It’s #AshWednesday! Beginning at 10 a.m., Mother Lauren will be doing #AshesOnTheGo, bringing the ashes and prayers to you! And she will offer #AshesToGo as well! She will take full COVID precautions, including wearing a mask, a face shield, and gloves, which she will change after imposing ashes for each person. Instead of going INTO buildings, Mother Lauren will be outside, so that people can come out one at a time and socially distance. She will call to each house/office when she arrives to let people know, and will offer ashes either by imposition (she draws the sign of the cross on your forehead) or by giving you ashes in a plastic baggie like the one pictured below to take home for you to impose your own ashes (which is pretty powerful). #AshesInChurch will take place at 7 p.m. at the Bishop Jones Building, Mission. Wear your mask, and we will practice the same precautions there as well. Call Mother Lauren if you would like to receive ashes and prayers (605-828-3892). #GetYourAshOn

This sermon was preached by The Rev. Dr. Lauren R. Stanley for Episcopal Peace Fellowship, following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on 6 January 2021: Our baptisms are an invitation to a revolution of love.

Please enjoy our Christmas 2020 service! Because of the COVID pandemic, we are not able to worship together in person. But Christmas cannot be stopped by a pandemic, and the Baby Jesus brings the Light into the world that the darkness will never overcome!

2020 has been so very different – and hard – for all of us, and Christmas will be as well. We will not be having in-person worship on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, because we want to keep everyone safe.

But we will celebrate Christmas! We will celebrate anew the coming of the Christ Child. So please join us at one of the churches on Christmas Eve to receive Christmas Communion and prayers. Wear your masks, stay in your cars, and celebrate with us!

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry’s Christmas message for 2020 …

https://embed-fastly.wistia.com/deliveries/effa0f0e23cbc238ccc47cea22018124727d882a.mp4?filename=Christmas%20Message%202020.mp4&disposition=attachment

The text for Presiding Bishop Curry’s Christmas 2020 message:

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

Perhaps like me, you’ve sung this hymn for years – in church,  at home with your family,  gathered with friends and neighbors. Perhaps you’ve sung it to yourself  –  in your car, on a walk, or quietly in the dark of night.

Joy to the world!

While we may not feel joyful this year – as the pandemic of disease continues to bring sickness and death, when fear and mistrust – a darkness – threatens to overcome the light – we, as followers of Jesus Christ must bear joy to this aching world. We must shine light into the darkness.  Joy to the world!

Like much in our lives, proclaiming joy is difficult work – also good and essential work – especially now. Though we mourn that which is lost in our lives, our families, and our communities – Joy to the world!

While we strive to pull up the twisted and thorny vines of hatred and bigotry and anger – Joy to the world!

Through streaming tears and gritted teeth – Joy to the world!  – because God is breaking into our lives and into this world anew.

While this is a strange year, the ministry He gives us remains the same. We will prepare him room in our hearts by taking on the ministry Jesus demands of us: feed those who are hungry; welcome the stranger; clothe those who are naked; heal those who are sick; visit the prisoner. Love God. Love your neighbor. Sing joy into this old world. Prepare him room.

St. Luke writes of the first Christmas, “[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” There, in the simplest bed, in the cool of the night, in a trough, in bands of cloth, lies the One for whom no room was made. And yet strangely, there lies the One whom not even the universe can contain.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come. In your hearts, in your homes, in your lives, prepare him room.

God love you; God bless you; and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

Watch the video of Bishop Jonathan’s message by clicking the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Oj1pJHj9c&feature=share