Sarah Hinck | April 21, 2026 

Easter is here, and we are in the midst of the Easter season. Having made it through Lent, a time for reflection, repentance, and turning toward Christ, we are now celebrating new life, a new season, and in many ways, a fresh start. But what happens when the world continues to feel heavy, as wars rage and environmental threats grow and our fight for the dignity and human rights of all feel insufficient? I take comfort in knowing that Jesus’s work was not over after the resurrection. He did not take his ease in Heaven after ascending. He returned to comfort and empower his disciples for the work ahead, to convince poor Thomas, to show us the way forward before ascending.

Your Grace Vestry has been very busy with both behind the scenes work to improve efficiency and transparency as the financial stewards of the church, as well as improving the ways that we can support our many ministries and our clergy staff. We are making progress with our goal of installing an elevator in the church and are excited to share updates with you as they are available. Invigoration and new life are happening here and all around us.

As we pray for those affected by spring time flooding and participate in spring time church cleaning, I would encourage us to meditate on all that is hopeful and inspiring about this season, including the recent successful Artemis II mission (an exciting and hopeful example of international cooperation and goodwill, and a reminder of the precious nature of the Earth we live on). In that spirit, I leave you with a spring time poem, celebrating the moon, rebirth, and hope by Mary Oliver (with some updates by me in verse 2, for full transparency):

Worm Moon
1 – In March the earth remembers its own name. Everywhere the plates of snow are cracking. The rivers begin to sing. In the sky the winter stars are sliding away; new stars appear as, later, small blades of grain will shine in the dark fields. And the name of every place is joyful.

2 – The season of curiosity is everlasting and the hour for adventure never ends, but tonight even the men (AND WOMAN) who walked upon (OR FLEW AROUND) the moon are lying content by open windows where the winds are sweeping over the fields, over water, over the naked earth, into villages, and lonely country houses, and the vast cities

3 – because it is spring; because once more the moon and the earth are eloping – a love match that will bring forth fantastic children who will learn to stand, walk, and finally run over the surface of earth; who will believe, for years, that everything is possible.

4 – Born of clay, how shall a man be holy; born of water, how shall a man visit the stars; born of the seasons, how shall a man live forever?

5 – Soon the child of the red-spotted newt, the eft, will enter his life from the tiny egg. On his delicate legs he will run through the valleys of moss down to the leaf mold by the streams, where lately white snow lay upon the earth like a deep and lustrous blanket of moon-fire,

6 – and probably everything is possible.

– Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons