Skip to main content

April Newsletter

 He is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed! 

I got to baptize my grandson John!
Happy Eastertide to you as we enter into this high season of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Because Jesus rose from the dead everything will ultimately be okay! He rose to never die again and the tomb remains empty. Hallelujah!

We had an incredible Holy Week and Easter Sunday this year. The highlight was baptizing two infants (one of whom was my grandson), a teenager, and a young adult at our Saturday evening Easter Vigil! We had over 80 folks at our Vigil and over 70 on Easter Sunday. It was truly a glorious weekend!

Updates:

  • Happy Birthday Shalom! On Tuesday April 14 Shalom turned two years old! We gathered for an evening to celebrate, share what it's meant to us to be a part of this church, as well as talk about what's next for us. It was a wonderful evening!
  • We've been averaging over 50 adults and kids on Sunday the past month or so.
  • We had several folks attend all of our Holy Week Services (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil) for the first time and were deeply moved in worship.
  • Over Lent we took an offering for Scarlet Road. Scarlet Road works with survivors of Sexual Exploitation here in our community. Collectively we gave $2,750! I was very encouraged to see the generosity of our small church. 

Prayer:

  • Pray for the 18 adults and 5 kids in our current Catechism Class. A few are preparing for baptism and most are new to Anglicanism.
  • Pray for our Table Groups that have begun. These are groups that meet monthly for dinner and Compline and are a next step for folks to connect in community outside of Sunday Eucharist.
  • Pray for the establishment of some key ministries at Shalom and leaders to step forward. 
  • Pray for a few folks at Shalom who are discerning ordination. 
Thank you so much for your support and prayers!

For the Shalom of Kitsap,

Father Rob 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

June Newsletter

My wife and I have been building a garden… well, mostly my wife ;)  I underestimated how much work it would be.  We had to get stones out of the soil, lay down Beth's Garden mulch, then build a fence to keep the deer out. After that there was ordering dirt, wheelbarrowing the dirt, building planters, filling the boxes, and finally planting. This got me thinking about the work of ministry and specifically the balance between working hard, but then trusting God with the growth. In our garden we are working hard, but after we do our work we can’t make the plants grow. That’s outside of our realm. This partnership we have with God that began in Eden is a hard one. It seems like we’d rather just work hard and make it all up to us… or throw our hands up and just “let go and let God” to do it all.  But neither is how it all works. We do work hard. We do build. At the same time, only God brings the growth!  We see this in a wonderful text in Paul’s first letter to Corinth. T...

August Newsletter

 Grieving but grateful...  Robert Michael Steinbach Sr. 9/7/1946 - 7/28/2025 This is has been my response to people as they've asked me how I'm doing.  On July 28th my Dad's spirit left his failing body into the presence of the Trinity. My heart is heavy because of the finality of death. I can no longer see him or talk to him. Now I wait to go to him.  But I'm also grateful for his life. He had an amazing testimony which I shared about briefly at his memorial service . He was a gift to all who knew him. He was my Dad and I loved him dearly.  Needless to say July was a blur. I made two trips back to Maryland. The first was to see him and support my mom in his final days. The second was a week long trip after he passed for his memorial and committal service. I'm settling back into work and processing my grief as well as looking forward to the end of summer and some fall planning. Updates: While I was gone our church stepped up and handled the Sunday service. I'm g...

May Newsletter

 Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!  Palm Sunday begins outside with the liturgy of the Palms . This is our Eastertide acclamation and how we begin each service through Pentecost (June 8th). It's meant to orient us to the reality of our resurrected Lord who is reigning now. Easter isn't simply one special Sunday, but a whole season of being drenched in the joy and glory of Jesus' victory over his own death and now ours as well! If you find yourself drifting from the power of the resurrection that we celebrated on Easter, here is a link to my message on Easter Sunday to stir up hope once again! I have to say, this last month was simply AMAZING! God has been so good to us. Here are some highlights. Updates: We held our first Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) and it was a rich time of worship that culminated in a Taco Potluck on Saturday night with most of our church joining in! Through these three services as well as Easter Sund...