A Farewell Letter from Father Jeromie Rand
Advent Denver
Dear Church of the Advent,
This coming Sunday, August 23rd, will be my last as a member of Church of the Advent. My family and I are moving to Fort Collins, where I will be serving as the rector of Christ Our Hope Anglican Church. I am excited about God’s call to this new adventure, but I will miss you all dearly.
Just over ten years ago, Rob Paris sent an email to a team of people working with him to plant a church, letting them know that he was leaning toward “Church of the Advent” as the name for the new congregation “because it speaks to the coming of Jesus into the world to make things new and into our lives in a way that changes everything.” At the time, the new church was just an idea held in faith and hope by a small group of people. A decade later, Church of the Advent is much larger, but it is still a group of people who are bound by a common desire to see the gospel of Jesus Christ change everything. And now we are a people with a history: we have seen God active in us and through us as he works to make all things new.
I am honored to have been a part of many of those stories of God’s faithfulness, and I have been a witness to many more. I watched as God gave Advent a place to gather in the Baker neighborhood, and I saw him lead us into relationships with our neighbors that led to lives being changed. When our time in Baker came to an end, I saw God provide bountifully for us in the gift of our current space, where more lives have been connected with the love of Christ and the hope of the gospel. I saw God provide a home in the church for people who had been hurt, and I saw him bring healing through the love and hospitality that this community showed. I saw God raise up leaders for his church, and I saw him send them out to build other communities where the gospel could be faithfully preached and lived. I was there for moments of great joy—new children being born into our community, church camping trips, the grand celebration of baptisms—and great sorrow, particularly as we walked with the Paris family through Rob’s cancer diagnosis and death. Through all of those moments and many more, I saw a church that was faithful, a people filled with love for one another and their neighbors, a community that clung to the hope of the resurrection even when other hopes had faded away.
God has begun a good work in you, and I am certain he will continue it to the end. I am thankful that I will not be far away, and I hope to continue to hear the stories of God’s faithfulness among you. Our stories are forever bound together through our shared history and the gift of the Spirit that unites us in love. My own life is one of the many that was changed by God’s work in Church of the Advent, and I am certain there will be many more.
In Christ,
Jeromie+