It is with great pleasure that I write to you my first "Rector's column" in the Pohick Post! After a long, fifteen-hundred-mile trek—with three children, two adults and one cat distributed between our two cars—we finally turned down the rectory driveway and pulled up to the house. Waiting for us there were our old friends Don and Darlene O'Connell and George Crump, who all greeted us with smiles and warm hugs. We had arrived! Our furniture and boxes of belongings came the next day, and we have been unpacking them ever since.

Though it will be several weeks before we are fully settled-in, that burden has been greatly diminished by the great kindness of many parishioners who have done such things as bring by casseroles, entertain our children while we unpacked, or point us in the right direction for various community services.

On top of that, the rectory itself is in magnificent condition-so much so that before we left Dallas, we donated a lot of our old furniture to charity so that we could purchase pieces more worthy of such a grand abode! Needless to say, our heartfelt thanks goes to our Junior Warden, to the Rectory Committee and to the numerous supporting volunteers for all the many hours they have devoted to preparing for our family such a beautiful new home.

At my first vestry meeting in August (which, by chance, was literally held on my first day in the office!), I had an opportunity to share some of my initial reflections on the mission of Pohick Church. Accordingly, I chose for the propers of the meeting's opening Eucharist those set forth for "The Mission of the Church II" (BCP, p. 930), which, for the Gospel, include the words of the Great Commission: "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age'" (Matt 28:18-20).

In my ensuing homily, I reiterated the point that this Commission charges us to make disciples, a process that Jesus divided into two major components: Administration of the Sacrament and Teaching of the Word. The sacramental aspect of our faith begins when one is presented at Baptism and emerges from those waters to start a life-long journey of conversion. That journey deepens through the mystical union with Christ experienced in our weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist. In that celebration, we join with Christ in his sacrifice, crucifying our "old selves"—those sinful, hurtful habits that are part of the human condition—and then allowing ourselves to be raised up through his grace to lead a new life of love.

This ongoing cycle of repentance, forgiveness and transformation is informed by God's Holy Word—Sacred Scripture—which, guided through Reason by the two-thousand-year Tradition of the Church, serves as lamp of revelation into how we should order our lives.

For Pohick Church, Christ's charge means that everything we do in this place—whether it be within our Sunday worship or while we stir apple butter—everything we do needs to be geared toward welcoming others into our community of faith and toward deepening the faith of those already within that community.

As I begin my ministry at Pohick Church as your Rector, I would ask each of you to reflect on how Christ's Great Commission is already being accomplished in our parish—and how it can be accomplished even better in the future. And after you have prayerfully reflected for a time, share your thoughts with each other, not neglecting to bring into the loop the leadership of the parish. Do this respectfully and graciously, understanding that your views may not exactly coincide with those of your neighbor, but resting assured that through such exchanges, God will slowly but surely raise up a larger vision for Pohick Church as we begin to look to the future of our parish.

Faithfully,

Donald D. Binder+