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A Pastoral Note and Invitation to Wednesday Evening Prayer

Dear friends,

Last week, footage was released of the fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols: fellow Tennesseean, artist, student, and community member. When I heard the news on Saturday, my mind was reeling and my anger raised. How can this happen again?

As our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, wrote in his pastoral letter, "With the murder of Tyre Nichols, another mother, as in the biblical texts, weeps, with the mothers of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. A family grieves. A community fears. A nation is ashamed. Like the psalmist in the Bible, something in us cries out, “How long, O Lord, how long?” How long violence, how long cruelty, how long the utter disregard for the dignity and worth of every child of God? How long?"

This murder followed on the heels of a mass shooting in Monterey Park during a Lunar New Year celebration, one disturbing attack in a string of mass shootings. There have been 40 mass shootings so far in the month of January.

Attacks on innocent Black Americans continue to fill the news and our communities with terror.

Gun violence continues to fill the news and our communities with terror.

How long, O Lord?

I have heard from several members of our parish that who are grieving. While our congregation tries to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice, guiding us to our next faithful steps of justice and peace in this community, our hearts are breaking, weary and angry.

So as we grieve, rage, protest, and pray, I invite you to join at St. Paul's for a service of Evening Prayer this Wednesday evening, February 1st, at 5:30 p.m.

May we gather in prayer for those who have died, for all who are grieving, and for those most at risk.

May we pray those who have the power to make the policy changes we so need.

May we pray for the courage and wisdom we need, that we might continually work toward a world where peace and justice are more abundant than violence and bigotry.

Claire+

The City of Etowah will soon host a capital improvement plan meeting to decide how to use the emergency funds provided by the federal government.

Etowah City Manager Russ Blair encouraged the citizens of Etowah to participate in the meeting should they have the time to do so.

“We will be having a capital improvement workshop on Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. at the Etowah Community Center,” Blair said. “This will be a planning workshop for the city commission to consider possible projects for use of our American Rescue Act funds that we have received.”

The city had been awarded $1.063 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.

“We have to commit those funds by the end of 2024 and then have it spent by December of 2026, so we are trying to begin the planning process for it,” Blair noted. “This is an opportunity for the commission to have a more in-depth conversation going than what we would be able to do in a regular meeting when there are other items on the agenda.”

Blair noted the commission wouldn’t be able to make any decisions official during the planning workshop.

“We won’t be able to take any action during the workshop but it does give us the opportunity to narrow the projects down to what we want to do and see what all we can do,” he stated. “I’m hoping that we are able to get a clear direction on how to proceed with some of these potential projects.”

This particular event is similar to the strategic planning session the city held last year, however instead of focusing on future plans for the city this workshop’s focus will be purely for the use of the ARPA funds.

“There may be some overlap from the discussions held in the strategic planning session but the gist of this is on how to spend this money,” Blair expressed. “I think the citizens need to be involved in this discussion. It’s unprecedented that we have been awarded this amount of money and however the commission chooses to allocate it, I believe that the public needs to be involved in that process.”

Blair does encourage everyone wishing to attend have a basic understanding of the American Rescue Plan Act prior to the meeting.

“Each city was awarded an amount of money based on population,” Blair quickly summarized. “Because our award was under the $10 million threshold it can be used for any government purpose except for principal and interest payments on debt and a few other exclusions.”

The Arts: