Twenty years ago this month, Holy Apostles was packing up.

The January 2006 issue of The Messenger, Holy Apostles' old monthly newsletter, was mailed out with the parish's old Kenmore P.O. box still printed on the back cover. Inside, in bold type: "WE'RE MOVING INTO OUR NEW CHURCH HOME!" Three Saturday work parties were scheduled throughout that first month in 2006, to get the new Shoreline building ready. The first Divine Liturgy in the new space was set for February 5. We were, then, a parish in transition, between two places and not fully in either.

Fr. Tom's message that month was about "the dash," the small mark on a tombstone between the date a person is born and the date they die, and how that little line represents an entire life. It's a message you may have heard from Fr. Tom: "It is what we do with the time we've been given and how we use our heartbeats. 'The dash' is what truly matters." He was writing then to a parish about to step into a new building, asking them not to let the moment pass without making it matter.

Reading it now, in the middle of our own major building project, is a little surreal. The parallel of such a momentous building change, twenty years nearly to the month after our original big move, feels darn near prophetic. Fr. Tom is always teaching us about the importance of timing. It's hard to look at the timing of our current building remodel within the context of our parish's history and not see God smiling.

Just as our community did in the months leading up to their big move twenty years ago, we have packed up, thrown out, adjusted, shifted, lifted and boxed. Our ground-breaking ceremony and blessing was just a few weeks ago and once again we are a parish in transition. Walls are coming down, dirt is being excavated, piles of construction debris have replaced spaces we've used for years.

Like the parishioners who were unboxing, trimming shrubs and painting walls in January 2006, we're being asked to imagine, with patience, excitement and effort, the next step in our Holy Apostles journey.

So for the next twelve months, I'm going to pull one issue of The Messenger out of the 2006 archives and share it here. Partly because it's fun. (The Greek Magi sketch on page 6 of this issue alone is worth the price of admission.) Partly because so many of us weren't here yet, and the names and photos and stories of those early years deserve to be more than a closed chapter. And partly because I think the parallel is going to keep showing up: a parish that built something twenty years ago is now rebuilding it, and the effort, the questions and the experience may prove surprisingly similar.

The full PDF is below. Click on the cover image to download. Enjoy and I'll see you next month for February.

Warmly,

Erica