Friends,
I had a friend who was dying of cancer and she always said, “Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is hope.” As we enter this Easter season, we celebrate that God raised Jesus from the dead, and in doing so, God gifted us with a hope instilled in the promise of Jesus Christ. In this way, we have always known (from our own experience and from scripture) that hope is born from suffering.
This understanding of hope has taken on new meaning for us during this pandemic. As this diocese journeys daily, together and yet each in our own places of isolation, I hear us all praying for persecuted and isolated churches and peoples. I hear us praying to remember that although separated, we are united in Christ.
I thank you for your continuing faithfulness and ministry. Thank you for the ways you reach out to your parish communities and beyond. Do not try to do everything, and pace yourself. Remember through this time of Covid-19 to take care of yourself too.
Saint Augustine said, “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” I wish you to see that all these realities—anger, courage, and hope—can exist within us in one balanced place, and we can be at rest with how God is asking us to navigate our current situation with these convictions guiding us.
Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is hope.
Easter blessings,
The Right Rev. Dr. Logan McMenamie
bishop