Newsletters

The Creator Connection JUNE 2026
“Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:11

 

From the Pastor’s Desk

“Helping Shape the Clinton Center for Truth, Memory, and Healing”

Over the past several months, many of us have been listening, praying, imagining, and asking what it might mean for the Episcopal Church of the Creator to help imagine and give birth to the Clinton Center for Truth, Memory, and Healing which would be located here on our campus.

 

This is still a developing vision. That is important to say. The Center is not yet a finished institution with every program decided, every partnership secured, or every question answered. It is, instead, a faithful beginning: an attempt to ask what our church, in this place, at this moment, may be called to offer our wider community.

At its heart, the Center grows out of a simple conviction: healing requires truth, and truth requires a place where memory can be held with courage, humility, and hope.

 

We live in a community with a deep and complicated history. Some of that history is beautiful. Some of it is painful. Some of it has been remembered carefully. Some of it has been ignored, simplified, or left unspoken. The work before us is not to assign blame, rehearse bitterness, or reopen wounds for their own sake. The work is to create space where honest memory can serve a more faithful future.

That kind of work cannot be done by one person, one committee, or one event. It will require the gifts of many people.

 

Some of us may feel called to help with hospitality: welcoming neighbors, preparing space, setting tables, making sure people feel safe and seen. Some may have gifts for history, research, archives, storytelling, or local memory. Some may be drawn to prayer, liturgy, music, and the spiritual framing of this work. Some may have experience in education, facilitation, communications, technology, fundraising, or community partnerships. Some may simply be willing to listen well, show up faithfully, and help carry the work as it unfolds.

All of these gifts matter.

 

The Center will need people who can dream broadly and people who can attend to details. It will need people who can speak and people who can listen. It will need those who know Clinton’s history well and those who are still learning. It will need lifelong residents, newcomers, elders, youth, teachers, artists, business leaders, church members, and neighbors beyond our congregation.

 

For members of Creator, this is also a natural extension of our own spiritual practice. We have been learning to speak of Christian life as the practice of “being home”: receiving the welcome of God, and then becoming a more truthful, gracious, and spacious home for others. The Center is one way that practice may take public form. It asks whether our common life can become a place where people are welcomed not by pretending the past does not matter, but by trusting that truth, mercy, and hope can belong in the same room.

 

In the coming season, we will need conversation partners, planners, hosts, researchers, writers, pray-ers, bridge-builders, and steady companions. You do not need to have special expertise to participate. You only need a willingness to help us listen for what faithfulness looks like here.

 

Please begin praying about how you might take part. Consider what gifts, relationships, questions, or hopes you may bring. The Center is still becoming. By God’s grace, we are becoming with it. If you would like more detail of our work to date, Contact Pastor Bob.

 

Yours in Christ, Pastor Bob

 

BE A BARNABAS: THE GIFT OF ENCOURAGEMENT

When we think of the great heroes of the Bible, names like Peter, Paul, and John often come to mind. Yet one of the most influential people in the early Church, someone many Christians know very little about is Barnabas.

 

Barnabas was not one of the original Twelve Apostles. In fact, his birth name was Joseph. The apostles gave him the name Barnabas, meaning “Son of Encouragement.” (What a wonderful thing to be known for!)

Barnabas first appears in the Book of Acts when he sells a piece of land and gives the proceeds to support the growing Christian community. He was known as a generous and faithful disciple who cared deeply for others.

Perhaps Barnabas’s greatest contribution came when Saul—later known as St. Paul—converted to Christianity. Many believers were understandably afraid of Saul because he had once persecuted Christians. While others were hesitant to trust him, Barnabas welcomed him, believed in him, and introduced him to the apostles.

Imagine what might have happened if Barnabas had not stepped forward. One act of encouragement helped open the door for Paul’s ministry, which would go on to spread the Gospel throughout much of the known world.

 

Barnabas reminds us that not everyone is called to stand at the front of the crowd. Some are called to encourage, support, welcome, and strengthen others. Every church is blessed with Barnabases—the person who sends a card, makes a phone call, welcomes a visitor, prepares a meal, offers a prayer, or simply says, “I’m glad you’re here.”

 

These acts may seem small, but they can have a lasting impact. A kind word offered at the right moment can change someone’s day, strengthen their faith, or even alter the course of their life.

 

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Barnabas on June 11, let us ask ourselves: Who needs encouragement today? How can we be a Barnabas to someone in our community? May God help each one of us to share kindness generously, offer support freely, and build one another up in faith and love.

 

FAITH IN ACTION

Help support the Clinton Christian Community Center (4C’s) and Mississippi College Student Food Bank with non-perishable food items each Sunday. Baskets are marked in the Narthex.

 

          

FINANCIAL STATUS  April: Income/$19,424.33– Expenses/11,212.49

JUNE FUN QUIZ

1. You adopt a lovable golden retriever. What name do you choose?
   ☐ Barnabas, ☐ Sir Barks-a-Lot, ☐ Archbishop Woofington III
2. A cat arrives at your house and immediately acts like it owns the place. Its name is:
   ☐ Queen Pimpi, ☐ King Whiskers, ☐ The Right Reverend Floof
3. You win a goldfish at a church picnic. What do you call it?
   ☐ Captain Bubbles, ☐ Swim Shady, ☐ Fishopher
4. An iguana joins your household. Naturally, you name it:
   ☐ Sir Scales, ☐ Pickle, ☐ Steve

RESULTS

Mostly Barnabas-related names:
You have the spirit of encouragement! Like St. Barnabas, you see the best in everyone—including pets.

Mostly silly names:
You bring joy wherever you go. The world needs more laughter, and apparently more iguanas named Steve.

A little of everything:
Congratulations! You are wonderfully unique, just like every beloved creature God has made.