage acolyte I would snicker at these ancient-sounding words and do a mental translation: “now give us your money!”

There is a lot that I know now that I didn’t know back then. I can more clearly see my many blessings, I know how fragile life can be, and I have gained a lot of humility in the face of God’s transformative and mystifying power.

Today these offertory words sound pretty much perfect to me. They say we give with joy. We give in hope of a better future. We give because God’s message of love and salvation has become central to our own lives.

I hope you will join me in sharing your gifts, as you are able, to chart our future together. Please fill out the enclosed pledge card or pledge online at www.christchurchrockville.org.

Your Senior Warden,

Emily Pearce