A Year Gone by of Spirit-Filled Life

With Pentecost on the horizon, I find myself reflecting on my first year at All Saints Episcopal Church. My journey here began on Pentecost, June 8th last year. Though the calendar has turned, its rhythm draws me back to that meaningful start and invites me to cherish all the moments that have unfolded since.

1 Corinthians 12:3-13 shares with us that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord,” and even in the fullness of activity, there is one God who oversees them all. In other words, every person who believes is given the same Spirit, while the gifts and activities of each person are different, they are all brought together for the common good. Looking back, I can see how the Spirit was working in All Saints, bringing unity amid diversity.

As I journey through the months in memory, I notice how challenges became stepping stones for growth. The quieter, more difficult moments shaped me just as profoundly as the joyful ones.

Practical challenges greeted me, like making a new office my own. With paint and careful rearranging, I shaped a space where prayer, planning, and pastoral care could flourish. It felt like a small start, yet every detail mattered.

Staff challenges brought tough decisions and changes. Those early vestry meetings stretched long into the evening, filled with choices from resealing the parking lot to selecting tables for the Grace Pavilion. Yet beneath the surface of these tasks, I sensed the Spirit shaping us into something more than coworkers—a true team.

For a time, our choir felt delicate, its numbers dwindling to just four after a cherished member moved away. Then, almost effortlessly, our voices multiplied to ten. It was a gentle reminder that the Spirit brings abundance where we expect only scarcity.

I vividly recall suggesting a Fall Festival and being met with such silence that I could hear crickets. Yet that festival became a joyful success, attracting visitors and sparking new energy. Sometimes the Spirit moves ahead of our confidence or lack of it.

We gathered for a vestry retreat in November, then Advent and Christmas arrived. I felt at full capacity with two book discussions, managing adult formation, and Sunday School twice a month. There was illness, travel, and fewer volunteers than hoped for on Christmas Eve, yet it shimmered and resounded with beauty—not because it was perfect but because Christ came among us.

The new year arrived with both promise and pain. I said goodbye to my beloved cat of sixteen and a half years, Miss Oscar, and watched my father’s health decline. Grief humbles the heart and changes the chapter in your life, and the Spirit met me there, too.

The weather surprised half the nation, and we experienced two Sundays with snow covering the ground, which made for a Zoom Annual Meeting that stirred distant memories of pandemic wounds. However, I found myself grateful for Zoom, which allowed us to gather without leaving the safety of our homes.

By the time March came, we had a balanced budget that felt auspicious. While April anxiously delivered this new priest unto her first Holy Week, Jesus brought resurrection joy. And through walking these months in my mind and heart, I recall the uncertainty, the learning curves, the moments when I felt like a new priest still discovering her footing; the Spirit never left me, and I could feel it never left All Saints.

This brings me back to 1 Corinthians 12, our Pentecost reading, which says, “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Sometimes this is quiet, sometimes bold, but it is always faithful.

I feel the Spirit held us and guided us, as verse 12 tells us: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

After a year, my heart bears witness to the Spirit weaving us together as one in Christ. As a priest, I have been humbled time and again, and I know that humility will continue to shape me. This year has been an education and a ministry unlike any other, found only by being present in the work God is doing at the corner of New Hope and Robinwood roads.

And God’s work continues, but I will end this reflection with a prayer facing forward to another year.

Gracious God, you illumine our hearts and minds with the slightest breath of your Spirit. We thank you for your constant presence and tender care. Breathe the gift of hope into our spirits, strengthening the resilience and steadfastness we need to fulfill the work you have entrusted us with, both in your church and in the spreading of the Gospel throughout the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Only by grace, Tara+