God doesn’t need us to be perfect, or to pretend like we are. All of the readings for today revolve around that theme.
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ
Rector's Message on COVID-19 from Sabbatical
In these uncertain and strange times, I wanted to simply let you all know what is going on with the Stevens family. Firstly, we are all doing well. Secondly, we are in the United States and never did make our planned trip to New Zealand. Currently, we are in FL with my parents simply praying for all and being grateful for the time together.
Associate Rectors on COVID-19
In the days since we sent our last update about how we as a community are responding to the Coronavirus, we have been tracking new information, speaking with other communities of faith, listening to you, and talking with our Bishop.
Pastoral Directive: A Bishop’s Call to a Lenten Fast from Public Worship
The Stories We Tell
A poem for the New Year
Boiler Replacement Warms More than the Church Building
Salaam, Shalom, Peace— To be a pilgrim...
Rob’s Sabbatical
Seek the Welfare of the City
Jeremiah 29: 4-5,7 These verses from Jeremiah have stuck with me since we read them in church on October 13th, the Sunday before Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I’ve been thinking about what it means to be part of a larger community and how we understand our presence, here, now, in this city, on this land.
“‘Everyone’s a little broken and everyone belongs" Crowded Table
Parish Retreat 2019
Solitude
Solitude. It’s what Jesus sought after he went to the wilderness after being baptized in the River Jordan. It was what shaped the spiritual lives of the desert mothers and fathers and drew people to them. It’s often where God is able to meet us, where we encounter the love that we cannot earn, but receive through our returning and rest, quietness and trust.
Trinkets and Treasure
More recently I was introduced to the Daily Prayer book from the Corrymeela Community and among the wonderful offerings in their prayer book is The Prayer of Courage https://www.corrymeela.org/news/126/the-prayer -of-courage. The Daily Prayer Book includes 31 brief Scripture readings – a verse or two – and a prayer for that day.
Gratitude in Action
What are your three things today? This question causes me to pause. This pause is so important. Many of my days are frenetic and full to the brim with need and activity. The practice of pausing to consider and remember what I am grateful for is perhaps my most helpful spiritual practice while navigating a frenetic life in general and specifically this Fall Season at SJC.
The Practice of the Presence of God
I invite you to pause for a moment and examine how you practice the presence of God. The tendency that I hear, see and experience is that people, (myself included), look for God “somewhere out there.” Brother Lawrence reminds us that God is nearer than we might think. Psalm 139 expresses this reality well when the psalmist asks ..
Reflections & Gratitude
Parallel rows of tobacco stretched to the edge of my sightline, their giant sagging from the in-tense heat of the day. In front of me were two circles of chairs nestled between two double-wide trailers. . We grabbed plates of food and took our seats in the circles. The thirteen young folks who gave a week of their summer to travel to North Carolina on a Mission Trip interspersed with the mi-grant farmworkers who had invited us into their home.