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Dear Friends,

Happy New Year to all!  May this next year be one of good surprises, hopeful explorations and new challenges.  In Christ, I know, all of that is true every year so I guess I’m wishing that all of us might know it afresh and that others might join us on that journey and so enrich all of our lives!

Isn’t it amazing that a quarter century has passed since Y2K!  The event that was supposed to “wreck the world” turned out to be basically nothing because, unbeknownst to many of the gloom and doom predicters, work had been quietly going on for years to prepare the world, and so when the clock turned over, societies experienced very little disruption. 

I was thinking about that today in relationship with the work we do as a community, indeed the work that millions of churches do around the world: often it is Christians who are working quietly behind the scenes, together with people of good will from across the faith/non-faith spectrum, who are repairing and reconciling old things, and opening new things, so that when the clock turns over, people wonder in astonishment how “things are still working out.”  The Spirit of Christ uses the minds, hearts and hands of people like you and me to make the world go round!  Amazing isn’t it?

Speaking of events, while we have nothing as momentous as Y2K on the docket, here are a few things going on in the next month at St. Philip:

Jan 5 – We welcome the Rev. Rebecca Yeo as a Deacon.  This will give Rev. Rebecca, who also works as an Anglican Chaplain at UVic, a place “to practice her ordination in a parish” for a period of 4-5 months before she is ordained a Priest.

Jan 11/12 – Paul and Melissa Stabell from Postmeridian Productions will be in town to help Allen and a few others film a Welcome Video for the website.

Jan 12 – There will be a “budget update meeting” after our service.

Jan 19 – There will be an appreciation party for Shannon Carmichael after the service

Jan 28 - Parish Council meeting

Jan 30 – Taize service on Thursday evening.

Feb 11 – Vestry meeting (Tuesday evening at 7 pm).