Dear People of St. James’,

This weekend, I think that our theme might be sharing good news.

I know, I know, you might be thinking, “Ah, Eileen, there is so much painful news out there!” Fair. Just this morning I received a pastoral word from our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry about the shooting last night at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, and the tragic loss of two lives there. And he was writing that letter on his way to preach at the commemoration of the nine martyrs of Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. We have so much to do in order to address the plague of gun violence.

And yet, Presiding Bishop Curry would remind us that the prophets and the saints have always proclaimed good news, news of comfort, of the consolation of a God at work in the midst of pain and struggle, even when so much of the news seemed bad.

This Saturday, on June 18, for example, I’d like to invite you to share good news by walking with the Freedom Schools community in the Austin Juneteenth parade. The team will gather at the corner of 14th St and Comal St. at 9:30 am. Please wear a hat and good walking shoes and bring a water bottle. Come and be present with the Freedom School community, and listen. Hear about the journeys of our staff and students and families, and commemorate that blessed day when the good news of liberation came to the enslaved in Galveston.

This weekend, a group from our Spanish-speaking community, Proyecto Santiago, is headed to Camp Allen for the Latino Lay Leadership Conference. This is the second largest yearly conference in our diocese, gathering over 250 people each year. This year our theme is taking up evangelism in this new time, and our hope is that lay and clergy leaders will emerge from our time together refreshed and ready to do ministry that reaches beyond the comfortable confines of our church doors and into communities that need to hear and know that they are welcome at the table. This Sunday, one of the participants in that conference will be preaching at the 1 pm to share good news with those who weren’t able to attend.

In the last year of his life, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference answered scripture’s call to “love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” by developing and leading the Poor People’s Campaign. That campaign for a national, moral revival is alive today, led by Bishop William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharris. It gathers this Saturday to share good news at our nation’s capital, for the Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.

This weekend, may you discover good news in the dream of God, that all might have life and have it abundantly. And once you find that good news, may the Spirit teach your heart to hope in it and to persevere. Amen.

Rev. Eileen

Dear People of St. James’: Sharing Good News