Reflections

Reflections
Jan. 9, 2021 Dear people of the Diocese of Massachusetts, I want for a moment to share a word as we draw towards the end of this week – a week in which we have been shaken, infuriated, and appalled. We are shaken by the violence and hatred that played out before us at our nation’s Capitol…
Reflections
Our Advent this year has been unlike any other.  Our waiting has an acute focus as we yearn not only to hear again the message of Christ’s birth, but we yearn–very tangibly–for this pandemic to come to an end. We are missing so many of our customary holiday traditions, though I cannot…
Reflections

This time of the year, and now during the three pandemics of COVID-19, of racism and of distortions and conspiracy theories, we experience growing darkness in the world, and at times within ourselves. The season of Advent invites us to take some time to find those places within us that are dark only because we are not willing to see and grasp the light of God’s love, shining upon and within us. Jesus is the Light that lightens the darkness around and in us.

Reflections
A General Thanksgiving Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the…
Reflections
Oct. 30, 2020 On Saturday, Nov. 7, the 235th annual session of the Convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts will gather.  Each year this event in our life together is part legislative session, part mission rally, part stakeholder gathering, and part family reunion.  We…
Reflections
Oct. 23, 2020 Long, too long America By Walt Whitman Long, too long America, Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only, But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not, And now to conceive and…
Reflections
Oct. 15, 2020 September came and went.  October is well underway.  Autumn is a time when congregational life – like much of the world around us – is normally marked by renewed energy and fresh beginnings: familiar worship schedules resume; choirs end their summer hiatus; church…
Reflections
Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.       Amos 5:16a, 23-24; New Revised Standard…
Reflections
July 26, 2020 Texts: Proper 12-A, Track 2: I Kings 3:5-12; Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew [13:31-33,44-52] is a smorgasbord of mini-parables.  Most of them relate to obtaining some treasure or some prized commodity: leavened bread, hidden wealth, fine…