An Advent Message from Amelie—Adapted from her recent CaringBridge Update

Dear friends,

Thank you for the steady love you have shown me throughout my healing journey--especially the beautiful cascade of birthday cards, notes, and prayers I received last week. Each one brightened my days and reminded me how closely connected we remain.

I continue to be deeply grateful for the faithful ministry of our clergy team, Revs. Mary Thorpe, Anthony Gaboton, and Peggy Newman, and for our dedicated Parish Administrator, Patty Duffy and Minister of Music, Curt Sydnor. I am equally grateful for the capable leadership of our wardens, vestry, and ministry team leaders, who continue to guide and support our parish life in my absence.

We have now entered the first week of Advent, a time of watching and waiting for God’s arrival in our ordinary lives, often in ways we might have missed before. There may be no season that better describes where I am right now: waiting and watching for God’s healing presence to break through in my own story. I was especially aware of this as I placed my well-worn Advent candles --now more than 40 years old--into their polished brass stands and set them in my windows. Such a small ritual… and yet it keeps my heart awake to the Light that is coming.

Thanks to your prayers and the wisdom of my care team, I am continuing steadfastly in the treatment plan developed at the Cleveland Clinic. Healing is rarely linear, and some days I feel I am taking two steps forward and three steps back! Yet when I look at where I was even a month ago, I see signs of progress - in my body, yes, but also in my understanding of what healing requires: patience, trust, and a willingness to begin again each day.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde writes that in every journey of transformation, “the middle is messy.” It’s the stretch long after the first burst of hope and long before the finish line is visible. And yet, she says, it is in the middle where “the magic happens.” Her wisdom resonates deeply with me right now and helps me stay the course.

Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian who never stopped working for justice, offered words that have become a kind of Advent prayer for me:

“Nothing worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime;

therefore we must be saved by hope.

Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in the moment;

therefore we must be saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone;

therefore we are saved by love.”

Hope. Faith. Love. These three remain - and you embody them for me every day.

This Sunday, we will hear Isaiah’s bold vision of the peaceable kingdom - wolves and lambs dwelling in unity--and Paul’s reminder that hope grows when we encourage one another. As we listen and pray together, may we trust that God is quietly healing and renewing our lives and our world in ways we cannot yet see.

Thank you for keeping awake with me--for being a community where Light shines in every darkness, and where grace grows in the waiting.

With love, gratitude, and Advent hope,

Amelie+