I applaud New York State’s inclusion of the Excluded Workers Fund in the 2021 budget that will provide financial help for undocumented immigrant workers excluded for more than a year from federal and state pandemic relief. – Bishop Provenzano
“May you be gentle with the world
celebrate the consistency in the changing of seasons
listen for the sounds of spring’s renewal
splash in a river’s water
and lean into the One who walks with you.”
Major SBC church ordains women despite SBC ban; Vatican cautions US bishops about denying communion to politicians; German Catholic bless gay unions despite Vatican ban.
The Church of England will issue guidance this week to churches to review monuments with reference to slavery, racially offensive language, and the like. Some churches and cathedrals have already taken action.
“I deeply mourned the loss of that dream and spent an entire year healing, focused on doing all the things I put on hold while I was in the wilderness. Despite the hardship, I did feel God’s presence. God was the pillar of cloud bringing me from oasis to oasis, meeting others who were traveling the same road.”
The Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA has elected Megan Rohrer as their bishop. They are the first transgender person to be bishop of a major Christian denomination in the U.S.
What is striking about the story in Acts, is that this powerful man, in a chariot, reading Isaiah, humbly said he could not understand, and needed someone to guide him. This was humility in its most pure and modest form. Think how willing people are today to acknowledge what they don’t know. Think how often people resent someone who tries to teach something, however gently. A powerful man is assumed to be someone who knows the secrets to power, and is not assumed to be in need of a teacher. That is what makes the Ethiopian Eunuch a model for us all: true humility means we live the truth of who we really are, without pretension or deceit or false modesty. We acknowledge that there is wisdom greater than ours, and much to learn.
“The consciousness of being born of God is not constant in me by any means. Often I act selfishly. But the more conscious I am in the dance of creation the more torn open by love I am. There is nowhere I have to go, nothing that I must become.”
“Many of us have felt as though we have lived a type of hermit-like life this past year or so, with limited contact with the outside world. We have felt cut off from family and friends, our church, even the simple act of going out to eat or shop. We have worn masks much as monks, nuns, or even hermits might have worn as identifying habits to mark them as set apart for religious or health reasons.”
“‘Why is he talking to her?’
they must have thought.
‘Does he not hear Jairus
begging, pleading, bargaining?
Does he not know who he is?'”