Welcome

According to Mary Foster Parmer, founder of Invite-Welcome-Connect, the deep truth of welcome is seeing the other. Seeing and being seen is a foundational need of every person. 

Jesus invites us into a particular way of seeing: to see deeply — with eyes of love, compassion, and forgiveness. To see one another as we are – beloved people made in the image of God, each of us with infinite value.

Jesus modeled this for us time and again. Think of the day he sat by a well and spoke with a Samaritan woman. By every rule of their time, the two were not to speak at all. Yet he saw her — truly saw her — and invited her into honest conversation. He offered her living water; she ran to tell her whole village what she had found. Two strangers welcomed one another into truthful conversation, into each other's lives, and both were changed.

We are called to do the same: to really see every person we meet each day, and everyone who walks through our doors, and welcome them with love. 

Welcome is one of the surest signs that a community is alive. And that is Saint Peter’s–a congregation alive in Christ and ready to go deeper as followers of Jesus. This is the welcome we hope you find at Saint Peter's: a place to see and be seen, and to grow in Christ.

I can think of no better week to begin. This Sunday, September 13, is our Welcome Sunday — worship at 10:15, followed by a picnic, petting zoo, and ice cream on the back lawn. Bring a friend. 

And on Monday the 14th, a new Contemplative Prayer group begins.