Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

Fall is here, also known as The Descent of the Great Dark, here in the PNW. The sun spends less time with us, during this time of the year, and the clouds gather in ways both literal and sometimes also metaphorical, for many of us. One of the side effects of the darkness outside can be permission to curl up inside, to find or kindle our own sources of light and warmth, and to make space to listen to stories. One way of listening to stories that I like is through reading, preferably next to a fire and sipping a hot cup of tea. But there are other ways, and we are engaging some of them right now at St. C's.

Last week at coffee hour you were invited to reflect on some questions about the role and participation of children and youth in our community, and the role of adults in relationship with our children and youth. If you wrote up answers to these questions, then you participated in some storytelling, and in shaping the story we are telling together here about being a faith community that recognizes, values, and listens to our youngest community members. 

If you didn't get to participate last week, don't worry! We will keep these questions up, and keep asking you to tell us your story of who we are becoming in this way for the next couple of weeks.

And, we are not leaving our children and youth out of this storytelling process. This week there will be special questions for them about what they want to learn about God, how they want to participate at church, and more. If your child is too young to write an answer, I hope you will help them by writing on their behalf, and encourage them to engage these questions. 

After we have gathered these answers, we will spend some time collating them, and putting them into a format we can all interact with. Our Annual Meeting, scheduled for January 26th, 2020, will focus on this story - the story of becoming a community that recognizes the full humanity of our children, and comes together to welcome, love, and form kids and youth in Christian faith. 

This is only one of our stories, but it's a good one. Let's keep telling it, and see who we become.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa