4 November, 2004

Dear Parish Family:

The peace of God which passeth all understanding be with you. It is early November and our clocks have been moved backward bringing an early darkness to the day. Ive always been uncomfortable with this but in the end it makes the arrival of spring and the anticipated longer spring and summer days more meaningful. We have just gone through a presidential election and although those on the winning side are elated, those on the losing side are deeply distressed. I think we can all agree that this is a divided nation, and I for one have no clear sense of where this nation is headed?

Last Saturday I celebrated a Eucharist for family members of the military killed in action in Iraq. It was a moving experience. I had the opportunity to meet a mother who lost her son, and a wife who lost her husband and countless relatives. The mom who lost her husband in Iraq is a U.S. Army sergeant and was there along with her fatherless child. There was a U.S. Marine Honor Guard present for the ceremony preceding the Eucharist. All the military present were honored along with the dead. There was a feeling in the air that this was the wrong war at the wrong time, and that the military were simply performing their duty, but not because they believed in this war.

Opinions will remain divided on this issue, for myself as a servant of Christ, I do not see the hand of God at work in this war effort, quite the contrary, I only see an escalation of fundamentalist ideals, both Islamic and Christian, which as we know from history, only leads to further blind hatred and destruction no matter how well we try to disguise this.

Over 100,000 mostly Iraqi civilians have died in this war effort (the equivalent of one million people in this country) and yet life here in America goes on as usual. This does not disturb us. Ted Koppell of ABC news made the observation that here in America, people dont want their lives to be disrupted when fighting a war, they want life to go on as usual. Our tendency is to live in arrogant comfort. This posture lacks a sense of conscience and responsibility. There is a clear absence of the "peace of God which passeth all understanding" which leads to reconciliation and the practice and sacrifice of doing and living justice. There are dark days ahead, but the Lord is our light and our salvation, we are called to remain witnesses to Christ, to live the Gospel by our deeds and not by what we proclaim and profess, which in the end are empty gestures if our witness is not genuine.

On another and more uplifting note, St. Anselms continues to grow as a multi-cultural parish. It pleases me to share with you that we now have a teenage youth group that is meeting every Thursday at 6:30 pm. Im running the youth group and the young people attending are the result of our Latino ministry. Our youth program is conducted in English and simultaneously we have younger children meeting with Sue Landson for Sacramental Classes.

At our recent Halloween party we had over 35 kids present, and thanks mostly to Sue Landson and Dennis Landson, they really had a great and fun time. Leo Barrientos provided the exciting live music for the kids as they played musical chairs, and we had a blast. As usual, Pat Caseys Hobo Stew was a winner and along with Jane Dietsche and other kitchen volunteers it was a great event. We recently also welcomed three new members to our English speaking congregation: Lulu from Palesine, Patsy from Jamaica, and Dennis from Long Beach . This coming Sunday (the Sunday After All Saints Day) we have five baptisms. Four of these will be at our English service and one at our Spanish service. Thus there is life here at St. Anselms which brings me to my next topic, stewardship.

As you all know, without your stewardship we would have no parish. Expenses continue to rise and our buildings are getting older (more and more maintenance and repairs are needed). We really need your support. Enclosed with this letter is a pledge card for you to fill out and return to us. You can do this personally, via the mail, or by simply dropping the card in the collection plate on Sunday. Our funding from the diocese for our music program is going down again this year so that puts a further dent on our finances. Although giving from our Latino ministry is going up, we still have more work to do on stewardship in that ministry recognizing that most of our Latino congregants live below the poverty level. Regardless of this, the giving and trust that the Lord will provide is becoming more and more evident with this group. I ask that you pray and trust that the Lord will also provide for you, and if you have fallen behind on your current pledge, please bring it up to date before the Christmas season is upon us and we fall victims to getting more stuff for people that already have more stuff than they know what to do with.

In closing, I ask that you keep me in your prayers. I will be traveling to Brazil next week and will be gone for three Sundays. This is a sabbatical time off for me. I will be visiting Episcopal churches and getting to know a bit of the Anglican story in that part of the world and also Uruguay (Ill be making a stop there for a few days before heading back). Our parish is sending me off with a total gift of $3000.00 from our Kelly Evanglism Fund (established by Harry Kelly before he passed away). The gift is for evangelism in the Diocese of Curitiba Parana, and Mediator Epicopal Cathedral in the Diocese of the Southwest of Brazil. Thankfully this fund does not draw from our annual parish budget. Please keep me in your prayers for safe travel. I also hope to do some photography while I am there in my role as an ambassador for St. Anselm of Canterbury Church. I will be coming home on the Thanksgiving weekend and wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving Day, a generous heart, a thirst for justice, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

In His Name,

Wilfredo Benitez+

The Rev. Wilfredo Benitez,

Rector

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