Frank T. Griswold
Prayer for Those with HIV / AIDS
October 1st, 2001 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: After 20 years of living with HIV/AIDS, we as members of the Body of Christ continue to face the challenge of this life-destroying disease in our congregations, our communities, and the world. Estimates prepared for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS this past […]
Presiding Bishop invites church to join in prayer for those with HIV/AIDS
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: After 20 years of living with HIV/AIDS, we as members of the Body of Christ continue to face the challenge of this life-destroying disease in our congregations, our communities, and the world. Estimates prepared for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS this past June indicate that […]
On Waging Reconciliation
September 26th, 2001 We, your bishops, have come together in the shadow of the shattering events of September 11. We in the United States now join that company of nations in which ideology disguised as true religion wreaks havoc and sudden death. Through this suffering, we have come into a new solidarity with those in […]
My Joy is Gone, Grief is Upon me, My Heart is Sick
St. Paul’s Cathedral, Burlington, Vermont The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 23rd, 2001 Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13 When we find ourselves personally and corporately in “thin places” as Evelyn Underhill calls them, it is often the words of scripture, charged as they are with the joys and sorrows, the burdens and yearnings […]
Overcoming Evil
September 18th, 2001 On Friday, September 14, the day of national mourning, I knew my place was here in New York with those who were courageously struggling with the aftermath of the hideous events of the previous Tuesday. A police van picked me up at the Church Center and transported me through checkpoints to […]
Statement from the Presiding Bishop on the World Trade Center and related tragedies
Thank you for the many expressions we are receiving of support and concern. We are safe and exceedingly mindful of the tragedy that is happening in another part of New York and also in Washington. The Church Center community has gathered to support one another and to pray for all those who have died, or […]
'We are called to another way': Presiding Bishop Griswold on the September 11 attacks
The events of this morning in New York City and Washington, D.C. make me keenly aware that violence knows no boundaries and that security is an illusion. To witness the collapse of the World Trade Center was to confront not only our vulnerability as a nation in spite of our power, but also the personal […]
A Sure Foundation
September 1st, 2001 The baptismal covenant grounds us in faith before sending us out. During August, Phoebe and I enjoyed several weeks in New Hampshire, where most of my childhood summers were spent visiting my grandmother. Some years ago we bought a small house of our own, which sustains and refreshes us as a point […]
Ordination of J. Neil Alexander, Diocese of Atlanta
Isaiah 61:1-8Hebrews 5:1-10Luke 24:44-49a As your presiding bishop, it gives me particular joy to preside at the ordination of your new bishop, John Neil Alexander. The road you have traveled in order to come to this moment has been, at times, difficult and possibly disheartening, but you as a diocese have managed with grace and […]
More On Baptism: Part 3 of a Series on Baptism
Several weeks ago I stood surrounded by the twelfth-century stained glass windows in the early gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France and found myself overcome by emotion. Why, I asked myself: was it the size, splendor or antiquity of the building? No, it was none of these things. Rather, standing in this space […]