Still in One Peace – March 11, 2026
Weekly Conversations with Pastor Jeff
Annual Report 2025
Good morning, Chapel Hillers! I am still, by grace, in one peace, and I trust you are, as well.
Many of you have heard me speak about my dear friend, Father Dan Spexarth, who founded St. Catherine’s Catholic Church on the far west side. His congregation creates an Annual Report—a meaningful snapshot of how God has been at work in and through their parish family.
Last year, Christina Kukuruda came across their report and shared it with me, believing it could be a wonderful way for us to communicate with our own congregation. I couldn’t agree more.
I’m delighted to share Chapel Hill’s 2025 Annual Report with you this morning. Simply click the link below to view it. I hope it encourages you as you see all that God is doing in, through, and among us as we seek to welcome all people to experience and share the extraordinary grace and love of Jesus.
With a desire to meet the needs of diverse groups within our congregation, I am going to share a video every other week in the weekly e-news and provide a printed blog on the off weeks. Some people have shared their frustration with technology and appreciate having something printed out. Thanks for the helpful feedback!
For some inspiration this week, I am going to share one of my favorite articles on Lent by the Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Frederick Buechner. A prolific writer and deep thinker about all that really matters in this world, the Reverend Buechner shares his thoughts on the meaning and purpose of Lent and how to make the most of the time.
“In many cultures, there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days. After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness, where he spent forty days asking himself what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask, in one way or another, what it means to be themselves.
- If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why?
- When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?
- If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?
- Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?
- Is there any person in the world or any cause that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?
- If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?
To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are, but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.”
~originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words