Letter from Pastor Ann Marie in August Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family of Adrian Presbyterian Church,

Summer greetings! There has been a lot going on during these hot summer months at the

church. I celebrate the community of faith that gathers in worship each Sunday. I’ve been

blessed to watch you greet one another, as we share concerns and pray for one another. I’ve

been blessed as we sing praises and wrestle with scripture and profess our faith together.

I’ve celebrated the variety of ways that you have found ways to spend time together. From

game nights to dinners shared to cottage time and Fellowship coffees, you have nurtured

community here throughout the summer.

I give thanks for the leadership that the Session is providing as you make plans for moving

forward in your search for a new pastor. As the search progresses, I am asking you to pray for

those who will take on the tasks of ministry that will continue to be done with or without a

minister. Times of change and waiting can be fertile time for trying new things or reshaping

existing things. Remember that we are called to be ministers to one another. You don’t need a

seminary degree to do good works, to support the ministries of this church, to reach to the

homebound, to show compassion to those who are sick or hurting.

Apparently the brilliant scientist/physicist, Stephen Hawking, from Cambridge University has

reversed his stance on explaining “black holes.” The old view was that black hole’s erase and

demolish all ‘molecular fingerprints’ of matter. But Hawking now says, “No, that isn’t so.”

Hawking, a guy with an 80 gig brain in a world of 1 gig thinkers, admits that he doesn’t have an

answer, that he can’t fully explain “black holes.”

Somehow this is a comfort to me. I am reassured that there is a transcendent God who is

beyond us, “Who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, who stretches out the heavens like

a canopy.” (Isaiah 40:22) I trust that God who is beyond us sees the future and has plans for

your life together moving forward. Our task, always, I think, is to seek God’s wisdom, to listen

to God’s Spirit leading us.

Shalom- Ann Marie Montgomery