Reflections

B-PEACE youth coverage
Reflections
Being a young person in the U.S., I can safely say that the March for Our Lives movement has been the most inspiring movement in my teenage years. Not only do I full-heartedly agree with the goals of this movement, but I am also encouraged by the extent to which youth voices have galvanized people…
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Reflections

In Lent, we followers of Jesus are asked to lift up our chins, set our faces toward Jerusalem and lead with this cross we bear on our foreheads.  The invisible cross of our Baptism, traced by some long ago thumb, and the ashen cross of our mortality that marks each one of us, these days, as a bit of a fool for claiming this truth:  that we follow a God who shoulders with us our every condition, our every affliction our every delight.

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Geese in flight
Reflections
My parishioner, Ed, was an electrical engineer. During World War II he worked on a highly secret project involving long-wave radio technology. Later he learned the purpose of the technology he’d helped to perfect. It was used to construct navigational beacons placed throughout the Pacific theater,…
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Reflections
Creation Care Season greetings in Christ, for Christ and for all creation. At the 2010 Diocesan Convention we asked that the diocese endorse and encourage all congregations to celebrate Creation Care Season from St. Francis Day in early October to the first Sunday of Advent. Over the years we…
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"Unholy Trinity" peacemakers "challenged to be more courageous"
Reflections
“…seek peace, and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:14)In pursuit of peace, 14 people from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts traveled to Chicago April 20-22 for a conference entitled "The Unholy Trinity:  Poverty, Racism and Gun Violence."  The three-day event was the second conference convened…
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A tale of two houses: An Easter message from Bishop Gates
Reflections
"There are voices in our world, and perhaps even sometimes within our own frightened hearts, which will tell us that our Easter rejoicing is foolishness; that life really is meaningless; that celebrating the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is folly; that the fellowship and strength…
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Reflections
The Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent is the same every year.  Lent begins with Jesus being led (or driven, depending on which Gospel we’re reading) by the Spirit into the wilderness, and with the story of what happens to Jesus there.  This year, I was discussing the readings…
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Why we need these ashes: An excerpt from Bishop Gayle Harris's Ash Wednesday sermon
Reflections
...We need Ash Wednesday, the mark of ashes, to remember we are mortal, temporary travellers on the planet, and that we are given stewardship to care for God's creation and each other.We need these ashes.  Our civic discourse is full of appeals to the lowest and most base in us, victimizing…
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Advent agents of reflected light: A message from Bishop Gates
Reflections
  Advent is often understood as a time of waiting expectantly.  Our scriptures focus on Mary in her faithful pondering and Zechariah in his mute vigil.  Yet Advent is a time not only of waiting, but also of preparing.  Indeed,…
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A message from Bishop Alan M. Gates: Giving thanks for women in holy orders
Reflections
Forty years ago today the General Convention of The Episcopal Church voted to authorize the ordination of women.  For many of us it is difficult to remember or imagine our church without this expression of wholeness.  …
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