“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17 – NIV) Today, I launch a new clergy collegial blog. I hope we will encourage and empower each other toward success and excellence in pastoral ministry. As I sit in the Pastor’s Study at Cambria Heights Community Church, I often ponder the possible feedback of clergy colleagues as it relates to preparing sermons, counseling in particularly difficult situation, designing fresh worship, balancing competing priorities of ministry, marriage and family, maintaining self-care, pursuing personal dreams and private interests outside of ministry and family, and finding resources to meet the ever evolving and changing needs of the people whom I serve. After a sustained period of prayer, reflection and meditation, I realize I can invite you to come “In The Pastor’s Study” for an exchange of ideas.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas 2012 Greetings from The Singletary Family


Christmas 2012 Greetings
from The Singletary Family


24 December 2012

Dearest Family and Friends,

Soiled diapers, smelly wipes, odoriferous shirts and blouses reeking of an infant’s projectile vomiting, loads of urine soaked children’s laundry due to accidents, glaring volumes of kids television programming and radio, tripping over myriad toys throughout your house, repeated trips to the pediatrician, serving as a chauffeur and any other daily parental chores, all, are amongst the greatest gifts we have as we celebrate Christmas and other religious holidays this year.  In the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, countless fellow citizens painstakingly strive to find “a new normal” as they rebuild their lives.  The recent tragedy of mass murder of twenty innocent first grade students and six undeserving adults in Newtown, Connecticut compels us to reassess our cardinal principles of faith, politics, finance and public policy.  As a father of a fourteen year old son and ten year old daughter, my heart bleeds continually for the parents and families of those victims whose lives have been ravaged with an unimaginable horror.

Utilizing the enduring and rich spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith, I pray genuinely for them and seek practical and pragmatic ways to concretize divine love and compassion.  I will join with like-minded people of faith and social justice advocacy to use the power of community to combat evil with the steadfast hope that we can spare other parents such an unspeakable atrocity.  Yet, chief among the Christian practices from which I draw strength, comfort and hope is gratitude.  I am most appreciative this holiday season for my two beloved children and gifts of parental obligations as I realize I am greatly blessed as a recipient of their unconditional love.  This year, my heart swells with thanksgiving for my family and their well-being with appropriate soberness as I consider the regrettable plight of my neighbors in the Northeast.

One of my family’s most recent joys is Curtis’ success in freshmen basketball tryouts!  His number is 44.  With all due humility and objectivity, if I may say, Curtis is a very good defensive player who refuses to allow taller and bigger players to intimidate him “in the paint and the post.”    As my basketball skills equate with my readiness for the next phase of the space program, I sit in the bleachers and marvel as I watch him play.  He is a quintessential athlete who strives for excellence.  Most fortunately, his efforts also extend to his academic subjects as he missed honors by a couple of points.  Personally, I wish he were in Ashburnham, Massachusetts yielding such academic and athletic achievements.  His mother, my beloved wife, will not entertain the thought!  Accordingly, I harbor this dream within my Walter Smitty flights of fantasy.

Our daughter, Sariel, spent the fall semester balancing soccer, swimming and voice lessons in addition to attaining honors in her classes.  A magnanimous creative soul which sings openly and freely and even literally in the morning as we attempt to leave punctually for school without familial drama, Sariel enjoys Disney radio (the Wakey Blakey Morning Show), fashion design books, and Archie comics of late.  It is a sheer joy to view the world through her innocent, generous and compassionate eyes.  What an antidote to the jadedness that emerges within years of adult living!  Her joy erodes the cynicism that easily overwhelms the optimism of my youth.

In February, Carol Joy and I will celebrate twenty years together.  Already, I am very excited about this milestone.  How amazing to spend 7300 days in relationship with the same person!  We look forward to another twenty years.  She serves as a Dean of Culture at a charter school in Brooklyn where she is able encourage elementary school students as they begin their educational odysseys and empower their parents as they collaborate with teachers and administrators in a very fluid and vibrant learning community.  As teacher and educator at heart, Carol Joy is suited ideally for her current position of service.

In addition to the drastic challenges of natural disaster and inexplicable, maniacal mass murder, this year has yielded other professional accomplishments and personal delights.  As I write, I reach the two and a half year mark at Cambria Heights Community Church.  My family’s return to our beloved New York City remains a progressive answer to a heartfelt prayer as I yearned for an existential space where each of our souls could be fully alive as we embrace our dreams and goals.  I continue to visualize the completion of a few goals which linger in the sanctuary of my mind and heart.  Inspiration spontaneously erupts in the middle of the night.  I am silly with enthusiasm as I enter the afternoon of life and willingly encounter life’s mystery and serendipity.  Admittedly, I agreed with the outcome of the presidential election but I particularly rejoiced when I observed the willingness of countless diverse American citizens to stand in line for several hours on end to vote.  As a student of history, I saw their relentless will to exercise democracy’s greatest gift to the common person as a vindication of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for which many of my forbears of the American South sacrificed their lives.  Mostly, I relish the accomplishments of my wife and children whose smiles, happiness and joy unquestionably yields the very same for me.

In that spirit of divine love, we wish you, your family and friends our heartfelt wishes for the genuine blessings of this sacred season.  I believe our most invaluable gift is God’s love as it is personified through our most precious relationships.  Ironically, the recent unimaginable and irreversible loss suffered by our neighbors New Jersey, Colorado and Connecticut forces us to re-examine life’s true riches.  As you celebrate the holiday of your respective faith traditions, Carol Joy, Curtis, Sariel and I hope love, joy, peace and wholeness will be your daily and constant companions.

With warmest personal regards,
Victor