>>> CLICK HERE TO FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

Happy New Year!

>>>> CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

“Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

A blessed Christmas to you all.

Our gospel for Sunday, Christmas Day, includes the phrase we say or sing most of the year during the Gloria. At the Rite I service, the prayer book uses the language: Glory to God in the Highest, and peace, good will towards men. In the Rite II service, Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to his people on earth. Many Christmas hymns reference this portion of the Christmas Story: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing portrays this part of the narrative in its refrain, along with Angels We Have Heard on High. I think even Linus from Charlie Brown quoted this scripture as well. This very important phrase is one of the four virtues our Advent wreath has called us to pay attention to.

Many of you may remember at the beginning of the service the past few weeks, I’ve repeated the phrase “we gather again around the/our Advent wreath.” I wanted the repetition to be ingrained in us all as we know why we use a wreath: the never-ending love of God is circular and never ceasing. We light each of the four candles to represent different characteristics of anticipating the newborn king: one represents hope, one represents peace, one represents joy, and one represents love.

The phrase from Sunday’s gospel from St. Luke: “Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors” truly captures all four of those Advent characteristics of hope, peace, joy, and love. The phrase, along with the overarching theme for the season of Advent gives us hope: hope in the Christ child as our Redeemer, as our collect titles Jesus for Sunday. We switched our vestments from penitential purple to a hope filled blue to symbolize our transition of a mindset this Advent season. Jesus came to save us from sin and eternal death, to give us new life in God through Him and through means of caring for the world around us. This is our hope.

We know this phrase from Luke’s gospel calls us to admire peace. It quite literally spells it out from the angels who proclaimed this to the shepherds in the field: on earth – peace. I truly believe that our world is fractured due to the lack of peace. Many of you know I am a big Star Trek fan; one of the cardinal virtues for a world in the Star Trek universe to grow is true global peace. Without peace, a world cannot grow into a better version of itself. This is true in our reality. We listen to the news or look at the world around us; we do not see peace right now. Rather, it is something to be grasped at; we still pray for peace.

Joy – Gaudate! Guadate is Latin for rejoice! Let the earth rejoice, as our Sunday psalm, Psalm 97 says so joyfully in verse one. Let the multitude of the Isles be glad! Joy is apparent in the music we sing, the happiness in giving and receiving of gifts brings us all. Our gospel story depicts this as the shepherds returned to the manger scene – glorifying and praising God for all they had seen. We wore rose vestments for the 8:00 am Eucharist and lit the rose-colored candle, symbolic of our joyfully receiving him as our Redeemer as our collect beautifully illustrates.

I believe love is the final ingredient for our preparation time, which is why it is the fourth week of Advent’s theme. Sunday’s second reading, in the epistle to Titus, sums up God’s love for us so clearly and succinctly: When the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy. God loves us so much that God gave His son as a sacrifice – meaning a holy gift – that we may share with God, Jesus, and all our loved ones that have gone before us in everlasting life: heaven.

Our Christmas gospel is more than just the birth narrative according to Saint Luke. The birth narrative points us back to what we’ve been preparing for and how we have been preparing! This is the yearly festival of the birth of the Son of God. Let us take the gifts we’ve received during this season of preparation into the Christmas season, and forward, proclaiming like the angels and the multitude of the heavenly host, praising God by saying: “Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” Let us proclaim this in thought, word, and deed through the advent characteristics of hope, peace, joy, and love.

May God fill you with hope, peace, joy, and love this Christmas season.

Your sibling in Christ,
Fr. James

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

“With every fiber of my being I hope and pray this morning to convey this message and this hope: the Son of God is born of Mary. Listen: many of you, most of you this morning, are already believers. You have already heard and obeyed, like Mary. You know that God is really God, and not some vain and wish fulfilling projection of ourselves onto an abstract figure in the sky….But somewhere deep down in each one is a lost and frightened child who has lost its way, who has been rejected by its father, who has been shut out of the party. Who is truly afraid-deep down-that ashes are all we will get for Christmas. Help us you who believe-help us spread the word, in carols, in bells, in lights, in prayers, in presents, in words, deeds, and love, that the Father has come seeking for all his children, that he has a place set at his table with your name on it, that he will deliver us from numbness and from fear and from guilt so that we will be able to reach out with joy and gladness to those who have not heard.” (Fleming Rutledge)

The word Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus: "Coming." Advent is a time of preparation and awareness of the coming of Jesus Christ. We know this season best for getting ready for Christmas. We buy presents for those we love, decorate our houses, put up Christmas trees, bake cookies, send out Christmas cards, and get together with our friends and co-workers for food, drink and fellowship.

As we at St. John's prepare, we will have a rehearsal for our Christmas Pageant on Saturday, December 17th at 9:00 am. On Sunday December 18th at 10:00 am, our children will perform our Christmas Pageant. After the 8:00 am Sunday service, we will green the church during the coffee hour. Please join us! Christmas Eve Services will be at 4:00 pm (family service), 7:00 pm (candlelit service with beautiful music and the St. John’s choir) and 10:00 pm (Rite I HE with wonderful music and solos). Our Christmas Day service will be at 10:00 am and will also have beautiful music.

Advent is also the time of the year when we help those in need. We give not only to our loved ones, but also to those beyond those boundaries, those in our communities, and strangers. Thank you to the ECW and everyone who has helped out with our food drives, HIHI homeless ministry, and Adopt-a-Family. There is a meeting of the ECW this Sunday after the 10:00 service to determine outreach for 2023. With all of that we have to do at this time of year, sometimes we forget to quietly await the coming of Jesus Christ in our own hearts.

“Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (Collect for the 4th Sunday in Advent)

One of the greatest surprises in the story of God’s coming into our midst is that God did not choose a queen or a princess to be the mother of God’s Son. In fact, God chose a very unlikely person. Instead of choosing royalty from a high and mighty family, God chose a lowly maid. In a period of history that emphasized the importance of age, God chose a young virgin. In an empire where wealth was power, God chose a poor servant, betrothed to a Jewish carpenter. In a patriarchal society where men controlled everything, God comes to Mary. So it was in a small, unimportant town named Nazareth, in an insignificant province of the Roman Empire, that God sent an angel. The angel Gabriel comes and

The prophet says to Joseph, “Look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

In Christ’s love, 

Fr. Duncan

>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

This Sunday, we welcome the Rev. Anthony Jones as guest preacher.

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”

Advent is the tension-struck time of preparation. In Bible Study on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings, we’re discussing The Rev. Fleming Rutledge’s book Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. It’s easy to think about the “once” part of this - Jesus’ life, death and resurrection two thousand years ago. In Bible Study, however, we are talking about the “future” part of this equation - the uncomfortable yet necessary discussion of the second coming of Christ. We are preparing for the coming of Christ - which we understand both spiritually and literally. These days, people are afraid of talking about the end of times. Hearing “the end is near!” is not inspiring words for most, but historically the church has understood that Jesus promises that something better is on the horizon. I believe Rutledge is helping point our gaze to this and inviting us to intentionally prepare. 

Advent, for the past several decades, has been viewed as a penitential season as Fr. Duncan spoke about last week in his sermon last week. This is because many people treat this season like another Lent. When Fr. Duncan approved Blue Vestments for St. John’s Church to be bought, I was overjoyed! Not only because I look good in blue, which I do, but because blue is the color that represents hope! Blue, for me, separates and differentiates the liturgical seasons of Lent and Advent. 

The time of preparation that we know of: with the Advent calendars and ABC’s Christmas Movie Countdown, is what society tells us to focus on: the preparation for Christmas. The church has been trying to refocus us; as Rutledge puts it, “Advent observance is called as a countermeasure” against a world and society that tells us we are just in a time of Christmas-lite. My friends: We. Are. Not. 

Advent is about the preparation of the second coming. It is a challenging place for us to dwell in, think about, and wrap our heads around. Let us start with something simple: a promise. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will have no end. Familiar words from our creed. We know that Jesus has a kingdom that is not of this world, where He reigns supreme, and death has no power. This is what we believe. We wait in hope for the second coming of our Savior. While we wait, “disappointment, brokenness, suffering, and pain that characterize[s] life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come.” Life still happens. Just because we believe in the second coming, doesn’t mean that life is hunky dory in the meantime. It will be hard and staying the course of believing is challenging in itself. It is in the “Advent tension” where “the church lives its life.” 

Last week, we lit our first candle of Advent which focused on hope which will remain with us the entire Advent season. This week, we focus on the gift of peace. It is hard to find peace during this time of the year as there are so many distractions from peace, like with sales at Target or on Amazon. It’s hard to settle ourselves and just be with Jesus. Jesus has many titles: King of Kings, Lord of Lords, but my favorite is the Prince of Peace. May the Prince of Peace guide you into the way of peace - bringing you into a state of contemplation, wondering the following questions:

• What do I believe about the second coming of Christ?

• Am I prepared to encounter Jesus, face to face?

• Do you remember God’s promise of grace? That grace is given, not earned, and that you are highly favored by God?

We do not have to have all the answers right now. We do however need to place ourselves in a place of trust and direct ourselves to face the apocalyptic unveiling God is revealing to us. I will see you Sunday as we gather and light another candle in our Advent wreath. We stand together in tension, yet in unity, by preparing a way for the Lord. May we make straight His paths. 

Your partner in hope and in peace,

Fr. James 

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

“In Search of our Kneeling Places.” by Ann Weems

In each heart lies a Bethlehem,

an inn where we must ultimately answer

Whether there is room or not.

When we are Bethlehem-bound

We experience our own advent in his.

When we are Bethlehem-bound

We can no longer look the other way

Conveniently not seeing the stars

Not hearing angel voices.

We can no longer excuse ourselves by busily

Tending our sheep or our kingdoms.

This advent let’s go to Bethlehem

And see this thing that the Lord has made known to us.

In the midst of shopping sprees

Let’s ponder in our hearts the Gift of Gifts.

Through the tinsel

Let’s look for the gold of the Christmas star.

In the excitement and confusion, in the merry chaos,

This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem

And find our kneeling places.

In the Advent season, we wait in joyous expectation for the birth of Christ. We shift our attention from worrying about the problems that face us to a crude manger in Bethlehem, where all of God’s promises are fulfilled. We shift from thinking about scarcity to the abundance that we have from God. Please take time to relax in this busy season and journey with all of us at St. John’s to Bethlehem.

Some see the Coming of God as a time of trial when folks were swept away by the waters of the flood or when they will be left behind on the field. I see the coming of Jesus as an achievement of perfect love. My expectation for all of you is that you will feel a love so deep you could scarcely even imagine it. Perhaps until then, you will turn from the notion of penalty and punishment to the hope of everlasting love with our Lord. “How very little can be done under the spirit of fear” Florence Nightingale once said. It is for this reason that we have changed our color from purple to blue. Purple is the color of a penitential season when we try to stop sinning. It is a very masculine perspective that the threat of punishment will get us to behave. Blue is the color of hope. We turn (despite the darkness) to the eternal love of God. In this season of hope we will look to feminine perspectives of motivation through and towards love. Advent is a time when we love each other as Christ loves us. It is a time when we remember those who we love by giving them our kindness and attention. Please take the time to visit with your family, co-workers, and friends. Advent is a time when we give of ourselves to others as Christ gave of himself to us. We bring about the coming of the kingdom of God by looking beyond ourselves. We pray for one another and help the poor and needy where we can. I ask each member of St. John’s to draw closer to the love of God in the coming year.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

• Nothing can separate you from God’s love, absolutely nothing! God is enough for time, God is enough for eternity. God is enough! - Hannah Whitall Smith
• The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love. - Julian of Norwich
• “Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable…and receives the impossible.” – Corrie Ten Boom
• "The key is for you to discover what you love to do, what you were created to do, and then do it for the people around you with love. That is the abundant life, dear girl, no matter where in the world you live." — Robin Jones Gunn
• “It is well.” - The Shunammite Woman (2 Kings 4:26)

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

Feast of Christ the King

Sunday, November 20, 2022

This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King.

The history of this special feast is relatively young – going back to 1925, shortly after the end of World War I. Pope Pius noted that even as the world was no longer at war, there was no true peace. He abhorred the rise of class divisions and nationalism and contended that true peace could only be found under the Kingship of Christ as our ”Prince of Peace.” His hope was that nations would begin to see that the Church has the right to freedom and immunity from the state, that leaders of those nations would begin to show respect to Christ, and that the faithful communities would be strengthened and encouraged from celebrations of this feast. Pius wanted this feast to inspire the laity when he said, “The faithful, … by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal… He must reign in our minds…in our wills…in our hearts… in our bodies and in our members which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.”

Given the state of the world today, it still seems like a sound feast to observe and to ponder. 

What is the nature of true Kingship?

The celebration of the Feast of Christ the King became a part of the Episcopal liturgy in the 1990’s as we adopted the use of the Revised Common Lectionary. It is the culmination of our Church’s liturgical year, the end of ordinary time, during which we journeyed with Christ through the gospel of Luke and have now arrived at the crucifixion. In one short week, we begin Advent climaxing in the birth of Christ. But this Sunday, we have liturgically arrived with Luke, to Good Friday. We worship a crucified king – a gentle but focused man whose life was lived in nonviolence – a man who dedicated himself to healing and feeding the poor, lost and disenfranchised. What does it mean to worship the One who died nonviolently on the cross and offers forgiveness, not vengeance?  

What kind of King is Jesus?

Jesus taught us to trust in a loving and merciful Father and to pray to Him for all our needs. We are precious children of one heavenly Father so we have been called to treat one another with love, respect, and forgiveness. Jesus lived what he taught by caring for all those he met by healing the sick – a sign of God’s love at work; and by forgiving those who put him to death. 

As the Good Shepherd, Jesus gathers us in – leaving none behind. He is willing to speak truth to power and his shepherding encourages us to lay our burdens down and come to him for rest. 

 As we proclaim Jesus as our King, we at St. John’s have been called to follow him, to identify with him, to make him the center of our lives, extending our loving ‘Jesus’ arms to all we encounter – whether in our sanctuary, on our city streets or in the margins of our world.

In Christ’s love,
Deacon Claire

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This is the collect for our coming week, Proper 28, starting this Sunday. I mentioned a few weeks back that my favorite collect is from Proper 22 (early October). I can believe this is one of Bishop Provenzano’s favorite collects, as I’ve heard our bishop quote this collect time and time again – and it’s a good line: to “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” scripture. As we are preparing for the season of Advent, we have a couple of themed weekends before we start preparing for the birth of Jesus. As Fr. Duncan mentioned in this past weekend’s services, last week was Loyalty Sunday. Loyalty Sunday is where our parish family is invited to pledge a financial gift to the parish, so our vestry (governing body) is able to create a budget for this next year. FYI - there is still time to get in your pledge cards!

One article I read regarding this Sunday’s lectionary readings called this Sunday Bible Sunday. As a prayer book people, I think we Episcopalians sometimes shy away from the good book. This Sunday’s collect ties us to scripture, but we don’t know or truly recognize how much scripture affects our liturgy. Our Confession, Prayers of the People, and Eucharistic Prayers, all reference portions of scripture that tie us to the Bible.

This week’s collect drives home the importance of scriptural repetition. We hear scripture every Sunday. We have four readings from scripture proclaimed: two Old Testament readings and two New Testament readings. We hear from the time of the prophets before Christ and we hear a psalm from King David, singing of God’s glory or lamenting life on this fragile earth, our island home. We also hear from the epistles – one of Paul’s letters or the Acts of the Apostles, and a Gospel reading which focuses on the life of Jesus of Nazareth. A majority of the Bible is read in a three-year cycle we call the lectionary, that we share with our sister churches. All Episcopal Churches, in addition to other mainline denominations like the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Roman Catholics, the Presbyterians follow this common lectionary for the most part as well.

As a prayer book people, meaning that we use the Book of Common Prayer, we have access to the Daily Office. The Daily Office is an opportunity for all of us to read the prayers of the church and pray for others in our community daily – like the monks and nuns of old. Clergy promise to read the holy scriptures and pray for those who have asked for prayer, especially within our church family. A group of us gather to pray together every weekday at 9:00am (lay people from our parish community and our clergy). It is not a commitment that one needs to promise to – we have people who join for a period and then leave. We offer the opportunity to those who would like to learn how to pray the Daily Office and join us in reading scripture because we know it is important for us to know about our spiritual roots.

Mark – not the evangelist St. Mark, but mark as in taking notes – mark up your Bible! Marking your Bible is something us seminarians did to understand scripture and remember what our professors taught us. It is a task for all who study the Bible – either with our parish community or on your own. Bible Study is an opportunity for those who want to dig deeper into knowing our spiritual roots. Mark goes hand-in-hand with learn which is the follow-up of marking. Learning more about the Bible can be done in community like at our Bible studies on Monday nights and Tuesday mornings, but also on one’s own. Lectio Devina is a spiritual practice of reading the Bible by marking and learning the parts that God calls you to focus on whether in community or on your own.

The last term that draws my attention is the inwardly digest. It is a slightly graphic image to think of an illustration of one digesting anything, but the analogy remains: the breaking down of scripture and taking in the spiritual nutrients that God needs us to take in.

This is all a process. We start with easy steps of hearing and reading, which we do regularly on Sundays. I invite us all to go deeper into our faith – marking, learning, and inwardly digesting the word of God – the good news of Jesus Christ. Let us meditate on our commitment to scripture and pray on how we can go one step deeper this upcoming Advent season of hope – which our collect points us to. God wants to know us. We need to know God as well.

Your sibling in Christ,

Fr. James

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL, EMAIL VERSION

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:20-21).

“Jesus had a soft spot for the poor. It might be fair to say, he preferred the poor. Poverty exists everywhere, you needn’t go to a “developing nation” to find it. It’s down your block. Don’t think so? You’re likely not looking hard enough. Here, Jesus challenges us to look. Because he tells the poor, the hungry, I see you, and yours is coming. Our calling as Christians is to live life generously. And not for our own desires, or those of our immediate circle, but for those on the fringes. Think of the good that could grow if we died to self a little more, and wholeheartedly embraced the work that Jesus has given us to do. Do you see the Holy Spirit in the faces of the poor?” (Sam Messer, More Than Enough)

Today is All Saints Sunday when we join with saints and all the company of heaven. The Celts would call this Sunday a thin place when the temporal and eternal are very close. The faithful gather together to remember those whom we love, but see no longer. We especially remember those who touched our hearts and touched the hearts of others with the love of God. When we play “For all the Saints” I always get very sentimental for Janet, Joyce, Wally, Ruth, Ginny, Ida, Bob, Frank, Clara, Don, Bev, Bruce, Mildred, and a whole host of others. Some of you go back to the generation before that in this church. We have this beautiful church and all our ministries and traditions because they gave themselves to Christ when they were here. I invite you to light a candle in their honor after you have communion today. There is no doubt that many saints have walked through the doors at St. John’s. We remember them in our prayers and through the life and ministry that we live. Many of the programs that we support have been going on for decades. I believe that our loved ones look down at us with a smile when we are a blessing to others. We also thank the saints of the Christian Church – women and men whose witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a blessing in every generation. We celebrate all who have been baptized in this church with the mark of the promised Holy Spirit and all those who have served here. We celebrate all their lives and their generosity that allows our generation to praise and worship our Lord in this beautiful church. Mother Teresa said that we all can’t do great things, but we can do small things with great love. Our ordinary acts of love bring the Kingdom of Heaven closer to Earth. St Paul tells us in Hebrews 12:1 that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. Saints are faithful men and women who have lived their lives for the sake of others. Paul asks us to persevere, so that after we have done God's will, we will receive what God has promised. 

Today is Loyalty Sunday. Our vestry asks you to do your part by filling out a pledge card and sending it to the office or place it in the plate on Sunday. Give of your time, talent and treasure to God because you truly believe that Christ died that you might have abundant life. When a heart is filled with the love of God, the desire to give a portion back comes from deep within, not from a rational sense of obligation. We use the gifts that God has given us to do the work God is calling us to do. God will never ask you to do anything unless God provides the means for you to do it. Give from your heart and St. John’s will serve this community with generosity as we have for the past 277 years. Please give joyfully and graciously from your heart. God is well pleased when we give in this manner and will provide everything we need to do the work that God calls us to do.

In Christ’s love,

Rev. Duncan Burns

>>>CLICK HERE FOR FULL EMAIL VERSION

“To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

(2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)

Last weekend was an incredible weekend at St. John's. On Saturday, our Harvest Fair went extremely well. The church was busy and the comradery among our parishioners was palpable. The weather was wonderful and the food was terrific. I would like to thank our entire ECW team that worked so hard to make the event such a huge success. Today’s lesson tells us that the ministry of the church is to work in community to teach what loving God and loving our neighbor is all about. If churches are dying, it is because they are not glorifying God. Isaiah tells us to “Learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:16-17). We glorify God when we work together to restore each other to God and community. We do this by going to Nogalas, Arizona and listening, learning and loving. We do this when we volunteer at our Harvest Fair to help those most in need in our community. We will give over 30,000 to local charities and another 20,000 to support the mission trips and ministry of St. John’s.

A special thanks to Chris Boccia, Fran Gorman, and Carol Goldbaum for their leadership in the ECW and at the Harvest Fair. Thanks to Mary Beth and our thrift shop team. Thanks to Kamaria, Mike, Sean, John, the vestry and those who worked in the kitchen. Thanks to Mary, Sue, Patti, Janice, Martha and the St. Hilda’s Guild. Thanks to Alex and the choir. Thank you to Deacon Claire and Gary. Thanks to Fr. James and Jenni. Thank you to Fr. Anthony and the St. Augustine’s Choir. Thanks to the St. Augustine Steel Drum band and the Christian band. Thanks to Patti and all those who gave to the silent auction and those who made baskets. Thanks to Daria and Liz and all those that got gift certificates, Last but not least thank you to Coral and everyone that helped out with the Harvest Fair.

At St. John's, we want to bring people to newness of life through the teachings of Jesus Christ and in the Sacraments. We are a Christ centered church that values tradition, yet moves forward in the Holy Spirit. During our stewardship campaign, people will witness what makes St. John's so special to them. Last week John talked about giving proportionately and Sean talked about being welcomed at St. John’s.  St. John’s is a friendly congregation because we follow the two simple commandments that Jesus gave us. We are also one of the most diverse churches in Suffolk County. 

Our parish is dedicated, "to know Christ and to make Him known." We are trying to live in the present reality as we move towards the kingdom of heaven. The political environment may make us a little anxious, but our faith is the rock that never moves. Please love God and one another as Jesus Christ loves us. We have something very special here at St. John's. Giving your time, talent, and treasure brings both you and this community to a place where we can minister to our children, the poor, the sick, and the thirsty. This year’s stewardship campaign is “More than enough.” Please place your pledge card in the offering plate today or just sign up for online giving. There are pledge cards in all the pews. The cards will then be blessed at the altar. Giving of ourselves for the sake of others literally ushers in the coming kingdom.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan