All Posts By

Laura Giffin

Are you Ready?

By Rector's Corner

December 16, 2021 Dear Doubters of Great Faith, It hardly seems possible, but the fourth Sunday of Advent has already arrived.  The season of preparation, the journey into deeper, fuller expressions of love, joy, peace, and hope, the journey that draws us ever closer to the immanence of divine dwelling among us, is about to come to fruition, yet again. I hear people ask, “Are you ready?” Questions of readiness link so closely to worthiness.  They really are questions of both/and.  Am I ready for a savior?  Yes.  Am I worthy of this Savior?  No.  For if I were, completely ready, and worthy, I wouldn’t need the Savior, this Savior.  Can I face this strange, twisted paradox of readiness and worth? The answer, I believe, lies in Mary’s response.  Let’s be clear – it’s easy to over-spiritualize Mary 2000 years later.  “She was filled with the spirit, and knew this…

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December 17, 2021

You Brood of Vipers

By Rector's Corner

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance.” -John Baptist I have always wanted to send Christmas cards with John Baptist’s warning on them.  Alas, some fear of the possible responses has prevented me from doing that. We hear these words…we heard them Sunday…every year.  They should cause us some pause as we all rush toward the Feast of the Incarnation, celebrating it before it actually does happen and then letting it drop like a hot potato on the 26th of December…at the very beginning of Christmastide. Older members of Saint Thomas the Apostle will recall my severe attitude about the proper observance of Advent. I turned down more invitations to “Christmas parties” in Advent than I can recall.  If I went, I insisted that they were “Advent” parties and all the red and green decorations were premature at…

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December 9, 2021

Sermon for The Second Sunday of Advent

By Featured, Sermons

Christopher Thomas Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year C – 12/05/21 Malachi 3:1-4 Canticle 16 Philippians 1:3-11 Luke 3:1-6 “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness…” Who said, “Who, me?” “Turn.” I am fascinated, captivated, motivated by this notion of “turn.” Oh, you can call it “repent,” or “metanoia.”  But for me, it’s as simple, and yet as complex, as “turn.” “Turn” is pivotal to the God-story! I’m more specifically interested in what motivates “turn.” Journey stories, all of our stories, are fraught with “turn,” twists and turns, ups and downs, forward and back,…

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December 9, 2021

What is Foyer?

By News, Upcoming Events

What today we refer to as foyer dinner groups were born in the Diocese of Coventry, England, in the aftermath of the massive destruction at the height of the German bombings of London and Coventry during World War II. The fourteenth-century Cathedral of St. Michael (Coventry Cathedral) was destroyed in the nine-hour blitz of 14 November 1940, but a ministry of reconciliation evolved from that destruction.  Rather than dwell on the violent loss of his beloved place of worship, Provost Howard was inspired to found a ministry of reconciliation that he called the Community of the Cross and Nails. While sifting through the rubble of the cathedral, he gathered many of the old nails that had fallen among the ruins and was inspired to have them twisted together to form a cross. This cross of nails and the words “Father, Forgive” became the unifying symbol of the International Ministry of…

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December 9, 2021