Vicar’s New Year’s Message 2024
Dear wonderful and loving people of God at St Edmund’s Pacifica,
Please accept my virtual hugs as I thank you for that joyful and adventuresome 2023 ride. I continue to grow in wisdom and grace in you and your guidance in my ministry as well as yours. I ask your continued support and leadership in the life and works of St Edmund’s here and in the wider community and the world. Your great ideas and advocacies are leading us to embrace more and more the five marks of mission the Episcopal/Anglican Church have given us as guidelines in our several stations before God and humanity as well as the rest of God’s creation.
As we approach the promise and possibilities Year 2024 has in store for us, I would like to share with you the prayers and meditations Sister Pamela Clare of the Community of St Francis has led the Diocesan Convention in December 2023 before the election of a new bishop in this DioCal:
that reach out across the world.
These are the words of early 20th c. Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
May I suggest that this little poetic couplet provides us with a useful discernment tool.
Start with the center of your life’s circle, which is you. Go down deep and know your heart and your mind. What are your feelings and thoughts, hopes and concerns?
Then widen your circle. You are part of a congregation. What are the feelings and thoughts, hopes and concerns of that congregation?
Then widen your circle still more. Your congregation is part of the Diocese of CA. What are the feelings and thoughts, hopes and concerns of this diocese?
Finally, widen your circle to include the outside world as it interacts with the Diocese. What are the feelings and thoughts, hopes and concerns of the world that this diocese with a new bishop may be called to respond to?
May the Holy Spirit empower you to live your life in widening circles that reach out across the world.”
Friends, Year 2024 is calling, what are we waiting for? Let’s go and let live!
Love,
The Rev. Leonard Oakes, Vicar
St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church
1500 Perez Drive
Pacifica, CA 94044
Vicar’s Christmas Message 2023
Dear Wonderful Friends at St. Edmund’s,
Greetings of Love through our Lord Jesus Christ!
This Christmas is my very first with you as your Vicar since you installed me in April of 2023. My family and I thank you for we found a home in you. It is a very memorable and meaningful one for us because you were all there all along. Your continued support has been very uplifting in my ministry as your priest. God being with us “Emmanuel”, I ask you all to continue holding on to the spirit of our being one family in this blessed community and be a blessing to others always.
There are enumerable ways to thank God for the many blessings He has given us for this year and the coming years. Our perseverance and faithfulness have made us all worthy before God. May we continue to walk in God’s ways and always be forgiving and loving to each other, to our family, fellow workers, neighbors and to ourselves, always remembering that we are ever walking in the sight of God. May we welcome again and again the coming of His Son Jesus Christ in our lives, our family, our community, and the world.
I thank all the committees that carry the visions and missions of the Church: The Bishop Committee members, ECW, Altar Guild, Sunday School, Music and Liturgical ministry, social media and newsletter ministry, Altar servers and LEM, Community advocacy ministry, hospitality and fellowship volunteers, and all other program committees that contribute to the life and works of St. Edmund’s.
I also thank our pledge givers for the continued financial and spiritual support. With you, our prayers are answered, and our programs realized.
Lastly, I thank my wife Haidee and my children Joshua, Heather, Hailey and mother in-law Hilaria for their loving support.
I invite you all to look forward to the coming years with positive life to live.
God’s blessings to you all and your household! Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
Love in Christ,
The Rev. Leonard B. Oakes, Vicar