All over our region, congregations are embracing new ways of working on behalf of the Gospel. If you have a story to tell about work your community is doing, please email us.
“That’s why Easter is not just today, it’s 50 days,” said Bishop Sean in his Easter Day sermon. “It’s 50 days that crackle with the energy of God. It’s 50 days that allow us to enter into a space with God where Jesus has become one with God and with all of us; that we…
“God, through Jesus, took the worst of this world and triumphed over it,” said the Rev. Canon Cathy Dempesy-Sims in her sermon for Palm Sunday. “Think about that. Whatever pain, whatever suffering we experience, God has experienced it too.”
The diocesan partnership will offer several online worship services for Holy Week and Easter: Palm Sunday Service, March 28 at 10 a.m. Palm Sunday worship will include a narrative reading of Mark’s Passion Gospel. Join the service on Zoom. If you are asked for a password, use lakeerie. To join by phone instead of video, dial…
“For us to be fully present with the passion of the upcoming Holy Week, I believe it takes our coming to see Jesus in the fullness of his life among us; not just in historical terms but in our present too,” said Canon Twila Smith in her sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. “To…
Dear People of God in Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania: Across our region, COVID-19 cases have begun to decline from the precipitous rates we saw this winter. The vaccine rollout, while still slow, has gained some momentum in both New York and Pennsylvania, and it seems as if the worst of the winter weather…
“Like Nicodemus, we cannot stay where we are,” said the Rev. Jason Shank in his sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. “Through the season of Lent we are given space to think about our own response to the cross and what it means for us to walk in the light of God’s Love. Most…
In today’s gospel, “Jesus is flipping tables, ya’ll,” Canon Vanessa Butler says. The story of Jesus turning over the tables of moneylenders in the temple is well-known, but the Ten Commandments offer us a deeper way to read it. This Lent, she suggests we take up the commandments “not as an obligation, but as a…
Early in the pandemic, St. Philip’s, Buffalo began holding services online as a way to gather while COVID-19 made it unsafe to be together in person. Now, what began as a short-term solution has become a long-term commitment to a new way of worshipping. The congregation has transformed its space, installing technology that will allow…
“When we allow ourselves to be driven back to what was, we miss out on what can be,” said the Rev. Canon Cathy Dempesy-Sims in her sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent. “I don’t know what a post-pandemic world will look like, but I know we can’t get there by going back to what…
