Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

I want to begin by wishing each of you a Blessed Epiphany Season! This past week we have said goodbye to Christmas and this Sunday we begin the season of Epiphany. In one respect Epiphany is "ordinary" time in the church calendar, a time to rest and live into the ways in which Advent and Christmas have renewed and transformed us. But unlike the season after Pentecost, which stretches out for months, Epiphany is a brief season of light. 

And indeed light is everywhere in Epiphany. We begin with the light of the wild star, which beckons the magi to the child who will change everything. This week we will experience with Jesus the light of God's spirit descending like a dove upon him, calling him blessed and beginning Jesus active ministry. On Candlemas, a few weeks from now, we will bring our own candles to be blessed at the altar and taken home as small signs of the light of Christ in our own lives. 

During Advent we meditated on the goodness of the dark. But remember, dear ones, that more than one thing can be good. Now we are stepping into the light that blazes on Christmas and continues to shine as we continue to meditate on the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ during Epiphany. This light reveals God's love and grace to us. This light reveals the purpose and plan that God has for our world, to us. And in this light of Christ we are also visible, our identity as Christian people and as people who live in this light.

This week as we hear about Jesus' baptism from the gospel of Luke, we will renew our baptismal vows. This will begin, for us, a season of reflecting, examining, and discovering baptismal identity in ourselves and in each other. In our Adult Formation series Baptism and Beyond we will reflect on what it means to be a community that offers baptism to everyone, even infants, and what it means to incorporate human beings of all ages into full membership in the household of God. We will look to understand more about how being baptized people calls us into service, kindness, compassion, and participation as sources of light in the world. And, my hope is, we will revel in what we discover and how we are formed by this reflection on our identity as Christian people, blazing with faith and love. 

And, of course, it is an added blessing to know that as we progress through Epiphany the presence of daylight will increase by the week. I look forward to noticing the sun earlier each day, and to the growing knowledge in my heart and in my bones that spring is coming, and ahead is only more light.

Blessed Epiphany, dear ones. I am so grateful to travel forward in this community, together. 

with care and gratitude,

Alissa