As we approach the fourth Sunday of Advent, Bishop Ward encourages us to give generously to Hurricane Matthew relief and also to be in prayer as the Church enters a new year of mission and ministry.
Grace and peace to you.
The Advent wreath burns more brightly each week during this Holy season. The gifts of this season are many. We are deeply grateful to God for the journey of Advent toward Christmas.
This beautiful Haitian panel, the fourth in our Advent series, is a lovely depiction of the Magi bearing gifts to Jesus. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Above their heads are stars, beautiful stars. Every Christmas star, every Christmas candle, every Christmas light bears witness to the light of Christ in our world.
During this magnificent season of love and light and great anticipation, we continue to be generous. Our Christmas offerings will bring light into the darkness of the lives of those who were impacted by Hurricane Matthew. Thank you for giving generously this Christmas to this special Christmas offering.
Very soon, the first week in January, we will be offering our prayers. Even as the Wise Men come to visit the Christ child, we kneel in praise and adoration and we ask God to be with us in this new year as the church, alive in love and unity, engages its mission in the world. Then the second week in January, “conversation circles” will be convened of lay and clergy leaders. All of these are ways in which we respond to the gift of God in Christ to us.
Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your presence and participation over these next weeks.