Dear Trinity Family,
Wow, it feels good to finally say that! I am so glad to be here in person in the great state of Virginia as the Rector of Trinity Upperville. Your kindness and hospitality in the midst of the Coronavirus has been beautiful. I would like to say thank you to the many of you who have provided meals, wine and cheese, cards, emails, calls and especially the Gow’s who opened up their guest house for us while we were moving in. We have been blown away… the parade last Sunday was over the top!!! WOW thank you to all who pulled that together. When we left, my son said, “Dad, I think these people like you”. Indeed that is true.
As we enter this new relationship with one another, I want you to know that first and foremost I am your priest… I am here for you and my phone is always available to you. I want to walk with you in the good and the bad, the celebrations and the heartaches, the joys and the trials. That is my calling and commitment to you.
Second, I want you to know that I’m here to be your pastor. I’m here to preach the good news of Jesus every week. I’m here to offer a time of confession and absolution, and I’m here to put the bread in your hand and the wine to your lips. I will be faithful to that calling, and I will remind you that you are loved, forgiven and in the family of God, not because I say so but because Jesus says so. You might wonder why the gospel every week (A.K.A the good news)… Martin Luther was once asked that question by a class of seminarians and he said, “I preach the gospel to you every week because you forget it every week”. We humans tend to think the gospel is the thing that gets us into heaven and that is true, but it’s also the thing that keeps us in His grace. Tim Keller once said, “The gospel is not the ABC’s of our faith but the A-Z’s of the faith”! It’s the beginning, the middle and the end! And so, you will hear the “good news” proclaimed week in and week out.
Finally I’m here to be your Shepherd. I’m here to listen to God and lead the congregation spiritually toward Him. This means I will spend a lot of time praying and reading the scripture. In my prayer time, I will be praying for you so please keep me up to date on how I can pray for you. Trinity is a wonderful place and we have so much potential. I truly do believe the best years are ahead! We will get through this season of Pandemic, and we will come together soon.
In fact, I have asked the re-opening committee, with advisement from the worship committee to roll up their sleeves and get us back together ASAP! This means we may have to add a new service so that we all can come together. In so doing, I want to ask that you begin to pray for the committee, that they would have wisdom as they advise me in making the best decisions we can for the community. It may also mean we will have to be creative in how we meet, which may mean we need to adjust the budget. Your faithfulness in giving allows us to move in that direction without budgetary restraints. So let me thank you in advance for praying, being creative, and giving not to me, not to Trinity, but to GOD.
I can’t wait to meet you FACE-TO-FACE! This will happen soon. Until then…
Grace and Peace to you
JA+
The Rev. Jonathan V. Adams
