Lots of people who have been Episcopalians for a long time wonder what happened to Morning Prayer. This is a simple question with a complicated answer, since it touches on how we understand scripture, the history of the church and our country, the successes and failures of the Reformation and of course our personal experiences and memories. So…
Fellow Parishioners, Please volunteer an hour of your time to help us at the annual Basket Raffle fundraiser. It’s guaranteed to be fun, and we can’t do it without your help! Main Event: Saturday, October 4 & Sunday, October 5 Please note: Read carefully the location in the comments when you sign up. Some things…
At the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2012, a resolution was passed to create the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church (TREC), charged with thinking boldly about how the Episcopal Church could best respond to the challenges of change that it faces now and in the future. The TREC has just published a letter which outlines the proposals…
Fall is approaching, and the program year begins again at Saint James, so we welcome back the Sunday School and the Choir, along with the many members of our church family who have been away for all or part of the summer. But for most Episcopalians, autumn also means the coming of something that many of us anticipate…
September 7th – “Meet and Greet” 9:30-10:15 a.m. (lower level foyer) Registration for all grades preschool through high school Meet teaching staff, class registration, curriculum information, questions/answers. Cookie/juice table with coloring project available for children. September 14th – Classes begin 9:30-10:15 a.m. (lower level foyer) Preschool through 5th grade (or any child interested in singing!) will meet by the altar in the…
Last winter’s cold, wind and snow had a negative effect on our lovely garden in front of the church building. Besides losing some medium-size plants to deer who bedded down in the garden, the crape myrtles and the laurel hedge under both windows suffered significant winter kill. Fortunately the trees have somewhat revived but the…
A statement from the Bishop Suffragan-elect regarding recent events in Ferguson, Missouri ‘We are called to learn from and follow the example of Jesus’ Our nation has been gripped by the events in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death by a police officer of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, on August 9. The shooting, and the violence that has ensued, are…
Our recently elected Bishop Suffragan of Maryland, the Rev. Canon Heather Cook, will be ordained and consecrated at the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore on Saturday, September 6, 2014. During the service, it is customary that a newly elected bishop be given symbols of that office from the congregations of the diocese. These symbols include new vestments such as rochet, chimere,…
Inspired by a well-known set of singing instructions by John Wesley, I wrote this piece for a parish that was in the throes of what some in the church have called “The Music Wars,” battling about what kinds of music were suitable for church and what should be excluded. I offer it to you as a look into how I think about music and worship,…
A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Sutton July 22, 2014 Yesterday I joined with faith leaders from across Maryland to meet with Governor Martin O’Malley in Annapolis to address the humanitarian crisis facing our nation of the large numbers of young refugees seeking to enter into the United States. In recent weeks almost 60,000 Central American children have flooded across the U.S. border…