What do you love? What have you lost? These are the first two questions in the “From Many, One” program we are exploring during the Season of Advent. Love and loss pull at our hearts deeply and powerfully. Love and loss are universal experiences, but we rarely share these parts of ourselves. And yet, so much of what we do and care…
On Sunday we answered four questions, starting with, “What do you love?” As I read out the answers during the prayers of the people, I realized that the things we love are also what we are most grateful for. Family, friends, community, loving relationships, grandkids, art, the beauty of nature, work that matters, all of…
Advent is almost here! The season of joyful anticipation and preparation for Christmas is just a week away. This year we are going all out with our decorations and celebrations of the season. In Liz Hinkofer’s article below you can read our exciting plans for the weeks leading up to advent. We will decorate a…
The original inspiration for our Story Sharing campaign was a desire to offer healing to those who are suffering, whether from the effects of the pandemic, racial injustices, political divisiveness, or the many other struggles we have faced these past few years. “From Many, One” is a resource developed by Bishop Michael Curry and his…
Dear friends, What do you love?What have you lost?Where does it hurt?What do you dream? These questions are an invitation to healing and to building relationship across divisions. These questions are an opportunity to be heard, to be understood, to be reconciled, and to find hope. So many of us have been hurt by the…
From ghoulies and ghostiesAnd long-leggitie beastiesAnd things that go bump in the night,Good Lord, deliver us! Dear friends, This ancient Scottish prayer captures the spirit of Halloween or All Hallows eve, the eve of All Hallows or All Saints day. On All Saints Day we celebrate the saints of our lives. On the eve of…
Dear friends, When you think about where to invest, the experts will tell you to look at the Return on Investment (ROI). If you put $100 in a bank account with a 3% per year interest rate, you will earn about $3. If you put that same $100 into stocks returning 7% annually, you will…
Dear friends, When Jesus talks about putting treasure in heaven, he is talking about building loving relationship with one another and with God. There are many ways we can respond to Jesus’ teaching to “put our treasure in heaven,” and sharing our stories must be on that list. I remember working next to John in…
Dear friends, Last week we shared stories of the challenges we have faced in this pandemic. (You can see that article here.) When I created the little slips of paper to allow people to share their stories, I wrote, “The pandemic was hard on all of us.” Was. As if it were over. But the…
Dear friends, There is a part of you that is just yours. Your emotions. Your experiences. Your hopes. Your story. We tend to protect that part of ourselves, sharing it only carefully and sparingly. As I was praying this morning, I thought of the Holy of Holies, that innermost chamber of the Temple in Jerusalem…