Pastoral letter to St. Mark’s Mesa parishioners, friends and neighbors

August 25, 2017

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I pray that you are having a wonderful summer. Thank you for being so faithful in supporting the work and ministries of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mesa. Because of you, thousands of lives are being transformed into fully committed followers of Christ. I have recently travelled to the mountain top, actually the Rockies, and honestly God has spoken to me.

Since I arrived to our beloved church, I have been working tirelessly with all of you in healing and reconciliation, and The Holy Spirit has been by our side, every single day. Together: God you, and I, we have faced several challenges that we have already transformed into opportunities to grow The Kingdom and to spread The Gospel of Love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now it is time for us to take our next step to consolidate our church and grow in Love and Unity.

This summer we have been blessed with the opportunity to worship in unity, and concord, as a ONE Family, under ONE GOD. The great majority of you, have showed an overwhelming support to our new worship schedule, not only with your presence but also welcoming visitors that later become new members. We are growing and that is a fact. For several Sundays in a row, during what would normally be considered “low attendance Sundays”, we have reached numbers exceeding attendance records for summer Sunday services over the past 8-10 years; and that’s without our beloved winter visitors.

We have been also financial, ecological and resourcefully responsible stewards, by saving in electricity and many other expenditures pertaining to our profoundly hot summers in the desert, in addition to maturing in fellowship while mingling among many and getting to know each other better. 

After many months of prayerful consideration and responding to the voice of the great majority of our parishioners, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” The Voice of the People is the voice of GOD, and with the blessing of our authorities, our Bishop’s Committee and the entire leadership of St. Mark’s: I have arrived to the conclusion that we are going to continue worshiping together at 10:00 am, on Sundays all year round, until we grow enough to open another mass. We will have Sunday School and Lion’s Den at 9 am between the Spanish and English service. With this decision we are making it possible to finally incorporate into our midst, those brothers and sisters in Christ who speak Spanish, and come faithfully to church at 8:00 in the morning, and they are really excited about the possibility of having their children attend our Sunday school. The adults from this service, while sharing a cup of coffee at Lion’s Den, will also have the opportunity to establish a friendly relationship with those who care, and who love The Same LORD that we are already worshiping in English.

Rest assured that I continue praying and caring for all of you, and as much as I am sensitive to those of you who don’t like this decision, I feel it necessary to support the overwhelming great majority. I happily extend and open invitation to anyone who wants to discuss this. I’ll be honored and happy to meet with you, to find common ground and the best way to together serve The LORD, and our beloved church. GOD ALMIGHTY loves and blesses all of you, so do I.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Gerardo Brambila+
​Vicar

(Printable PDF)

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