VISION KEEPER 2020!

 

Interfaith Action of Evanston's annual fundraiser gives faith communities an opportunity to come together and celebrate the common bonds of faith and service. Each year, each congregation may honor someone from their community who embodies values the positively impact their faith community as well as the larger community.

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This year we honor our deacon-in-formation, Terri Morrissey.

 

St. Matthew’s is a more beautiful and loving spiritual home thanks to Terri Morrissey.  A cradle Episcopalian, Terri first started attending St. Matt’s in the ‘80s, becoming a member in 1993.  She has had a hand in the warp and woof of our communal life ever since.  An art teacher at schools on the North Shore for 34 years, Terri’s deep artistic sensibilities found a home in our communities’ celebration of the awe-inspiring beauty of God.

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Her gifts for nurturing and creating works of art have deeply informed our worship life from her design and creation of gorgeous silk vestments and frontals to her reimagining of sacred spaces to suit specific liturgies, such as our Taizé services, which she led for years.  She has generously offered her time and spirit to too many ministries to be complete here but include: bread baking, chalice, lector, prayer leader, healing minister.  Terri is currently in formation to become a deacon.

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Terri discovered a profound sense of call in pastoral care.  It emerged first in bringing communion to those who cannot make it to church.  Later, when the church sought to expand lay pastoral care, she was instrumental in discernment of and then leadership of Stephen Ministry, which in her care has become a vital program.

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Terri Morrissey shares that her faith journey is ever guided by the promises we make in our Baptismal Covenant, including the call to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself,” and to “respect the dignity of every human being.”  Terri strives each day to live faithfully into God’s call to be a channel of God’s grace.  She makes that grace manifest not just on Sunday mornings, but all through the week, blessing members of St. Matthew’s and beyond.

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