Dear ones of St. Columba's,

  As we relax into summer, I am thinking more and more about what it means for us to create sacred space both here on our grounds and in the other spaces and places of our lives. Last weekend we had our first St. Columba's campout at Dashpoint State Park. Just under twenty St. C's folks, adults and kids, filled up six campsites and we spent two days and nights enjoying nature and each other. It was amazing how much just a few miles from home felt like a getaway! Each night we also worshiped together, right there in a campsite. On Saturday we prayed the Eucharist together, and there was something beautiful and holy about it, even though the altar was a fold out table, the chalice a paper cup, and the bread an english muffin (with some gluten free crackers on the side). 

 One of the reasons that moment was so special, and sacred, is because everyone in our campsite Eucharist circle also worships together on Sundays. We translate silver chalice into paper cup, home baked bread into camping muffin, etc., because our lived experience of one thing helps to make sacred the special and different experience of the other. We found an outdoor sanctuary together in the sanctuary of God's great outdoors, and it was lovely. I hope we make this a tradition of ours, as a community.

 This Sunday we'll start meeting and planning for how to raise funds for the memorial garden we hope to build in St. C's currently underdeveloped back yard. This ground is already holy - first because it is part of God's creation, and second because we use the earth there to grow food for our neighbors, wheat for our children to make into communion bread, and flowers for our altar. But we want to set it apart even more, to create in this space a place where our beloved dead can be honored and interred, where we can worship together in the open air, framed by freestanding stained glass windows, and where our children can play and grow and learn. This is a big project for us, a new sort of undertaking for many of us. I invite you to come at 9am to the fellowship hall to learn more, and to help us as we figure out how to get started with fundraising for this sacred ground. 

I am so grateful to be with you in this journey.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa