Dear Parishioners and Friends,

If you happened to see our Christmas advertisement in the Schenectady Gazette you would note the sentiment expressed there: May His dawning break down all barriers and bring us peace.

Christmas is a recollection, a memory of what happened over 2,000 years ago, and a new dawning of that moment. In that moment 2,000 years ago we saw the incredible love our God holds for us. He withheld nothing from us, and gave Himself for our benefit. This Christmas we face the stable, and the need to reconnect, to re-realize the incredible power of God’s love. We cry out for that new dawn, and behold; it is within our grasp. Jesus didn’t come and go in the span of 33 years, from Christmas to the Ascension, but remains with us, steadfast by our side.

This Christmas we face a day that offers the new and perfect, the peaceful. We resolve to be our better selves with the help of His grace. His new dawning calls us to become the best of what Christians can be. Our Christian life, our baptismal call, is not to foster dissension or separation, but to be bearers of His new dawn each and every day. Our relationship to our Holy Church is not about religious affiliation, but about life in a community that helps us to be the new dawn of Christ every day, the light that will bring peace between people, that will break all barriers.

We have had an incredibly beautiful and blessed year in our little parish. Friends new and old have gathered to be the new dawn for each other, our neighborhood, and our wider community. In this work we continue to break down barriers and bring peace. We are that small church on a small street with a big and welcoming heart. The new dawn continues to this day, here, among us.

I wish and pray that this Christmas brings you all the joys of His new dawning. On behalf of the Parish Committee and myself, I wish you the most blessed Christmas season and look forward to seeing you as we join together to face the new dawning of Jesus into our lives and our community.

Rev. Deacon James A. Konicki