A Mission of Reconciliation and Healing
Last weekend, our diocese met in its annual convention, and we considered the mission plan for the diocese, creating a new relationship with the Diocese of Western Mexico, and a change to the constitution of our diocese that clarifies who are considered clergy on the Standing Committee. We listened to a keynote address on human impact within creation and hosted conversations on ways forward that extend out from our faith in Christ Jesus. In all of the topics that were…
The Distress of Change
Change is, in a word, hard. It is hard especially when we feel like we don’t have a whole lot of control over the change that is happening. And it gets even harder when those things upon which we have relied are themselves changing. I am not sure about you, but I have certainly felt that way over the last several months. The very things that were the touchstones of my week began to shift underneath my feet. Gathering together…
Visible Signs of Inward & Spiritual Grace
It had been nearly seven months. While this would not normally qualify as a long stretch of time in most cases, it has felt like an eternity. It is the amount of time that had passed between our celebrations of the Holy Eucharist at Church of the Epiphany. In seven months, I, as a priest in the church, had not touched a communion wafer, said the Eucharistic prayer, or gathered around Christ’s table with others in order to receive the…
Living the Incarnation
It’s hard to believe that we are returning to in-person worship on Sunday. It has been such a long time since we have been able to worship together, to break bread together, to find Christ together. It has been a time of fasting for us as we have worshiped by way of online technology and have gone without Holy Eucharist for nearly seven months. The fast has invited us to dive a little more deeply into our personal relationship with…
Epiphany’s Covenant of Care
So, now we know a new schedule for the fall, and we have learned a little bit about how to get tickets for in-person worship services. But how will we care for each other when we gather in-person? This is where our covenant of care comes into the picture. If you remember your Bible stories, you might remember that there are several covenants that God makes at different times. The first covenant is with Noah, and it reflects God’s commitment…
Faith Seeking Understanding: Small Experiments; Big Learning
Over the last year, the vestry was reading a book by Episcopal priest and theologian Dwight Zscheile titled The Agile Church. In his book, Zscheile walks church leaders through a way of becoming more agile in mission and to learn and grow in discipleship precisely because of our willingness to become more agile in what we do as church. In one chapter of his book, Zscheile discusses taking on small experiments to learn new things about the people around your…
Making Reservations for In-person Worship
It is exciting that we are looking at the possibility of returning to in-person worship at Church of the Epiphany! We are all excited about the possibility of seeing sisters and brothers in Christ that we have not seen at church since March. As we prepare for a return to in-person worship, we are also adopting a new practice: registering for a worship service in advance. The reason we are doing this is to help us maintain limits on attendance…
Preparing for In-Person Worship: A New Sunday Schedule
In a few short weeks, Church of the Epiphany-Tempe will be making a return to in-person worship with limits on attendance and following other safety practices during a time of pandemic. It also means that we have to re-think our Sunday schedule in order to create room for things like formation classes (formerly known as Sunday school)! Thus, beginning on September 13, we will make a shift to a new schedule to lay the foundation for the remainder of the…
New Community
A few rather surprising emails have been going around the parish over the last day or two. Seemingly out of the blue, you might have received an email about preparing for the return of in-person worship. I think if I had been on the receiving end of those emails that I would have rubbed my eyes a few times to be sure that I was reading the subject correctly. We have been doing online church for so long now, it…
Building Up the Body of Christ
As I have been around the church and in conversations with colleagues working in parishes and missions over all different types and sizes, I have often encountered the conversation around Christian formation. In most of the conversations that I have had with lay ministers in our beloved church, I hear questions about Sunday school, and it is almost always couched in the form of what we are going to provide for children inn order to attract the families that we…
Vintage Anglican
In the early days of England’s split with Rome, the church in England had to figure out how to move forward with worship in the country. Very quickly, the church had to create worship resources for the parishes that would eventually become the Church of England and another worldwide expression of the Christian faith. In a time in which communication was much slower than it is today, the leaders of the church had to create the items the church would…
Listening to the Holy
A few nights ago, I was on (another) Zoom call with a small group of parishioners that is working to plan the next parish council meeting, which is scheduled for August 22, 2020. (Have you RSVPed yet? If not, you can do so here!) During the course of the conversation, one of the parishioners asked, quite plainly, what the hope for the parish council is in the bigger picture of Church of the Epiphany. It was a question about what…