Dear Saints of St. Peter's,

We are well into stewardship season now and we have been exploring what it means not only to belong to a parish as members but to share a parish as ministers. I've preached three sermons so far exactly about that (you can find them all here!), and we've also heard from parishioners about their own connections and experiences in this parish. In fact, below are two more of those stories, one from Mark Conner about his favorite places on campus and one from Christy Wilson about the object that reminds her most of our parish community's love and connection to one another.

As you know, stewardship is about so much more than supporting St. Peter's with your financial gifts--it is about upholding our shared parish together in all aspects of our communal life. Today I want to share a little more about one of those aspects of our common life, daily prayer. 

This week I am away for a family wedding (congrats to LauraAnn's sister, McKel!), but even though I am 650 miles away, this morning the doors to the church were open and parishioners gathered to pray Morning Prayer together. And as they prayed, they prayed not only a liturgy on a page but they held up our own parishioners, the community, and the world in prayer. You were prayed for at St. Peter's this morning, just as you are prayed for there every morning. 

The first task of the church is prayer. It is our primary vocation. We can do all kinds of service to the community and have the best music and the have the best preaching and have the best looking social media and publications, but if we do not pray together regularly, we have missed our calling. 

In the Anglican tradition, we have the great gift of the Daily Office, the prayer book's liturgies for daily morning and evening prayer. There are more pages dedicated to the Daily Office in The Book of Common Prayer than even the service of Holy Eucharist. And that's because while the Eucharist is the beating heart of our parish life, the Daily Office is the blood that pumps from this heart into all our shared life and ministries.

Three years ago our Task Force for Mission and Vision named "Episcopal Tradition" as an important value and wrote into our Mission Statement "to embody God's Word and Sacraments". This year, as part of our stewardship campaign, we are taking that seriously and seeking to establish both Morning and Evening Prayer as a central aspect of our life together at St. Peter's. 

As a parish, we are committing to pray Morning and Evening prayer every weekday in 2026. That will be 261 weekdays and 522 Daily Offices. It's an enormous commitment, but perhaps the single most important one we can make together as a community. If we want to grow as a parish, if we want to be healthy and have our bills paid, if we want to experience transformation and personal growth, if we want to share the gospel with Plant City and the world, we must be rooted and established in a life of common prayer. 

The good news is no single person is being asked to carry this life of prayer alone. We don't expect most of the congregation to show up each day at these services. Instead, what we are asking is that every member of this parish commit to participating in the Daily Office at St. Peter's in some way in 2026. Ideally, that would be participation at least once a month, perhaps Wednesdays for Evening Prayer just before Engage Cafe. It may mean joining the Daily Office Team and being put on a rotation to help officiate. Or in this season in your life, it may be attending once in 2026. In any case, the Daily Office is the shared life of prayer of our parish and we need your prayers to join us. 

We live in a chaotic and uncertain world and the world needs our constant prayers. As St. Paul wrote to the church in Thessaloniki, "rejoice always, pray without ceasing..." Let's take up his call and make prayer the foundation of our life together at St. Peter's.

By clicking the "Discerning Your Financial Pledge" pdf below, you will find the second page gives a little more history and background on the Daily Office. I invite you to read and pray over that document as you discern your pledge of prayer for 2026.Morning and Evening prayer will take place at 8:00am and 5:15pm each weekday in 2026.

As always, I am deeply grateful for this community and your prayers, participation, and financial provision. Thank you!

With peace and thanksgiving,

Derek

The Rev. Derek Larson, TSSF

Rector