Weekly Letter, 01/23/2025
The Rev. John Mark Wiggers • January 24, 2025

Friends and Neighbors,


What a week it has been. There was football, an inauguration, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We have also continued to experience very cold temperatures around here. Then we see that the Episcopal Church is in the news as a result of the sermon of The Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde at the Service of Prayer for Our Nation at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Bishop Cole commends this sermon to all of us. I encourage you to read it HERE. I have seen many positive and a few negative responses to it. Bishop Budde stood and delivered the type of message that I hope you often hear at St. James. She called for mercy and compassion for vulnerable people. This is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us too. 


This Sunday (Jan 26), we will celebrate God's call on all of us to love God with all of our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We will see friends baptized, confirmed, and received into the church. I encourage you to listen closely to the words of this service and to consider your own commitment to follow Christ, and we celebrate the commitments made. Language is important and powerful. I am finding great comfort and strength in words like mercy, grace, and lovingkindness. We stand at an exciting moment when we can hold up the language of our faith that calls us to turn our hearts towards those in need of healing and hope. 


Many of our friends who will affirm their faith this Sunday have beautiful stories of finding some hope and healing through our parish. Your ministry of welcoming people touches the lives of those who come through our doors. I know that many people have resonated with the words of Bishop Budde and may well decide to come see what we are about. Again, I turn to the service for baptism in our Book of Common Prayer. As we answer questions in the Baptismal Covenant, we are called to respond: "I will with God's help." We acknowledge that we need the Spirit filling us to help love our neighbors. May that humility be the strength that grounds us as we welcome others with God's love. 


Thank you for all the ways that you share love right here in our community. 


Peace,

Fr. John Mark 

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Weekly Letter, 05/22/2025

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Weekly Letter, 05/15/2025

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Weekly Letter, 05/08/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • May 12, 2025
Friends and Neighbors, This Sunday is Mother's Day and also Good Shepherd Sunday. Both celebrations have been shaped and changed over the years. Good Shepherd Sunday got the name as we do read the passage from John 10 about Jesus the Good Shepherd, and Mother's Day has roots going back to Mothering Sunday in England. The establishment of Mother's Day in the United States was motivated by the recognition of the work of Ann Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Anna M. Jarvis. These women worked for sanitary health care for soldiers and were advocates for peace during the Civil War. They imagined a union of mothers who would call for peace because mothers knew so deeply the loss of their children to war. Mothering and shepherding call for similar qualities of protection and care.

Weekly Letter, 05/01/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • May 12, 2025
We continue celebrating Easter as we move into a month full of celebrations and transitions. I am looking forward to just hanging out with folks this Saturday night at our spaghetti dinner. You can find details about that in this email. Please mark your calendars for the annual Justice Knox Celebration on May 19 from 6:30 PM- 8:30 PM at First Presbyterian Church. We will have dinner and share stories about the next steps. You will also be asked to consider making an investment in the work of Justice Knox. I hope that you will consider giving to this important ministry.

Weekly Letter, 04/24/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 24, 2025
Alleluia. Christ is risen. We celebrated the resurrection with so much joy this past Sunday. The Easter feast continues for 50 days. Thank you to everyone who made Holy Week and Easter Sunday so special. You helped people feel welcomed to this place where we proclaim the welcoming love of Christ in word, deed, song, Easter egg hunts, and something good to eat. We welcome others because we have known the love of Christ and want to share it.

Weekly Letter, 04/17/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 17, 2025
Friends and Neighbors, As we journey through Holy Week, I encourage you to pause and consider those events that lead us to the joyful celebration of Easter. May that also be reflected in our lives. We walk through hard things and know that God is with us. We hold to the hope that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Weekly Letter, 04/10/2025

By John Mark Wiggers • April 17, 2025
Friends and Neighbors, As the weather teases us with warm days followed by chilly ones, we enter Holy Week. You have probably heard me encouraging folks to experience the journey to the cross and the grave so we might celebrate the resurrection with that insight. God has shared this human experience and is with us in the darkness and the light. Our liturgies of Holy Week take us on that journey with Jesus and remind us that God is indeed with us on our own journeys.
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