Living on in hope
Dear Friends,
This has been such a challenging week for our country. Saint George’s and the Episcopal Church have long been committed to racial justice and we are even more so now. As Presiding Bishop Curry said a few days ago, “when the cameras are gone, we will still be there.”
https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/presiding-bishops-word-to-the-church-when-the-cameras-are-gone-we-will-still-be-here/
Our racial reconciliation committee, led by Lyn Crawford, is hard at work planning how we will go forward in this vitally important work of systematic change. There will be more information to follow in the weeks ahead.
It was a great blessing to have over 300 people” attend" our virtual Compline service last night where we remembered George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We prayed for our country. We prayed for ourselves as we go forth in faith, hope, love and deep resolve to change the world, knowing the Spirit will lead us and guide us as we do.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and Youth Sunday. We will reflect on the reality of God as a beloved community of three “persons” and how we are created in the image of the Divine Community. We will hear from our three high school graduates, Maddie Boerckel, Matthew Goodwin and Charlie Pepin-Woods, about how growing up at Saint George’s has shaped their lives. Our children and youth will participate in all aspects of the service and we will give thanks for the adults who nurture them in their faith lives. It is important during the times in which we live to remember how impactful our life together is on all of us and especially our young people. We are a beloved community called to extend that love to the world around us.
In the service last Sunday, we reflected on the work of the Holy Spirit, the Pentecost passage from Acts, and the importance of “dreaming dreams and seeing visions”. We are first and foremost a people of hope and it is especially important to claim hope right now. Our vestry has initiated a visioning process to imagine what our life going forward will look like and we want your input! Your voice is important.
I look forward to our time this Sunday of being reminded that each of us is a unique child of God created in the image of the Divine Community and empowered to love as God loves.
Yours in the power of the Spirit,
Shearon+