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Q. What does the snail say, riding on the back of a turtle?  A.  “Wheeee!”    I do not like roller coasters.  In the realm of amusement rides, a turtle ride is about as far as I would prefer to go.  I don’t like hanging upside down.  I don’t like it when the…

Following is the text of the sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop of Massachusetts, on Tuesday in Holy Week, March 31, 2015, at the Service of Holy Eucharist with Renewal of Ordination Vows and Blessing of Holy Oil at Emmanuel Church in Boston.Batter my heart, three person’d God;…

Dressed in robes for worship, and costumes from biblical times, the three congregations of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Grace Episcopal Church and First Baptist Church gathered in Medford Square on Palm Sunday, March 29, to bless palms as each church begins Holy Week.For decades, Grace…

Bishop Alan M. Gates announced on March 25 the appointment of the Ven. W. Michael Hamilton to serve as archdeacon in the Diocese of Massachusetts. Along with the Ven. Patricia Zifcak, Hamilton will assist the bishops and the canon for ordained vocations, the Rev. Canon Edie Dolnikowski, with the…

On March 24, the Episcopal Church sponsored a Webcast, “The Climate Change Crisis,” featuring a keynote by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and panels of experts on topics related to climate change in the context of faith. Jefferts Schori said that climate change was a moral…

The Great Vigil is the first celebration of Easter, that Holy Saturday night service when the "Alleluia" returns after its Lenten hiatus; the giant Paschal candle, which will burn through Pentecost, is lit from a newly kindled fire; and new Christians are baptized and new members of the church…

Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle picked up a paintbrush at St. Stephen's Church in Boston on Saturday, March 21 and got to work, in fulfillment of a Super Bowl agreement made between mayors to do a service project in the winning team's locale.  Murray and his host for the day, Mayor Martin J. Walsh…

The Rev. Francis Fornaro has been named interim president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, according to a March 23 announcement posted on the EDS Web site. “I am honored to be called to serve an institution that has done so much to form and prepare me for a career in…

When bishops of the Episcopal Church met March 13-17 at Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, N.C., for their annual spring House of Bishops retreat, they took up an array of weighty topics that included, in addition to preparation for this summer's General Convention, an agreement to write a…

Bishop Alan M. Gates and Bishop Gayle E. Harris and the Diocese of Massachusetts' B-PEACE antiviolence campaign invite supporters to join them for the annual Mother's Day Walk for Peace on Sunday, May 10 in Dorchester. The walk is a fundraiser for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, which…