Worship & Congregation

The Rt. Rev. Andrew Dietsche looks back on his 11 years as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

“[This Sunday’s] parable reminds us we are not to be overwhelmed by bad news but to stay in communion with God,” writes Summerlee Staten, Executive Director, Faith Formation and Education, “to keep the lamplight of our faith burning in trust and in hope.”

Jesus’s teaching in his Sermon on the Mount gives us a “new vision of how the world should be organized,” upending the status quo “by favoring the poor, the merciful, the mourning, and those rejected for doing the right thing,” writes Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, Associate Director, Spiritual Practices, Retreats, & Pilgrimage. “How shocking that the way to blessedness is through inadequacy and vulnerability.”

Looking over the past few weeks’ Gospel readings, Kathryn Carroll, Program Manager, Children and Family Formation, suggests “if we remove what sounds to our ears as treachery or snark, the conversation becomes deeply philosophical and filled with longing,” leading us to ponder the divinity of Jesus, humanity, and ourselves.