The Rev. David Glade, Christ the King, Alexandria, VA, shares the importance of remembering our history, our walk, our journey. Photos help capture those memories and keep them vivid. If you have photos of the Bishop visiting your congregation, of confirmation and baptism ceremonies, of fellowship and outreach events, will you send them my way? I keep an archive of photos for the Diocese. I’ll include those in the Diocese “family photo album.” Heid Reichert, Communication Coordinator for the Diocese

by David Glade

“Picture Night” was a childhood family event. Circa 1980, all of our photos were on slides. Every couple of months, we sat on the living room floor as the family photos were projected on the wall, dad narrating, pausing every 15th slide to clear the inevitable jam. I loved it.

Now, our family pictures are in photo albums instead of slides. My kids love those photo albums just as much as I loved family picture night. It is not uncommon to find one of them sitting on the couch, flipping through the pages of a by-gone year.

I wonder why we love going through old photos? Why is it so fortifying to walk down memory lane? I don’t know why, but it is.

One of the last steps in our move was to cover the bare hall way walls with church pictures. There are some good ones: The picture of our first Sunday at Convergence; the picture of our first parish retreat (I think there were about 10 of us!); pictures showing the work of our congregation; lots of smiles; lots of great events; lots of church!

Next time you’re here, walk down the long hallway. A little walk down memory lane is encouraging- a reminder of where we have been, and a trajectory of where we are headed.

Warmly,

David

The Rev. David Glade, is the Rector of Christ the King, Alexandria, VA