I’m excited about all we have coming up starting this Sunday, September 8, with our back-to-school blessing, formation classes, and Ministry Fair. Also this Sunday, you’ll notice some changes in the service as we do a seasonal shift for the remainder of Pentecost. We’ll change the service music as well as switch to Eucharistic Prayer A. Our Prayers of the People will also change. For the rest of this season, we will take the prayers from a new resource called Hear Our Prayer: Prayers of the People for the Revised Common Lectionary. Published this year by Church Publishing, these prayers were written by two Episcopal priests, Jon White and Lisa Graves, and grew out of work they did on their podcast, the Subversive Undercroft. Our next seasonal shift will be in Advent.

There are still team slots available for our annual Cathedral Cup Croquet Tournament, Croquet by the Bay, on Saturday, September 14. Come play or support the teams as Valerie and Jeff Johnson look to defend their cup title.

This has been a difficult week for peace and justice in our world. We continue to pray that peace may prevail in war-torn areas such as Gaza and Ukraine. We have also been confronted with yet another school shooting in our country. We pray especially for the two teachers and two students who died in the events of this week in Winder, Georgia, and for all the others who were injured or affected by this act of gun violence. I ask that we always work for ways to ensure safety in our schools, our country, and in all places where conflict arises.

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 824)

Please continue to pray for one another, for our Cathedral family, our nation, and the world.

For posts not listed here, visit our From the Dean Archive page.