The Bishop, the diocesan COVID Advisory Team, and many from around the diocese gathered on Thursday, January 13 to discuss what is happening in church communities, shared experience, and some helpful metrics. A recording of this meeting is available here.

In an address to the nation from the Lincoln Memorial on January 6, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry called on Christians to reclaim the spiritual light that the holiday celebrates and reject the “deeper darkness” shown in the attack. “Epiphany, at its deepest roots, is about the light and life and love of God and what happened here in this country that we love a year ago was not about light and love and life. And we are better than that. And we must declare it.”

The Wabanaki Alliance has hired John Dieffenbacher-Krall to serve as their first full-time Executive Director. John is a veteran community organizer and longtime advocate for the Wabanaki tribes in Maine who served as chair of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine's Committee on Indian Relations through March of 2021. Read more here. Congratulations!

The Maine Council of Churches, the BTS Center, and Atlantic Black Box cohosted the MLK Day event, Committed to Listen, a public reading of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” on January 17. If you missed it, here is a recording.

Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s monthly series of free, online Peacebuilding presentations featured a dynamic talk by Dr. Catherine Meeks on racial healing to kick-off the new year. Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in the Diocese of Atlanta, Dr. Meeks addressed a Zoom audience of 61 participants from around the country.

In combatting racial injustice in our society, she asserted at the outset that “white folks have also been wounded by racism. White supremacy is a belief that has wounded all of us. Our approach to change needs to come, she said, from a place of “broken-heartedness,” by facing fairly and squarely our mutual “woundedness.” Together, white people can unite with people of color on a common pilgrimage toward liberation.

As a Jungian psychologist, social worker, and much sought after workshop leader, Catherine Meeks told her listeners that in our zeal to cure racism we look in all the wrong places. There is both an ‘outer community’ and an “inner community” in each of us, and the work of racial healing must begin by looking inward, examining our personal histories and deepest thoughts, convictions, prejudices. “Interrogate yourself if you really want to wake up!” she adjured. When asked how the work of racial healing relates to peace building, she answered simply, “There can be no peace without justice.”

For a recording of Dr. Meeks presentation, click here.

This EPF free series continues! Up next, on February 6 at 4:00 pm, join a discussion with Anglican priest Dan Hines on "Hidden Wholeness: Exploring a Circle of Trust." Register here for this event.

Please pray for workers in medical and care-giving fields who are exhausted by the demand for their vital services. We pray for their safety, energy, and peace.

Let us pray for those facing cold temperatures without shelter or heating. May the vulnerable find places to stay warm. Let us give thanks for heating funds and warming centers like those at Trinity Jubilee Center in Lewiston-Auburn and Bridging the Gap in Augusta and support them as we are able.

Please join us in offering prayers for Will Harron, newly named Coordinator of Province I. Will is a member of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. He holds a Master in Divinity degree from the Boston University School of Theology and spent two years in the Life Together Episcopal Service Corps in Boston before serving in several parishes and campus ministries in the greater Boston area. In 2020 Will started the Young Adult Ministry Network in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts and he serves on the Episcopal Church Council of Advice for Young Adult and Campus Ministry.

Lord Jesus Christ, who fell asleep in a rocking boat before calming a mighty storm; Come to all who are being tossed about by COVID-19.

Steady the fears of the healthy, comfort the hearts of the newly diagnosed, and place your steady hand of loving care upon the sick and dying.

And as you promised to give us your peace, make us channels of your calm confidence that, steadfast in your assurances, we might model your non-anxious presence in our worried and weary world.

This we ask of the Father who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit now and forever.

Amen.