This is the second installment in a six-part series around the theme of Homecoming. Since the doors to SJC were closed on March 15, 2020, a lot has changed, and today’s reflection will feature two significant upgrades to our physical space.

This is the first installment in a six-part series around the theme of Homecoming. Here are a few perspectives from some of our choir members as they reflect on this time of pandemic, and anticipate the choir’s triumphant return to making music in the sanctuary.

We may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape.

Is it possible to enjoy everything, together? I can! Canoe?

Help me to journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown.

The other use of funerals is to remind us of those two words. When the last hymn has been sung, the benediction given, and the immediate family escorted out a side door, they may be the best we have to make it possible to get up ourselves.

The retreat for the kids isn’t just friends, hikes, marshmallow roasting, or crafts the kids love. It is all of it. They spend time with people they don't typically see, hearing them share what matters to them. Finding connections and common footing with people they've only seen at a coffee hour. None of it works without everyone stepping a little outside their comfort zone – including me.

Look upon your children with children in their arms, that they may face the winds, and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

Dark is the cloud that rests over the nation. Wild is the war cry that pierces the air… Lord, may the bonds of the captive be broken. May this struggle bring sweet liberty. Teach us that love is a heaven-born token and that the truth can alone make us free… — excerpt from a Prayer for the Captive by Sister Cecelia DeVere

What will be the future legacy of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth? How do we being to write that story now? What will be our part in doing the important work of caring for each other, of loving our neighbors no matter what, of Welcoming All In The Name of Christ, of discovering the areas where we struggle individually and collectively to reconcile our relationship with oppression and/or hatred, and atoning for those sins?

You might see an angel anytime and anywhere.

The main thing Jesus has asked me to do is love God and my neighbor as religiously as I love myself

t was magical. God's creative magic and love had surrounded and invaded all of our hearts and souls and, in some small way, I know it transformed me.

"Come and see"

May your imagination know the grace of perfect danger

I heard eventually that courage is fear that has said its prayers.

What to Remember When Waking

This pruning is how we become whole.

Finally, if you have some time on Sunday between 10 and 2pm, stop by Four Tree Island. In addition to the walk, festivities include live music, food, raffles, and the opportunity to hear Freddy's amazing journey in getting to the other side of his " Bridge" in life.