Dear friends in Christ,

The Church Year – with all of it’s seasons and themes and colors – is a wonderful gift to the Church, to help us focus on, and experience, the wide range of ways that God is active in our lives.

It begins with Advent (blue), then Christmas (white), then Epiphany (green), then Lent, (purple), then Holy Week (red), then Easter (white), then Pentecost (red), then the Season After Pentecost (green). Whew – that’s a lot!
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Dear friends in Christ,

Recently, there was a headline on the front page of the Times-Union that said, “Happiness = family time, say the youth of America”. Did you see that one? Wow, it caught my attention!

Those of us who are parents – especially of youth (this article describes “youth” as 13-24) – are very familiar with the feeling that anything having to do with us – or almost any “adult” - is so totally uncool, that our children would rather be boiled alive than caught being with us. And the idea that they could actually be “happy” with us? No way!
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Dear friends,

I’ve just returned from a week as Dean of a camp session at Camp Weed. It was Camp St. Paul, which is for 5th & 6th graders. Back in the dark ages (mid 70’s), when I was in college and a camp counselor at Camp Weed, lots of things were different:
· Camp was at St. Teresa Beach, on the Gulf Coast, south of Tallahassee.
· 5th & 6th grade camps were segregated – there was a 5th/6th grade boys camp and a 5th/6th grade girls camp.
· Fr. Ralph Kelley was a regular as Dean of the boys camp; that was where I first met him (he was Rector of St. Peter’s from 1965-88)
· At “little girls camp” as we called it, the boy counselors used to go to the girls cabins at night for “shampoo parties”. Many of us had long hair then (yes – I did have hair then!), and the little girls would wash our hair and put lots of conditioner on it, and brush it and put it in ponytails, and give us backrubs. Ahh – the good old days!
· We used to swim in the Gulf, as well as sail, and canoe and study the saltwater life. Now they swim in the pool and canoe in the lake, and take trips over to go tubing in the Itchetucknee River.
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Dear friends in Christ,

Several themes in our life together these days deserve a bit of reflection:

· The Rev. Lisa Flores, after 2 terrific years with us, has moved to Christ Church in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She touched our lives at St. Peter’s and we will miss her and pray for her continuing growth and service in the Episcopal Church (and her warmth when winter comes to Detroit!)
· The Rev. Kimberly Still – recently graduated from the School of Theology at Sewanee, and recently ordained deacon at St. John’s Cathedral in Jacksonville – will join us as Assistant Rector beginning July 1. She will have similar duties and responsibilities as Lisa, though with more of a concentration on Pastoral Care.
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The Contented Fisherman

The rich industrialist from the North was horrified to find the Southern fisherman lying lazily beside his boat, smoking a pipe.

“Why aren’t you out fishing?” said the industrialist.

“Because I have caught enough fish for the day,” said the fisherman.

“Why don’t you catch some more?”

“What would I do with it?”
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