This January as we begin a New Year following a really hard year, we all have a sense of anticipation. We are eager to begin afresh most years at this time but that is especially true in 2021. We hope for better days ahead, and we want to make ourselves ready for them. The Church calendar is set up so that we can take a journey with Jesus through the year. After we have celebrated His birth we jump over his childhood and youth and pick up the story of Jesus as he begins his m

Dear Friends, I write to you on a sad and frightening day in our nation. All afternoon I watched the news from our nation’s capital with shock and sadness as a mob scaled the walls of the Capital and broke windows and doors to gain entry while lawmakers barricaded themselves their offices. The footage left me incredulous and horrified as people broke into offices and the floors of Congress to take selfies and show disrespect. Then as the mayor of the District of Columbia a

Skaket Beach Sunset, December 2020, photograph by Bruce Conley, Orleans, MA Sunday, January 10th: "The Heavens are Splitting" (Mark 1:4-11) When Jesus came to the River Jordan to be baptized, he was young and unknown. But something happened that told the people there that day that this young man was special, different from the others. The only words they had to explain it were “The heavens were splitting.” What is it that tells us we have come into God’s presence? What is it