Despite his deep spiritual knowledge and experience of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the “great” apostle Paul, in what was probably the time of the deepest trial in his Christian life, was greatly comforted by the God of all comfort through the consolation he received by the human experience of friendship and fellowship: “God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus” (2 Corinthians 7:6). I am grateful because I recently had a share in the blessed experience of being comforted and strengthened by the gracious gift of the communion of the saints in the United States.

Umbria counts a little less than one million people and Perugia is a University City with 200,000 people (if we consider the smaller towns surrounding Perugia the number of people grows to more than 300,000). In Umbria alone, there are less than 25 protestant churches which constitute about a thousand church members. As for the church of Rome, during the last two decades in Umbria, the number of “regular” churchgoers has dropped by more than a quarter, as have the “occasional” ones (usually occasional churchgoers attend church for funerals, weddings, and maybe Christmas and Easter). The phenomenon of “believing without belonging” is rampant in every denomination, and as for those who call themselves “catholic,” their number is decreasing rapidly. Some people say that waiting for this crisis to pass without doing anything is like trying to shelter from a hurricane with an umbrella! Therefore, you can imagine how blessed and joyful we feel having had some new people who began attending regularly our worship services.

This is the message that – through the Spirit – we strive to present to the people of the city of Perugia and the region of Umbria, in central Italy. And once again, we ask that as we sow the seed of the gospel you may water it with your prayers on behalf of the witness of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia.

One of the main concerns in the heart of the apostle Paul was securing the prayers of God’s people, not so much for himself but rather for the humble and bold proclamation of the mystery of the gospel, so that the divine Word might speed ahead and be honored. Therefore, we rejoice in knowing – through your emails, phone calls, and other forms of communication – that you are persevering with us in prayer for the blessing of the Spirit upon the witness of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia.

Our hearts rejoice in God for the communion that the members of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia have with you, even though we live far away. We are thankful for the encouragement and comfort that we continually receive from you in so many ways. Since the last newsletter, there are quite a few things that I would like to share with you.

We are grateful to God for your constant support in so many encouraging ways and for your enthusiasm for the witness of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia. In the last couple of months, we have had a number of gracious encouragements, not least the joy for me as a pastor to start preaching through the book of Psalms. What a comfort praying the Psalms as the voice of Christ (vox Christi), as the voice regarding Christ (vox de Christo), and as the voice to Christ (vox ad Christum)!

We are sincerely thankful for the interest you continue to show toward us and the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia. As we are slowly learning, God moves in a mysterious way with his wonders to perform. Therefore, even in the midst of shattering events affecting Europe – such as the earthquake in Turkey, the Ukrainian war, and Covid just to mention a few – we believe that the Word of God is not chained (2 Timothy 2:9). That is our only hope and comfort: even though we are weak and insufficient in ourselves, the Word of God is powerful and able to accomplish God’s perfect will.

Cristina and I are deeply grateful for your continuing interest in the life of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia and for your prayers on our behalf, for the glory of God the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit. We ourselves pray for you that the grace of Christ may cause you to taste ever more deeply the love of God and the communion of the Spirit in your families and in the church. And it is a joy to share some of the latest news from Perugia.

As we leave the summer behind, we are deeply grateful for it is indeed a beautiful and good thing when believers dwell together in unity (Psalms 133:1). In fact, this has been our experience over the last summer as we realized anew that wherever two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord, there is true life that manifests itself, by the Spirit to the glory of the Father. Therefore, having been greatly encouraged throughout the summer, we look forward to a new season as COVID-19 begins to pass here in Italy and we are more able to reach out to the community with the gospel.

We began on the Lord’s Day evening with a prayer meeting in which we sang God’s praises, meditated on God’s Word, and devoted time to corporate prayers. After a late dinner and a good (but too short!!!) night’s sleep, we met the following morning starting with a similar prayer meeting followed by a meeting in which we discussed for three hours and deliberated about some shared initiatives, in order to continue to build a solid foundation for the organization of a Presbyterian and Reformed denomination in the future. These two days were deeply encouraging: it was evident from the starting prayer meeting that the Spirit’s blessing was upon us. In the next few months, we will continue our labors on Zoom until we meet again in person in Milan at the beginning of December.

At the end of April, we had the joy of having Simonetta Carr from Christ URC visiting with us, along with her husband Tom. Simonetta is an Italian native who is the author of a number of historical theology books for children and young people. She also wrote “Broken Pieces and the God who Mend Them”, a book that tells the story of her son Jonathan, who suffered from schizophrenia. On the Lord’s Day of May 1st, Simonetta and Tom worshipped with us and after the divine service, she spoke about the book and shared her family’s experience with schizophrenia and all its painful consequences. We are thankful to the Lord for the new visitors we have been receiving as well as the steadfastness of our usual attendees and members.

While many are still suffering because of the Covid epidemic, we are now also afflicted by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which threatens to become a global war. In times such as these, the promise that the Lord will wipe away all our tears when he will make all things new becomes all the more precious for our hearts.

At the beginning of the new year, we think of you with a grateful heart for your prayerful and practical interest in the life and witness of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia. At the beginning of this new year, we are especially aware that the Lord’s mercies never come to an end but are new every morning (Lamentations 2:32). Yes, because of God’s presence with us, we can begin 2022 with a sure hope and an encouraging expectation for the One who began a good work in us will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6).

In mid-October, we’ll resume our normal schedule so that in Perugia we’ll have the worship service at 10:00 AM and after a short break, we have the Heidelberg Catechism class conducted at 11:45 AM. As for my preaching responsibilities, after finishing the exposition of the Gospel of John, I am currently expounding a new topical series on the general theme of “The Spiritual Experience of the Desert” which is about forming a biblical theology of the desert with attention being given to the spiritual experience of Christians in their pilgrimage in the present evil age.

On July 11th, Rev. Coluccia ministered the preaching of God’s Word to us. Vincenzo, his wife Judit, and their cute daughter Abigail visited with us for a few days, bringing the warm greetings of the Chiesa Pietra Vivente of Lecce, in the Southern region of Puglia. It was very encouraging to renew fellowship with these saints and spend some time together remembering God’s faithful dealings with us in the past and praying to entrust our future into his hands.

You probably remember that Rev. Mike Cuneo (PCA) moved to the Perugia area a while ago in order to assist our church with the goal of establishing a new church in the near future. Thankfully, despite the travel restrictions, we were able to move around and locate a place to start a new church plant in Passignano sul Trasimeno, a town of almost 10,000 people with thriving tourism, which makes the site an ideal place for evangelism. People from Northern Europe, especially Dutch and British people, and tourists from the US love Passignano, which is on Lake Trasimeno. Actually, some of these people own a vacation home so they live in Passignano for some months throughout the year. Being located north of Perugia—towards the cities of Arezzo and Siena in Tuscany—Passignano could represent an opportunity to reach a number of towns around the lake. Lord willing, in June, we will open a public place of worship with the plan to have a morning worship service in Perugia and an evening service in Passignano every Lord’s Day. 

On the same Lord’s Day of February 14th, we celebrated our first anniversary in the new church building. Even though we could not use it as we were expecting, we are grateful for the place where we are and for the Lord’s provision to make it slowly fitting for our purposes. Hopefully, in the next few months, we’ll be able to complete furnishing it with small adornments and furniture that will make it more welcoming to people as a place of worship.

Recently, I received an email from the US in which I was asked: “Do you find that people in your area are more susceptible to hearing the Gospel of Christ during these times of lockdowns and restrictions?”. It seems to me that both in our region of Umbria and in the rest of our nation, Italian people are beginning to feel more heavily the reality of human fragility and more deeply the need for true and abiding comfort.

These past weeks have been once again a time of sober reflection on the uncertainties of life, the fragility of human life, and the fact that things are not under our control, even though we strive to control them. By the grace of God, we experienced and are experiencing this very reality: in ourselves, we are masters of nothing! At times, when God makes us realize that things are not in our own hands, it is painful to learn how to cast our cares upon the Lord. But in time, God’s fatherly discipline brings forth blessed fruit in our lives as we understand more what it means to live by faith. As we learn to be grateful in times of prosperity, so we learn patience in times of adversity and to have confidence in God’s good providence in relation to our future and living in time in light of eternity.

Even though I am conscious of the feebleness of my gratitude to our triune God, I write to you with thankfulness and praise for the many blessings we experienced in the last two months. In fact, in spite of the COVID-19 crisis, we have many reasons to be grateful. In particular, my wife Cristina, and I are wonderfully privileged to have communion with all of you who pray regularly for us and for the church plant here in Perugia, in the region of Umbria in central Italy. Thus, I write with a felt sense of privilege for your many expressions of tangible concern for the saints of the small Chiesa Riformata di Perugia.