Thank
you for being here, and for coming from near and far, for your
supportive presence, for praying, for dancing, for leading prayer,
for singing, for directing music, for mowing the lawn and edging and
weed-eating, for celebrating (in all senses of the word), for
preaching, for cooking and cooking and cooking, and cleaning up and
cleaning up, for playing the organ, the piano, the trumpet, the
flute, the trombone, the bongo drums, the djembe, the violin, the
Indian tabla drums, the accordion (a seriously cool instrument), for
talking, for listening, for emptying the trash over and over again,
for cleaning up whatever it was in the balcony, for unlocking the
doors, for locking the doors, for recording, for balancing the
sound, for printing copies of the Chronicle article, for not
complaining about the temperature even though you were dressed in a
suit or an alb, for building the website, for waving flags, for
graciously answering the telephone for the hundredth time, for
moving the church office and getting the P.O. box and copying the
bills, for getting more water than we needed, for cooking the bread,
for playing the guitar (in the nave and in the chapel), for moving
prayer books and hymnals and candles and the cross, for putting out
the tables and all the chairs and the tablecloths, for printing the
bulletins, for taking care of the children, for taking the
photograph, for taking photographs, for bringing flowers, for
decorating the altar so beautifully, for writing and compiling and
printing the memory book, for being gracious even in ungracious
moments with both people and things, for planning the services and
the snacks and the potluck dinners, for reading the lections, for
all that you contributed (in every sense of that word too), for
being an acolyte and an usher and a priest and a lay worship leader
and a youth pastor and a cook and a musician and a composer and a
dishwasher and a treasurer and a janitor.
