What? A New Year Just Started? When?

I guess a cheerful “Happy New Year” is in order. Heck, with all this sheltering-at-home and with each day seeming a lot like the day before and the day before that…and, with my early-to-bed-early-to-rise routine…well, it seems I missed the calendar change when it occurred. However, I have been advised we are in a “new year.” Hurray! 2020 is over! Or, will it be “déjà vu all over again” (a quote attributed to that famous Yankee baseball great Yogi Berra who maybe did, or did not, actually say it).

I never know who or how many people read these blogs… I read the weekly blog and I appreciate the thought and care that the other bloggers put into their messages. As many people realize, I take a slightly more cavalier and less serious tone at times… and this is one of those times as the COVID has made things very serious all the time.

Almost everyone I talk to, or speak with, has a comment or reference to just how horrible or negatively impactful 2020 was. I am equally guilty as talking about the pandemic now surpasses talking about the weather when engaging in chit-chat with others. BUT, 2020 is over! … or so I have been told. Thus, I can generate no clever new sentences or pithy statements about something we are all so sick of … thus, I have elected to change the subject which is the best approach for me.

Important info. There are two efforts underway that will affect our church and our congregation in the months and years to come. One is the work of the Chancel Visioning Team and the other is the Vibrant Congregation Committee.* Both have been explained in recent publications like the Worship Bulletin, First Notes and Tidings. You are urged to go back and find them and read them again if you missed them the first time around. I won’t attempt to explain them here, the articles were well-written and very informative as to what both groups are all about.

What I will do is encourage all of us to be open to new things and to any of the ways we can make our church building and our church family be recognized as accepting of differing viewpoints, as being non-judgmental and as being welcoming to all who share our love of Jesus the Christ. We have a Big Tent here at FPCV with lots of room for lots of people. 2021 is the start of a “new year” with nothing but promise ahead. Let’s be participants and not just spectators. (Hope to “see” you all soon.)

Happy New Year!

Jim Hubbard