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Dear Friends in Christ,
In a time when challenge is all around us, I choose a posture of hope. For, to paraphrase Saint Paul, if we are only people of hope in hopeful times, what credit is that to us? But we are people of Resurrection faith precisely when resurrection is not what seems to appear before us. For "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) We need to allow ourselves to hope, love and act, even as we try to hold on during difficult times. Hope fuels our compassion and our relationships with each other and with God. Hope, like prayer, is bound up with action.
Within our diocese, two initiatives for collective hope and action are our Youth and Young Adult Ministries and our Immigrant and Multicultural Ministries. Each calls us to build and adapt our church through every worshiping community and every region of our diocese. This work is supported and amplified by your generosity and that of others. Below are some articles about the remarkable work that we can celebrate this year.
- "Life Together community celebrates decade of young adult ministry"
- "'Learning to Walk with God in the World': October event spins off ongoing discernment groups for young adults"
- "Back to school: Campus ministries foster connection, innovation during pandemic"
- "'Our World, Our Future' campaign invites youth into community service during COVID-19"
- "Investing in immigrant and multicultural ministries: Q&A with Canon Jean Baptiste Ntagengwa"
- "New England Episcopalians put their faith forward as immigration reform advocates"
I ask you to join me, with hope, in support of these vital ministries. Your generosity makes this work possible by funding grants to make these and other programs all across the diocese. As a church, we must foster these forward-looking approaches. These ministries represent our posture of hope, love and inclusion. Together, we can look with hope to what will come from our present actions.
Faithfully and fondly,
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates