As I write this month’s Curate’s Notes, we have just had one of those seemingly normal but late snowfalls. I hear this is normal for Rhode Island. In fact it has been almost two years since Jessica and I first came to visit St. Paul’s on the weekend of April 8. I remember because it was my birthday weekend and although we were coming for “business” it was a wonderful trip, and Wickford was a wonderful present. But I digress. . . I remember even then there were still snowdrifts melting in the shade.

Sometimes seasons come and go a little faster or slower, and as I sit here at my computer looking out the window at those same melting snowdrifts, I am eager for spring, I am eager to celebrate new life!

Although the season of Lent is typically a season to anticipate the new life we have in Christ, new life came a little early this year for the Gates family. On February 26, we welcomed our second daughter Paige Taylor Gates into the world. She was born an ample 10 lbs. 2½ oz. Soon we remembered that new life, whenever it comes, is a joyful occasion but also the beginning of some hard work.

As you celebrate Easter, I hope you will rejoice in new life and reflect on the work there is to do to support new life. Christ, our ever-loving God, is always there as the perfect parent, to nurture life within us, to correct us when we stray, and to lead us to better, more fruitful ways of living. In celebrating the new life we have in Christ, a question we may ask ourselves is, how will we celebrate this life in our actions to the world?

Perhaps we can live out our celebration by renewing our activity in St. Paul’s Church, our faith community. We can participate in new life in this community by rededicating ourselves and our lives by serving Christ in our love and service to our neighbor.

One of the best ways to serve our neighbor is to open ourselves up to share our time with others. Our presence is the best present we can offer to each other and to God. I hope that we will see new life this Easter season in our classes, bible studies, worship services, clean-up days, youth meetings, Sunday School classes, fellowship gatherings, and by sharing other parts of our lives with each other.

Faithfully,      Alan Gates +