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We are all aware of the tension, anger, and hostility around us related to the many controversial issues that face our nation.  One image seemed to capture this for me.  On the front page of the local newspaper, this week was a photograph of a protest in another city where members of opposing viewpoints were standing opposite one another, and in the frame, a man steps forward and is grabbing the neck of a man from the other side, in a chokehold. 

 

The Pastoral Staff, Clergy, and Chapter leadership want to suggest that we enter these next 8 weeks before Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd, as a time of prayer and spiritual reflection.  

We hope that every person in our congregation, including our youth, children, and families, will be encouraged to pray for peace and unity for our nation, our community, our homes, and our hearts.  We join with Sacred Heart Cathedral and others in our greater faith community in this call to pray for peace and unity. 

 

The mechanics are simple.  Each Tuesday at 11:03 am you will receive a digital reminder for each person to pray for peace and unity during the week on their own time, in their own space, and in their own way.  

 

It is our hope that we might, just might, help everyone experience a bit of peace that they do not have. And further, we hope that this effort will remind us and reinforce in us, that at St. John’s, we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.  Those faithful people, many of them actual relatives of current parishioners, bequeathed us a value to live in the spirit of recognizing and embracing that we are not all the same.  We have differences in thought and belief about many topics  -  and yet  - we are able to travel together on this journey. And not only travel but thrive.   

 

John+
The Very Reverend John C. Ross

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Tuesday, October 20th, 2020

"Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, and to all who have none to care for them..."

The Book of Common Prayer, "For the Poor and Neglected", pg. 826