Tag: bishop mathes

We are all Syrian. We are all Muslim.

This was an email letter sent to members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego on January 29, 2017 and posted the same day to the Diocesan Facebook Page. 

 

Logo for Episcopal Diocese of San DiegoDear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

 

The last nine days have been a disquieting and dizzying display of presidential action in Mr. Trump’s first days in office. It is difficult for us to find focus as he occupies the media space railing about the size of the inauguration crowd and making unsubstantiated claims regarding voter fraud. From a public policy perspective, there is much to worry about: news blackouts from federal departments, possible trade wars, and comments about illegal torture to name a few.

 

However, Friday’s executive order to halt immigration from seven Muslim countries, including the suspension of refugees from war-ravaged Syria, is an affront to our sense of fairness and equity. Indeed, the president even stated that our nation would give preferential treatment to Christians over Muslims, thereby invoking a religious standard for entry that is anathema to our national creed. Fanning the fears of 9/11 and ISIS, the president wants us to believe that we will be safer because we change who we are as a people who welcome the immigrant and the refugee. But we are the nation of the Marshall Plan, Famine Relief and Tsunami recovery. Our dark chapters of the last century include Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order 9066, which interred Japanese Americans because of their ethnicity. This is too eerily familiar. Surely we have learned from our past and discovered the better angels of our nature.

Please read all of the Bishop’s letter

Wind Chimes: 2 Nov 2012

A church cemetary

Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about people who have died so that you won’t mourn like others who don’t have any hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 CEB

We continue to remember those ‘saints’ known mostly to us and to our families on this day. Though gone from this earth, who is it that continues to shape you because of their love? ~dan

The loveliness of the sounds from the chimes catches our attention today. What do you hear?

Commemoration of All Faithful Departed (Nov 2)

In the New Testament, the word “saints” is used to describe the entire membership of the Christian community, and in the Collect for All Saints’ Day the word “elect” is used in a similar sense. From very early times, however, the word “saint” came to be applied primarily to persons of heroic sanctity, whose deeds were recalled with gratitude by later generations.

Beginning in the tenth century, it became customary to set aside another day—as a sort of extension of All Saints—on which the Church remembered that vast body of the faithful who, though no less members of the company of the redeemed, are unknown in the wider fellowship of the Church. It was also a day for particular remembrance of family members and friends.

Though the observance of the day was abolished at the Reformation because of abuses connected with Masses for the dead, a renewed understanding of its meaning has led to a widespread acceptance of this commemoration among Anglicans, and to its inclusion as an optional observance in the calendar of the Episcopal Church.

Holy Women, Holy Men introduction for the “Commemoration of All Faithful Departed,”

Bishop Mathes encourages our helpful response in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

“As we continue to absorb the news about Hurricane Sandy, I ask your prayers for all impacted by this powerful storm. We are the one body of Christ, which means we all suffer when one suffers. Let us reach out to those who have lost electricity, homes, businesses and loved ones. And let no one face the storm alone.” Read his statement

ERD: Healing a hurting worldGive to the Hurricane Sandy Response Fund
administered by Episcopal Relief and Development

The Collect for the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed

O God, the Maker and Redeemer of all believers: Grant to the faithful departed the unsearchable benefits of the passion of your Son; that on the day of his appearing they may be manifested as your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 665

Photo: The cemetery at Mission Santa Ysabel in San Diego County (CA) on Google Maps. ~dan

%d bloggers like this: