I am on the mailing list for the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the monastic order located in Cambridge, MA. The theme of their most recent newsletter was “Growth,” and included articles titled “Awake,” “Patience,” “Know Limits,” “Anxiety,” “The Breaks,” and “On the Hard Road.” The final page if the newsletter offered some loosely connected reflection questions. Depending on how the pieces of your life are aligning just now, the rhythm of life may slow down a bit during the summer months. Maybe there is just a bit more time and space to reflect….

With both the Pride and Independence Day celebrations in late June and early July, it can be easy to overlook some of those whom we commemorate in the church during this time. For example, on July 1, we remember two remarkable people: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Pauli Murray. The Rev. Dr. Murray is by far less well-known but also had an outsized impact on both society and the church. During her long and varied career she was a lawyer, a writer and poet, a civil rights activist, a professor, and eventually, an Episcopal priest. On January 8, 1977, Murray was ordained the first African American woman priest at the Washington National Cathedral….

As I write this, bishops and delegates from Episcopal churches across the nation (and from area missions and the Convocation of American Churches in Europe) are meeting in Louisville, KY for our 81st General Convention. Every three years our church gathers and makes decisions that impact our common life. The structure through which this happens is bicameral: there is a House of Bishops, which includes all active and retired bishops, and a House of Deputies, which includes four lay people and four clergy elected from each diocese….

Webster’s dictionary defines “Faith,” as “confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea or thing.” There was also this definition, “Belief and trust in God.”

In Mark’s Gospel we find the disciples in a boat, on a rough sea, afraid of capsizing, and Jesus is sleeping. They were afraid. Their faith that everything will be okay is lacking. They call out “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Jesus calmed the storm, and turns to the disciples and ask, why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”…

Last week I had the honor of attending the end-of-year musical conceived and performed by students at P.S. 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Parishioner Zach Pearson was one of the teaching artists who facilitated the production, helping the students take their ideas and turn them into a live action story. Because Zach knows I am all about performance of any kind (and also because I am his mom!), I got the invite—and accepted with enthusiasm….

As we get closer to the solstice on June 20, the official start of summer on the calendar, it is a time of hopeful anticipation of the blessings we may look forward to this season. As you may know, I am a fan of Tess Ward’s The Celtic Wheel of the Year: Old Celtic and Christian Prayers, which lays out daily prayers for use month by month. For Saturdays in June, the theme is the “Canticle of Midsummer,” and the prayers play off of the well-known Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis….

This past week, New Yorkers had an opportunity to be amazed. As you may have seen or heard in the news, it was the yearly arrival of “Manhattanhenge”—that time in the early summer when the setting of the sun lines up perfectly with the street grid in Manhattan. Since moving back to the city in 2018 I have experienced this phenomenon only once. Quite by accident, at the end of a day I stumbled upon a large-ish group of people staring west, phones lifted to record the event….

Have you ever experienced a surprise that completely changed your perspective or direction in life? The Lord has a way of surprising us in unexpected and powerful ways.

He often leads us on paths that we never would have chosen for ourselves. Just as the disciples were surprised when Jesus called them to leave everything and follow Him, we too may be surprised by the directions in which the Lord leads us. His ways are always higher than ours, and His plans are always for our ultimate good….

We are in an intense period of the liturgical year right now. Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. This Sunday is Pentecost, followed by Trinity Sunday on May 26. The narrative cycle of the church year is coming to a close, and we are transitioning to the rhythm of “ordinary time”—where we will remain until Advent begins again….

This Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, transferred forward a few days from its official date this year on Thursday, May 9. It is wonderful to commemorate this pivotal part of Jesus’ story — the moment, after his resurrection, when he ascended into heaven. There is a small downside to transferring the feast day, though, which is that we miss out on scripture passages appointed for the seventh Sunday of Easter. This year that means that we don’t hear about Matthias in Acts 1:15-17, 21-26….