THOUGHTS FROM THE CENTER AISLE

Hello Grace and St Peter’s,

I hope you all had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend.  Perhaps you were able to get to the beach or the mountains or at least a backyard barbecue—socially distanced, of course.

Just before the weekend, we received some good G&SP news about a coup...

Proper 18, Year A

It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The bloo...

Dear Grace and St Peter’s,

After a delightful, restful two weeks on Cape Cod, it is great to be back amongst you worshipping, serving, praying and raising a loud shout to God with psalms—well, maybe not the loud shouting due to ongoing public health restrictions. But, e...

Proper 15, Year A

Given this morning’s somewhat surprising story about Jesus’ interaction with a Canaanite woman—or a Syrophoenician woman as the Gospel of Mark’s version would have it—I thought it might be fun and enlightening to listen in on an imaginary conversation...

Year A, Proper 13

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the d...

We wish Rev. Bob a restful vacation and look forward to spending the next three Sundays worshiping with our lay leaders along with Father Joseph on August 2 and 9. We want to take a moment to acknowledge Bob for going way above and beyond the call of duty during the Pa...

Dear Grace and St Peter’s and St John’s,

This is likely going to be my last mid-week message for a few weeks so I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for coming on our great ecclesial adventure of the past few months. There have been many challenges and, also, m...

Dear Grace and St Peter’s, Hamden, and St John’s, North Haven,

Two weeks in, I think I can safely say that our summer experiment in combined outdoor worship is going well. We’ve had over fifty people attend our service on the side lawn at St John’s with more following o...

Dear Grace and St Peter’s, Hamden, and St John’s, North Haven,

I am delighted that so many of you were able and willing to join us on the side lawn at St John’s for Morning Prayer this past Sunday. I understand that, due to health and safety concerns, the service was no...

Dear Grace and St Peter’s,

Last Sunday, we completed the first part of our Covid-19 communal worship journey—a journey that has taken us to some of the most beautiful and most important sites in Hamden. Thanks to Allison Batson and Aldon Hynes’ technological handiwork,...