Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church, here in the United States, we awoke this morning with alarm to the news that the United States and Israel have launched a large military strike on Iran. This violent attack comes despite weeks of negotiations that many of us had hoped would prevent armed conflict in this fragile region, which is home to so many religious traditions and faithful people.

… At today’s meeting, we will review the early work we have done on the strategic plan and in that context, hear some important updates from our chief financial officer and our chief legal officer about the context for ministry in these times and how we are adjusting.

Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church: Last year, I had the honor to preach at the historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas on the Feast of Absalom Jones. That occasion gave me the opportunity to revisit the work that the Honorable Byron Rushing and Mr. Arthur Sudler have done to enlarge and correct our understanding of Blessed Absalom’s legacy and gave me renewed appreciation for the way in which the pastoral and the prophetic were intertwined in his ministry.

Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church: This past Friday, I received this generous letter from Archbishop Shane Parker of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church:  As the situation in the United States grows more fraught, The Episcopal Church is working to find new ways to care for God’s people in our immigrant communities. Many of you have asked how you can help.

Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church: Like Jesus, we live in frightening times. His earthly ministry began, as we heard in today’s Gospel reading, when John the Baptist was imprisoned by authorities who wanted to silence his preaching and prophesying.

Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church, if you imagine yourself as a character in the Gospel Nativity readings, you’ll soon realize that the first Christmas was not about staying home by a warm hearth with chestnuts roasting and stockings hanging. Everyone in these passages is on the move, mostly without warning and against their will. Joseph and Mary are summoned from Nazareth to Bethlehem for a census. Shepherds, at the behest of an angel, leave their sheep in the fields to see what all the fuss is about. And the three Magi, my favorites, are just sitting there minding their own kingdoms when a star intrudes on their lives and leads them on an unplanned and uncomfortable trip far away from home.