In the past month, the leadership team of St. Hagop has spent significant time writing personal letters. At our young professional’s gathering our outreach ministry chair Grace Austin passed thanksgiving cards around the table to sign and send to our homebound parishioners.  In my office that week I was doing the same, writing personal notes of appreciation to as many of our stewards as I could.  We take time for this as a church, because there is something powerful, even sacramental, about a handwritten letter.  It can capture and deepen intimate bonds between people.  There is spirit involved here, which is why I get into the spirit of writing to parishioners by first rereading letters I’ve received from parishioners.  I have a drawer full of letters, and maybe you do too, that I can’t bear to throw away because of the spirit of love and gratitude that is captured within them. It should not be too surprising then to find that  the worldwide Christian church also has a drawer full of letters that it can’t bear to throw away; forming a large section of our Bible. These 2000 year old letters, which we reread every week, capture the relational and applied spirit of our faith, the living bond of love between God and his people.